12 Introduction to Cloud Providers

This chapter compares the major public cloud providers—AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)—and explores their core service offerings.

Learning Objectives

• Compare the “Big 3” cloud providers in terms of global infrastructure and market share
• Map core services across providers (e.g., EC2 = VM, S3 = Blob Storage)
• Understand the pricing models and “Free Tier” offerings
• Analyze the strengths and use cases for each provider

The Cloud Landscape

While the underlying concepts (virtualization, storage, networking) are the same, each provider wraps them in their own terminology, APIs, and management consoles. A multi-cloud architect must understand these nuances to select the right platform for the job.