AWS Alternatives – Let’s review these options together | CloudCoCo

What are the AWS Alternatives?

Firstly, let’s look at what is AWS?

Simply put AWS is an architected secure cloud environment brought to you by a subsidiary company of Amazon.com, Inc. AWS stands for Amazon Web Services.

These web services launched in 2002 and then re-launched with their cloud-based computing in 2006 offering a simple storage solution service, it’s known as the elastic compute cloud, or simple queue service.

AWS provides on demand flexible computing services for any individual, company, or government and operates as a pay as you go service.
AWS is a comprehensive universally adopted cloud-based computing platform that provides a mix of SaaS (software delivery and licensing which is bought online as a subscription), PaaS (platform as a service. Simply put, it’s a cloud computing model delivering application development and LaaS (logging as a service), a mixture of SaaS (software as a service) and PaaS (platform as a service).

This is where we come in as CloudCoCo are specialists in helping clients set up cloud based computing services

AWS now owns one of the highest shares of the cloud-based computing market, the company is operating within 190 countries with one million active customers including educational institutions, governments, and non-profit organisations.

As a customer to AWS, you can securely run your business in an ever-evolving automation driven environment.

The core infrastructure is designed to meet stringent security requirements twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.

This infrastructure has been built for global banks, the military and extremely sensitive organisations, healthcare, retail, and government as well as the individual, enterprise, or small business.

Amongst its high-profile customers are Adobe, GE, SAP, Infor, Intuit, Siemens, Autodesk, Hitachi, Thomson Reuters, Vodafone, ESPN, NETFLIX, Samsung, McDonald’s Corporation, all data hungry and with the added incentive of not having to maintain physical servers.

Why look at alternatives?

• There are so many services available to a business at AWS that it can act against AWS as it is mind bending to find a path through the maze especially if you are a newbie for this cloud based service. The team at CloudCoCo will help you navigate this maze.
• Small businesses may find using an alternative provider that offers all the core services that AWS do and some performance enhancing features as many of the services on AWS are quite complex and not needed.
• A business may find itself in an AWS area that is limited. What does that mean? AWS limits resources depending on what area or region you are in so this may become a contributing factor for looking elsewhere.
• AWS are one of the higher priced providers and to add to that its billing system and pricing structure can be confusing. A business will often find they are paying for more than they need.
• Extra support costs are added in as a percentage on billing which can hike up a monthly fee.
• Many other cloud platforms have a simpler to navigate dashboard.
• AWS may be a huge giant in this pond but as a result their support system for customers is slow.
• If a business is not based in the USA (AWS is an American technology company) then depending on your location in the world some of the key features advertised by AWS may not in fact be available.

What are the alternatives?

There are plenty of cloud-based platforms out in the ether that perform on a par with AWS but do not have the clout that the giant Amazon have in the technology pool, some do, some do not.

Here is a list of just a few.

• Private Cloud: when you need to confidence and guarantees a private cloud delivers you dedicated server resources which won’t be affected by other organisations peak usage
• Hybrid Cloud: if a mixture of different cloud platforms and private cloud what your business needs, a hybrid cloud brings everything together under one simple to manage console.
• Microsoft Azure : perfect for businesses that are already used to using a Microsoft environment and want to make that move to the cloud.
• Google Cloud Platform: this powerhouse in the industry uses the same technology as used by its search engines and email services for its cloud computing services.
• Alibaba Cloud: this cloud platform is immensely popular with e-commerce businesses and offers a highly competitive pricing structure as well offering almost all the same services as AWS.
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: larger scaled businesses seem to favour this cloud computing service as it comes with a corporate level solution pool for resources and capital management.
• IBM Cloud: these cloud services are from the pioneer technology company and can offer a resilient service backed up by its excellent reputation, years of experience, and the company that brought resources in this industry to the masses.
• Kamatera: this cloud service provider offers world class hosting with a price tag that most businesses will be able to afford.
• Linode: also the providers of Linux cloud hosting which is valuable for businesses developing applications, services or websites, workloads, gaming services or AI and machine learning.
• Vultr: another cloud hosting platform which can adapt to any operating system and can be used for running or developing web applications on dedicated bare metal servers.
• DigitalOcean: a Linux lovers paradise, ideal for developers seeking to deploy, and / or scale applications that can run simultaneously on multiple connected devises.
• Cloudways: a PaaS (platform as a service) control panel that manages cloud architecture on other leading platforms; GCP, EC2 and AWS for example.