Google Cloud to Azure services comparison

This article helps you understand how Microsoft Azure services compare to Google Cloud. (Note that Google Cloud used to be called the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).) Whether you are planning a multi-cloud solution with Azure and Google Cloud, or migrating to Azure, you can compare the IT capabilities of Azure and Google Cloud services in all the technology categories.

This article compares services that are roughly comparable. Not every Google Cloud service or Azure service is listed, and not every matched service has exact feature-for-feature parity.

For an overview of Azure for Google Cloud users, see the introduction to Azure for Google Cloud Professionals.

Marketplace

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Google Cloud Marketplace	Azure Marketplace	Easy-to-deploy and automatically configured third-party applications, including single virtual machine or multiple virtual machine solutions.

Data platform

Database

Type	Google Cloud service	Azure service	Azure service description
Relational database	Cloud SQL - SQL Server	Azure SQL family Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance SQL Server on Azure VM Azure SQL Edge	Azure SQL family of SQL Server database engine products in the cloud Azure SQL Database is a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS) database engine Azure SQL Managed Instance is the intelligent, scalable cloud database service that combines the broadest SQL Server database engine compatibility with all the benefits of a fully managed and evergreen platform as a service SQL Server IaaS deployed on Azure Windows or Linux VM Azure SQL Edge is an optimized relational database engine geared for IoT and edge deployments
	Cloud SQL MySQL & PostgreSQL	Azure Database for MySQL (Single & Flexible Server) Azure Database for PostgreSQL (Single & Flexible Server)	Managed relational database service where resiliency, security, scale, and maintenance are primarily handled by the platform
Horizontally scalable relational database	Cloud Spanner	Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL	A globally-distributed database system that limitlessly scales horizontally. Is multi-modal -- key-value, graph, and document data). Supports multiple APIs: SQL, JavaScript, Gremlin, MongoDB, and Azure Table storage. Compute and storage can be scaled independently
		Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL (Citus)	Azure Database for PostgreSQL is a fully managed database-as-a-service based on the open-source Postgres relational database engine. The Hyperscale (Citus) deployment option scales queries across multiple machines using sharding, to serve applications that require greater scale and performance
NoSQL	Cloud Bigtable	Azure Table storage	A highly scalable NoSQL key-value store for rapid development using massive semi-structured datasets. Store semi-structured data that's highly available. Supporting flexible data schema and OData-based queries
	Cloud Firestore	Azure Cosmos DB	Globally distributed, multi-model database that natively supports multiple data models: key-value, documents, graphs, and columnar
	Firebase Realtime Database	Azure Cosmos DB change feed	Change feed in Azure Cosmos DB is a persistent record of changes to a container in the order they occur. Change feed works by listening to an Azure Cosmos DB container for any changes. It then outputs the sorted list of documents that were changed in the order in which they were modified. The persisted changes can be processed asynchronously and incrementally, and the output can be distributed across one or more consumers for parallel processing
In-memory	Cloud Memorystore	Azure Cache for Redis	A secure data cache and messaging broker that provides high throughput and low-latency access to data for applications

Database architectures

Architecture	Description
Gaming by using Azure Cosmos DB	Elastically scale your database to accommodate unpredictable bursts of traffic and deliver low-latency multi-player experiences on a global scale.

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Data warehouse

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
BigQuery	Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Server Big Data Clusters Azure Databricks	Cloud-based Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) that uses Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) to quickly run complex queries across petabytes of data. Allow you to deploy scalable clusters of SQL Server, Spark, and HDFS containers running on Kubernetes. These components are running side by side to enable you to read, write, and process big data from Transact-SQL or Spark, allowing you to easily combine and analyze your high-value relational data with high-volume big data.

Data warehouse architectures

Architecture	Description
Automated enterprise BI	Automate an extract, load, and transform (ELT) workflow in Azure using Azure Data Factory with Azure Synapse Analytics.

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Data orchestration and ETL

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud Data Fusion	Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics	Processes and moves data between different compute and storage services, as well as on-premises data sources at specified intervals. Create, schedule, orchestrate, and manage data pipelines.

Big data and analytics

Big data processing

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Dataproc	Azure HDInsight Azure Synapse Analytics Azure Databricks Microsoft Fabric Data Engineering	Managed Apache Spark-based analytics platform.

Big data architectures

Architecture	Description
Azure data platform end-to-end	Use Azure services to ingest, process, store, serve, and visualize data from different sources.
Personalized offers	This solution builds intelligent marketing systems that provide customer-tailored content by using machine learning models that analyze data from multiple sources.
Big data analytics with Azure Data Explorer	Big data analytics with Azure Data Explorer demonstrates how Azure Data Explorer caters to volume, velocity, and variety of data, the three V's of big data.

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Analytics and visualization

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud Dataflow	Azure Databricks Azure HDInsight	Managed platform for streaming and batch data processing using Apache Beam
Data Studio Looker	Power BI	Business intelligence tools that build visualizations, perform ad hoc analysis, and develop business insights from data.
Cloud Search	Azure Search	Delivers full-text search and related search analytics and capabilities.
BigQuery	SQL Server Analysis Services	Provides a serverless non-cloud interactive query service that uses standard SQL for analyzing databases.

Analytics architectures

Architecture	Description
Automated enterprise BI	Automate an extract, load, and transform (ELT) workflow in Azure by using Azure Data Factory with Azure Synapse Analytics.
Mass ingestion and analysis of news feeds on Azure	Create a pipeline for ingesting and analyzing text, images, sentiment, and other data from RSS news feeds by using only Azure services, including Azure Cosmos DB and Azure AI services.

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Time series & IoT data

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
BigQuery	Azure Data Explorer Azure Time Series Insights Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Fabric Real Time Intelligence	Fully managed, low latency, and distributed big data analytics platform that runs complex queries across petabytes of data. Highly optimized for log and time series data. Open and scalable end-to-end IoT analytics service. Collect, process, store, query, and visualize data at Internet of Things (IoT) scale--data that's highly contextualized and optimized for time series.

Time series architecture

Architecture	Description
IoT analytics with Azure Data Explorer	IoT telemetry analytics with Azure Data Explorer demonstrates near real-time analytics over a fast flowing, high volume, wide variety of streaming data from IoT devices.

AI and machine learning

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Vertex AI	Azure Machine Learning	A cloud service to train, deploy, automate, and manage machine learning and foundation models, with notebook, designer, and automate options.
TensorFlow	ML.NET	ML.NET is an open source and cross-platform machine learning framework for both machine learning & AI.
TensorFlow	ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange)	ONNX is an open format built to represent machine learning models that facilitates maximum compatibility and increased inference performance.
Cloud Vision API - Computer Vision	Azure AI Services Computer Vision	Use visual data processing to enable computers to identify and understand objects and people in images and videos, label content, from objects to concepts, extract printed and handwritten text, recognize familiar subjects like brands and landmarks, and moderate content.
Natural Language AI	Azure AI Language	Azure AI Language is a managed service for developing natural language processing applications. Identify key terms and phrases, analyze sentiment, summarize text, and build conversational interfaces.
Natural Language AI	Azure AI Services Conversational Language Understanding	A feature of AI Language that uses natural language understanding (NLU) so people can interact with your apps, bots, and IoT devices.
Speech-to-Text	Azure AI Services Speech To Text	Transcribe audios to text in more than 100 languages and variants. Customize models to enhance accuracy for domain-specific terminology.
AutoML Tables – Structured Data	ML.NET Model Builder	ML.NET Model Builder provides an easy to understand visual interface to build, train, and deploy custom machine learning models. Prior machine learning expertise is not required. Model Builder supports AutoML, which automatically explores different machine learning algorithms and settings to help you find the one that best suits your scenario.
AutoML Vision	Azure AI Custom Vision	Customize and embed state-of-the-art computer vision for specific domains. Build frictionless customer experiences, optimize manufacturing processes, accelerate digital marketing campaigns-and more. No machine learning expertise is required.
AutoML Video Intelligence	Azure Video Indexer	Easily extract insights from your videos and quickly enrich your applications to enhance discovery and engagement.
Dialogflow	Azure AI Language Question Answering	Build, train and publish a sophisticated bot using FAQ pages, support websites, product manuals, SharePoint documents or editorial content through an easy-to-use UI or via REST APIs.
AI Platform Notebooks	Azure Notebooks	Develop and run code from anywhere with Jupyter notebooks on Azure.
Deep Learning VM Image	Data Science Virtual Machines	Pre-Configured environments in the cloud for Data Science and AI Development.
Deep Learning Containers	GPU support on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)	Graphical processing units (GPUs) are often used for compute-intensive workloads such as graphics, visualization workloads, and AI inferencing. AKS supports the creation of GPU-enabled node pools to run these compute-intensive workloads in Kubernetes.
Data Labeling Service	Azure ML - Data Labeling	A central place to create, manage, and monitor labeling projects (public preview). Use it to coordinate data, labels, and team members to efficiently manage labeling tasks. Machine Learning supports image classification, either multi-label or multi-class, and object identification with bounded boxes.
AI Platform Training	Azure ML – Compute Targets	Designated compute resource/environment where you run your training script or host your service deployment. This location may be your local machine or a cloud-based compute resource. Using compute targets make it easy for you to later change your compute environment without having to change your code.
AI Platform Predictions	Azure ML - Deployments	Deploy your machine learning model as a web service for making real-time or batch predictions at scale.
Continuous Evaluation	Azure ML – Data Drift	Monitor for data drift between the training dataset and inference data of a deployed model. In the context of machine learning, trained machine learning models may experience degraded prediction performance because of drift. With Azure Machine Learning, you can monitor data drift and the service can send an email alert to you when drift is detected.
Explainable AI	Azure ML – Model Interpretability	Understand and explain the behaviors of your machine learning models.
Cloud TPU	FPGA accelerated virtual machines	Perform AI and machine learning inferencing tasks that are optimized for FPGA programming. FPGAs are based on Intel's FPGA devices.
Vertax AI	Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)	A platform that streamlines the development and deployment of ML models and AI workflows, from data preparation and model training to deployment and monitoring.
Dialogflow	Microsoft Bot Framework	Help build conversational AI experiences and integrate a conversational user interface.

AI and machine learning architectures

Architecture	Description
Image classification on Azure	Learn how to build image processing into your applications by using Azure services such as the Computer Vision API and Azure Functions.
Intelligent product search engine for e-commerce	This architecture describes how to use a dedicated search service to dramatically increase the relevance of search results for your e-commerce customers.

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Data catalog & governance

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Dataplex	Microsoft Purview	Microsoft Purview is a comprehensive portfolio of products spanning data governance, data security, and risk and compliance solutions.

Compute

Virtual servers

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Compute Engine	Azure Virtual Machines	Virtual servers allow users to deploy, manage, and maintain OS and server software. Instance types provide combinations of CPU/RAM. Users pay for what they use with the flexibility to change sizes.
Sole-tenant nodes	Azure Dedicated Host	Host your VMs on hardware that's dedicated only to your project.
Batch	Azure Batch	Run large-scale parallel and high-performance computing applications efficiently in the cloud.
Compute Engine Autoscaler Compute Engine managed instance groups	Azure virtual machine scale sets	Allows you to automatically change the number of VM instances. You set defined metric and thresholds that determine if the platform adds or removes instances.
Cloud GPUs	GPU Optimized VMs	GPU-optimized VM sizes are specialized virtual machines that are available with single, multiple, or fractional GPUs. The sizes are designed for compute-intensive, graphics-intensive, and visualization workloads.
VMware Engine	Azure VMware Solution	Redeploy and extend your VMware-based enterprise workloads to Azure with Azure VMware Solution. Seamlessly move VMware-based workloads from your datacenter to Azure and integrate your VMware environment with Azure. Keep managing your existing environments with the same VMware tools that you already know, while you modernize your applications with Azure native services. Azure VMware Solution is a Microsoft service that is verified by VMware, and it runs on Azure infrastructure.

Containers and container orchestrators

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud Run	Azure Container Apps	Azure Container Apps is the fastest and simplest way to run a container in Azure, without having to provision any virtual machines or adopt a higher-level orchestration service.
Artifact Registry (beta) Container Registry	Azure Container Registry	Allows customers to store Docker formatted images. Used to create all types of container deployments on Azure.
Kubernetes Engine (GKE)	Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)	Deploy orchestrated containerized applications with Kubernetes. Simplify cluster management and monitoring through automatic upgrades and a built-in operations console. See AKS solution journey.
Kubernetes Engine Monitoring	Azure Monitor container insights	Azure Monitor container insights is a feature designed to monitor the performance of container workloads deployed to: Managed Kubernetes clusters hosted on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS); Azure Container Instances, Self-managed Kubernetes clusters hosted on Azure Stack or on-premises; or Azure Red Hat OpenShift.
Anthos Service Mesh	Open Service Mesh (OSM)	It is a lightweight and extensible cloud native service mesh. OSM takes a simple approach for users to uniformly manage, secure, and get out-of-the box observability features for highly dynamic microservice environments

Container architectures

Here are some architectures that use AKS as the orchestrator.

Architecture	Description
Baseline architecture on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)	Deploy a baseline infrastructure that deploys an AKS cluster with focus on security.
Microservices architecture on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)	Deploy a microservices architecture on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
CI/CD for AKS apps with GitHub Actions and GitFlow	This architecture is applicable to businesses that want to modernize end-to-end application development by using containers, continuous integration for build, and GitOps for continuous deployment.

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Functions

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud Functions	Azure Functions	Integrate systems and run backend processes in response to events or schedules without provisioning or managing servers.

Serverless architectures

Architecture	Description
HIPAA and HITRUST-compliant health data AI	Manage HIPAA and HITRUST-compliant health data and medical records with the highest level of built-in security.
Cross-cloud scaling architecture	Learn how to improve cross-cloud scalability with solution architecture that includes Azure Stack. A step-by-step flowchart details instructions for implementation.

DevOps and application monitoring

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Operations (formerly Stackdriver)	Azure Monitor	Maximizes the availability and performance of your applications and services by delivering a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on-premises environments. It helps you understand how your applications are performing and proactively identifies issues affecting them and the resources on which they depend.
Cloud Trace	Azure Monitor	Maximizes the availability and performance of your applications and services by delivering a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on-premises environments. It helps you understand how your applications are performing and proactively identifies issues affecting them and the resources on which they depend.
Snapshot Debugger (Cloud Debugger deprecated)	Application Insights (Azure Monitor)	Azure Monitor Application Insights, a feature of Azure Monitor, excels in Application Performance Management (APM) for live web applications. It helps you understand how your applications are performing and proactively identifies issues affecting them and the resources on which they depend.
Cloud Profiler	Application Insights (Azure Monitor)	Azure Monitor Application Insights, a feature of Azure Monitor, excels in Application Performance Management (APM) for live web applications. It helps you understand how your applications are performing and proactively identifies issues affecting them and the resources on which they depend.
Cloud Source Repositories	Azure Repos, GitHub Repos	A cloud service for collaborating on code development.
Cloud Build	Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions	Fully managed build service that supports continuous integration and deployment.
Artifact Registry	Azure Artifacts, GitHub Packages	Add fully integrated package management to your continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines with a single click. Create and share Maven, npm, NuGet, and Python package feeds from public and private sources with teams of any size.
Cloud Developer Tools (including Cloud Code)	Azure Developer Tools	Collection of tools for building, debugging, deploying, diagnosing, and managing multiplatform scalable apps and services.
gcloud SDK	Azure SDKs and Tools	The Azure SDKs are collections of libraries built to make it easier to use Azure services from your language of choice. These libraries are designed to be consistent, approachable, diagnosable, dependable, and idiomatic. The Azure command-line interface (CLI) is a set of commands used to create and manage Azure resources. The Azure CLI is available across Azure services and is designed to get you working quickly with Azure, with an emphasis on automation.
Cloud Shell	Azure Cloud Shell	Azure Cloud Shell is an interactive, authenticated, browser-accessible shell for managing Azure resources. It provides the flexibility of choosing the shell experience that best suits the way you work, either Bash or PowerShell.
PowerShell on Google Cloud	Azure PowerShell	Azure PowerShell is a set of cmdlets for managing Azure resources directly from the PowerShell command line. Azure PowerShell is designed to make it easy to learn and get started with, but provides powerful features for automation. Written in .NET Standard, Azure PowerShell works with PowerShell 5.1 on Windows, and PowerShell 6.x and higher on all platforms.
Cloud Deployment Manager	Azure Marketplace	The Marketplace is the premier destination for all your software needs - certified and optimized to run on Azure.
Cloud Deployment Manager	Azure Resource Manager	Provides a way for users to automate the manual, long-running, error-prone, and frequently repeated IT tasks.

DevOps architectures

Architecture	Description
CI/CD for AKS apps with GitHub Actions and GitFlow	This architecture is applicable to businesses that want to modernize end-to-end application development by using containers, continuous integration for build, and GitOps for continuous deployment.

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Internet of things (IoT)

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud IoT Core	Azure Event Grid MQTT broker Azure IoT Hub	Gateways for managing bidirectional communication with IoT devices, securely and at scale.
Cloud Pub/Sub	See Messaging and eventing section	Process and route streaming data to a subsequent processing engine or to a storage or database platform.
Edge TPU	Azure IoT Edge Azure IoT Operations	Deploy cloud intelligence directly on IoT devices to run in on-premises scenarios.

IoT architectures

Architecture	Description
Azure IoT reference architecture	A recommended architecture for IoT applications on Azure by using platform as a service (PaaS) components.
Process real-time vehicle data by using IoT	This example builds a real-time data ingestion and processing pipeline to ingest and process messages from IoT devices into a big data analytic platform on Azure.

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Management

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud Billing	Azure Billing API	Services to help generate, monitor, forecast, and share billing data for resource usage by time, organization, or product resources.
Cloud Console	Azure portal	A unified management console that simplifies building, deploying, and operating your cloud resources.
Operations (formerly Stackdriver)	Azure Monitor	Comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on-premises environments.
Cost Management	Microsoft Cost Management	Microsoft Cost Management helps you understand your Azure invoice, manage your billing account and subscriptions, control Azure spending, and optimize resource use.

Messaging and eventing

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud Pub/Sub	Azure Service Bus	Supports a set of cloud-based, message-oriented middleware technologies including reliable message queuing and durable publish/subscribe messaging.
Cloud Pub/Sub	Azure Event Grid	A fully managed event routing service that allows for uniform event consumption using a publish/subscribe model.
Cloud Pub/Sub	Azure Event Hubs	A real-time data ingestion and microbatching service used to build dynamic data pipelines and integrates with other Azure services.

Messaging architectures

Architecture	Description
Scalable web application	Use the proven practices in this reference architecture to improve scalability and performance in an Azure App Service web application.
Enterprise integration by using queues and events	A recommended architecture for implementing an enterprise integration pattern with Azure Logic Apps, Azure API Management, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Event Grid.

Networking

Area	Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud virtual networking	Virtual Private Network (VPC)	Azure Virtual Network (Vnet)	Provides an isolated, private environment in the cloud. Users have control over their virtual networking environment, including selection of their own IP address range, adding/updating address ranges, creation of subnets, and configuration of route tables and network gateways.
DNS management	Cloud DNS	Azure DNS	Manage your DNS records using the same credentials that are used for billing and support contract as your other Azure services
	Cloud DNS	Azure Traffic Manager	Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer that enables you to distribute traffic optimally to services across global Azure regions, while providing high availability and responsiveness.
	Internal DNS	Azure Private DNS	Manages and resolves domain names in the virtual network, without the need to configure a custom DNS solution, and it provides a naming resolution for virtual machines (VMs) within a virtual network and any connected virtual networks.
Hybrid Connectivity	Cloud Interconnect	Azure ExpressRoute	Establishes a private network connection from a location to the cloud provider (not over the Internet).
	Cloud VPN Gateway	Azure Virtual Network Gateway	Connects Azure virtual networks to other Azure virtual networks, or customer on-premises networks (site-to-site). Allows end users to connect to Azure services through VPN tunneling (point-to-site).
	Cloud VPN Gateway	Azure Virtual WAN	Azure virtual WAN simplifies large-scale branch connectivity with VPN and ExpressRoute.
	Cloud router	Azure Virtual Network Gateway	Enables dynamic routes exchange using BGP.
Load balancing	Network Load Balancing	Azure Load Balancer	Azure Load Balancer load-balances traffic at layer 4 (all TCP or UDP).
	Cloud Load Balancing	Azure Front door	Azure front door enables global load balancing across regions using a single anycast IP.
	Cloud Load Balancing	Azure Application Gateway	Application Gateway is a layer 7 load balancer. IT takes backends with any IP that is reachable. It supports SSL termination, cookie-based session affinity, and round robin for load-balancing traffic.
	Cloud Load Balancing	Azure Traffic Manager	Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer that enables you to distribute traffic optimally to services across global Azure regions, while providing high availability and responsiveness.
Content delivery network	Cloud CDN	Azure CDN	A content delivery network (CDN) is a distributed network of servers that can efficiently deliver web content to users.
Firewall	Firewall rules	Application security groups	Azure Application security groups allow you to group virtual machines and define network security policies based on those groups.
	Firewall rules	Network Security groups	Azure network security group filters network traffic to and from Azure resources in an Azure virtual network.
	Firewall rules	Azure Firewall	Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service that protects your Azure Virtual Network resources. It's a fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability.
Web Application Firewall	Cloud Armor	Application Gateway - Web Application Firewall	Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides centralized protection of your web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities.
	Cloud Armor	Front door – Azure Web Application Firewall	Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) on Azure Front Door provides centralized protection for your web applications.
	Cloud Armor	CDN – Azure Web Application Firewall	Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) on Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) from Microsoft provides centralized protection for your web content.
NAT Gateway	Cloud NAT	Azure NAT Gateway	NAT Gateway (network address translation) provides outbound NAT translations for internet connectivity for virtual networks.
Private Connectivity to PaaS	Private Service Connect	Azure Private Link	Azure Private Link enables you to access Azure PaaS Services and Azure hosted customer-owned/partner services over a private endpoint in your virtual network.
Telemetry	VPC Flow logs	NSG Flow logs	Network security group (NSG) flow logs are a feature of Network Watcher that allows you to view information about ingress and egress IP traffic through an NSG.
	Firewall Rules Logging	NSG Flow logs	Network security group (NSG) flow logs are a feature of Network Watcher that allows you to view information about ingress and egress IP traffic through an NSG.
	Operations (formerly Stackdriver)	Azure Monitor	Azure Monitor delivers a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on-premises environments. Log queries help you maximize the value of the data collected in Azure Monitor Logs.
	Network Intelligence Center	Azure Network Watcher	Azure Network Watcher provides tools to monitor, diagnose, view metrics, and enable or disable logs for resources in an Azure virtual network.
Other Connectivity Options	Direct Interconnect,Partner Interconnect,Carrier Peering	Azure S2S VPN,Azure P2S VPN	Point to Site lets you create a secure connection to your virtual network from an individual client computer. Site to Site is a connection between two or more networks, such as a corporate network and a branch office network.

Networking architectures

Architecture	Description
Deploy highly available NVAs	Learn how to deploy network virtual appliances for high availability in Azure. This article includes example architectures for ingress, egress, and both.
Hub-spoke network topology in Azure	Learn how to implement a hub-spoke topology in Azure, where the hub is a virtual network and the spokes are virtual networks that peer with the hub.
Implement a secure hybrid network	See a secure hybrid network that extends an on-premises network to Azure with a perimeter network between the on-premises network and an Azure virtual network.

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Security and identity

Area	Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Authentication and authorization	Cloud Identity	Microsoft Entra ID	The Microsoft Entra enterprise identity service provides single sign-on and multifactor authentication, which enable the central management of users/groups and external identities federation.
	Identity platform	Azure Active Directory B2C	A highly available and global identity management service for consumer-facing applications, which scales to hundreds of millions of identities. Manage customer, consumer, and citizen access to your business-to-consumer (B2C) applications.
Multifactor authentication	Multifactor authentication	Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication	Safeguard access to data and applications, while meeting user demand for a simple sign-in process.
RBAC	Identity and Access Management	Azure role-based access control	Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) helps you manage who has access to Azure resources, what they can do with those resources, and what areas they have access to.
ABAC	Identity and Access Management	Azure attribute-based access control	Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is an authorization system that defines access based on attributes associated with security principals, resources, and the environment of an access request.
Zero trust	Chrome Enterprise Premium	Microsoft Entra Conditional Access	Conditional Access is the tool used by Microsoft Entra ID to bring signals together, to make decisions, and to enforce organizational policies.
Resource management	Resource Manager	Azure Resource Manager	Provides a management layer that enables you to create, update, and delete resources in your Azure account, like access control, locks, and tags, to secure and organize your resources after deployment.
Encryption	Cloud KMS, Secret Manager	Azure Key Vault	Provides a security solution and works with other services by allowing you to manage, create, and control encryption keys that are stored in hardware security modules (HSM).
Data-at-rest encryption	Encryption at rest	Azure Storage Service Encryption - encryption by default	Azure Storage Service Encryption helps you protect and safeguard your data and meet your organizational security and compliance commitments.
Data in-use	Confidential Computing	Azure Confidential Computing	Encrypt data in-use.
Hardware security module (HSM)	Cloud HSM	Azure Dedicated HSM	Azure service that provides cryptographic key storage in Azure, to host encryption keys and perform cryptographic operations in a high-availability service of FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified hardware security modules (HSMs).
Data loss prevention (DLP)	Cloud Data Loss Prevention	Microsoft Purview Information Protection	Microsoft Purview Information Protection (formerly Azure Information Protection) helps you discover, classify, and protect sensitive information wherever it lives or travels.
Security	Security Command Center, Web Security Scanner	Microsoft Defender for Cloud	Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) that is made up of security measures and practices that are designed to protect cloud-based applications.
Threat detection	Event Threat Detection	Microsoft Defender for Identity	Microsoft Defender for Identity is a cloud-based security solution that helps secure your identity monitoring.
SIEM	Chronicle	Microsoft Sentinel	A cloud-native security information and event manager (SIEM) platform that uses built-in AI to analyze large volumes of data from all sources, including users, applications, servers, and devices that are running on-premises or in any cloud.
Container security	Container Security	Container Security in Microsoft Defender for Cloud	Microsoft Defender for Cloud is the Azure-native solution for securing your containers.
	Artifact Registry	Azure Container Registry	A managed, private Docker registry service that's based on the open-source Docker Registry 2.0. Create and maintain Azure container registries to store and manage your private Docker container images and related artifacts that allow you to only deploy trusted containers.

Security architectures

Architecture	Description
Real-time fraud detection	Detect fraudulent activity in real-time by using Azure Event Hubs and Stream Analytics.
Securely managed web applications	Learn about deploying secure applications using the Azure App Service Environment, the Azure Application Gateway service, and Web Application Firewall.
Threat indicators for cyber threat intelligence in Microsoft Sentinel	Import threat indicators, view logs, create rules to generate security alerts and incidents, and visualize threat intelligence data with Microsoft Sentinel.

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Storage

Object storage

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Cloud Storage Cloud Storage for Firebase	Azure Blob storage	Object storage service, for use cases including cloud applications, content distribution, backup, archiving, disaster recovery, and big data analytics.

Block storage

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Persistant Disk Local SSD	Azure Disk Storage	SSD storage optimized for I/O intensive read/write operations. For use as high-performance Azure virtual machine storage.

File storage

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Filestore	Azure Files, Azure NetApp Files	File based storage and hosted NetApp Appliance Storage.
Google Drive	OneDrive For business	Cloud storage and file sharing solution for businesses to store, access, and share files anytime and anywhere.

Storage architectures

Architecture	Description
HIPAA and HITRUST-compliant health data AI	Manage HIPAA and HITRUST-compliant health data and medical records with the highest level of built-in security.
HPC media rendering	Optimize the media rendering process with a step-by-step HPC solution architecture from Azure that combines Azure CycleCloud and HPC Cache.
Medical data storage solutions	Store healthcare data effectively and affordably with cloud-based solutions from Azure. Manage medical records with the highest level of built-in security.

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Bulk data transfer

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Transfer Appliance	Azure Import/Export	A data transport solution that uses secure disks and appliances to transfer large amounts of data. Also offers data protection during transit.
Transfer Appliance	Azure Data Box	Petabyte- to exabyte-scale data transport solution that uses secure data storage devices to transfer large amounts of data to and from Azure.

Application services

Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
App Engine	Azure App Service	Managed hosting platform providing easy to use services for deploying and scaling web applications and services.
Apigee	Azure API Management	A turnkey solution for publishing APIs to external and internal consumers.

Web architectures

Architecture	Description
Architect scalable e-commerce web app	The e-commerce website includes simple order processing workflows with the help of Azure services. Using Azure Functions and Web Apps, developers can focus on building personalized experiences and let Azure take care of the infrastructure.
Multi-region N-tier application	Deploy an application on Azure virtual machines in multiple regions for high availability and resiliency.
Serverless web application	This reference architecture shows a serverless web application, which serves static content from Azure Blob Storage and implements an API using Azure Functions.

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Miscellaneous

Area	Google Cloud service	Azure service	Description
Workflow	Composer	Azure Logic Apps	Serverless technology for connecting apps, data and devices anywhere, whether on-premises or in the cloud for large ecosystems of SaaS and cloud-based connectors.
Enterprise application services	G Suite	Microsoft 365	Fully integrated Cloud service providing communications, email, document management in the cloud and available on a wide variety of devices.
Gaming	Game Servers	Azure PlayFab	Managed services for hosting dedicated game servers.
Hybrid	Anthos	Azure Arc	For customers who want to simplify complex and distributed environments across on-premises, edge and multi-cloud, Azure Arc enables deployment of Azure services anywhere and extends Azure management to any infrastructure.
Blockchain	Digital Asset	Azure Confidential Ledger	Tamperproof, unstructured data store hosted in trusted execution environments and backed by cryptographically verifiable evidence.
Monitoring	Cloud Monitoring	Application Insights	Service that provides visibility into the performance, uptime, and overall health of cloud-powered applications.
Logging	Cloud Logging	Log Analytics	Service for real-time log management and analysis.

Migration tools

Area	Google Cloud service	Azure Service	Description
App migration to containers	Migrate for Anthos	Azure Migrate: App Containerization tool	Modernize your application by migrating it to AKS or App Services containers.
Migration of virtual machines	Migrate for Compute Engine	Azure Migrate: Server Migration tool	Migrate servers from anywhere to Azure.
VMware migration	Google Cloud VMware Engine	Azure VMware Solution	Move or extend on-premises VMware environments to Azure.
Migration of databases	Database Migration Service	Azure Database Migration Service (classic), Azure SQL Migration extension for Azure Data Studio	Fully managed service designed to enable seamless migrations from multiple database sources to Azure data platforms with minimal downtime.
Migration programs	Google Cloud Rapid Assessment & Migration Program (RAMP)	Azure Migration and Modernization Program	Learn how to move your apps, data, and infrastructure to Azure using a proven cloud migration and modernization approach.
Server assessment	Migrate to Google Cloud	Azure Migrate	Increases business intelligence by accurately presenting entire IT environments within a single day.
Database assessment	Migrate to Google Cloud	Data Migration Assistant	It helps pinpoint potential problems blocking migration. It identifies unsupported features, new features that can benefit you after migration, and the right path for database migration.
Web app assessment and migration	Google Cloud Application Migration	Web app migration assistant, Azure Migrate application and code assessment, Azure Migrate	Assess on-premises web apps and migrate them to Azure.

Next steps

If you are new to Azure, review the interactive Core Cloud Services - Introduction to Azure module on Microsoft Learn training.