AWS vs Azure-Who is the big winner in the cloud war?

AWS vs Azure -A key comparison of the leading public cloud service providers that will help you understand which cloud is best for business use case .

AWS vs Azure-Who is the big winner in the cloud war?
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Research firm Gartner published a document stating that Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud are innovative tech giants that provide highly cost-competitive alternatives to conventional on-premises hosting infrastructures.

If you are new to cloud computing and cloud providers, you will want to select a cloud platform that can help you quickly start learning cloud computing.  One needs to familiarize themselves with various leading cloud service providers before deciding which cloud is best. 

It’s not just the learning community, but several organizations also want to compare AWS and Azure before moving to a cloud-based environment. However, the reality is that this is not a technological decision. Both AWS and Azure are solid cloud providers performing with equivalence in almost 99% of the use cases. But the main difference between the two is that AWS are provided by Amazon while Azure cloud services are provided by Microsoft.

The decision between Azure and AWS seems more like a business decision that is based on the organization's needs. For instance, if a company requires a powerful Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider or Windows integration, Azure would be the best option. If an enterprise is looking for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS ) or a diverse set of tools, then AWS might be the best solution.


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More recently, another parameter for decision-making is how much built-in analytics tools are available on these platforms. Such tools help in releasing analytics projects faster. This article will shine a light on the competition between the two heavyweights of cloud services – Azure vs. AWS. We’ll check out an overview of AWS and Azure and consider the critical considerations for choosing Azure or AWS.

 

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Azure vs. AWS - Which cloud is best?      

AWS

Azure

 

Amazon's on-demand cloud computing service

Microsoft's public cloud infrastructure 

From the start, it has supported the open-source model.

Connection with the open-source community is strained.

In terms of government cloud products, it has an advantage over Azure.




Whenever it comes to government cloud services, there is a confined scope.

Adaptable pricing system

When opposed to AWS, the pricing structure is less adaptable.

AWS is continually improving its Hybrid Cloud solutions.


Organizations can link local servers with Cloud instances, which benefits in the hybrid cloud space.

AWS has a product marketplace for Windows and Linux with a vast network of partners.

Azure is indeed growing its digital ecosystem despite the limited Linux alternatives.

For big data, EBS storage is incredibly fast.

Big data poses challenges for standard storage, demanding the use of premium storage.

For big data, much more advanced cloud infrastructure is required.

Although Azure's services are less developed for big data, they are improving.

Specific machines can be monitored.


Cloud services are made up of machines that respond to the same domain name but distinct ports.

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a pay-per-hour cloud computing service.



Pay per minute for Azure Infrastructure Services.

S3 — Archiving and retrieval for a short period of time.

Amazon Glacier supports long-term data archiving and retrieval.


Blobs, Queues, and Tables are similar to those found in S3.

There is currently no option for long-term data archiving and retrieval.

User-defined roles with unique permission controls are used to provide security. AWS also provides an excellent implementation of granular IAM and security groups.

Azure Active Directory is a single source for permission management and authorization. Unlike AWS where users, federation, and access to each account has to be configured, Azure lets you do this from a single directory.

AWS vs. Azure - Overview

AWS remains the global market share leader in public cloud services at 33%, followed by Azure at 13% and Google Cloud at 6%. – Synergy Research Group Report.

AWS and Azure offer essentially the same basic capabilities around flexible compute, storage, networking, and pricing. Both share the common elements of a public cloud – autoscaling, self-service, pay-as-u-go pricing, security, compliance, identity access management features, and instant provisioning.

 “With AWS, a new server can be up and running in three minutes (it used to take Eli Lilly seven and a half weeks to deploy a server internally), and a 64-node Linux cluster can be online in five minutes (compared with three months internally)…The deployment time is really what impressed us.”~ Dave Powers, Associate Information Consultant at Eli Lilly and Company.

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With over a million customers, 2 million servers, 100,000 Weather-Forecasting Computer Cores, and $10 billion in annual revenue, AWS is the largest cloud computing platform. AWS commands  40% of the cloud computing market share, more than the market share of its three biggest competitors put together. The most experienced and oldest cloud player with 11 years in operation provides an extensive list of mobile networking, deployments, machine learning, and more computing services and functions.

Meanwhile, growing at a rate of 120K new customers per month, 5 million organizations using Azure Active directory, 4 million developers registered with visual studio team services,1.4 million SQL databases, 2 trillion message per week processed by Azure IoT, and 40% of revenue generated from start-ups and ISVs- Azure is on the verge of dominating AWS cloud services.

Let’s understand what the two cloud providers bring to the public cloud table and the key differences between Microsoft Azure vs. AWS.

Azure vs. AWS - Computation power

A computer's basic task is to calculate, analyze, and compute. In only a few minutes, the ideal cloud service provider can help you expand to hundreds and thousands of processing nodes. Companies that seek rapid data analysis or graphics processing have two options: purchase additional hardware or migrate to the cloud. The purpose of public cloud services is to achieve this.

AWS' principal computing solution is its EC2 instances, which offer flexible computing on request and can be tailored for various applications. Other relevant services for app deployment include the EC2 container service, AWS Lambda, Autoscaling, and Elastic Beanstalk. Azure's compute services are built on virtual machines (VMs) and include many other tools that help in deploying cloud-based applications, such as Cloud Services and Resource Manager.

AWS provides so many more services, including computing, storage, databases, analytics, networking, mobile, developer tools, management tools, IoT, security, and business applications.

Service offered 

AWS

Azure

Deployment, Monitoring, and Maintenance of Virtual Servers

Amazon EC2


Virtual Machines or, VM Scale Sets

Registry for Docker Containers

EC2 Container Registry

Container Registry

Automatically Scale Instances

AutoScaling allows scaling on its own.


VM Scale Sets, Autoscaling, App Service Scale Capability

PaaS

Elastic Beanstalk

Cloud Services

System integration and backend logic processing

AWS Lambda

Event Grid

Web Jobs

Functions

 

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Azure Cloud vs. AWS Cloud – Storage

A key functionality of cloud service providers, is their storage capability. Running services in the cloud involve data processing that needs to be saved at some time. AWS’ storage services are longest-running. However, Azure’s storage capabilities are also highly reliable.

Both AWS and Azure are strong in this category of storage and include all the basic features such as REST API access 3and server-side data encryption. Azure’s storage mechanism is referred to as Blob storage, and AWS’s is called Simple Storage Service (S3).

AWS' cloud object storage service provides high availability and automated replication across locations. AWS offers block storage equivalent to hard discs and can be linked to any EC2 instance or wholly separated. It starts working when an instance begins and stops working when an instance ends. For VM-based volumes, Azure leverages temporary storage and page blobs. The Block Storage option in Azure is identical to AWS' S3. Azure offers two different types of storage: Hot and Cool. Cool storage is less expensive than hot storage, but it comes with additional read and write expenses.

Service

AWS

Azure

Service Name

S3

Azure Storage-Blobs

Hot

S3 Standard

Hot Blob Storage

Cool

S3 Standard -Infrequent Access

Cool Blob Storage

Cold

Amazon Glacier

Archive Blob Storage

Object Size Limits

5 TB

4.75 TB

# of Object Limits

Unlimited

Unlimited

 

Services

AWS

Azure

Service Name

EBS

Managed Disks

Volume Types

Cold HDD

General Purpose SSD

PIOPs SSD

Throughput Optimized HDD

Standard Premium SSD

Availability SLA

99.9%

99.9%

IOPs/GB for SSD

GP SSD -3

PIOPS SSD up to 50/GB.

1.8 to 4.9 – This is fixed based on the disk type.

Azure or AWS - Which is better in terms of Pricing?

Cost is a significant attraction factor for organizations planning to move to the cloud. With increasing competition amongst cloud service providers, there has been a continued downward trend on prices for quite some time now. AWS and Azure offer free introductory tiers with restricted usage limits that let users try and use their services before buying. Also, both provide credits to grab the attention of start-ups onto their cloud platforms. But, it is important to note that AWS charges on an hourly basis and Azure on a minute basis.

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AWS provides a pay-as-you-go model and charges per hour, while Azure’s pricing model is also pay-as-you-go, which charge per minute. AWS can help you save more with increased usage- the more you use, the less you pay. You can purchase AWS instances based on one of the following models –

  • Reserved Instances – Paying an upfront cost based on the use; one can reserve an instance for 1 to 3 years.

  • On-demand Instances -Just pay for what you use without paying any upfront cost.

  • Spot Instances- Bid for extra capacity based on availability.

Microsoft Azure offers short-term commitments to its users, allowing them to choose between pre-paid or monthly charges. Azure is a little less flexible than AWS regarding the pricing model.

Amazon AWS vs. Microsoft Azure – Databases

All software applications today require a database to save information. Azure and AWS both provide database services, regardless of whether you need a relational database or a NoSQL offering. Amazon’s RDS (Relational Database Service ) and Microsoft’s equivalent SQL Server database both are highly available and durable and provide automatic replication.

AWS works perfectly with NoSQL and relational databases providing a mature cloud environment for big data. AWS’s core analytics offering EMR ( a managed Hadoop, Spark, and Presto solution) helps set up an EC2 cluster and integrates various AWS services. Azure also supports both NoSQL and relational databases and Big Data through Azure HDInsight and Azure table. Azure provides analytical products through its exclusive Cortana Intelligence Suite that comes with Hadoop, Spark, Storm, and HBase.

Amazon’s RDS supports six popular database engines – MariaDB, Amazon Aurora, MySQL, Microsoft SQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle while Azure’s SQL database service is solely based on MS SQL Server. Azure’s interface and tooling make it easy to perform various DB operations while AWS has more instance types that you can provide and get additional control over DB instances. 

Azure vs AWS–Content Delivery and Networking Connectivity

A cloud service provider has several networks and collaborators that use various products to connect data centers worldwide. Users can build separate networks inside the cloud using AWS' Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Within a VPC, a user can build route tables, private IP address ranges, subnets, and network gateways.

Similarly, Azure allows users to create private networks using Virtual Network (VNET). Both AWS and Microsoft Azure offer firewall choices and solutions for extending on-premise data centers into the cloud.

AWS Vs Azure

Service offered


Amazon AWS


Microsoft Azure

Secluded private cloud

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Virtual Network (VNET)

Content Delivery Networks Across the Globe

CloudFront

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Management of DNS names and records

Route 53

Traffic Manager

Azure DNS

Connection to a Dedicated Private Network

DirectConnect

ExpressRoute

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Amazon AWS vs. Microsoft Azure - Machine Learning

AWS  has SageMaker and Azure has a machine learning studio to make machine learning model development faster and easier.  But how do they differ? Both AWS and Azure provide a managed service that covers the end-to-end machine learning pipeline to build, train, and deploy a machine learning model faster, but the way each provides machine learning as a service is different. Both Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure make model building faster and easier; it is like comparing apples and oranges because they work differently. Amazon Sagemaker depends entirely on code, unlike Microsoft Azure which has an easy-to-use drag and drop UI where the model building process can be architected on canvas. Azure’s Studio does not require users to delve deep into Python coding, data engineering complexities, and other open-source libraries, unlike Amazon SageMaker.

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Azure compared to AWS: Job Opportunities

A simple keyword search on LinkedIn can quickly reveal that the jobs for AWS (300K+)  are more than the jobs for Azure (200K+).

The statistics suggest that AWS has better job opportunities. But, don’t get carried away by the numbers because one needs to consider that AWS was launched before Microsoft’s Azure. Amazon AWS was launched in November 2004 while Azure was first introduced in October 2008. 

The gap in launch date means that it is highly likely that the companies dependent on AWS will be more in number. This dependency is also reflected in the market share of the companies that we mentioned earlier.

AWS vs. Azure: Salary

Burning Glass is a website that has performed research over the US jobs postings dataset. It revealed in 2020 that people who possess skills in designing Big Data solutions using Microsoft’s Azure have a median salary of $100,868. The research also predicted that the jobs that require Azure skills would reach 38.4% over the next decade. On the other hand, Amazon’s AWS-related jobs do not offer a far lesser salary than those mentioned above. Instead, it is comparable with a median salary of $104,088.

Thus, MS Azure professionals earn a median salary of $100,868 and AWS professionals earn a median salary of $104,088.

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AWS vs. Azure: Difficulty Level

Most beginners in Big Data are observed looking for an answer to the question: Which is easier for studying- AWS or Azure? 

An excellent answer can only come from someone who has experience with both cloud platforms. And, here we are sharing the response of Arjun Bahree, a Big Data professional who has to explore AWS and Azure. He suggests that AWS is pretty easy to learn as compared to Azure. The prime reason for that is that the content of Amazon's documentation is easy to follow.

AWS vs. Azure: Difficulty Level

However, sometimes, users comfortable with Microsoft technologies find Microsoft’s Azure easier to learn. So, depending on your needs, you can know either of them, but if you are looking for an easy cloud platform to understand without any terms and conditions, the clear answer is Amazon Web Services.

AWS vs. Azure: Market Share for Q1 2021

When aiming for job opportunities for the role of a Big Data Cloud Engineer, you must look at the market statistics of AWS and Azure to be more confident about your choice in learning either of them.

According to a 2018 report by Canalys,  AWS positioned as the top cloud service provider with a share of about 33%, while Azure ranked at the second position with a 15% share. In 2019, Canalys presented that AWS witnessed the most significant growth among the cloud platforms.

In April 2021, Canalys reported that AWS has a market share of about 32%, while Azure ranks after it with a 19% share. The numbers suggest that Azure is slowly making its mark in the trading world and will soon give stronger competition to AWS.

Microsoft Azure versus AWS: Certifications

Certifications do not necessarily relate to capability in the broader world of work and education. But, for those of you who want to add any AWS or Azure certification to your resume, here is a list of a few certifications you might consider-

AWS Certifications

Depending on your experience level and professional area, there are presently 11 different AWS certifications you can add to your resume- a foundational certification, 3 associate-level certifications, 2 professional-level certifications, and 5 specialty certifications.

  1. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

  2. AWS Certified Developer- Associate

  3. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator- Associate

  4. AWS Certified Solutions Architect- Associate

  5. AWS Certified DevOps Engineer- Professional

  6. AWS Certified Solutions Architect- Professional

  7. AWS Certified Data Analytics- Specialty

  8. AWS Certified Advanced Networking- Specialty

  9. AWS Certified Security- Specialty

  10. AWS Certified Database- Specialty

  11. AWS Certified Machine Learning- Specialty

Azure Certifications

Microsoft Azure certifications enhance your knowledge and skills in the current cloud technology to support the upcoming data centers, applications, and solutions.

Here is a complete list of Microsoft Azure certifications for you-

  1. Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals

  2. Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate

  3. Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

  4. Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

  5. Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate

  6. Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate

  7. Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate

  8. Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert

  9. Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure IoT Developer Specialty

  10. Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 for Sales Functional Consultant Associate

  11. Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 for Customer Service Functional Consultant Associate

  12. Microsoft 365 Certified Fundamentals

  13. Microsoft 365 Certified: Messaging Administrator Associate

  14. Microsoft 365 Certified: Teamwork Administrator Associate

  15. Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate

  16. Microsoft 365 Certified: Enterprise Administrator

  17. Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator

Azure vs. AWS: Learning By Doing

You have compared AWS and Azure on many different technical aspects. But, the experience of using both the technologies for mini Big Data projects will give you a better idea about their use cases. So, if you are interested in learning more about both the tools by implementing projects in each of them, we recommend you try out these AWS projects and Azure projects.

These project repositories have end-to-end solutions for implementing Big Data projects using the two cloud platforms. They contain beginner-friendly solution videos and also downloadable source code files for your convenience. You can go through them one by one and make a more calculated decision about which one you should learn: Azure or AWS.

Below we have listed a few projects of both categories to give you a fair idea of the two tools.

AWS Projects

Here are two use cases of AWS that will help you in understanding the applications of AWS in solving real-world problems.

Building Real-Time AWS Log Analytics Solution: For this project, you will analyze the log data by utilizing the AWS native services. You will explore Amazon S3, AWS IAM, AWS EC2, AWS Glue, and many more exciting services for analyzing the condition of production systems on AWS. 

AWS Project-Website Monitoring using AWS Lambda and Aurora: In this project, you will explore various AWS services like Amazon Dynamo DB,  Lambda, Aurora MySQL, and Kinesis for implementing the best methods for website monitoring. If you are not aware, website monitoring includes an activity that requires checking the performance and function of a website or any web service.

Azure Projects

Here are two examples of Azure Projects to make you aware of the compelling use cases of Microsoft Azure.

Azure databricks tutorial project - Analysis of Movielens dataset: This Azure project will teach you how to work with the Movielens dataset and build a movie recommendation system using Spark SQL. Through this project, you will learn how to use Azure Data Factory for implementing a Big Data pipeline.

Analysing Yelp Reviews dataset with spark parquet format on Azure Databricks: This project will help you understand the Yelp Reviews Dataset using the Spark and Parquet file formats. You will learn to ingest data using Azure Data Factory and spin up clusters on Azure databricks.

Azure or AWS: Who will lead in the future?

Both AWS and Azure have possibilities of making a tight space for them in the cloud platform market as they have unique cases that hardly overlap. 

With its early launch, AWS was the only choice for companies seeking cloud solutions with its early launch. While the early launch gives it an edge, it initially lacked enterprise features and has only recently added them to the basket.

On the other hand, Microsoft Azure possesses the capabilities to entertain enterprise clients effortlessly. It can provide the necessary support to the clients for swiftly upscaling and downscaling QA/test environments by offering economic benefits.

Azure or AWS - Which is better?

We have tried to shower some light on AWS vs. Azure debate in this article, but the popular question is still pending: which is better: AWS or Azure? There is no clear winner in this aws azure battle of cloud service providers as organizations have the fortune of choosing the most attractive features from each of these cloud service providers to enable a multi-cloud strategy. 

Companies that need high availability and resilience should consider multiple-data center hosting. Attempting to compare Azure and AWS is extremely difficult as both continue to launch new pricing structures, new products, and new integrations. However, it important to keep in mind that Azure is expensive but works best for companies seeking Windows integration whereas if a company needs infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or a wide range of tools, AWS would be a good option.The decision to choose either of the platforms depends on the needs of organizations how AWS vs. Azure comparison meets those requirements.

But it is important to note that AWS is much bigger than Azure, so much that its server capacity is about 6 times larger than the next 12 competitors combined.

Regardless of the comparisons, deciding on the right public cloud service provider requires thorough research on what one needs and what the service provider has to offer. The users are likely to be the big winners in the cloud battle between AWS and Azure as each of these providers lures its customers with expanded offerings at an economical cost.

FAQs

Why is AWS popular than Azure?

Amazon’s AWS was launched in 2006, while Microsoft’s Azure was established in 2010.  Thus, AWS has the early bird benefit and is relatively more popular than Azure. This popularity is widely reflected in the market share of AWS, which is about 13% more than that of Azure.

Is Azure the same as AWS?

No, Azure is a cloud platform introduced by Microsoft in 2010, whereas AWS is another cloud platform introduced by Amazon in 2006. While both the platforms have similar use cases and are prevalent in the Big Data community, their parent companies are not the same.

Is Azure easier than AWS?

No, most people find AWS easier to use because of its easy-to-read documentation. However, depending on their preference in different use cases, Azure is also sometimes people’s first choice.

Is AWS better than Azure?

It is difficult to give a strict yes or no answer to this question. Both of the two cloud platforms have their areas where one performs better than the other. Depending on the problem one is trying to solve, the question can be answered precisely considering all the technical aspects.

Is AWS bigger than Azure?

Although Azure has been witnessing higher growth rates than AWS in the last four years, AWS is leading the share in the market with 21% as of April 2021.

How do I choose between AWS and Azure?

By comparing AWS and Azure on different factors like storage, pricing, documentation support, and computation capabilities, you can analyse which one of the two will work best for your Big Data project.

What pays better, Azure or AWS?

According to a report by Burning Glass, the median salary of Azure-related jobs is $100,868, while the wages of people who possess Azure skills is $104,088. The numbers suggest that both Azure and AWS jobs pay similar salaries.

AWS vs Azure - Which is better for your career?

AWS has more job opportunities, as can be checked by performing a quick search on LinkedIn. However, it will not be appropriate today AWS will be a better option because, as per research Burning Glass with Labour Insights, the demand for certifications and skills in Microsoft Azure is increasing. The study shows that adding those skills can result in jobs that pay you better than the market average.

 

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