As you probably know, Azure is a set of cloud computing services powered by Microsoft that can help your company meet several business challenges. Azure allows you to build on your terms, trust the cloud, operate hybrid seamlessly, and be prepared for the future. With this information readily available, why would one decide to choose another platform? Meet one of Azure’s biggest competitors, Amazon Web Services, or AWS. This blog post will go into detail on which cloud computing service we think is better and why.
Price
When signing up for software, the price may be one of the most important factors. If management decides that the cost of a platform is not within budget, then it most likely won’t even be considered as an option for the company. Both vendors offer free introductory tiers, which allows customers to try before they buy. Let’s compare the two.
Azure:
– For an instance with 2 virtual CPUs and 8 GB of RAM, this will cost you around $70 per month
– The largest instance including 3.89 TB of RAM and 128 vCPUs will cost around $6.79 per hour
AWS:
– For an instance that includes 2 virtual CPUs and 8 GB of RAM will cost around $69 per month
– Larger instances including 3.84 TB of RAM and 128 virtual CPUs will cost around $3.97 per hour
Both platforms seem similar price–wise and provide pay-as-you-go models. However, AWS can be up to five times more expensive than Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server.
App Deployment
For those of you who don’t speak tech lingo, deploying an app is simply the process of copying, configuring, and enabling an application to a specific base URL or server. With a PaaS platform, or Platform as a Service, everything is typically provided except for the application code, users, and data. Both Azure and AWS offer PaaS models, but they do differ in functionality.
Azure:
– Azure has multiple app deployment tools such as cloud services, container service, functions, batch, app services, etc. Developers want to be able to deploy apps on multiple servers virtually by using PaaS features.
AWS:
– AWS offers solutions with Elastic Beanstalk, Batch, Lambda, container service, etc. However, it does not have many features on the app hosting side.
Global Presence
AWS was the first to the cloud domain, but does that mean it is more widespread than Azure? Not necessarily. The keyword to pay attention to here is region versus availability zone. A region is a set of datacenters that contain multiple availability zones. Availability zones are physical locations within each region. Even though one company may have more availability zones, they may not be available in more regions. Below I am going to touch on the specifics of where these platforms have established and expanded their networks.
Azure:
– Microsoft states that Azure is available in the most global regions out of any cloud provider. The platform is available in 54 regions worldwide and 140 countries. Each region has a minimum of three availability zones, which would mean there’s at least 160 out there.
AWS:
– Amazon says that AWS provides a more extensive global footprint than any other provider, just like Microsoft’s statement. AWS is available in 22 geographic regions and 69 availability zones.
It appears that Azure takes the cake in this area. Just because the platform is in first place right now, doesn’t mean that AWS won’t catch up soon. They are planning to expand, so we could see more of a spread in 2020.
Customers
Both players in the cloud market have high-profile customers. AWS technically has a bigger community since it has been around longer. They have customers like Netflix, Airbnb, Unilever, BMW, and Samsung. However, Azure is catching up quickly. Azure has almost 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies, such as Apple, HP, Honeywell, Fujifilm, Johnson Controls, and Polycom.
The Winner
It’s a tough call, and unfortunately, the decision is still yours. However, due to Azure’s global presence, Windows integration, and PaaS features, it may be a better cloud option for your team, depending on your needs as an organization. If you have any technical, functionality, or implementation questions regarding Azure, email us! We have a team of Solution Architects, Consultants, and Developers who can solve any challenge.
