With cloud computing at its prime, many developers have contested to claim supremacy in the cloud domain. Azure and AWS have been relentless and taken the top honors for a while now.
However, the question that bothers most of the developers is which cloud vendor to choose? In this article on AWS vs Azure, we would be comparing these cloud giants to help you figure out what suits your business needs better.
What is AWS (Amazon Web Services)?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a secure cloud services platform, offering to compute power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow. Running web and application servers in the cloud to host dynamic websites.
What is Azure in simple terms?
Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can build applications using any language, tool or framework.
Difference between AWS and Azure
Cloud service providers Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure have more in common than you might think. Cloud storage companies touch the lives of millions offering the world a better place. Azure and AWS are superheroes on their own but in the battle of clouds, who’s on top?
This superficial glance might help you to lead an unprecedented edge over Azure, but a deeper look will prove the decision that isn’t easy. To determine the best cloud storage provider, you need to consider multiple differences which are as follows.
AWS vs Azure Features
The following table provides a detailed look at the general features of these giants.
| Parameters | AWS | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Conception | 2006 | 2010 |
| Market Share | 40% | 30% |
| Open-source | Good community | Less community |
| Hybrid version | Work in progress | Excels in hybrid cloud |
| License | Flexible licensing | Work in progress |
| Linux ecosystem | Extensive support for Linux | Work in progress |
Now you know the general overview of both software, let’s take a look at some pricing factors.
Amazon vs Azure Pricing
Both Azure and AWS pricing models offer pay as you go structure. AWS charges you on an hourly basis whereas Azure charges you on a per-minute basis.
Azure is ideal when it comes to short term subscription plans. It gives you more flexibility. In the case of services, Azure tends to be costlier than AWS for scaling up the site.
Cloud Computing
The next halt in cloud service is a computing parameter. Computation or cloud environment is one of the core services when it comes to cloud computing, which is understandable as we have the word compute in the term cloud computing.
While large data is being generated these days, there is always a need for faster means of processing. Compute services ensure you can spawn instances in minutes and scale up instances instantly if needed. Azure and AWS both have such services that cater to these needs.
Storage Capabilities
Both cloud computing services offer long-running and reliable storage services. AWS has services like EBS, Glacier, AWS S3 while Azure offers services like Blob Storage, Standard Archive, Disk storage.
When it comes to storage, AWS S3 ensures high availability and automatic replication across regions. When it comes to temporary storage in AWS, it starts functioning each time the instance starts and stops. With Azure, it uses temporary storage and page blobs for VM volume. It also offers block storage as the counterpart to AWS S3.
Both giants offer hot and cold storage. So, this was about storage, now let’s take a look in terms of database services.
Databases
The data being generated these days comes in different formats, hence the databases that hold this data also need to evolve. AWS and Azure both provide different database services to handle both structured and unstructured data.
If you are looking for durability AWS has Amazon RDS whereas Azure has Azure SQL Server Database. Amazon RDS supports different database engines like MariaDB, Amazon Aurora, MySQL, Microsoft SQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle whereas when it comes to Azure, SQL Server Database is based on SQL as the name suggests.
Networking Services
Amazon Virtual private cloud commonly known as VPC allows users to isolate networks under the cloud umbrella. This lets users create subnets, private IPs, network gateways and route tables.
While on the other hand, Azure enables you to do all the stuff similar to VPC. Both the cloud storage giants have the solutions to extend the on-premise data center into the cloud and firewall options as well.
Container and Orchestration Support
As per the above discussion, AWS offers more mature Big Data and Analytics offerings. It has various services in its arsenal that cover domains like the Internet of Things, web and mobile app development, and cloud computing environments.
Microsoft takes a step here as it offers Hadoop support services with Azure HDInsight. Azure with Windows Server 2016 offers integration with Docker for both Windows and Hyper-V containers.
Compliance
Amazon has a good relationship with the governments ensuring better cloud storage for the government. They also provide great security measurements ensuring proper access to individual users when it comes to accessing the cloud. This factor is important when companies need to deal with sensitive data.
On the other note, Microsoft offers more than 50 complaint offerings including ITAR, HIPAA, FIPS and DISA. This makes its security level neck-to-neck with AWS.
Why is AWS better than Azure?
Both Cloud platforms as seen above show potent capabilities and it is difficult to pick a clear winner. Azure is great when it comes to Hybrid Cloud and integrating with Microsoft stack of products, whereas AWS has more flexibility and extra features. It very much boils down to the requirements you or your organization has.
According to the recent Gartner report, it is stated that the market for cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) continues to consolidate as customers and vendors push for more security, innovation, and scale. For the ninth year in a row, AWS is evaluated as the Leader in cloud IaaS with the highest score in both axes of measurement, Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.
AWZ provides application developers with the environment, tools, thus giving them building blocks that they need to build and establish new cloud services quickly. It also provides essential ‘dev ops’ connections which are important for managing, monitoring, and continuously fine-tuning those apps. With AWS S3, much of the infrastructure management is taken care of behind the scenes by Microsoft. Thus, you have a 100% focus on innovation if you develop cloud computing with AWS.
Conclusion
Choosing the right cloud vendor is very much essential and important decision for the enterprises. Both Azure and AWS are similar in offering PaaS capabilities for virtual networking, storage, and machines. However, AWS gives stronger and faster PaaS capabilities which nowadays is a more important part of Cloud infrastructure.
PwDigitas, as the leading certified AWS provider, offer unmatched and flawless development. Many enterprises have observed steady business growth by choosing us as their certified AWS partner. As a result, AWS happens to be the better choice compared to Azure because of its hybrid solutions, flexibility, extensive support for Linux, and better long-term pricing models.
Vidyut Joshi
Vidyut is not just a Sr. Project Manager but also a key responsible person in Service Delivery and AWS Professional, pouring the same energy and enthusiasm.
