STaaS Providers Comparison: Google vs. Oracle

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Storage as a Service (STaaS) is a fairly new concept for most businesses, but it’s quickly becoming a very crowded marketplace. As we cover in our article on the top storage as a service provider, there are now (at least) five companies offering different STaaS systems, all of which can be said to be leaders in the field.

This means that, even if you have a good understanding of STaaS, it can be difficult to differentiate STaaS offers. This is especially true when it comes to the biggest two companies in this space – Google and Oracle.

In this article, we’ll help you choose between the STaaS offered by these two companies, and more commonly known as Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud. After a brief introduction to each, we’ll take you through the main features, and then help you choose the service that is right for your business.

Also read: Top Storage as a Service Providers 2021

Google Cloud Storage Overview 

Google Cloud logo

Google is arguably the biggest cloud storage provider on earth, not just for small businesses, but also for students, schools, and pretty much everyone who uses Google docs. Because of this, the Google STaaS model is very flexible, allowing you to store any volume of data and retrieve it whenever you like. Google has also built a data center infrastructure which is undoubtedly impressive, and has allowed the company to claim a 99.999999999% uptime measure.

When it comes to enterprise storage, Google offers a number of tiers – standard, nearline, coldline, and archive. Each of these trades cost against recovery speed, allowing companies willing to manage their data storage to minimize costs, as long as they are willing to move some of their data to archive.

Google Cloud Storage Features

The features offered by Google Cloud vary as a function of the tier that you choose:

  • Archive Storage. The lowest cost option, good for backing up or archiving data.
  • Coldline Storage. The next lowest cost tier, intended for data that is rarely accessed. The data must be stored for a minimum of ninety days.
  • Nearline Storage. Another good plan for accessing data that will be accessed on a limited basis, with a minimum storage period of thirty days. 
  • Standard Storage. A good option for when you need to access data quickly. Multi region and dual region storage options are also available. 

Google also gives you tools such as Object Lifecycle Management or Storage Transfer Services to help you manage cloud data. The former allows you to move data that is unused to a lower cost storage option, while the latter permits you to move data to Google Cloud from another cloud storage provider. 

Oracle Cloud Storage Overview

Oracle logo

Oracle has been offering some form of STaaS for decades now, and at the moment their cloud services are administered as part of their broader infrastructure as a service (IaaS) product suite. Oracle cloud is more focused on small business and enterprise storage than some of their competitors (including Google), and as such offers a range of storage paradigms, including object and block storage.

Up until recently, Oracle only offered one tier (“Standard”) when it came to cloud storage. It has recently added a new infrequent access tier, however, which costs less. 

Oracle Cloud Storage Features

Perhaps the biggest advantage of Oracle cloud for companies moving to STaaS for the first time, or those transferring from another provider, is that Oracle’s Data Transfer Appliance permits users to move encrypted data to Oracle Cloud. This makes Oracle a great choice for HIPAA storage, or wherever encryption is mandated.

The hardware that underpins Oracle’s STaaS is also impressive. Block Volumes utilize lower latency NVMe Solid State Devices (SSDs). Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is also highly compatible, which makes it an appealing choice for building applications that need flexibility. You can use OCI to merge several data sources for archiving or backup purposes. 

Also read: HIPAA Violations and How to Remain Compliant

Google vs. Oracle Cloud Storage

Though both Google and Oracle offer great STaaS product suites, there are some key differences between them that you should take into account when choosing a cloud storage provider. Each company’s needs are different, of course, but if one were to be reductive the difference here can be reduced to the level of complexity inherent in each system. 

Put simply, Google offers a plug-and-play STaaS solution that scales with your business, and doesn’t require you to hire cloud storage managers. Oracle, in contrast, offers advanced features and higher performance. This makes Oracle the better choice for larger companies, those looking to use their cloud data in apps or other high-performance applications, or simply those with the expertise needed to manage OCI.

It doesn’t have to come down to a direct choice, though. Plenty of companies will choose to go with the easiest to use STaaS product first — here, that would be Google — and then upgrade when they need to. In reality, both companies offer a great STaaS service, it’s just focused on slightly different users.

Read next: 7 Essential Compliance Regulations for Data Storage Systems

Nahla Davies
Nahla Davies
Nahla Davies is a software developer and writer. Before devoting her work full time to technical writing, she managed—among other intriguing things—to serve as a lead programmer at an Inc. 5,000 experiential branding organization whose clients include Samsung, Time Warner, Netflix, and Sony.

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