AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud vs Alibaba Cloud for APAC
How the four providers differ for APAC region presence, identity, networking and operations. Capabilities change; last verified 30 August 2026.
Guide details
- Last technically verified
- August 30, 2026
For APAC production, compare the regions you can actually place data in, how identity is scoped, and what the hub network primitive is called. Confirm regional SKU lists on the official pages before you treat a region as available.
How the products actually differ
Each provider publishes a regional-services or products-by-region page. Identity is Organizations plus IAM Identity Center (AWS), management groups plus Entra ID (Azure), resource hierarchy plus Cloud IAM (Google Cloud), and Resource Directory plus RAM (Alibaba Cloud). Hub networking is Transit Gateway, Hub-spoke or Virtual WAN, Shared VPC or Network Connectivity Center, and Cloud Enterprise Network respectively.
| Topic | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud | Alibaba Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control-plane grouping | Organizations and accounts | Management groups and subscriptions | Organization, folders, projects | Resource Directory and member accounts |
| Hub network primitive | Transit Gateway | Hub VNet or Virtual WAN | Shared VPC / NCC | Cloud Enterprise Network |
| APAC region examples (verify current list) | ap-southeast-1, ap-northeast-1, ap-southeast-2 | Southeast Asia, Japan East, Australia East | asia-southeast1, asia-northeast1, australia-southeast1 | ap-southeast-1, ap-northeast-1, cn-* for China |
| China-region constraint | Separate AWS China partitions operated with local partners | Azure operated by 21Vianet in China | Google Cloud China availability is limited; verify current offering | Mainland China regions plus ICP and data rules |
Decision table
Factual differences are in the table above. The rows below are recommendations for a named situation.
| When | Choose |
|---|---|
| Users and data must stay in a named APAC country or in mainland China | Start from that provider’s current region and compliance pages. Alibaba Cloud or a China-operated partition may be required; do not assume a US region plus CDN is enough. |
| The estate is already on one provider and the constraint is skills, not residency | Stay on that provider. A second cloud for “APAC coverage” is not justified by this table. |
| You need a hub network and org model that matches an existing landing zone | Pick the provider whose grouping and hub primitive you already operate (Organizations/TGW, management groups/VWAN, resource hierarchy/Shared VPC, Resource Directory/CEN). |
When neither option is appropriate
None of the four is “the APAC cloud.” If you cannot name the residency rule, the identity system and the hub primitive you will actually run, do not pick a provider from this page. Confirm SKU lists on the official region pages before you treat a city as available.
Limitations
- Region SKU lists change. Confirm AWS Regional Services, Azure products by region, Google Cloud locations, or Alibaba Cloud region pages before you treat a city as available.
- This table does not rank providers. Measure latency from the actual user network and record it outside this comparison.
- A US region should not be selected by default when most users and regulated data are in APAC.