AWS teams wanting an integrated provider-managed ML platform.
Service breadth, identities and data movement require platform design.
Reviewed 2026-10-04 · MLOps platforms
A decision guide for teams choosing an operating model—not a feature-count contest. Validate current limits and pricing in the linked product documentation before committing.
01 / Short answer
Amazon SageMaker AI: AWS teams wanting an integrated provider-managed ML platform.
Vertex AI: Google Cloud teams connecting ML workflows with its data and AI services.
02 / Decision matrix
| Criterion | Amazon SageMaker AI | Vertex AI |
|---|---|---|
| Operating model | AWS managed services for building, training, governing and deploying machine-learning workloads. | Google Cloud managed platform for data, training, evaluation and model deployment. |
| Best fit | AWS teams wanting an integrated provider-managed ML platform. | Google Cloud teams connecting ML workflows with its data and AI services. |
| Main trade-off | Service breadth, identities and data movement require platform design. | Project, region, data and model boundaries need deliberate governance. |
| Pricing basis | Compute, storage and enabled ML services | Compute, predictions, storage and services |
| Portability lens | Most value comes from its own platform integration; price migration explicitly. | Most value comes from its own platform integration; price migration explicitly. |
03 / Selection test
The test should include deployment, identity, telemetry, failure recovery and one real policy requirement. A happy-path deployment cannot expose day-two cost.
Test this with one representative workload and record the operational owner, failure path and exit cost.
Test this with one representative workload and record the operational owner, failure path and exit cost.
Test this with one representative workload and record the operational owner, failure path and exit cost.
Test this with one representative workload and record the operational owner, failure path and exit cost.
Test this with one representative workload and record the operational owner, failure path and exit cost.
Service breadth, identities and data movement require platform design.
Project, region, data and model boundaries need deliberate governance.
Name which system owns identity, deployment, policy, telemetry and recovery. If both appear to own the same decision, simplify.
04 / Due diligence
Related comparisons
Gritt can run the proof of concept, map the security boundary and cost the operating model.
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