Comparing the Cloud Giants: Why AWS, GCP and Azure Require Different Training
Although the underlying technology of different cloud providers may be similar, there are significant differences in the implementation, features and services offered by different providers. Therefore, it is not always easy to switch from one cloud provider to another without additional training or education.
Below are some additional details and examples to help clarify the differences and nuances between cloud providers:
terminology
Each cloud provider uses its own terminology to describe its services, which can make it difficult for IT professionals to switch between providers. For example, AWS refers to its virtual machines as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances, while GCP refers to them as Compute Engine instances and Azure refers to them as virtual machines. Similarly, AWS refers to its database service as Relational Database Service (RDS), while GCP refers to it as Cloud SQL and Azure refers to it as SQL Database. These differences in terminology can make it difficult for IT professionals to quickly understand and work with a new cloud provider.
Differences in terminology can make it difficult for IT professionals to understand and compare the capabilities of different cloud providers. It can also be difficult to transfer skills and knowledge from one provider to another, as IT professionals may need to learn new terms and concepts.
Pricing model
All cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go pricing models, but the details of pricing can vary from provider to provider. For example, AWS charges for data transfer between regions, while GCP and Azure do not. GCP offers per-second billing for some services, while AWS and Azure charge per-minute. AWS offers a Reserved Instances pricing model that provides discounts for long-term commitments, while GCP offers discounts for committed use and Azure offers discounts for Reserved VM Instances. These different pricing models can make it difficult for IT professionals to accurately compare the costs of different cloud providers for a specific use case.
These different pricing models can make it difficult for IT professionals to accurately estimate the cost of using different cloud providers for a given workload. In addition, it can be quite challenging to compare the costs of different cloud providers for a range of workloads.
Configuration options
Each cloud provider offers different configuration options for their services, which can make it difficult for IT professionals to switch from one provider to another without additional training and education. For example, AWS offers Elastic Load Balancing for its compute instances, while GCP offers Load Balancing and Azure Application Gateway. These services have different configuration options and capabilities, so IT professionals must learn new tools and workflows to use them effectively.
These different configuration options can make it difficult for IT professionals to migrate workloads between cloud providers without significantly changing their configurations and can add complexity to managing multi-cloud environments.
Features and services
While all cloud providers offer similar base services like compute power, storage, and databases, each provider also has unique features and services that can make a big difference for certain use cases. For example, AWS offers a wide range of machine learning services like Amazon SageMaker, while GCP offers its own machine learning platform, TensorFlow, and Azure offers its Azure Machine Learning Service. These differences in features and services can make it difficult for IT professionals to switch between cloud providers without a thorough understanding of each provider’s offerings.
Not only can differences in features and services make choosing between cloud providers difficult if you are not familiar with each provider’s offerings, but choosing the right provider for a specific use case can also be challenging, as the optimal provider may vary depending on the workload.
Management tools and APIs
Cloud providers offer different management tools and APIs, which can make it difficult for IT professionals to switch from one provider to another without additional learning and development effort. For example, AWS offers the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, and AWS SDKs for managing its services, while GCP offers the Cloud Console, Cloud SDK, and GCP APIs. Azure offers Azure Portal, Azure CLI, and Azure APIs.
These differences in management tools and APIs can make it difficult for IT professionals to manage multi-cloud environments and switch between cloud providers without additional training and development. Automating workflows and integrating different cloud services into existing IT systems can also introduce additional complexity.
Is this assumption correct
The assumption that it is easy for IT professionals to switch between cloud providers is only partially true. While there are similarities in the underlying technology and concepts of the various cloud providers, there are also significant differences in terminology, pricing models, configuration options, features and services, and management tools and APIs that can pose challenges for IT professionals.
While IT professionals can leverage their existing skills and knowledge to some extent when moving between cloud providers, they may need additional training and education to efficiently manage multi-cloud environments and select the right cloud provider for a specific workload.
However, with the right training and willingness to learn, IT professionals can successfully navigate multi-cloud environments and take advantage of multiple cloud providers to meet the specific needs of their business.
Conclusion
In summary, while the core concepts of cloud computing are similar across providers, differences in terminology, pricing models, configuration options, and features and services can make it difficult for IT professionals to switch from one provider to another without additional training and learning.
Therefore, it is important that IT professionals carefully consider their organization’s needs and select the cloud provider that best meets those needs. If IT professionals need to switch between cloud providers, they will likely need to invest time and resources to become familiar with the new provider’s terminology, pricing, configuration options, and unique features and services.
