Google Cloud Run vs AWS App Runner: Which one should I choose?
As container development becomes more common, offering a modern way to run extensive workloads in the cloud, the tools developers need are diversifying. The competition among the solutions offered to easily manage container infrastructures is thus accelerating. In this article, we compare Google Cloud Run and AWS App Runner, the serverless tools of Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, which are counted as the strongest competitors among cloud platform providers.
The replacement of monolithic structures that make it difficult for developers to modify applications and the proliferation of microservices are driving the vast majority of companies to use container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes and AWS Elastic Container Service.
On the other hand, although these platforms facilitate development processes, they cause new complexities. At this point, the competition of cloud service providers’ tools that make it easier to manage containerized development processes begins. Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS), considered among the strongest competitors in the cloud market, are also competing with solutions that improve the lives of developers. Competitors that offer similar solutions that make it easy to develop, run and manage web applications and mobile platforms on serverless infrastructures stand out with their services such as Cloud Run and App Runner.
As Global IT, the oldest and only Premier business partner of Google Cloud in Turkey, we compare Google Cloud Run and AWS App Runner services, the details of which we have explained here, in this article. First, we will give brief definitions of the two solutions, and then we will list the similarities and differences between the two platforms.
What are Google Cloud Run and AWS App Runner?
Cloud Run, Google’s serverless container platform, is for deploying applications to a container-enabled production environment. In this way, developer teams gain the advantages of scaling their containers, load balancing, security management. Developer teams don’t have to think about infrastructure and server-side setup, maintenance, and can focus solely on development with Google’s fully managed Cloud Run solution.
Amazon, which is positioned as one of Google’s competitors on the cloud front, stands out with its AWS App Runner product, which has similar features and is used for similar purposes. AWS defines App Runner as a fully managed service that makes it easy for developers to quickly deploy containerized web applications and application development interfaces (APIs) at scale and without infrastructure controls.
As can be seen, Cloud Run and App Runner are known as two managed container services that two cloud technology giants have released to streamline and scale their development processes and provide cost and performance advantages while doing so. Although these services are similar to each other, they can address different needs in different aspects.
Similarities of Google Cloud Run and AWS App Runner
When Google Cloud Run is compared to the App Runner that Amazon released after Google, it can be seen that the two solutions have similarities. The similarities of Cloud Run and App Runner can be listed as follows:
● Both services can deploy a containerized web application through a Docker Registry. Amazon uses Amazon Elastic Registry as Docker Registry here, while Google uses Container Registry.
● Both services work well with the creation tools offered by cloud platforms. Docker images can be created from the Dockerfile, and if the development language/library is supported, these images are distributed from the source code.
● Both services automatically generate and renew TLS security certificates for the load balancer systems they use.
● Both services automatically scale container instances based on concurrent requests.
● Both services can collect logs and metrics without the need for intermediaries.
● Both services provide developers with an HTTPS endpoint that can reference a custom domain. With an SSL certificate, applications can be run in secure environments.
Differences between Google Cloud Run and AWS App Runner
Although mostly used for similar purposes and offer similar features, these two applications respond to the diverse needs of businesses in different ways. Both solutions use other tools from the solution family and cloud ecosystem to which they belong. For example, App Runner works with AWS Elastic Container Service and Fargate, another AWS cloud solution. While App Runner promises to be easier to use compared to other members of the solution family, developers have to give up various detailed configuration options when they prefer App Runner.
Google Cloud Run and AWS App Runner are different as summarized in the table below.
Google Cloud RunAWS App RunnerIs only the logically isolated virtual private cloud (Virtual Private Cloud | VPC) offers service creation options that can be accessed from within. Services deployed with App Runner are publicly accessible. The Secret Manager solution, which offers a secure and convenient storage system for sensitive data such as API keys, passwords, certificates, can be used with Cloud Run.
AWS Secrets Manager does not offer integration. It uses the provided open-source API Knative to build serverless and event-driven applications.
It works with its own API. It supports HTTP/2 and Websockets. It does not support HTTP/2 and Websockets. It promises more development language options.
Distribution of languages such as Go, Python, Java, Node.js from source code is supported. It only supports Python and Node.js. It offers billing options such as million requests, vCPU per second, and memory per second. It is priced with the formula of virtual CPU (vCPU) and memory / hour used.
Google Cloud or AWS? Which cloud provider should I choose?
According to Gartner , which provides strong references for the comparison of technology providers and reveals the positions of service providers in different sectors in the ecosystem with the Magic Quadrant it has developed, Google, Microsoft and AWS are positioned as leaders in the cloud infrastructure and platform services sector.
According to Gartner, Amazon stands out for its strengths, such as its engineering supply chain, large financial commitments, and innovation leadership. However, the report notes that dozens of Gartner customers in multiple geographies reported unexpected pressure to increase their annual spending commitments by 20% to renew their existing AWS contracts. On the other hand, AWS adds complexity to its comprehensive family of solutions, making it difficult for businesses to make their choices.
Gartner says that Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is powerful in nearly every use case and enhances edge capabilities. Google is investing in becoming a major infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provider by expanding its capabilities, the size and reach of its go-to-market operations. Standing out for its strengths such as revenue growth, growing enterprise idea sharing and speed of innovation, GCP closes the meaningful gaps between Microsoft Azure and AWS every year. According to Forrester, another independent assessment organization, Google Cloud is considered a leader among container platforms.
The choice of cloud provider is one of the most important decisions of the digital transformation processes of enterprises. Still, businesses shouldn’t feel like they’re making an immutable choice, they just need to clarify their needs.
The hybrid cloud approach helps businesses connect systems running on different cloud platforms. From this point of view, it becomes important to adopt a cost-effective cloud transformation strategy. This is where Global IT comes in.
Define your cloud strategy with Global IT
Today, it is not enough to use only online platforms to stay ahead of the digital competition. Modernization is at least as important as starting digital transformation. Businesses following the right strategy in the process of cloud migration and modernization prevents getting lost and facing complexity among the many solutions of leading brands. Global IT stands by businesses with consulting and implementation services in this process.
Global IT, which offers e-commerce modernization, infrastructure modernization, disaster recovery, data cloud, application modernization, artificial intelligence, cloud check-up, database and security solutions as a service, makes it possible to reach Google solutions such as Google Workspace, Google Cloud Platform, Google For Education, Google Anthos and Google Maps Platform in the most effective way.
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