What is a Cloud Service Provider?
A cloud service provider (CSP) is a 3rd party company that offers businesses and individuals on-demand cloud computing services such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (Paas) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) usually in a pay-as-you-go subscription model.
They are also categorised by whether they deliver public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud services.
Key Benefits of using a Cloud Service Provider
- Zero or low upfront investment: Since most of the services offered are subscription-based which enables businesses to pay for resources that they use.
- Scalability and flexibility: It allows businesses to easily scale up or down on-demand depending upon their business needs. Hence offers great flexibility.
- Low maintenance costs: Since cloud service providers take care of all software / hardware updates, security patches, day-to-day maintenance tasks etc that are required to manage and streamline your IT operations, it allows businesses to lower their IT overhead and focus more on their business.
- Advanced security: They have an in-house team of top notch security experts with advanced security solutions and processes in place which strengthen the security posture.
- Faster time to market: It allows businesses to faster roll-out their applications, test new ideas, create new apps without worrying about hardware procurement or limitations.
- Prevent data loss: Cloud providers offer the most advanced and robust data backup and disaster recovery features to protect against data loss due to hardware failures, software glitches, natural disasters, and other unexpected events.
- Competitive advantage: Since businesses get access to latest software and technologies at an affordable pricing helps them to improve operational efficiency, offer best customer service and strengthen their business processes to increase bottom line and gain a competitive edge.
Most Common Challenges of using a Cloud Service Provider
Below are some of the most common challenges of using a Cloud Service Provider:
- Cloud performance is key for the success of any business. If the CSP fails to live up to their SLA in terms of uptime, fixing technical issues, maintenance etc then businesses can lose customers, incur high losses and have negative impact on brand value.
- Data security and privacy remains a key concern of using a CSP as it’s getting compromised more often and frequently due to known reasons. At times, cloud service providers have failed in ensuring infrastructure security and compliance. This has created a lack of trust between the users and customers.
- There are many instances where CSP found it challenging to implement and manage complex multi-cloud environments.
- Due to the global economic crisis, cloud costs are rising making it difficult to optimise or control them.
- Cloud data migration to the latest platforms and services offered by CSPs can be more challenging and expensive than anticipated.
Top 3 Cloud Platforms: An Overview
Some of the most popular cloud platforms are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Oracle Cloud, VMWare Cloud, DigitalOcean, Rackspace etc.
However the top 3 cloud platforms with the largest market share globally (~65%) are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Comparison
AWS | Azure | GCP | |
Founded | 2006 | 2010 | 2008 |
Global Market Share | 32% | 23% | 10% |
HQ | Seattle, Washington, United States | Redmond, Washington, United States | Mountain View, California, United States |
Geographical Regions | 31 | 140 (Countries) | 35 |
Availability Zones | 99 | 116 | 106 |
Revenues (FY 22) | $70B | $44B | $17B |
Biggest Customers | Netflix, AirBnB, Apple, Facebook, Tesla, Uber, McDonalds, Disney | Intel, 3M, Verizon, Polycom, Dell, Xerox, Coca-cola, HSBC, HP, FedEx | PayPal, UPS, Bloomberg, Procter & Gamble, Dominos, Twitter, Forbes, Spotify, The Home Depot |
Pricing Model | |||
Free Plan | Yes (with limited resources) | Yes (with limited resources) | Yes (with limited resources) |
Pay As You Go | Starts at $0.005 / hr | Starts at $0.008 / hr | Starts at $0.0107 / hr |
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