AWS vs Azure: Which Cloud Platform Is Best

Time and time again, Cloud Computing is proving its eternity in the world of technology. The shift from conventional software models has promised that the Cloud is no more a fad. It’s a data hub promising new ways to collaborate anywhere, through mobile devices.

As cloud computing grows in popularity, a plethora of companies are simply testing their waters and increasing equities through cloud offerings. Among the various available cloud service providers; AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Azure (Microsoft Azure) are the top two cloud service providers that organizations are using to build robust, secure, and reliable platforms.

The cloud industry is a new entrant, thus it’s evolving regularly and enhancing the experiences of software development, deployment, reliability, security, and performance.

Well, we understand, just simply stating the names of the two best cloud service providers won’t be much of a help. As the question pops up which one is going to be the right solution for your business? Therefore, to drill down the best, we have prepared a comparative analysis on AWS and Azure. Let’s understand both the services and perform an informed comparison of AWS vs Azure.

What is AWS?

AWS – Amazon Web Services is currently the market leader in cloud computing services. It is the most mature cloud platform, incepted in 2006 and offers a wide range of services to all its clients’ i.e. large organizations or individual developers, and even government organizations.

The AWS cloud services are designed in such a way that they work with each other to deliver an efficient and scalable output. The services are divided into 3 categories;

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS),

Software as a Service (SaaS), and

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Overall, AWS offers more than 200 services, such as application services, deployment, database, compute, storage, networking, management, mobile management, developer tools, etc. The AWS evolved into a publicly available cloud platform, includes services like Amazon S3 cloud storage and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

Some of the prominent AWS clients are;

Netflix

Coinbase

Coca-Cola

Expedia

Lyft

Coursera

Airbnb

Intuit

Formula1

FDA (Food and Drug Administration), etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages of AWS Cloud Services

Advantages	Disadvantages
Provides multiple services, ranging from networking to robotics.	The developer and enterprise support needed to be purchased.
A mature cloud service.	Could be complicated for a beginner to handle a number of available services and options at a time.
Provides top-quality security and reliability with cloud services.	It has limited options for hybrid cloud, as compared to other cloud services.
As compared to Azure, AWS has more computable capacity and GCP.
The major software providers or companies can make their programs available on AWS.

What is Azure?

Azure is a Microsoft product and the second-largest cloud platform. Microsoft Azure was introduced in 2010 to provide a highly secure and competent cloud computing platform for businesses. It offers more than 100 services like networking, storage, computing, analytics, the Internet of Things, and many more. It also provides a wide range of customized services for Microsoft-centric organizations/enterprises.

Microsoft extends its support in making the switch to a cloud or a hybrid-cloud environment quite smooth for organizations. Its services can be categorized under two different phases;

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Azure is not only confined to Windows-based services, but it also supports open-source platforms, technologies, and languages. Hence, it allows the liberty to build and support any application. The global network of data centres supports Microsoft to enable the building, deploying, and managing of apps and services.

Some of the prominent Microsoft Azure clients are;

• Asos
• McKesson Group
• Starbucks
• 3M
• HSBC
• HP
• Renault
• Mitsubishi Electric
• Daimler AG
• Nation Health Service (NHS), UKgg
• Centre of Disease Control (CDC), US, etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Azure Cloud Services

Advantages	Disadvantages
For existing Microsoft services, it becomes easy to integrate and migrate.	As compared to AWS, it has lesser services to offer.
Provides multiple services, such as Analytics services, best-in-class AI and ML.	Specially focused on enterprise clients.
Extends great support for Hybrid Cloud Strategies.
Comparatively Cheaper than other services, like AWS and Google Cloud Platform.

AWS vs Microsoft Azure

1. Computation Services

AWS-AWS provides numerous virtual computation services for effective computing. Some of the best computing infrastructures are AWS Lambda, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Elastic Beanstalk, etc. AWS uses EC2 Container Services and EC2 Container Registry, as a primary solution for scalable computing and software container management with Docker or Kubernetes. The AWS EC2 users can configure their own Virtual Machines (VMs), customize Machine Images (MIs), or select pre-configured MIs. The user can choose the power, size, number, and memory capacity of VMs they require.

Azure-Azure is the largest cloud computing service provider. It provides numerous infrastructures, such as functions, services, container services, and VMs. etc. However, for computing purposes, Azure prefers virtual machines, and to scale at a greater level, it uses virtual machine scale sets. For software management, in the Docker container, Azure uses Container Service (AKS) and uses Container Registry for Docker container registry.

2. Storage Services

AWS-AWS storage services rely on a virtual machine hosted on AWS infrastructure. The storage is basically for individual instances; the temporary storage is assigned once for each instance and destroyed after the instance is terminated. AWS uses Simple Storage Service (S3), and it provides an immense amount of documentation and tutorials. S3 is offered with object storage and data archiving services with Glacier. It entirely supports NoSQL, Relational Databases, and Big Data.

Azure-Azure cloud computing supports import-export, site recovery, and backup for retrieval and archival options. Azure primarily stores data in the Microsoft cloud and is built to provide feasible solutions for the ongoing data storage concern. It uses storage block bob for data storage, which is a combination of blocks and uploads large blobs easily. Azure also stores temporary data by using blocks, disk drives, and file system services.

3. Networking Services

AWS-It uses Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to enable users to develop an isolated private network, network gateways, private IP address, subnets, and route table within the cloud umbrella. To make it possible, AWS uses API gateways for cross-premises connectivity. Hence, to provide smooth and cordial operations, it uses elastic load balancing while networking.

Azure-Microsoft Azure follows slightly a different approach. It uses a Virtual Network instead of VPC that gives the user the ability to develop an isolated network, subnets, private IP ranges, route tables, and network gateways. For cross-network connectivity, can use a VPN gateway. During content delivery to balance the load, it deals with load balancer and application gateway.

4. Database Services

AWS- To handles both structured and unstructured data, AWS uses relational databases for durability, and it also supports multiple database engines like MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Amazon Aurora, and MariaDB. For caching purposes, it also provides NoSQL and DynamoDB solutions and Elastic Cache.

Azure- To manage structured and unstructured data, Azure uses PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL databases, for the relational database, Redis Cache for caching purposes, and Cosmos database for NoSQL solutions. The Azure Stack allows bringing Azure functionality to clients’ on-premise data centers.

5. Deploying App

AWS-AWS allows its users/developers to deliver the application on multiple servers virtually by leveraging the capabilities of Platform as a Service (PaaS). It provides the solution with Batch, Lambda, Elastic Beanstalk, Container Service, etc. However, it doesn’t have all the supportive features of app hosting.

Azure-Azure cloud services provide a simple application deployment process. It also leverages the capabilities of Platform as a Service (PaaS). In Microsoft Azure, the user has multiple app deployment tools, such as container service, cloud service, app services, functions, batch, etc.

6. Pricing Model

AWS- Amazon AWS follows a pay-as-you-go model and charges on per hour basis. The user can save more with increasing usage i.e. the more you use, the less you pay. The user can purchase AWS cloud services under the following models;

Reserved Instances- Pay an exact or fixed amount based on the storage size; the client can reserve the storage space for 1 to 3 years.

On-Demand Instances- The user has to pay only for the storage space they are using, without paying any upfront charges.

Spot Instances- Based on the prediction of storage requirements and the available space, the client can bid for additional space requirements.

Azure- Microsoft Azure also follows the pay-as-you-go model, but charges per minute, which provides a more accurate pricing model. It also provides short-term associations with the options of a pre-paid or monthly payment structure. However, Azure’s pricing model is less flexible and almost twice as costlier than AWS.

Wrapping Up!

The selection of a suitable and correct cloud platform is entirely dependent on the structure and needs of an organization. Both Amazon AWS services and Microsoft Azure cloud services are dynamic and powerful platforms. Moreover, both AWS vs. Azure cloud services are stuffed with a list of features but the selection can only be made after analyzing the business requirements.

We hope you gained a good understanding of the services offered by AWS and Azure cloud services. If you are looking for a wider range of tools and services or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) then go with AWS. On the other hand, if you are looking for Windows Integration or Platform as a Service (PaaS) then select Azure.

Well, we are here to make the entire process easier from start to finish. If you are looking for reliable and experienced hands to build or migrate your business data to the clouds, then Codiant could be the apt solution builder. For further consultancy, reach out to our experts, to get what you need.