Managed services with AWS, GCP and Azure (2025)

    By Anthony Marchand

    May 17, 2024

    AWSAzureGoogle Cloud Platform

    A managed service (cloud) is a product offered by a Cloud provider allowing you to use a technology without managing the maintenance from an infrastructure point of view.

    These managed services are widely used in 2025, especially among our clients (mostly SaaS startups, ecommerce or mobile apps). The 3 major providers generally offer the same catalog of services, but always presented under different names.

    In this article, you will discover a list of the main managed services used by companies, their use cases and their equivalents at AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure.

    Databases

    PostgreSQL

    A managed PostgreSQL service will allow you to operate this relational database without managing the associated infrastructure complexities (installation, configuration, updates, backups, disaster recovery and scalability notably).

    MySQL

    Similarly to PostgreSQL, a managed MySQL service will allow you to operate your database without worrying about infrastructure management and necessary configurations.

    SQL Serverless

    A managed service even higher level than a managed SQL service: it will allow you to operate a SQL database without a server.

    You must understand the difference:

    • A managed PostgreSQL service (RDS at Amazon for example) will take care of provisioning servers on your Cloud account and orchestrating them to allow you to have databases in an operational and stable state. You will be billed for the managed service and for the servers that are provisioned.

    • A serverless SQL service will offer you a database without you being aware that there are servers behind it, so roughly as if it were an external API. You will be billed for each request made to this database.

    • Name on GCP: Cloud Spanner or BigQuery

    • Name on Azure: Azure SQL Database serverless

    • Name on AWS: Amazon Aurora Serverless

    • French alternative: Scaleway Database for Serverless

    NoSQL (document-oriented)

    A managed NoSQL service will allow you to operate a non-relational database like MongoDB without Cloud infrastructure management.

    Data warehouse

    Relational or non-relational databases used specifically to store large amounts of data.

    ElasticSearch

    Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analysis engine, capable of handling complex queries and providing results in near real-time. It is often used for full-text search, log analysis, system monitoring, and analytical applications.

    Cache

    A cache management database is generally a key-value type database and allows storing frequently requested query results, user sessions, computationally intensive objects or static web pages in RAM. The most well-known are Redis and Memcached.

    Compute (VM)

    These are services providing virtual servers directly, usable in conjunction with other managed services (databases, Kubernetes, etc.).

    Containers and orchestration

    Running containers

    These are services that allow you to run containers (Docker for example) without asking you to deploy and scale them manually or via an orchestrator like Kubernetes.

    Image Registry

    A registry allows you to store, manage and distribute container images.

    Kubernetes

    A managed Kubernetes service will allow you to deploy, manage and scale containerized applications using Kubernetes without having to deal with Kubernetes version upgrades yourself.

    Functions

    A managed function service, often called "serverless", allows you to deploy and run pieces of code in response to events.

    DevOps and monitoring

    Logs storage and analysis

    A managed log storage and analysis service allows you to collect, store, visualize and analyze event logs generated by your applications and infrastructure.

    Code Repository

    A managed code repository service allows you to store, manage and track changes to your source code in a secure and collaborative way.

    Deployments (CI/CD)

    This service allows you to automate the testing and deployment pipelines of your applications.

    Storage

    SSD

    A managed SSD storage service allows you to have high-performance and reliable storage disks for your applications and databases.

    File System (NFS)

    A managed File System (NFS) service allows you to configure, manage and use shared file systems based on the NFS (Network File System) protocol.

    Object Storage

    Popularized as S3 by Amazon for Simple Storage Service, this type of storage allows you to store and access large amounts of unstructured data, such as images and files.

    Application Services

    The ultimate high-level managed service: a managed application service allows you to simply send your code, and the service handles all deployment and scaling.

    Anthony Marchand

    Anthony Marchand

    Co-founder @ Log'in Line