Cloud services provider comparison

This class focuses on AWS, but it is important to be aware that other major cloud service providers exist and in many cases offer comparable products. As you study cloud architecting in practice using AWS, you should keep in mind that the skills and concepts are largely transferable across providers.

Comparing products

You are a new hire at an established company which operates its own data centers, but is considering moving to the cloud. You were hired for your expertise in this area.

You've been asked to compile a brief report comparing products across several well$-$known cloud service providers. The company already has a rough knowledge of what is on offer from Amazon, to the level of detail described in AWS Services Overview white paper.

They are interested to know what similar products other providers offer, and how those products are similar and different.

The providers the company is interested in looking at include the following:

Google Cloud

Microsoft Azure

IBM Cloud

Compute and DB fundamentals

It is known already that the company will need virtual machine instances and a managed SQL database solution. Your report should give a brief description of products satisfying these needs, including the formal name of the product and a brief comparison of each product with its analogous AWS offering. Your list of similarities and differences need not be exhaustive, but should be non$-$trivial $($don$\text{'}$t say "it's provided by Microsoft instead of Amazon" as a difference$).$ If there are multiple solutions available from providers, you may select some representative solutions that compare most directly, or you may focus on the similarities and differences between the selections on offer.

Looking forward

The company is interested in emerging technologies in many areas, and would like you to incorporate your ideas for future strategies in your report. They've mentioned an interest in machine learning, serverless architectures, natural language interfaces, virtual and augmented reality environments, and Internet of Things as being areas that might be interesting to look into.

Again, they would like to know what comparable services are available across providers. As part of your report, you are asked to choose two of the technologies in the list above. For each technology you choose, find a related product in AWS and compare it to a comparable product offered by one of the other three providers above. Choose a different provider to compare for each of the two technologies. As before, briefly describe the main similarities and differences between the two providers' products.

In total your report should ultimately include eight comparisons between AWS and comparable products:

three between products representing the virtual machine instances

three between products representing managed SQL database offerings

one comparison each for two different emerging technologies.

Submission guidelines

This task is a great opportunity for you to get off on the right foot and prove your worth to the company by providing a brief, well$-$organized, and well$-$researched overview of cloud providers' services.

Submit your report written up in the style of a white paper. $($The boss hasn't given you any more guidance on format than this, so if you're not sure what this means, it's up to you to read some typical examples.$)$

Your report must satisfy the following criteria $(15$ points total$)$:

Documents must be submitted in PDF format on Handins $(1$ point$).$

Content must be clearly organized and easily understandable. Layout, headers, indentation, etc. should look professional $(3$ points$).$

Text must be clearly written with full sentences and logically organized paragraphs. It should be clear at a glance what products are being compared with which other products, what the similarities are, and what the differences are. Your boss is very busy and wants to get to the point quickly $(3$ points$).$

Content must be as brief as possible while satisfying all previous criteria and answering all questions $(2$ points$).$ Omit needless words

Your report must clearly indicate the name of the author $($you and your peer$).$ Assume your boss will print your report up and read it on her upcoming ski trip. If she doesn't know who wrote the report at a glance, you won't get credit for it$.$ Never assume that your name in the filename, etc, is adequate $(1$ point$)$

Spelling and grammar errors should be kept to an absolute minimum. Opportunities for promotion come up often in this company, but the company won't risk embarrassing itself by promoting somebody who produces shoddy work $(2$ points$).$

Attribute any quoted material that you reproduce in your report $(3$ points$).$

There are no word count, page count, spacing, or layout guidelines other than the points above.