The public cloud landscape

The public cloud space is currently one of the most competitive and rapidly changing areas of technology. As more and more companies look to take the jump into public clouds, providers are fiercely competing to be the public cloud customers choose. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google stand at the top of the hill, with many others looking to secure a seat at the table. This fierce competition is great for customers, as it drives providers to constantly innovate and deliver more value.

Customer success has become the driving metric by which cloud providers are measured, which means providers are valued based on their ability to enable customers to achieve business goals. This creates a laser focus on delivering services and features that help you win. While Microsoft Azure, Amazon, and Google look to offer the core products and services customers need, they all have distinct strengths and advantages they bring to the problem space.

By capitalizing on these strengths, they are able to differentiate themselves and develop unique product-market fits. Understanding these market differentiators is critical when evaluating which public cloud provider is right for you.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon released an early version of the AWS platform in the early 2000s and over the following decade it became the dominant public cloud. With constant innovation and a forward-thinking strategy, Amazon regularly won the first-to-market advantage. This helped secure the lion's share of the market, which Amazon has maintained over the past decade.

With an incredibly large user base and a legacy of excellent service, AWS has built a vast network of key customers and partners across business sectors. AWS currently offers the widest selection of products and services, and its platform is easily the most mature. Many companies choose AWS for its incredible customer support and track record of stability and security.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure was originally released in 2010 and has become a go-to solution for many businesses that rely heavily on the Microsoft stack. With deep integrations into the larger Microsoft ecosystem, Azure is often a no-brainer for many Microsoft shops looking for a straightforward path to the cloud.

Aside from best-in-class support for many Microsoft services, Azure looks to provide the tools and resources that large enterprises and governments need. Azure offers incredibly easy-to-use tools, and their various products and services are incredibly easy to integrate with.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has looked to increase its market in areas outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. With big moves such as open sourcing .NET Core and bringing SQL Server to Linux, Microsoft is making waves in communities that had previously been outside of their focus. On the product side, Azure continues to expand their potential market with great support for platforms such as Kubernetes and Docker Swarm. These actions show that Microsoft is redefining themselves as a community-driven, cloud-first company.