The Great Cloud Debate: AWS vs. Azure - Which One Reigns Supreme?

AWS vs. Azure – Which is better?

By Aarav Goel 28-Apr-2023

AWS was always considered as the best storage solution and leads as a cloud platform. AWS is slowly being replaced by a newbie in town and that is none other than another cloud storage platform – Azure. Though Azure entered the market late but it has been successful in leaving a mark in the cloud computing market. Azure is gradually becoming famous among IT pros, thanks to its wide arrays of tools.

It is important to understand the differences as well as the similarities that they possess if one wishes to opt for any one of them.

Compute
Storing Capabilities
Networking Capabilities
Pricing Methods
Open Source Integrations
Containers and Orchestration Support
Compliance
User friendliness Levels
Hybrid Cloud Capabilities

Here's a table comparing the features and services of AWS and Azure:

Features/Services	AWS	Azure
Compute	Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), AWS Lambda, Elastic Beanstalk, Auto Scaling	Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Functions, Azure Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Batch
Storage	Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), AWS Storage Gateway	Azure Blob Storage, Azure File Storage, Azure Queue Storage, Azure Table Storage, Azure Disk Storage
Database	Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift, Amazon ElastiCache	Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Cache for Redis
Networking	Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), AWS Direct Connect, AWS Global Accelerator	Azure Virtual Network, Azure Load Balancer, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Traffic Manager
Security	Amazon Inspector, AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS Key Management Service (KMS)	Azure Security Center, Azure Active Directory, Azure Key Vault, Azure DDoS Protection
Analytics	Amazon Kinesis, Amazon EMR, Amazon QuickSight	Azure Stream Analytics, Azure HDInsight, Azure Data Factory, Azure Analysis Services
AI and Machine Learning	Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Rekognition, Amazon Lex	Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services
Internet of Things (IoT)	AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT Analytics, AWS IoT Greengrass	Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Edge
Developer Tools	AWS CodeCommit, AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeDeploy	Azure DevOps, Azure App Service, Azure Functions
Management Tools	AWS CloudFormation, AWS CloudTrail, AWS Config, AWS Systems Manager	Azure Resource Manager, Azure Monitor, Azure Service Health, Azure Advisor
Pricing	Pay-as-you-go model, reserved instances, and spot instances	Pay-as-you-go model, reserved instances, and spot instances

Compute

AWS gives users the freedom to create their own Virtual Machines. They choose size, power, memory capacity etc. themselves, whereas Azure allows users to choose a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) to create a Virtual Machine. The users are required to specify the amount of cores and memory while choosing a VHD.

Storing Capabilities

AWS allows temporary storage allocated once the instance is created and demolished when it is terminated. AWS supports relational and NoSQL databases as well as Big Data.

On the other hand, Azure provides temporary storage through D Drive and block storage through Page Blobs for Virtual Machines. Like AWS, Azure also supports relational databases, NOSQL and Big Data but through Azure Table and HDInsight. Azure is also capable of conducting site recovery and Import Export and taking Azure Backup for archiving and recovery options.

Networking Capabilities

Since Amazon offers Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), users are able to create isolated networks within the cloud. A VPC allows users to create subnets, route tables, private IP address changes and network gateways. The same can be accomplished via the Virtual Network (VNET) offered by Azure.

Pricing Methods

Both the solutions offer pay-as-you-go service. The only difference lies in the rate at which they charge. AWS charges per hour while Azure charges per minute basis. Charging per minute provides an accurate pricing model.

Open Source Integrations

Amazon offers a good number of open source integrations including Jenkins and GitHub.

Azure offers native integrations for Windows development tools such as VBS, SQL database and Active Directory. Though Microsoft hasn’t always been keen on embracing the open source model, Azure has managed to update itself. For example, companies are now able to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Apache Hadoop clusters in Azure.

Containers and Orchestration Support

Amazon and Microsoft both have kept themselves up-to-date with the new services and offerings.

While Amazon has added machine learning tools and features targeted at IoT, Microsoft offers Hadoop support with Azure Insight.

They both have been able to retain their competition in this area of meeting new demands and offering the latest services and technologies.

Also Read: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Training - Everything you need to know

Compliance

AWS and Azure, both adhere to the government compliance offerings. Both the platforms possess certifications in ITAR, DISA, HIPAA, CJIS and FIPS, among many others. They allow only screened persons to access the cloud, which is essential and primary for security reasons, specially for organizations handling sensitive information.

User friendliness Levels

Though AWS offers more features and configurations, it requires a lot more learning as compared to Azure. Azure makes it easy for users to integrate on-premises Windows servers with cloud instances to create a hybrid environment while AWS demands a lot of learning and training to use the power, flexibility and customization that it offers.

Hybrid Cloud Capabilities

Amazon has recently involved itself in building hybrid cloud capabilities while Microsoft has always had a strong support for hybrid cloud services with platforms like Azure StorSimple, Hybrid SQL Server and Azure Stack.

Looking at all the domains, it is quite difficult to decipher which one is better. Choosing any one of them mainly depends upon the requirement and suitability of a user or business. It is very obvious that cloud computing is here to stay and the cloud war will drag on. Thus, the two will continue to inculcate superior capabilities and keep themselves at par with each other.

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