Times have changed, and companies of today are now data-driven. With the rapid rise in online business activities, analyzing data is crucial to making informed decisions. However, storing such an enormous amount of data is still an issue for some companies. Thankfully, cloud data platforms are here for a save. These data warehouse solutions store and manage the company’s data on cloud servers.
Cloud Computing Overview
Cloud Computing is the practice of using remote servers hosted online over the internet to store, process, and manage big datasets. Cloud computing has solved the issues of local servers and data stored on personal computers. With a cloud data warehouse, users can access their stored data anytime, anywhere by using the internet. Whether it’s storing files, running software, or analyzing complex data sets, cloud data platforms have become an integral part of a business process.
According to AAG IT, In 2015, only 30% of corporate houses used to store data on the cloud. However, the figure doubled in 2022 with approximately 60% of corporate businesses started using cloud services. The industry is growing at a rapid pace, considering the numbers have doubled in 7 years only. 2023 saw the biggest jump in customer spending in respect to cloud services with a massive $64 billion in just the second quarter of 2023. Apart from businesses, Individual numbers have also increased, thanks to Google Drive, Dropbox, and Onedrive.
Cloud Wars: The Big Three
Cloud data warehousing has become an integral part of modern businesses. It enables organizations to store and analyze large volumes of data efficiently. With the rise in demand for cloud-based solutions, major players like Azure Synapse, AWS (Amazon Web Service) Glue, and GCP (Google Cloud Platform) have entered the data warehousing arena, offering robust and feature-rich services.
These cloud service giants account for a staggering 65% market share with over a thousand other warehouse platform providers with 35% only. With the amount of security required in cloud servers, the market share of these companies will continue to grow, considering their brand value.
- Amazon Web Service Glue
AWS (Amazon Web Service) Glue is a cloud based data warehouse that makes it easy for the user to prepare and load data on cloud for analysis. Glue is a service offered by AWS, designed specifically to automate data discovery, job scheduling, and transformation. These data warehousing tools simplify the data access process. What’s more, AWS Glue works on serverless architecture, enabling cost-effectiveness and scalability.
- Azure Synapse
Azure Synapse is one of the best cloud data warehouse out there. It is a part of the Microsoft warehouse model. Azure Synapse can handle both structured and unstructured data and thus furnish users with a seamless analytics experience along with visualization capabilities. Because Microsoft has its own ecosystem, Azure Synapse can easily integrate with other Azure services and Microsoft offerings such as PowerBi. This all-in-one platform allows organizations to derive valuable insights from their data, enabling them to drive business growth.
- Google Cloud Platform
Although GCP has a relatively lower market share than the two, the Google Cloud Platform has found its place in the list of top cloud data warehouses, all thanks to BigQuery. Powered by Google’s strong infrastructure, BigQuery is capable of processing massive datasets. Moreover, It can run complex queries at an unimaginable speed, making it a suitable cloud warehouse for large-scale businesses.
AZURE Synapse vs. AWS Glue vs. GCP Comparison
The three prominent players: AWS Glue, Azure Synapse, and Google Cloud Platform are the pillars of cloud data integration and Analytics. Each of these comes with robust capabilities and features to support businesses. They are primarily used for data-driven insights and streamlining analytical processes. In this comparison, Let’s dive deep into key aspects of these platforms to understand their differences and make decisions.
Azure Synapse | Amazon Web Service Glue | Google Cloud Platform | |
| Company | Microsoft | Amazon | |
| Clients | Doubelslash, DevRain,Driverama,BtcTurk | Pay here,Shelf,TransferGo,Ze Delivery | CRED,Snapchat,Trivago,Revolut |
| Integration tools | Azure Data Lake Storage,Azure Databricks,Azure Machine Learning,Streamsets,Dbt, etc. | MySQL,Amazon S3,SQL server,Oracle,Amazon RDS, etc. | Google App Engine,Contentful,Dapr,Google Cloud load balance,Airbyte,CanvasJS, etc. |
| Highlight | Serverless On-Demand | Extract, transform, and load (ETL) | BigQuery |
| Pricing | Flexible with a Free Trial | Flexible with a Free Trial | Flexible with a Free Trial |
| Website | Azure Synapse | AWS Glue | Google Cloud Platform |
- Capabilities
Formerly known as SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure Synapse combines big data, data warehousing, and data integration capabilities into a single service. With Azure Synapse, Users can prepare, manage, and serve data for immediate business learning.
AWS Glue, on the other hand, is a fully managed extract, transform, load (ETL) service that makes it easy to load data for analytics. It allows users to connect Microsoft services and can process both types of data.
Google Cloud program offers a comprehensive suite of data processing and analytics products, including BigQuery, Dataflow, and Dataproc, which can be combined and integrated to support different use cases.
- Scalability and Performance
Azure Synapse supports scalability. The parallel processing architecture optimizes performance for complex analytic workloads. AWS Glue on the other side, is designed in a way to handle large-scale data transformations. Thus, AWS Glue also ensures scalability and efficient processing.
Google Cloud Platform is ahead in the race with scalability. BigQuery, a service in GCP is built specifically to scale. BigQuery can automatically scale according to workload demands, Offering users a seamless experience.
- Integration with other services
In terms of Integration Azure is slightly better due to the Microsoft ecosystem. Azure Synapse can integrate not only with other Azure cloud services but with other offerings of Microsoft as well. AWS Glue and Google Cloud Platform also provide tight integration with their respective cloud and data analytics services. AWS glue connects with AWS services such as Amazon S3 for storage and Redshift for Data warehousing. Google Cloud Platform effortlessly integrates with BigQuery, Cloud Dataflow, etc.
- Pricing Model
Azure Synapse follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where you only pay for the resources you use. AWS Glue adopts a similar approach, charging based on the amount of data processed and the number of data transformations. Google Cloud Platform offers flexible pricing options, including on-demand and committed use discounts, enabling cost optimization based on your specific needs. Thus, all the big three platforms offer a flexible pricing model instead of a fixed model that could be a burden on the business.
To Conclude
The three big names Microsoft Azure Synapse, AWS Glue, and Google Cloud Platform are powerful yet convenient cloud data software. They provide various features and benefits over each other. Choosing the right one depends on personal preference and the specific requirements of the business.
While AWS Glue is focused on ETL processes, Azure Synapse is a unified end-to-end solution. Similarly, where GCP is better with a huge amount of data sets, Azure Synapse is best for ecosystem integration. Therefore, consider the integration options, scalability, and pricing model all together to make informed decisions that cater to the needs of your business. Harnessing the power of cloud data analytics can drive meaningful insights and enable data-driven decision-making in your organization.
