The Big Three cloud providers are more alike than not

Most enterprises use public cloud primarily for compute and storage, and these capabilities are broadly similar across major providers. Compute offerings include processor and memory configurations, instance families, operating system support, elasticity models, and reliable capacity provisioning at scale. Storage offerings include block storage, file storage, and object storage, which supports many enterprise applications and analytics platforms. Providers offer comparable options for general-purpose workloads, compute-intensive processing, memory-intensive applications, storage-heavy patterns, and GPU-driven workloads. Differences mainly appear in packaging, naming, and tuning rather than in core practical capability. Storage capabilities are also broadly comparable, with block storage being solid.

"For most enterprises, compute and storage services are the main uses of the public cloud. These capabilities are pretty much the same across providers."

"When we talk about core infrastructure, we are referring to compute and storage. Compute includes processor options, memory configurations, instance families, operating system support, elasticity models, and the ability to reliably provision capacity at scale. Storage includes block storage, file storage, and the all-important object storage services that now underpin a massive share of enterprise applications and analytics platforms."

"If you compare the major providers through that lens, the differences are not profound in most use cases. All three offer a broad menu of virtual machines. All three provide multiple processor and memory profiles. All three support Linux and Windows environments. All three offer options optimized for general-purpose workloads, compute-intensive processing, memory-intensive applications, storage-heavy patterns, and GPU-driven workloads. The packaging, naming, and tuning options differ. But the practical capability is remarkably close."

"The statement can make people uncomfortable because the market encourages us to see dramatic differences in AI services, databases, frameworks, and niche capabilities that each provider would like to position as strategic lock-ins. While valuable and sometimes the right choice, they are not the most important elements for most cloud deployments."

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