Microsoft Azure vs Amazon AWS

Both Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS are popular choices in the market. Both providers have been around for several years – but they vastly differ in services offered; let’s have a look at some of the main differences between Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS.

Virtual Machines

Amazon AWS users can configure their virtual machines or choose from a set of pre-configured images. In contrast, Microsoft Azure users need to select the virtual hard disk to create a pre-configured virtual machine – with a set number of configurations.

Storage

Amazon AWS offers temporary storage which will be assigned when an instance is started and destroyed when it is terminated and S3 for object storage. Whereas Azure offers temporary storage by block storage through page Blobs for VM’s and Block Blobs for object storage.

Read more about how Microsoft Azure works.

Private Clouds

Amazon AWS offers virtual private clouds so that user can create isolated networks within the cloud. In contrast, Azure offers Virtual network through which we can create isolated networks, subnets, route tables, private IP address range as same as in Amazon AWS.

Hybrid Clouds

Microsoft Azure is open to Hybrid cloud systems, whereas Amazon AWS is less open to private or third-party cloud providers.

Public Cloud

5Azure Now Safeguards Data Outside Your Company Too. Read more here.

Billing and Cost

Both Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure follow a pay as you go, model. Meaning you only pay for the services you are currently using. The main difference is Amazon AWS charge on an hour by hour basis, whereas Microsoft Azure charges on a per-minute basis. Meaning the Azure billing is more accurate.

Customisation

Amazon AWS has more features and configurations, and it offers a lot of flexibility, power, and customisation with support for many third-party tool integrations. Whereas Azure will be easy to use if you are familiar with Windows as it is primarily a Windows platform and it’s easy to integrate on-premises windows servers with cloud instances to create a complete hybrid environment.

Final Thoughts

Microsoft Azure is one of the easiest ways your business can gain a competitive advantage and significantly reduce costs. It lets you manage applications and services in the cloud without the need for expensive infrastructure. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Fabric IT work with customers to build and implement Microsoft Azure environments that enable them to take advantage of existing and new applications and processes across their business. As a full Microsoft house, we specialise in implementing Microsoft Azure for businesses across the UK.

Looking for a new cloud provider? Get in touch.

What is Microsoft Azure?