AWS vs Azure vs GCP: core services

Quick reference

How to pick

• Learn one deeply → the concepts transfer to the others.
• AWS → biggest, most services. Azure -> Microsoft shops.
• GCP → strong Kubernetes and data. Names differ, ideas match.

Explained

Virtual machines: EC2 on AWS, Virtual Machines on Azure, Compute Engine on GCP. A server you rent by the hour. The starting point for lift-and-shift.

Object storage: S3, Blob Storage, Cloud Storage. Cheap, near-unlimited storage for backups, media and static files, accessed over HTTPS. S3 is so common its API is a de facto standard.

Managed Kubernetes: EKS, AKS, GKE. The cloud runs the Kubernetes control plane so you do not have to. GKE is often praised as the most polished, since Google created Kubernetes.

Serverless functions: Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Functions. Run code on an event without managing servers. Great for glue and automation, and you pay per execution.

Managed SQL: RDS, Azure SQL Database, Cloud SQL. A database where the cloud handles backups, patching and failover.

Identity: IAM, Entra ID, Cloud IAM. Who can do what. This is the part people underestimate, and the part attackers love when it is too permissive.

The practical advice: pick one cloud and learn it deeply. The hard concepts, networking, IAM, storage classes and cost, transfer almost directly. After that, a new cloud is mostly learning new names.

One warning on all three: data egress, moving data out, is where surprise bills come from.

In one line

Know your bill: compute + storage + egress