Azure vs AWS Cloud Architecture: Which Is Right for Your Business?

Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Service) are the leading business cloud providers. When it comes to comparing Azure vs AWS, there are many similarities between the two and likewise, many differences. This article will describe both pros and cons to help you understand which cloud services are right for your company.

What Are Azure and AWS?

AWS and Azure are not a single product, but cloud architecture platforms offering more than 200 products and cloud services intended to solve today’s challenges and provide for tomorrow’s growth. They will build, run and manage applications across multiple clouds with the tools and frameworks your company prefers.

AWS was the first to get into the game and for many years was the only option (and a good one at that). Though Azure had some fits and starts in 2010 when it launched, today it is considered by experts to be superior in many ways. 

Both AWS and Azure platforms:

• Offer global coverage.
• Can use Linux distributions. 
• Use open-source software (OSS) technologies.
• Support building highly available solutions on Windows or Linux hosts.

Azure and AWS are both considered to be flexible, dependable and unshakable as they help businesses and governments resolve global IT issues. They adapt to the needs of their customers and lend a hand to governments and companies in solving various social and logistical issues. Many people don’t realize that companies like Facebook, Uber, Netflix and others would not exist without these cloud systems.

Here are some ways to compare Azure vs AWS:

Networking

• Both Azure and AWS use virtual networks. 
• Azure uses a VPN gateway for cross-premises connectivity. It manages that with load balancer and application gateway. 
• AWS uses a private cloud for networking and an API gateway for cross-premises connectivity. For load balancing during networking, they use Elastic load.

Computing

• Both Azure and AWS offer comparable cloud computing and performance, but with different approaches and names for their services. Both use virtual machines for scalability.
• Azure infrastructure management is primarily taken care of behind the scenes by Microsoft. This approach has the advantage of faster processing speeds.
• AWS provides elastic cloud computing (EC2) for infrastructure management across multiple machines, which is more configurable. But these sophisticated customizations are typically needed only by big data centers.

Storage

• Azure takes advantage of Storage Blob which is made up of blocks, uploads and large blobs in a highly efficient manner. It also uses storage Cool and storage archive for data. 
• AWS uses S3 (Simple Storage Service), which includes documentation and tutorials as well as archive storage by Glacier and IA (Infrequent Access).

Database

• Azure uses SQL database, MySQL and PostgreSQL for relational databases and Cosmos DB for NoSQL solutions and Redis Cache for that purpose.
• AWS uses a relational database as a service by using RDS, for NoSQL it uses Dynamo DB and for caching it uses Elastic Cache.

Deploying Apps

• Azure has multiple deployment tools such as cloud services, container servicers, batch, etc. Deployment is done on multiple servers virtually using Paas features.
• AWS offers similar solutions with Elastic Beanstalk, Batch, etc. 

Open Source Developers

• Azure provides the tool for enterprise users that allows them to use the current active directory account to sign into the Azure Cloud platform and runs.net framework on Windows, Linux and MacOs.
• AWS uses Linux and offers other integrations for different open source applications.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Azure vs AWS

Here are some of the factors to help you make a decision: 

• What’s the cost of each?
• How much storage service is provided in each?
• Do each have database, networking and deployment services? 
• Do they both support hybrid cloud service?
• Is it possible to use a combination of both of these platforms?

Like many things, whether AWS or Azure are best for your business will depend on your particular needs and situation.

Advantages of AWS

• Trusted by high-profile customers
• Simpler licensing method
• Offers more data centers for availability and low latency
• Allows you to increase or decrease storage according to your needs 
• Enables you to choose your operating system, programming language and database
• High transfer stability
• Minimal information is lost during server and storage transfer
• Better DevOps support

Disadvantages of AWS

• AWS is a less open private cloud, therefore it is not a popular storage option for sensitive industries such as banking.
• The number of choices offered by AWS is confusing to those who do not speak the language of technology.
• AWS is less hybrid-cloud friendly.
• AWS elastic load balancer is not equipped to handle as many requests as it receives.
• AWS lacks customer support, so it’s more suitable for a technically savvy group of consumers and those companies that have their inbuilt tech support team.
• It has an incompatible and weak hybrid strategy.
• AWS has so many products, which makes the selection process much harder.

Advantages of Azure

• Easy one-click migrations in many cases
• Greater awareness of enterprise needs
• Support for mixed Linux/Windows environments
• Capability for developers and users to create, maintain and deploy applications
• Conversion of on-prem licenses to the cloud
• Fully scalable cloud computing platform offers open access across multiple languages, frameworks and tools
• Offers inbuilt tools like Azure stack to help the organization deliver Azure service from their own data center
• Total support for Microsoft legacy apps

Disadvantages of Azure

• Data is hosted globally; customer service is not transparent. If you have data restrictions as to where data must be stored, such as in a specific country, you need to verify/specify with Microsoft
• You will be charged extra for paying as you go
• Less flexibility about non-Windows server platforms, when compared to AWS

Key Differences Between Azure and AWS

Microsoft Azure	Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Virtual network cloud	Virtual private cloud
Machines are grouped into cloud service and respond to the same domain name with various ports	Machines can be accessed separately
Offers express routes	Offers direct connection
Provides security by offering permissions on the whole account	Uses defined roles with permission control feature
Better support for hybrid cloud	Supports hybrid cloud
Free trial and a per minute model	Several pricing models: free tier, per hour, free trial per minute
Limited government cloud offerings	Government cloud options
Hybrid cloud (integrates onsite servers with cloud instances)	Limited  support for hybrid cloud

To be sure, all this Azure vs AWS information is mind-boggling and undoubtedly still needs explanation and refinement. We can help with that. We’ve been doing it for other clients in the Dallas Fort Worth area for years. Just reach out to us or book a quick consultation. We’d be happy to help.