By now, you should have a general understanding of the cloud and how off-premises data storage can be advantageous for your company. You probably even have a cloud service, but do you know if that is the right service for you? Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud IaaS Worldwide only acknowledges six cloud services, and three as leaders of the industry. Those leaders, big players in their own right, are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google. They get the job done, and you can’t go wrong choosing any of them, but one may be better for you than the others.
Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure (or is it Ah-jerr) is quite possibly the safest choice for enterprise. I’m talking security of course. Microsoft recently announced their AD system for Azure that keeps poor passwords from ever being registered. Not only are they secure, but they are focused on AI and machine learning for business intelligence. Their Data Lake services takes in insane amounts of data and through AI powered machine learning, analyzed in almost no time at all. The best part is how easy it is to integrate with your current IT investments, whereas most others will require a bit of work.
Amazon Web Services is fast, profitable, and the current king of the cloud. AWS is positioning themselves as machine learning focused with this month’s release of AWS DeepLens, a fully programmable video camera to teach developers deep learning skills. Compounding on that, Formula 1 announced their partnership with AWS as their official cloud service and machine learning provider. By providing intelligence and analytics for Formula 1’s race strategies, data tracking systems, and digital broadcasts further cements AWS’s position as THE leader in Cloud and machine learning SaaS.
Google is the new kid on the block, and they’re making moves. Similar to the new kid reinventing his/herself, they’ve changed their focus as a cloud service provider and it’s a good look. Shifting from a mobile-first focus towards AI and machine learning has made Google much more competitive. On top of that, Google has made quite the pitch to developers with I/O. With more developers flocking to them and their sights set on the future, Google is one darkhorse (a sentence I never thought I’d write) to watch out for.
