Comparison and Contrast: IBM Cloud vs Google Cloud

This article provides a comparison and contrast between IBM Cloud and Google Cloud. It discusses the quality of design, navigation, pricing, and core platforms of both cloud services. It also explores the services offered by Google Cloud Platform and the advantages it has over IBM Cloud.

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Comparison and contrast between IBM Cloud and Google Cloud
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Executive Summary
In many cloud service delivery services, it is undebatable that IBM will always win. IBM has an
expansive coverage over the market as regards to quality of cloud services that it offers. In
addition, IBM services integrate well with each other, producing a good synergy. On the other
side, Google Cloud is not so much dependable as the number and quality of the cloud services
that it offers is limited. The basic concept of cloud computing is the fact that a person does not
have to know everything about the service they are trying to access before they can benefit from
it.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................2
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................4
Cloud Computing Infrastructure.............................................................................................................4
Examples of Cloud Computing.............................................................................................................5
Cloud Computing Today.......................................................................................................................5
Platform as a Service (PaaS) Framework............................................................................................6
Cloud service providers who offer PaaS platform................................................................................6
Comparison and Contrast...................................................................................................................14
Quality of Design and navigation of the PaaS system........................................................................15
The Core Platforms.............................................................................................................................15
Pricing..................................................................................................................................................18
Results and Discussion............................................................................................................................21
My Opinion..........................................................................................................................................21
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................22
References................................................................................................................................................24

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Introduction
Cloud computing is a technology that involves the processing of data in a distributed manner, in
which scalable information resources and capacities are provided as a service in the cloud
(Bernstein 2014). Online cloud services can be accessed through smart devices even from the
remotest areas. The basic concept of cloud computing is the fact that a person does not have to
know everything about the service they are trying to access before they can benefit from it.
Cloud computing technology separates the user of a service from the infrastructure and its
operating procedures, as this are not relevant to the end user (Höfer & Karagiannis 2011).
Cloud Computing Infrastructure
More than one person can access services hosted in the cloud, hence we talk of distributed data
processing in cloud computing. Cloud computing architectures can be categorized in three broad
categories as follows:
i. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) – this framework makes it possible for
individuals or organizations to rent computing infrastructure such as servers (physical or
virtual) for storage and networking. Iaas is applicable to businesses or individuals that
would want to control their servicers for themselves.
ii. Platform-as-a-Service (Paas) – this framework comes next after IaaS. It involves
provision of storage and networking services from the cloud. All the storage and
networking resources that developers need in developing applications and software are
provided in this architecture.

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iii. Software-as-a-Service (Saas) – this architecture provides for access of hosted
services from the cloud. The used doesn’t need to understate the underlying operating
infrastructure of the framework; the user only needs to access the services they need.
SaaS architecture is normally based on a ‘one- per user’ basis. This means that a user
individually access the cloud to access the services they need from a remote area.
Cloud computing technology makes a wide variety of services available to the user, ranging from
storage capacity, networking and hosting services. Furthermore, integration of artificial
intelligence (AI) and natural language processing technology with cloud computing makes it
even more beneficial to users, as it can then can offer more complex services and resources. .
Examples of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing entails a wide range of services that we use in a day to day lives. For example,
services like Gmail, or our smartphone’s cloud based photo backup and several others are all
based on cloud computing technology. Many business enterprises and organizations also rely on
cloud computing in order to carry out their day to day tasks. Netflix for example relies heavily on
cloud services in order to sustain its business (Zhang et al. 2010).
Cloud Computing Today
More than half of IT spending globally is spent on enhancing cloud computing infrastructure so
as to accommodate more advanced cloud frameworks. At the same time, the traditional in-house
packaging of computing workloads is fast being faced away as more people and businesses are
shifting their services to the cloud (Hoefer & Karagiannis 2010).

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It is predicted that in the next five years, more than a third of the IT budget will be spent in
ameliorating cloud services and proving for hosting more resources in the cloud. By the year
2021, more than half of all global IT enterprises shall have shifted completely to the cloud.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) Framework
Platform as a service (PaaS), as mentioned earlier, is a framework of cloud computing that
makes it possible for individuals and companies to access infrastructural services from the cloud.
PaaS enhances the speed and ease of accessing resources by separating the end user from the
physical interface of the service provider (Madhavaiah & Bashir 2012). This model of cloud
computing enables customers in designing, running and managing applications without having to
worry about the underlying infrastructure. In Paas, the provider supplies all that is needed for
development of software, such as servers, operating systems and storage facilities. The user
accesses these services and resources without having to worry of configurations and adjusting
settings (Sultan 2011).
The original intention of the PaaS framework was to simplify the process of writing code for
developers and software designers. Originally, all the PaaS features for most companies were
hosted in the public cloud. However, because of security concerns, more business enterprises are
adopting the hybrid and private clouds so as to enhance security of their data and resources
(Mollah, Islam & Islam 2012).
Cloud service providers who offer PaaS platform
Globally, there are many business enterprises using services to users based on PaaS platform.
Developers have the right to choose which PaaS providers they want depending on the services
they need. Different companies specialize in offering of a particular type pf servicesand

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resources. The services offered by these PaaS-based cloud computing companies include coding
environments, testing and deployment kits as well as web and database integration features.
Theses providers include the following:
i. IBM Cloud Platform
IBM is an international ICT company that is based in Armonk, United States of America. The
company operates in more than 107 countries in the world. IBM Cloud platform integrates both
PaaS and Saas to provide the best platform that supports small scale and large scale
organizations globally (Alshuwaier, Alshwaier & Areshey 2012). IBM cloud is one of the most
developed cloud platform across the world, with branches and networks across several countries
throughout the world.
IBM Cloud platform provides the following cloud services:
i. A console that offers a platform for creation and management of cloud resources.
ii. An authentication system that verifies users on how they access and use services
across the IBM cloud.
iii. Tagging and search feature for filtration and identification of resources that
clients would need to access.
iv. Billing and accounting system to approximate exact billing prices and provide
security for transactions by using fraud protection techniques.
Microsoft Cloud Platform
Microsoft is a long-term cloud service provider and is one of the world’s biggest and most
advanced (Vecchiola, Pandey & Buyya 2009). Since the firm launched its Azure platform, the

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company has continued to register a consistent popularity and is currently the leading player in
the computing cloud space. It offers the following services:
a. An intelligent cloud, which includes windows operating systems, Servers, SQL
and Azure servers
b. Business platforms like Microsoft Office
c. Personal Computing features such as Bing Search, X-box, Windows client and
Surface.
Amazon Web Service
A subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon Web Service is an enterprise that offers cloud computing
services to individuals and enterprises on demand (Höfer & Karagiannis 2011). It offers a good
platform for developing software that offers solutions to business problems using advanced web
integrated services. Amazon web services offers just more than PaaS services. It provides end
users with access to a number of cloud services such as content delivery systems and storage
services. Users can also access the company’s ‘AWS Elastic Beanstalk,’ a service that provides
developers with an easy way of deploying their services (Zhang et al 2010).
Amazon remains one of the top market leaders in the cloud computing space, especially after
introducing artificial intelligence features to its array of cloud services. According to IT analysts,
AWS is the most strategic and most popular cloud service provider for many organizations.
Amazon Web Services has data centers strategically located across Europe Australia and Japan
(Neto 2011).

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Google Cloud Platform
Indisputably, Google Search is the leading player in internet searching. Having initially started as
a PaaS provider, Google Cloud platform would later advance to offer IaaS and SaaS based
services. Google Cloud Platform offers services in computing, databases and storage areas. The
major beneficiaries of the services offered by Google Cloud platform are the finance section,
gaming, health care, entertainment and the media. The key features of the services offered by this
company include hybrid clouding, API management, data analytics, device management and app
development (Gong et al. 2010).
Red Hat
The company provides all the three types of clouds, that is, public, private and hybrid.
Governments, financial institutions, healthcare facilities and telecommunications fields highly
benefit from Red Hat. The cloud company offers a wide range of services for ease of
management tasks and provides proficient tools for business administration (Sefraoui, Aissaoui
& Eleuld 2012).
Selection of a service provider
I choose Google Cloud platform to compare with IBM Cloud PaaS. I choose GCP because of the
following reasons:
i. Google Cloud Platform is just as popular as IBM cloud, hence they will compare
more favorably.
ii. Google Cloud Platform is one of the most advance companies that have specialized in
cloud computing, with branches all over the world. It is therefore of much interest
with many people and organizations as opposed to other companies.

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The Google Cloud
AI Machine learning
API Management

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Cloud services Platform
Compute

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Data Analytics
Databases

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Comparison and Contrast
Services offered for smart applications
The two companies have a lot in common, and thus offer a wide range of similar services, such
and DevOps, database storage and containers. Additionally, both companies use multi cloud and
hybrid strategies.
At the same time, there is still a lot that differentiates the two companies.
Google Cloud Platform basically offers five services at its core:
i. Hosting and computing
ii. Storage
iii. Machine learning
iv. Big data analytics
v. Networking.
For Infrastructure as Service (IaaS), Google cloud platform has a Google Compute Engine that
that enables virtual machine to be rapidly deployed. However, Google Cloud Platform has an
advantage in this feature since its charges per virtual machine are less compared to those of IBM.
Furthermore, its billing is more fine-tuned to the second as opposed to that of IBM that is billed
down to the minute.
For Platform as a Service (PaaS), Google Cloud Platform makes use of the Google App Engine,
which increases the scalability of its applications far more than IBM. However, it has language
limitations and challenges in its operating system environment (Jadeja & Modi 2012).
Google Cloud Platform has a number of Platform as a service (PaaS) services that it offers.
These include:

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i. Application engine
ii. Cloud functions
iii. Shielded virtual machines
iv. Container securities
The company also has a collection of developer tools that are as follows:
i. Cloud SDKs
ii. Cloud Build – development operating systems that allow for online building,
testing and deployment of applications.
iii. Cloud schedulers
iv. Gradle engines
v. Firebase engine
vi. Eclipse cloud tools
vii. Powershell cloud tools
Quality of Design and navigation of the PaaS system
The Core Platforms
One similarity between the companies is that both have engaged themselves in core cloud
service.
These are basically the strengths of Google Cloud Platform, which mainly originate with the
Google Search Engine. Google dominates a massive percentage in the market, and is constantly
coming up with new data centers in various places in the world. Google Cloud Platform has a
multi-region deployment strategy whereby a site can be deployed in several regions to achieve a
faster response time.

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Google is more customer friendly when it comes to billing, therefore it has lower costs as
compared to IBM and discounts for workloads that are long running type. On the other hand,
IBM requires that prepayment in order for a transaction to be legible and for consideration of
discounts. Google Cloud also gives a significant discount over IBM Cloud, up to 50% for their
SSD storage services. It becomes more interesting to note that SSDs are way faster compared to
hard disk storages (Mollah, Islam & Islam 2012).
Additionally, when it comes to infrastructure, Google has almost unmatched fiber network,
something that makes its internet faster in many ways. Google has cabling traversing Europe, US
and Asia, offering massive bandwidth. Google is the one sole provider that has a network cloud
that is tiered, such that users can use the company’s network without having to compete with
Youtube traffic, or Netflix’s. With Google, all data is encrypted as it transits between the
customers and the company and to their data centers. It has a multiple authentication layers.
The greatest advantage of Google Cloud Platform is its strategy to commit itself to machine
learning and artificial intelligence. Google Cloud Platform has made a huge investment on
Artificial Intelligence chip, known as Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). This is only available as a
service, and cannot be sold out. TPU is designed for machine learning only and a number of
Google services are already using it. For example, Google Translate, Search and Gmail heavily
rely on the chip.
IBM and Google Cloud offer similar services and capabilities such as flexibility in computing,
and networking. Both companies provide self-service delivery strategy, auto scaling and identity
management as key as key service features. Both companies offer machine learning capabilities,
and a wide range of machine learning tools targeting the latest technology for example IoT.

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Additionally, IBM supports a number of programing languages and massive services that aid in
design and development. Both IBM and Google allow end users to host, run and deploy
applications in the cloud within a very short span of time.
Both companies offer services that range from applications, infrastructure and platform based.
Google cloud platform provides two alternatives for sharing file services. The first one can be
used to distribute files into several virtual and physical machines so as to give resilience against
failure. This is made possible through Gluster storage technology. This technology can handle
multiple techniques for storage and allows more configurations for example replicated,
distributed and striped options for sending data (Peng et al. 2009). The other alternative that is
available for Google Cloud is Avere VFXT. This is a feature that acts as a cache on top of
Google Cloud. End users can use this feature to access data using NFS and CIFS. This way of
accessing data is a bit costly, as it is reflected in the pricing.
On the other hand, IBM uses NFS file technology to share its services. The NFS file system that
IBM uses is highly sophisticated, indicating that users can specify the performance that they
need, and even select or enter the tier level that they need so as to suit the performance that they
desire.
For storage management, IBM makes use of replication of data, copying existing files, cloning
volumes and making use of snapshots. At the same time data encryption is done so as to ensure
that information is secure.
Level of Difficulty in development and deployment of cloud environment processes
While Google is the undisputable leader when it comes to internet searching, it largely lags
behind when it comes to cloud service delivery. In fact Google cloud platform has had to change

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leaders several times so as to conform to the fluctuating market. Google cloud has not been
stable in cloud service delivery compared with IBM Cloud. Although Google cloud has come
into market two years after IBM was launched it is still lagging behind (Bradshaw, Millard &
Walden 2011). In comparison, IBM has executed almost flawlessly since it was launched.
In many cloud service delivery services, it is undebatable that IBM will always win. IBM has an
expansive coverage over the market as regards to quality of cloud services that it offers. In
addition, IBM services integrate well with each other, producing a good synergy. On the other
side, Google Cloud is not so much dependable as the number and quality of the cloud services
that it offers is limited. Furthermore, the services it offers are not so well coordinated
(Madhavaiah & Bashir 2012).
However, it is important to note that Google Cloud Platform is a leading player in machine
learning, artificial intelligence and Big Data analytics. This specialization has helped shovel the
company up in the market, thereby holding up its strength. In addition to this advantage, Google
Cloud Platform has a wide range of resources that are applicable to many niches, as compared to
IBM. This is what has given its leaders determination to make necessary corrections and
continue to invest heavily on the cloud. Google Cloud Platform is set to win, and it is definitely
going to make giant soars in the market in the next few years ahead (Jadeja & Modi 2012).
Costing Model
Pricing
For pricing, the levels are determined depending on the levels of complexity. One of the features
that sets Google Cloud apart when it comes to pricing is its method of payment. With Goofle
Cloud, a user pays monthly on demand based. Usage is rounded into the nearest minutes, but the

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minimum time set is ten minutes. Furthermore, the discounting strategy for Google Cloud states
that the more you use a resource, the greater the discount you get (Hashemi & Bardsiri 2012). By
combining all the virtual machines into one usage, the discount is maximized as much as
possible. In contrast, IBM offers various range of pricing alternatives. IBM grants offers on
demand per usage, which is approximated to nearest hour. Another alternative is called reserved
strategy, where one makes a commitment for a year or a number of years to use a particular
instance of a virtual machine. This invites payment options, which can be paying in full front,
pay part of the full front or pay zero. Therefore, a user buying these services form IBM has first
of all got to weigh the timeline within which they expect to use their services, their level of
upfront payment and the length of the contract. In contrast, Google Cloud is more agile with its
real time prices that are conformity with this kind of agility (Khalid 2010). Users do not have to
commit to time, only that you pay as you use basis. Additionally, Google instances are not
restricted to the region where you are located. However, with IBM agility in its pricing, there is
a cost to it too. Should a user want to scale wither up or down or move resources, the costs are
likely to increase.
Organization in cloud platform enterprises is most important, as end users need to have services
flowing smoothly. For smooth running of cloud service delivery, the cloud based platforms need
to depict a high level of organization. Google’s pricing strategy is flexible, and offers users
ability to decide on the offers they want and pay for them conveniently. However, with IBM’s
pricing model, when a user needs flexibility, they have to pay a high price since on demand
service are expensive (Han 2011).

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The minimum time set for Google’s on demand pricing starts at 10 minutes so one only pays for
the time that they spend on a resource. In contrast, IBM could charge as much as four times more
on a single job batch.
IBM, unlike Google Cloud, builds its service by using a third party open-source products. Like
for instance, IBM employs a server less feature that is based on Apache framework. Historically,
IBM has been offering its cloud services based on Blue mix, which is focused in PaaS. Since,
IBM has shifted to IBM cloud.
IBM has as its service delivery philosophy, an infrastructure based service delivery technique.
On the other hand, Google Cloud integrates both IaaS and SaaS platforms. IBM has been stable
in maintain its delivery of cloud services based on PaaS platform.
Google offers a flexible PaaS offering, where virtual machine instances are well defined.
Therefore, it is right to conclude that Google has the most flexible and vast infrastructure.
However, Google does not offer offerings that are bare metal such as IBM offers, that is, Soft
layer. Compared with IBM, Google Cloud has no private clouds through which it offers its
services.
Hello World Deployment Steps
i. Before you utilize the CodeDeploy environment to convey your application, you need an
administration job ARN.
ii. You ought to strictly adhere to the directions given in the Create a Service Role
(Console).
iii. Since you have the ARN, you can utilize the CodeDeploy environment to send your
application amendment.

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iv. You have to sign in with a similar record or the ‘IAM’ client data that you utilized in
Getting Started with CodeDeploy environment.
v. In the route sheet, grow Deploy, and afterward pick Applications.
vi. Pick HelloWorld_App.
vii. On the Deployment bunches tab, pick Create sending gathering.
viii. In Deployment bunch name, enter ‘HelloWorld_DepGroup.’
ix. In Service Role, pick the name of the administration job.
x. In Deployment type, ‘pick set up.’
xi. In Environment design, select Amazon EC2 occurrences.
xii. In Key, enter ‘Name.’
xiii. In Value, enter CodeDeployDemo.
xiv. In Deployment design, pick CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime.
xv. In Load Balancer, clear Enable burden adjusting.
xvi. Pick Create organization gathering.
xvii. Pick Create arrangement.
xviii. In Deployment gathering, pick HelloWorld_DepGroup
Results and Discussion
My Opinion
Based on the comparison of Google Cloud service and IBM, it is clear that there are much
differences between the two companies as well as similarities too. Both companies have their
strengths and weaknesses. Each company has their outlined strategies, goals and visions that
apply only to their operating environment. Hence, according to me, there is no company that is
better than another.

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While Google Cloud is not performing well in cloud services, it is also true that Google has
made a brand, and is therefore more popular with many people. On h other hand, IBM offers
more services as compared to Google and it is therefore more popular with enterprises that use
advanced technologies to carry out their tasks.
Conclusion
Based on the above comparison and contrast, there are a number of differences and similarities
between IBM Cloud and Google Cloud Service.
Both IBM and Google Cloud offer their cloud services based on the three tiers, that is, IaaS,
SaaS and PaaS.
IBM offers a wide range of cloud services as opposed to Google Cloud. Despite the fact that
Google is a leading player in Internet searching, it is also true that it lags behind in offering cloud
based services.
Google Cloud’s pricing is more flexible as opposed to IBM’s. For most end users, it is
convenient to work with Google’s pricing as compared to IBM’s pricing.
Google Cloud uses two alternatives in sharing its files while IBM uses only one. Furthermore,
IBM uses encryption in securing the data it sends across its clients and data centers. Hence, it can
be said that the security system of IBM is more secure as compared to that of Google Cloud.
Whilst Google Cloud lags behind in cloud services delivery, it nevertheless has a more robust
networking infrastructure, something that gives it a more advanced network backbone as
opposed to IBM. Additionally, Google cloud has data centers in more number of countries in the
world as opposed to IBM.

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In summary, there are a number of differences and similarities between IBM Cloud and Google
Cloud. However, each company has their own strengths and weaknesses, and one of the two
companies could be preferable to another depending on the kind of service that one desires to
get.

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