When IT professionals representing 452 businesses were asked to rate the clouds from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, they said each of those vendors had different strengths.
In this survey, conducted by the IT marketplace Spiceworks, the three clouds — Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud — were ranked similarly for most of their core technological features. Still, each stood out for a different reason.
Amazon Web Services earned top marks for maximum uptime, data security, and value for money, all of which respondents ranked as the most critical things to think about when picking a cloud. AWS also had the highest scores for "hyper-scalable offerings," "optimal data center locations," and "exceptional customer support."
As for Microsoft, Azure was ranked the highest out of the three clouds for compatibility with existing services, likely because businesses commonly use Windows. It also tied with AWS as the most trusted partner. Respondents also said they see these as critical attributes.
Google Cloud took the top scores for simplicity of management and innovation, which more than half of respondents said they see as an attribute that is "nice to have" but not as important.
That said, these three clouds aren't the only ones in the marketplace. Of those surveyed, 36% said their organization was open to using smaller, local cloud computing providers — like Rackspace, based in Texas, for example.
Smaller businesses expressed more willingness to consider these more niche clouds. Forty-two percent of small-businesses respondents said they were open to using them, compared with 34% of midsize businesses and 30% of enterprises, the report said.
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