AWS vs Azure – What’s the difference?

Introduction

Are you confused about choosing which cloud computing platform is best between AWS and Azure? If yes, then you are in the right place. In this blog you will get this answer as we compare AWS vs Azure.

As you know, the trend of cloud computing is increasing day by day across the world. It provides resources and services such as virtual computers, storage, and apps to customers on a pay-as-you-go basis. When it comes to cloud computing platforms, two names that definitely come to mind are AWS and Azure. Both are top leaders among cloud service providers in the market.

This is the reason that the question of difference between AWS and Azure always arises. However, both AWS and Azure are strong performers with equality in almost all usage scenarios, making it a difficult decision for those venturing into the cloud. Before diving into the specifics, if you’re leaning towards Microsoft Azure, consider enrolling in a Microsoft Azure combo training course.

So, in this blog we will discuss all the factors that differentiate AWS vs Azure. This will let you know which one best meets your business needs.

Difference between AWS and Azure

The main difference between AWS and Azure is their target audience and approach as AWS caters to a broad audience with a vast range of services and unmatched flexibility. This makes it ideal for those who need maximum control and a mature platform, but it can be overwhelming for beginners, while Azure focuses on businesses already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem and excels in hybrid cloud environments. It offers a user-friendly interface and strong developer tools, making it easier to use but potentially with less overall flexibility.

While both offer a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services like virtual machines, storage, and databases, they cater to slightly different audiences. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific needs and priorities. Consider factors like existing infrastructure, budget, and team skillset when making your decision.

Let’s move on and understand AWS in detail to understand the difference between AWS and Azure thoroughly.

What is AWS?

AWS stands for Amazon Web Services. It’s essentially a giant on-demand cloud computing platform provided by Amazon.

Launch date

AWS (Amazon Web Services) was launched in 2006 and began providing IT infrastructure services to organizations in the form of web services (now known as cloud computing).

Storage services

Here are some AWS storage services:

• S3 (Simple Storage Service): Amazon S3 is a popular object storage service for storing any type of data, from files and images to backups and archives. It is highly scalable, sustainable and cost effective.
• EBS (Elastic Block Store): Amazon EBS provides block storage for EC2 instances (virtual servers in the cloud). It is ideal for storing data that needs to be directly attached to a running instance such as a database or operating system.
• Elastic File System (EFS): Amazon EFS is a managed file system service for sharing data between EC2 instances. EFS is scalable and elastic, growing automatically as your storage needs grow.
• Amazon FSx: It offers various file system options like Luster, NetApp ONTAP, OpenZFS, and Windows File Server. It provides high-performance, scalable file storage for specific workloads such as content management systems or scientific computing.

Features

Below are some of the key features of AWS:

• Auto Scaling Cluster: It automatically responds to changing demands and scales up or down your resources (such as servers) based on predefined criteria to ensure optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
• Zero-setup option: It gets started quickly with minimal configuration. Services like AWS Lightsail and AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) streamline the deployment and management of cloud resources.
• Detailed monitoring: AWS gets deep insight into the health of your infrastructure. It uses Amazon CloudWatch for real-time metrics, logs, and alarms to identify bottlenecks, troubleshoot problems, and optimize resource usage. Additionally, it uses Amazon CloudTrail to track user activity, resource changes, and security audits.

Networking

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): It enables you to create isolated networks on the cloud. Within a VPC, any user can create subnets, tables, and private IP address ranges.

Database Services

• Amazon Aurora: It is a relational database service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is designed to be a high-performance, highly available, and cost-effective solution for running relational databases in the cloud.
• DynamoDB: It is a serverless, NoSQL database service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is designed for modern applications that require fast performance and scalability to any size.

Salary

The average salary of an AWS Certified ranges from 3.5 LPA to 7 LPA. However, it depends on many factors such as the specific AWS certification, experience, location, and industry.

Let’s now move on to the second part of comparing AWS vs Azure.

What is Azure?

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform that provides a variety of services such as storage, networking, and analytics to help individuals and businesses build, manage, and deploy applications on cloud.

Launch date

Azure was officially launched in 2010 as Windows Azure. However, it was initially introduced at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October 2008 under the codename “Project Red Dog”. It was renamed Microsoft Azure in 2014.

Storage services

• Blob Storage: It is a core Azure service for storing large amounts of unstructured data such as text, media files, and archives. It is highly scalable and cost effective for long-term storage.
• Table storage: It stores structured data in a schema less format, which means you don’t need a predefined structure for your data. It is good for storing application data, user profiles, and simple metadata.
• Azure File Storage: It is a fully managed file sharing service in the cloud or on-premises via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.
• Azure Queue Storage: It is a storage service that stores messages that can be accessed via HTTP or HTTPS from any part of the world.

Features

Some of the key features of Azure are given below:

• Low Cost: It offers a scalable cloud-based solution that eliminates your initial hardware costs and allows you to pay only for what you use.
• Startup-friendly: It offers various programs that provide free Azure credits to startups to start their cloud journey.
• High performance: It provides fast processing times and efficient resource utilization, ensuring great performance for specific requirements and workloads.

Networking

Azure Virtual Network (VNET): It gives you the ability to create isolated networks as well as subnets, private IP address ranges, route tables, and network gateways.

Database services

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL) is a strong relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by Microsoft. It is widely used to store, manage and retrieve structured data in tabular format.

Salary

The average salary of an Azure Certified ranges from 3.5 LPA to 7.5 LPA. Similarly, like AWS it also depends on many factors like specific Azure certification, experience, location and industry.

Now, that we have covered both Azure and AWS. Let’s compare AWS vs Azure in a tabular form for easy understanding.

AWS vs Azure

Here are some important difference between AWS and Azure in a tabular form-

These are the difference between AWS and Azure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1 – Which is better, Azure or AWS?

Both platforms have their own benefits depending on your needs. For example, Azure is a strong Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider and is also the best choice for Windows integration. However, if you need Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or a wide range of tools, AWS may be the ideal choice.

Q2 – Is Azure good for beginners?

Yes, Azure is good for beginners because it is a relatively intuitive platform, and the basics are relatively easy to understand. You don’t need a lot of time or effort to learn Azure.

Q3 – What is Azure Active Directory called now?

Azure Active Directory, now known as Microsoft Entra ID, is an IAM solution from Microsoft that allows organizations to secure and manage identities for hybrid and multicloud environments.

Q4 – Why choose Azure over AWS?

When you compare AWS vs Azure, you will find that Azure should be chosen over AWS because Azure maximizes performance and value for migrated SQL Server workloads compared to AWS.

Conclusion

In this blog, we discussed the differences between AWS vs Azure. Instead of making massive investments in databases, software, and hardware, customers choose to use the computational power offered by service providers like AWS and Azure over the Internet and pay for it as they use it. Furthermore, both platforms offer extensive cloud services and strong security features, so pitting these two platforms against each other would be an unfair comparison. Therefore, according to the factors discussed above, you can choose the best option that suits your business needs, budget and IT resources.