AWS Vs. GCP

AWS Vs. Google Cloud Platform

Brief Overview
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is Google’s cloud computing services that run on the same infrastructure as their other products such as Youtube and the Google search engine. GCP is one of the three biggest Cloud Service Providers, the other two includes Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s AWS. There are many reasons as to why GCP is so highly regarded, one of them is scalability. A major drawback of cloud computing is downscaling, however, GCP provides extreme ease in both downscaling and upscaling. Another strength is their pricing. The four key factors in Google’s pricing methodology are sub-hour billing, sustained use discount, custom machine type, and preemptible instances.

Relating to MIS3406
In MIS3406 we used Amazon Web Services, one of GCP’s competitors. Through AWS we were able to establish cloud infrastructure for application deployment. Using the final project as an example, we created virtual private clouds, public/private subnets, load balancers, and virtual machines to name a few. GCP being a competitor means our course could’ve had a different provider.

Comparing VPC
Both Cloud Router and Amazon VPC allow one to create a private gateway between their networks and cloud. Through Google’s Dedicated Interconnect service, a direct physical connectivity can be made to a Google VPC from a partner facility with 10 Gbps increments. Through AWS’s Direct Connect service, a privately leased line is created with an AWS partner, which allows access to a 1-10 Gbps connection. Both of these services deliver connection speeds from 50 Mbps.

Comparing Load Balancing
There are many differences between GCP and AWS, another one is their load balancing. AWS allows both internal and external load balancing services. In contrast, GCP’s load balancing services are separated between external and internal access. Unlike Elastic Load Balancing, Cloud Load Balancing offers a single IP address that is accessible globally, when an external Compute Engine Load Balancer is supplied.

Conclusion
With a myriad of differences and similarities between the two cloud service providers, it’s difficult to determine which one is superior. That is why it essentially comes to which one is more beneficial or effective to the user. There are many factors that affect the decision; cost, customer support, growth, and finally services. To expand on costs, accurately comparing the price is difficult due to both of their unique billing methodology with many variables. Variables such as virtual machines, storage disks, subscription model, and even location have impact on pricing. To reiterate, determining which of the two is more costly depends on a business’s unique setting and requirements. It depends on where this business is located, their workload, networking, etc.

References
https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/
https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing
https://cloud.google.com/network-connectivity/docs/interconnect/concepts/dedicated-overview
https://cloud.google.com/network-connectivity/docs/interconnect/concepts/partner-overview
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/