AWS vs. Azure: Key Differences between AWS and Azure

AWS and Azure are leading cloud service providers offering comprehensive solutions for computing, storage, and networking. AWS came first, it’s been around longer, and offers a vast range of services with unmatched flexibility. Azure, on the other hand, is Microsoft’s cloud platform, and it plays especially well with Windows-based environments and existing Microsoft tools like Office 365, Active Directory, and more.

If you're wondering which one is better for your career, your project, or your company, you’re in the right place. In this Azure Tutorial, let’s break down the key differences between AWS and Azure, their strengths, pricing, job opportunities, and how to decide which one suits you best.

What is AWS?

• AWS stands for Amazon Web Services, which was launched in 2002.
• AWS is the world’s leading provider of cloud services, offering IT infrastructure arrangements as per demand for companies of all sizes.
• Companies like Expedia, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and Ubisoft trust AWS to innovate and manage their system workload to run.
• AWS provides more than 100 services on a pay-as-you-go pricing model. AWS has the biggest and most energetic community, with millions of dynamic clients.

What is Azure?

• Microsoft Cloud, commonly referred to as Azure, is a public, private & hybrid cloud computing platform provided by Microsoft and launched in the mid-2000s.
• It empowers you with a wide range of cloud services that help in data storage, analytics, virtual computing, software development, deploying production-ready applications, and making them accessible on the global network.
• It also enables you with various tools and frameworks to meet your business goals.
• If you're new to the world of cloud computing, you may need to choose a cloud computing platform that can help you effortlessly get started with cloud computing.
• It is greatly vital for one to familiarize themselves with the different driving cloud benefits given by available cloud providers.
• Cloud computing is the stage of choice in today’s world of modern software development.
• AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, Alibaba, and Oracle are the available cloud computing platforms.
• Among these, AWS and Azure have the majority of the market share. So, let's understand the key differences between Azure and AWS.

Read More: What is Cloud Computing?

Key Differences between AWS and Azure

The following are the 5 main factors that can differentiate AWS and Azure

1. Computer Services

AWS	EC2	Elastic Beanstalk (PAAS)	AWS Lambda (Serverless)
Azure	Virtual Machine	App Service (PAAS)	Azure Functions (Serverless)

2. Networking

AWS	VPC	Direct Connect	Route 53	ELB	Cloud Front
Azure	Virtual Network	ExpressRoute	Azure DNS	Azure Load Balancer	CDN

3. Storage Services

AWS	S3	SQS	EFS	Amazon Glacier
Azure	Blob Storage	Queue storage	File Storage	Azure Backup

4. Database Services

AWS	RDS	Dynamo DB	Redshift
Azure	SQL	Document DB	SQL Data Warehouse

5. Price Calculator

If you follow the pricing war between cloud computing providers, then you will notice that prices are continuously falling down. Both provide a price calculator that helps you to estimate the cost of the services you are planning to use. Pricing may get complex sometimes. You can try their services under the free tier.

AWS price calculator

6. Container and Orchestration Support

• AWS has fully managed services like Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) to support the orchestration of the containerized application.
• Azure has Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to make app deployment and management easy. Container Registry to store and manage container images. Service Fabric supports microservices development and orchestration to run containers securely.

7. Compliance

AWS has compliance certification offerings like CSA, ISO 9001, FISMA, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, CJIS, FIPS, and more. You can check the latest list by visiting

AWS Compliance Program

Azure has more than 90 compliance certification offerings, like HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DS,S CJIS, FIPS, and more. You can check the latest list by visiting

8. Integrations and Open Source Community

• AWS has better interoperability with open-source communities like Jenkins, GitHub, and Linux.
• Azure works well and has better native integration with Microsoft tools and technologies. Azure is catching up rapidly with open-source community tools and technologies.

9. Support Plans

AWS has a range of Developer, Business, and Enterprise support plans. You can check them by visiting

AWS Support Plans

Azure has support for Basic, Developer, Standard, and Professional direct plans. You can check them by visiting

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/support/plans/

Licensing

AWS supports different types of licensing options. You can buy new customer licenses or BYOL i.e. ‘bring your own license’. For more information, please visit

"https://aws.amazon.com/windows/faq/#licensing"

Azure license allows you, as an Administrator, to add a user account to use cloud offerings, and a subscription account gets charged monthly. You can understand more about license mobility through Software Assurance by visiting

"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/license-mobility/"

Hybrid Cloud Capabilities

• AWS is upgrading and constantly adding hybrid cloud capabilities by adding new services like Snowball Edge.
• Azure has strong hybrid cloud capabilities with platforms like Azure Stack, which lets you get public Azure functionalities to your on-premises data centers.

AWS Vs. Azure: Other factors with differences

Parameter	AWS	Azure
Launched year	2006	2010
Availability Zones	60+	140+
Pricing	Per hour billing	Per-minute billing
Cache	Elastic cache	Redis cache
Application Testing	Device farm	DevTest labs
Kubernetes	Elastic Kubernetes Services (AKS)	Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)
API Management	Amazon API Gateway	Azure API Gateway
Media Services	Amazon Elastic Transcoder	Azure Media Services
Artificial Intelligence	Lex, Polly, SegeMaker, AML, TensorFlow	Machine Learning Studio, Bot Services, Cognitive Services
Internet of Things (IoT)	IoT platform GreenGrass	IoT Hub, EventHubs
Analytics	Athena, EMR, Kinesis	Stream Analytics, HDInsight

AWS Advantages

• AWS provides a wide and growing array of cloud offerings and services.
• AWS provides Customizable compute services that let you choose platform/framework/programming languages, etc.
• AWS provides Great support for business intelligence and data analytics.
• AWS is available for open source development, and many programs by major software vendors are available on the AWS platform.
• AWS offers flexibility for integrating third-party tools.
• Its Data centers are available across the globe.
• AWS has a Virtual Private Cloud.

AWS Disadvantages

• AWS is less open to third-party or private cloud providers.
• Due to too many available service options, it’s difficult for customers to make the right choice as per their business needs.
• Requires a technical background, due to which AWS lacks in customer support services, and one must spend on enterprise-level support.
• The AWS cost structure is difficult to understand.

Azure Advantages

Azure is based on the Windows platform, hence, if you are familiar with Windows, it’s very easy to learn and use.

Feature-rich services for quick deployments and making environments production-ready.

Provides assistance in migrating tothe Azure cloud.

Azure is open for the hybrid cloud platform.

It has built-in integration in the Visual Studio development environment.

Supports single-sign-on and secure logic capabilities.

Azure has a virtual network cloud.

Azure Disadvantages

Limited functions around services as compared to AWS.

As per some customers' feedback, lack in disaster recovery management.

Less flexible for non-Windows-based platforms.

AWS vs Azure: What’s the Best Choice?

Conclusion

AWS and Azure are Both Cloud computing platforms that are well equipped with powerful capabilities, new integration, new products, and changing pricing structures. AWS and Azure hold the majority of the market share and are constantly upgrading. Azure is incredible when it comes to hybrid cloud computing and Microsoft technology stack, while AWS has more adaptability with an open-source technology ecosystem and additional highlights. You can choose it according to project requirements. Also, consider our Azure training to help you earn Azure real-time focused Hands-on skills and get Azure certification.