AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are the three dominant cloud platforms, and candidates list experience with all three regularly. What most recruiters don't realize is that experience on one platform doesn't automatically translate to the others — and the platform that matters depends heavily on what your company actually uses.
The Market Reality in 2026
AWS remains the market leader with roughly 30% of cloud infrastructure spend globally. Azure holds around 22%, powered by Microsoft's enterprise relationships and deep integration with Office 365 and Active Directory. Google Cloud sits at around 12%, with particular strength in data, machine learning, and companies already in the Google ecosystem.
This market position matters for hiring because the talent pool reflects it. AWS-experienced candidates are the most abundant. Azure specialists are common in enterprise environments. GCP specialists are comparatively rare and often command a premium, particularly for data engineering and ML roles.
What Transfers Between Platforms and What Doesn't
Core concepts transfer. A candidate with deep AWS experience understands virtual machines, networking, storage, databases, identity and access management, and infrastructure-as-code in ways that apply across platforms. Moving from AWS to Azure or GCP involves learning new service names, interfaces, and some architectural differences — but not learning cloud from scratch.
What doesn't transfer is the operational muscle memory — knowing which service to use for a given problem, understanding the pricing model, knowing the failure modes, having the certifications. A strong AWS architect joining a GCP shop will have a meaningful ramp-up period. Plan for it.
How to Evaluate Depth
Anyone can list "AWS" on a resume. The useful question is how deep the experience goes. Look for specifics:
Breadth of services. A candidate who lists EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, VPC, IAM, CloudFormation, and CloudWatch has clearly worked across the platform. A candidate who just lists "AWS" with no specifics may have touched it lightly.
Certifications as a depth signal. AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, and Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect are all meaningful credentials that verify real depth. Associate-level certs (AWS Solutions Architect Associate, Azure Administrator Associate) signal solid working knowledge. Foundational certs signal awareness, not expertise.
The environments they describe. Production multi-account AWS environments with complex networking are very different from spinning up a single EC2 instance. Ask: "Describe the most complex cloud environment you've architected or managed. What did the account structure look like?"
When Platform Match Matters
If your team runs entirely on Azure and a candidate has only AWS experience, factor in a real ramp-up period — typically two to four months to reach full productivity. If the role involves deep platform-specific work like Azure Active Directory integration or AWS-native security tooling, platform match matters significantly more than if the role is primarily application development that happens to run in the cloud.
Use RecruiterSignal to evaluate cloud experience in context — it breaks down what a candidate's specific cloud skills imply about their experience level and platform depth.