Cloud development and cloud storage have become ubiquitous for companies in all industries and geographies, but not all cloud providers are created equal. In this blog post, we’ll compare the top 3 cloud providers in 2025, what cloud providers comprised the rest of the list, the pros and cons of each, and outline ways to save time no matter what cloud platform you’re using.
Table of Contents
- What is Cloud Computing?
- Breaking Down Public Cloud, Private Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud Models
- Comparing the Top 3 Cloud Providers in 2025
- AWS: The Most Popular and Mature Cloud
- Microsoft Azure: The Growing Cloud Provider Option
- Google Cloud Platform: The Newcomer to the Cloud Provider Landscape
- Final Thoughts on Cloud Providers for Java Development
What is Cloud Computing?
At the most basic level, cloud computing is the delivery of computing resources over the internet. Cloud computing is also synonymous with a pay-as-you-go model.
Payment Models for Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is focused on providing typical resources needed on a computer ranging from storage to databases over the internet instead of managing them on your local machine. With the management of resources in the cloud, individuals and businesses can pay for what they use instead of what they believe they will use.
The pay-as-you-go model is recorded by companies as an operational expense, or OpEx. By contrast, purchasing all the servers and infrastructure you company would need to handle peak capacity would be recorded as a capital expense, or CapEx, and amortized annually.
Cloud computing allows businesses to add compute resources when needed to address peak capacity, but not pay for and maintain those resources on a year-round basis. This is a particularly enticing benefit with large ebbs and flows in workloads, e.g., a retail business on Black Friday.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing can provide big benefits for companies of all sizes. These benefits include:
Flexible payment models
Scalable infrastructure
Potentially lower costs
High availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR)
Breaking Down Public Cloud, Private Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud Models
Cloud computing is typically offered as one of 3 main types: public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud. These cloud solutions include several different services, including Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), Software as a service (SaaS) and serverless computing.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is focused on storing resources and computing in the cloud. This is often used for tasks like storage backup, disaster recovery, and working with big data.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS) allows users to create an environment in which to build their cloud applications.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS) provides applications that run on the cloud usually providing customers with specific application that they need.
Back to topComparing the Top 3 Cloud Providers in 2025
There are a number of different public cloud providers that are available to provide users with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) services.
In this blog post, we’ll compare the top 3 cloud providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). According to the 2025 Java Developer Productivity Report, these top 3 cloud providers account for the overwhelming majoring of cloud and remote platform usage at 51% for AWS, 27% for Microsoft Azure, and 19% for Google Cloud Platform. Respondents could select all that applied.
Source: 2025 Java Developer Productivity Report
While the top 3 cloud providers (and particularly AWS) have the overwhelming market share, they are not the only option. According to the 2025 Java Developer Productivity Report, tertiary cloud providers including IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud Platform, and SAP Cloud Platform amount to a small but significant part of developers' multi-cloud environments.
Zooming in, 5% of respondents reported using Pivitol Cloud Foundry, 5% reported using Oracle Cloud Platform, and 2% reported using IBM Cloud.
Back to topAWS: The Most Popular and Mature Cloud
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is by far the most mature option for cloud providers. AWS offers mature and effective solutions, which lends to its popularity. AWS offers a range of services focusing on anything from individual developers to large enterprise clients.
📺 Watch this on-demand demo on how to set up JRebel for Cloud in an AWS instance.
Pros and Cons of AWS
A cloud platform as mature and robust as AWS comes with pros and cons.
Pros
Mature system
Great computational capacity
Most secure option
Limitless educational resources around using and building up AWS
Cons
Overwhelming number of options
AWS has not fully adopted a hybrid cloud model
A more expensive option
Back to top
Microsoft Azure: The Growing Cloud Provider Option
Microsoft Azure is the second most popular cloud platform available. Microsoft Azure has also seen the largest growth compared to AWS and GCP. Many businesses gravitate to it because it integrates nicely with other Microsoft products and offers a cost-effective option, but this can come at the expense of less service options as compared to AWS.
Pros and Cons of Microsoft Azure
Pros
Hybrid cloud solutions are more readily available
Integrates nicely with other Microsoft products
Cons
Intended for businesses, not individuals
Less service options than AWS
Not a cost-effective solution
Back to top
Google Cloud Platform: The Newcomer to the Cloud Provider Landscape
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is the newest arrival to the list of top 3 cloud providers, but its limited service options can limit enterprise use cases. Like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform offers seamless integration with other Google-based options.
Pros and Cons of Google Cloud Platform
Pros
Integrates really nicely with Google-based products
Budget-friendly option
Cons
Limited services when compared to AWS and Azure
Not great for enterprise use case
Back to top
Final Thoughts on Cloud Providers for Java Development
There are a number of factors to consider when choosing a cloud platform for remote Java development. AWS, Microsoft Azure, GSP, and tertiary providers all offer a plethora of options and benefits that can help you and your company grow and scale.
No matter what cloud platform service you use, JRebel for Cloud can help you deploy code to the cloud faster by eliminating the need to start up your services every time you want to test a change in your code.
See how much time you can save on cloud development during your 14-day free trial of JRebel.