Public Cloud Platforms (under review) comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
3rd 2nd 5th
Score
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Analysis expand by Marius Sandbu
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General expand
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  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + Good range of hybrid capabilities (including VMware partnership)
  • + Baremetal Server options with cloud characteristics (hourly consumption)
  • + Broad range of services
  • + Good hybrid capabilities for Microsoft based environments
  • + Competitive priced fully featured IAAS offerings
  • + Good datacentre coverage across Asia Pacific
Cons
  • - High performance networking, but limited capabilities
  • - Availability zone rollout still largely in preview.
  • - Limited European and US datacentre footprint
  Content  
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Content Creator
WhatMatrix
Marius Sandbu
Ephraim Baron
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Overview
Bluemix delivers virtual machines running in IBM Cloud data centers backed by a global private fiber network.
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service delivered through a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers.
Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) provides fast memory and the latest Intel CPUs to help you achieve faster results with low latency to power your cloud applications.
Management expand
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  Interfaces  
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UI / API / CL / SDK
Single UI : Various APIs / CLIs native to services. Differences between IAAS & PaaS environment
Webbased UI, Powershell, API Available, CLI Available for Windows/Mac/Linux, SDK Available for different platforms
UI, API, CLI, SDK
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Common API service keys
Multiple API service keys
Azure Users can create their own API Access keys; these keys can be shared
Each Alibaba Cloud user can create multiple access key/secret key pairs
  Monitoring  
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General Service monitoring
Available, but inconsistent IAAS & PAAS service monitoring
Every Azure Compute Instances can have basic service monitoring such as CPU, Memory and Disk utilization
Cloud Monitor
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VM Service monitoring
Guest OS agent based (Nimsoft)
Every Azure instance sends basic metrics to Azure Monitor. More metrics and information can be gathered using OMS
The OSS monitoring service details metric data, including basic system operation statuses, performance, and metering. It also provides a custom alarm service to track requests, analyze usage, collect statistics on business trends, and promptly discover and diagnose system problems.
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Actions / Event logging
Limited capability (agent based)
Log Analytics with OMS or using Azure Monitor
The alarm rule page is where you can view, modify, activate, deactivate, and delete alarm rules related to OSS monitoring alarms.
  Admin  
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Identity & Access Management
Centralised IAM
Azure Active Directory
Alibaba Cloud Resource Access Management (RAM) is an identity and access control service which enables you to centrally manage your users (including employees, systems or applications) and securely control their access to your resources through permission levels.
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Multi factor authentication support
Only for IAAS
MFA support for Admins
Users can create, bind, unbind, and delete virtual multi-factor authentication devices.
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Granular Access Control
Configurable access control to IAAS
Resource Groups and RBAC
Supports role-based access control
  Control  
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VM Billing per min / hr
Hourly / Monthly / Subscription
Pay-as-you-go, CSP, EA, Per minute billing
On-demand pricing by the hour and by the month
Compute VM expand
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  VM  
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VM micro (below 1 vCPU)
1vCPU minimum
A-series
ecs.n1.tiny
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VM Small (up to 8 vCPU)
Available : Configurable mem up to 64GB
D-series
ecs.c1.large and ecs.n1.xlarge series
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VM Medium (up to 16 vCPU)
Available : Configurable mem up to 128GB
L-series
ecs.c2.large and ecs.n1.3xlarge
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VM Large (up to 32 vCPU)
Available : Configurable mem up to 242GB
L-series
ecs.n1.7xlarge and ecs.sn1.7xlarge
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VM XLarge (up to 64 vCPU 128GB RAM)
Max 56 core with mem up to 242GB
EV3-series
largest instance is 56 vCPU
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VM XXLarge (up to 128 vCPU 2TB RAM)
Not available as VM (Baremetal option : per Month)
M-series
No
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GPU VM Large (up to 32 vCPU)
Not available as VM (Baremetal option : per Hr / Month)
N-series
ecs.gn5-c28g1.14xlarge
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GPU VM XLarge (up to 64 vCPU 128GB RAM)
Not available as VM (Baremetal option : per Hr / Month)
No
largest instance is 56 vCPU
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GPU VM XXLarge (up to 128 vCPU 2TB RAM)
No generally available Baremetal option
No
No
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GPU types
Nvidia Tesla P100, M60, K80, Grid K2 (monthly & hourly options)
NVIDIA K80, M60, P100
Nvidia Tesla P100 GPU
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Custom VM size
Standard config types for public VMs. Private host VMs can be configured
No
No
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Defined disk IOPS
Not available as local disc (available with SAN)
Yes to a certain degree
Users can choose SSD storage, but they cannot specify IOPS
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SR-IOV support
Not supported
Yes, Accelerated Network
No native SR-IOV support
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Network speeds
1 x public / 1 x private : Can add 1 private but no ability to add additional
Low, Moderate, High, RDMA
Based on selected network bandwidth peak between
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Add virtual NIC
No ability to add vNIC
Yes
No. Can add multi-queue for NICs
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Attached / detach block storage
Limited ability with portable storage
Yes
Yes, including Shared Block Storage
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Virtual dedicated cloud
Virtual network created at L2 VLAN level.
Yes Virtual Network
Alibaba Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is an isolated cloud network built for private usage.
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IP reassignment
Can assign portable public / private IPs
Yes
Only Elastic Ips
  Image  
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Manual snapshots image
Supported
Yes
Can create system image
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Scheduled snapshot image
Not available as native service (could script through API)
Not available as native service
Scheduled tasks are supported, but not for VM image
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API / CLI Snapshot image
Supported
Yes
Scheduled tasks are supported, but not for VM image
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Make image public / marketplace
Supported
Yes Azure Marketplace
Only through Marketplace
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VM import
ISO & VHD imports supported
Yes CLI or UI
Supports RAW and VHD format
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VM export
VHD image export
Yes
Must request for export function to be whitelisted
  O/S  
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Windows
Windows Server 2012, 2012R2, 2016 Standard edition
Microsoft Azure currently supports a variety of operating systems including: Ubuntu, Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, Gentoo Linux, Oracle Linux, and FreeBSD. 
Windows Server 2008 and 2012, Standard, Data Center, and Enteprise, English and Chinese
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Linux
Redhat, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Cloudlinux, CoreOS
Microsoft Azure currently supports a variety of operating systems including: Ubuntu, Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, Gentoo Linux, Oracle Linux, and FreeBSD. 
CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, FreeBSD, SUSE, and Alibaba Linux as well as CoreOS
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Bring your own OS
Supported (at own risk)
Yes, you can bring your own Microsoft license using HUB
No
  Control  
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Resize existing VM
Resize vCPU, memory, network speed
Yes
No
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VM Live Migration
Recovery processes not clearly defined. SLA for recovery defined (in hrs)
On host failure the vm will be auto migrated to a new host (guest monitor/restart also available)
No
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metadata
Supported
Yes
Limited to pre-defined metadata types
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Parking
Powering off VM does not stop billing
Yes
No
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Provision in less than 5 mins
Variable - often more than 5 mins
Yes
Yes
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Provision consistent spec
Although host performance is up to date, there is limited view of host specification
Yes
Instance generation types include specific CPU information
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Reserved instances
Not available
Yes
Monthly subscription option only
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Spot instances
Not available
Yes, Azure Low Priority VMs
No
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Dedicated host (Single tenant)
Dedicated host & dedicated Instances (pay per VM) available
No
No
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VM to host affinity (network optimised)
Available on didicated hosts
Yes
Only for containers
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VM to host anti-affinity
Available on didicated hosts
Yes, Availability Groups
No
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Autoscaling VMs (within AZ)
Supported (within DC)
Yes
Yes
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Autoscaling across AZs/Regions
Not available
No
Using Server Load Balancing
  Block storage  
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Local HDD
Available (25GB & 100GB primary drive)
Yes, Standard Managed Disk or Standard Storage
Basic Cloud Disk
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SSD HDD
Yes ability to define local storage (as SSD) 
Yes, Premium Storage
SSD Cloud Disk
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SAN HDD
Available (25GB & 100GB primary drive)
No
SSD Cloud Server
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Encryption at rest
Not available on VM drives (only on additional attached storage)
Yes
For object storage

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • Google
  • Microsoft
  • Alibaba
  •  
  • 3 rd
  • 2 nd
  • 5 th
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