I have worked with all three of the major cloud hyperscalers to different levels. Azure, AWS, and GCP.

When I started out in cloud my first real experience was with Azure. By chance I ended up focusing on Azure for most of my career so far.

I have often heard the phrase “cloud is cloud”. The idea is that the concepts are the same no matter which hyperscaler you use. That is true in some ways. For example networking, security, and architecture all share common ground.

That does not mean you can walk into a new hyperscaler and instantly know all the services. It takes time to learn the names and how things work.

For example, in Azure all secrets, certificates, and keys are in one place: Azure Key Vault. In AWS or GCP the services are split. For instance AWS has Key Management Service, Certificate Manager, and Secrets Manager.

This can be confusing when you first start with a new hyperscaler. Here are some ways I have found useful to get up to speed quickly with a new cloud hyperscaler.

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Study for a Foundational Certificate

If you want a solid base, study for a foundational level certification. Say you have spent a few years only on Azure and now want to start working on an AWS or GCP project. A foundational cert gives you a quick way to learn the core names and services.

The same works in the other direction. If you come from AWS or GCP, Microsoft has Azure Fundamentals.

These certs are not about deep technical knowledge. They help you understand what the core services are called, what they do, and when to use them. It makes it easier to discuss services and relate your past experience to the new cloud hyperscaler.

• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
• Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals
• Google Cloud Certified Cloud Digital Leader

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AWS to Azure Documentation

Microsoft has documentation that maps AWS services to Azure equivalents. It covers Accounts, Compute, Data and AI, Databases, Messaging, Networking, Regions and Zones, Resources, Identity, and Storage.

You can find it here:
Mapping AWS to Azure services

Microsoft says the purpose is to help you:

• Think about Azure from an AWS perspective
• Understand how Azure organizes accounts and resources
• Learn how Azure services differ from AWS services and where they overlap

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GCP Documentation for All Three Hyperscalers

Google provides a table that compares Azure, AWS, and GCP services. You can search for a service name in any of the three hyperscalers and find the equivalent.

It does not go into deep detail on each service. I treat it as a quick cheat sheet.

You can find it here:
Azure, AWS, and GCP service comparison

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GenAI Comparison

Another option is to use a GenAI tool like ChatGPT or Gemini. You can ask about equivalent services and get a clear answer in seconds. Then you can follow up with questions or links to official docs.

Take the earlier example of Azure Key Vault. I want to transition away from Azure and start by uploading a new certificate in AWS. First I need to know what AWS service manages certificates. The answer is AWS Certificate Manager.

From there I can even ask for steps on how to upload the cert in the AWS console.

Or maybe I want to know about the equivalent services across all three hyperscalers?

Here is an example of the kind of table you can generate with a single prompt:

Prompt

What’s the equivalent of Azure Key Vault in AWS and GCP for managing secrets, keys, and certificates

Result

Capability	Azure Key Vault	AWS Services	GCP Services
Secrets	Key Vault	Secrets Manager	Secret Manager
Keys	Key Vault	Key Management Service (KMS)	Cloud KMS
Certificates	Key Vault	Certificate Manager (ACM)	Certificate Manager
Private PKI	Key Vault + CA integration	ACM Private CA	Certificate Authority Service (CAS)

You can take this further in many ways. For example:

• Build a table of Azure Key Vault features against AWS or GCP services
• Compare IAM systems across all three providers
• Translate an Azure IaC template into another cloud

Here are some example prompts you can try:

• What is the GCP equivalent of Azure App Service
• Compare Azure Functions, AWS Lambda, and GCP Cloud Functions in a table
• Translate this Azure ARM template into Terraform for AWS
• What is the GCP alternative to AWS CloudWatch

Used alongside official documentation GenAI can be a handy shortcut to get familiar with a new cloud hyperscaler and build your confidence faster!

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