A fierce 3-way race for dominance in the cloud market continues between the three tech giants, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). These ‘Big Three’ cloud service providers hold a significant share in the cloud computing market. Let’s compare the world’s biggest cloud players against one another in terms of revenue and market shares:
AWS Vs Azure Vs GCP: Revenue Comparison
1) AWS
Amazon, Inc. reported that AWS amassed revenue worth USD 13.5 billion in Q1 2021, blowing past USD 10.33 billion in Q1 2020. The y-o-y growth rate in 1Q21 stood at 32%, while it was 28% in 4Q20. AWS revenue blew past the analyst predictions of USD 13.1 billion.
| AWS Revenue Metrics | Q1 2021 (in Billions) | Q4 2020 (in Billions) | Y/Y % Change |
| Net Sales | USD 13.5 | USD 12.7 | 32 |
| Net Sales (TTM) | USD 48.6 | USD 45.3 | 30 |
| Operating Income | USD 4.16 | USD 3.56 | 35 |
This quarter, AWS accounted for 12% of Amazon’s total revenue and almost 47% of overall operating income.
“During COVID, we’ve seen many enterprises decide that they no longer want to manage their own technology infrastructure. They see that partnering with AWS and moving to the cloud gives them better cost, better capability, and better speed of innovation,” said Amazon’s CFO, Brian Olsavsky.
“We expect this trend to continue as we move into the post-pandemic recovery. There’s significant momentum around the world, including broad and deep engagement across major industries. And of course, much of the growth in the public cloud comes from net-new workloads, not just those migrated from on-premises infrastructure. We’re curious to see how this trend continues.”
Also Read: AWS Growth Accelerates in Q1 2021 with Record Revenue of USD 13.5 Bln
2) Azure
According to Microsoft, Azure witnessed revenue growth of 50% over the previous quarter, blowing past the analyst predictions of 46%.
The Intelligent Cloud segment continues to bolster the revenue growth of Microsoft as a whole. It garnered the highest operating income of all segments at USD 6.4 billion, accounting for 37.7% of total consolidated operating income. Intelligent Cloud revenue reached USD 15.1 billion in this quarter, up by 23% from the corresponding period last year.
“The Microsoft Cloud, with its end-to-end solutions, continues to provide compelling value to our customers generating USD 17.7 billion in commercial cloud revenue, up 33% year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, VP and CFO of Microsoft.
“Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating, and it’s just the beginning,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.
“We are building the cloud for the next decade, expanding our addressable market and innovating across every layer of the tech stack to help our customers be resilient and transform.”
3) GCP
Google Cloud revenue generated revenue worth USD 4.047 billion in the first quarter of 2021, increasing 4% year-over-year. The company witnessed operating losses worth USD 974 million, a significant drop from USD 1.73 billion loss last year.
“We’re very pleased with the ongoing momentum in Google Cloud, with revenues of $4.0 billion in the quarter reflecting strength and opportunity in both GCP and Workspace. GCP’s revenue growth was once again meaningfully above cloud overall,” said Ruth Porat, Google CFO.
Also Read: AWS Vs Azure Vs GCP – The Cloud Platform of Your Choice?
AWS Vs Azure Vs GCP: Market Share Breakdown
According to Canalys report, global cloud infrastructure services spending inflated by 35% and stood at USD 48.1 billion in the first quarter of 2021. The customer spending in 1Q21 is almost USD 11 billion higher than in 1Q20 and USD 2 billion more than in Q420.
The top three leading cloud providers accounted for 58% of total cloud end-user spending in 1Q21. Clearly, AWS was the dominant player in the market, accounting for 32% of total cloud spending. Microsoft Azure follows it with 19% market share and Google Cloud with 7% market share.
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