This analysis includes Google, Azure, RackSpace, SoftLayer, vCHS and is based on a third party presentation. I cannot speak authoritatively on the accuracy of the statements below.
IAAS vs PAAS - latter has some complications in the realm of gathering forensic data.
AWS has been around 8 years - other services much less.
Http://aws.amazon.com/choosing-a-cloud-platform/
Amazon compared to Microsoft (Azure), RackSpace, vCHS, Google, SoftLayer:
AWS - Broadest Global footprint
AWS - More scalable than RackSpace, SoftLayer, vCHS
AWS has most security certifications.
AWS offers the most Instance types for specific app needs: high IO, memory, compute power, etc.
Pricing model - no sub hour but spot, reserved instances.
AWS does not have live migration - Google, vCHS do if you feel that is important.
DevOps -yes - google, Azure, SoftLayer - no
AWS offers hosted desktop - workspaces.
Hadoop - AWS has EMR (elastic map reduce). Azure offers HD Insight.
Benchmarks need to choose apples to apples instance types. Some benchmark papers aren't highest quality.
Pricing: most competitors are more except Google which has lower price in some areas.
Edit 3/28/2014 Scratch that. Google cut their prices in 1/3. Amazon turned around and dropped some of their per hour pricing below Google's. However Google still offers per minute pricing and a cap if instances are on all the time which Amazon's pricing model cannot quickly match. But we'll have to keep an eye on that based on discussion I had with someone today - so that could change by the time you read this. Here's the pricing at this time:
http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2014/03/aws-price-reduction-42-ec2-s3-rds-elasticache-and-elastic-mapreduce.html
Security is the number one concern companies have when considering using the cloud. Amazon is the largest online retailer and understands securing financial transactions.
Ability to innovate:
Try out scripting and spinning up environments on each platform.
Security is the number one barrier to entry for enterprises.
Compare security processes.
Considerations:
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/i.radicalsoftware.com/presentations/evaluating_cloud_security.pptx
