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Cloud services and platforms are a rapidly growing market. Modern technologies like big data analytics, IoT, artificial intelligence and even web and mobile app hosting all need heavy computing power. Cloud computing and cloud platforms offers enterprises an alternative to building their in-house infrastructure. With cloud computing, anybody using the internet can enjoy scalable computing power on a plug and play basis. Since this saves organizations from the need to invest and maintain costly infrastructure, it has become a very popular solution. There are many companies that offer cloud platforms for development, management, and deployment of applications. In this blog, we will introduce you the top 5 cloud platforms that you can use to effectively manage the IT needs of your organization.
1. Amazon Web Services:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon (a leading company in eCommerce). Under the umbrella term of AWS, Amazon provides on-demand cloud computing platforms like storage, data analysis, etc. With a whopping 35% market share, Amazon lends its services to individuals, companies, and governments. Amazon Web Services allow their subscribers to enjoy a full-fledged virtual cluster of computers, at any time, based on their requirements. The entire service is enabled through the internet.
Among all the cloud service providers Amazon is considered is the most powerful and flexible solution. AWS’s virtual cloud platform comes with most of the attributes of an actual computer including hardware (CPU(s) & GPU(s) for processing, hard-disk/SSD for storage & local/RAM for memory); an operating system to choose from and pre-loaded apps like web servers, databases, CRM, etc. In fact, now you can obtain various AWS Certifications offered by Amazon to show off your achievements and keep learning till you master this cloud service.
Read More: Amazon DynamoDB vs MongoDB
2. Google Cloud Platform:
Google offers its public cloud computing solutions with the name of Google Cloud Platform, or GCP. It offers services in all major spheres including compute, networking, storage, machine learning (ML) and the internet of things (IoT). It also includes tools for cloud management, security, and development. The Google Cloud Storage is a highly dynamic storage solution that supports both SQL (Cloud SQL) and NoSQL (Cloud Datastore) database storage.
The Google Compute Engine (Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS) provides users with virtual machine instances for workload hosting. The Google App Engine (Platform as a Service, or PaaS) offers software developers access to Google's on-demand hosting and a software development kit (SDK) to develop applications that run on app engine. All these services can be accessed using a public internet or via dedicated networks.
Google Cloud Platform or GCP is the home of Kubernetes. Kubernetes was developed by Google in 2014 as open source. Google Kubernetes Engine or GKE provides users with a managed environment for the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications with the help of Google infrastructure.
3. Microsoft Azure:
Microsoft Azure (formerly Windows Azure) is the cloud computing service from Microsoft. Enabled primarily through Microsoft-managed data centers, this service proves to be a reliable solution, especially for Microsoft evangelists. Like the above solutions, it supports the development, test, deployment, and management of applications and services. For web development, it offers support for PHP, ASP.net, and Node.js.
The Windows Azure is used to deploy code on Microsoft's servers. This code holds access to local storage resources (blobs, queues, and tables). While the SQL Azure it is not a full SQL Server instance it can be integrated with SQL Server. The security features like authentication, security, etc. are supported using Azure AppFabric that allows applications within your LAN to communicate with Azure cloud. Overall it is a complete package that supports development, management as well security of applications.
Read More: AWS vs Azure vs GCP
4. DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is an American cloud hosting company that launched its first server in 2011. The small start-up from New York City, New York has come a long way since 2011 with a customer base of more than half a million developers.
DigitalOcean has pushed the idea of using a Solid State Drive (SSD) to create a developer-friendly platform that allows DO customers transfer projects and increase production easily and efficiently. DO’s enterprise customers can easily leverage the benefits of scale by executing projects across multiple platforms without worrying about performance.
- Aesthetically Pleasing & Intuitive UI – Manage scalable web applications with one-click apps allowing for automation and easy integration with 3rd party tools.
- Outstanding Performance – One of the first providers of SSD-based virtual machines. The ‘Droplets’ offered by DO has a lighting fast boost time.
- Extensive Documentation – Documentation covers every aspect that may hinder a developer from setting up a LAMP stack to deploying Kubernetes clusters.
- Pocket-Friendly Pricing – DigitalOcean plans start at $5 a month with additional choices of hourly and monthly payment options.
5. IBM Bluemix:
IBM Bluemix is the cloud computing solution from IBM that comes with the platform (PaaS) as well as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings. With Bluemix IaaS, users can deploy and access virtualized compute power, storage and networking using the internet. The IBM service offerings can be used as a public, private or hybrid model whichever suits an organization’s need.
The IBM Bluemix PaaS is based on an open source cloud platform - Cloud Foundry. IBM services can be used by developers to create, manage, run and deploy scalable applications for both public cloud and on-premises environments. The programming languages that are supported by IBM Bluemix include Java, Node.js, PHP, and Python. The solution can even be extended to support other languages.
Read More: Performing Sentiment Analysis with IBM Bluemix
6. Alibaba:
Alibaba Cloud is the cloud initiative of the Chinese eCommerce giant - Alibaba Group. The Alibaba services dominate the Chinese market and have roots all across the globe with headquarters in Hangzhou, China. It was established in 2009, just three years after the incorporation of Amazon Web Services. Being in the same business as Amazon it is often considered the toughest competitor of AWS.
Alibaba Cloud began as a private cloud which was meant to support the internal infrastructural needs of the Alibaba Group but it soon scaled to a public cloud solution provider. The Alibaba Cloud computing services cover all the major cloud services like elastic computing, hosting, object storage, relational database (SQL), NoSQL database (using the Table Store), big data analytics (Hadoop), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Who Do We Recommend?
For a developer or someone that knows their way around technology there does not seem to be anything faster or better performing than DigitalOcean. DO has made it abundantly clear that even a new entrant in the field can emerge a market leader.
If you’re looking for a high performance host that sits easy on the pocket, DigitalOcean is the choice for you.
If you are looking for a suitable multi cloud solutions for your enterprise needs then feel free to contact us. With a deep expertise in cloud management and development, big data and machine learning, we can suggest an appropriate solution for your needs and help you securely move to cloud.