AWS vs. Azure: Comparison and Updates 2024

AWS vs. Azure is almost an evergreen comparison since AWS and Microsoft Azure are the two most established leading names in the cloud computing space. 

In this article on AWS vs Azure, we will discuss these platforms to decide which is a better choice for advancing in your career.

Table of Contents

• AWS vs. Azure
• Updates: AWS vs Azure (2024)
• About AWS
• About Azure
• Which is better for career between AWS and Azure?

AWS vs. Azure

There are several differences between AWS and Azure. Let us discuss these differences in a tabular format for better understanding.

AWS vs Azure: Updates (2024)

AWS Updates (2024):

1. AWS Lambda Extensions Preview: AWS Lambda now supports a new feature called Extensions, which allows you to augment your Lambda invocation environment. This includes tools for monitoring, security, etc. 
2. Amazon EC2 Mac Instances: AWS now offers Mac instances for Amazon EC2, allowing developers to run on-demand macOS workloads in the AWS cloud for the first time. 
3. AWS Nitro Enclaves: AWS introduced Nitro Enclaves, a new EC2 capability that makes it easier to securely process highly sensitive data.
4. Amazon Aurora Serverless v2: Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 is now in preview. It scales instantly from hundreds to hundreds-of-thousands of transactions in a fraction of a second.

Azure Updates (2024):

1. Microsoft Fabric event streams: Microsoft Fabric now offers event streams that enable customers to ingest real-time event data from external event sources into the data stores in Fabric. The events can be transformed into various native formats required for the target destination. 
2. Azure Event Hubs Updates: Azure Event Hubs launched their Dedicated self-serve clusters capability. Additionally, they announced support for Compaction GA for Kafka and AMQP, Mirror Maker 2 support GA, Kafka Connect support GA, JSON Schema in schema registry for Kafka, Managed Identity for streaming capture, and a Data Generator public preview. Apache Kafka related changes, Managed Identity for streaming capture, JSON Schema in schema registry for Kafka, Data generator public preview.
3. Azure Event Grid: Azure Event Grid now supports bi-directional communication via MQTT version 5.
4. Azure DevOps 2024 Q1: Azure DevOps has delivered multiple features in Q1 2024, including improvements on security and new features based on customer feedback.

About Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS)

Amazon Web Services, Inc. was launched in the year 2006. It is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides over 165 tools that are used for networking, databases, storage, computing, application services, analytics and IoT. AWS has offices in 16 geographical locations. 

Customers can acquire AWS services through network of AWS server farms that are located all around the world. Instead of building an actual physical farm, Amazon markets AWS as a way of acquiring large-scale computing capacity quickly and in a cheaper way. 

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Advantages of AWS

AWS has a number of advantages which makes it a popular choice among users:

1. User friendly: AWS has a user-friendly platform that makes it easy to use, even for beginners. It comes with very detailed and simple documentation which makes it easier to use the platform.
2. Secure: It is a secure platform that uses IAM so that no unauthorized person can use this platform. AWS has several measures, such as Transport Layer Security certificates and tools with encryption that can combat security threats.  
3. Storage: AWS offers high storage that can be used for data backups and archives. It helps in providing storage utilizing a web-based interface as well.  
4. Multi-region backups: There are multiple regions available to users in AWS where they can store both information and instances. Such regions consist of availability zones protected from failures in other zones. 

AWS Payment Model

AWS provides its services on a metered ‘pay-as-you-go’ services. Fees are based on usage, operating system, software, hardware, and networking features that the subscriber chooses. Every service is billed based on usage. 

Subscribers need to pay only for the service they require and for as long as they require. Once the subscriber stops availing to services, there is no termination fees or additional cost levied. AWS subscribers have the option to either pay for a single virtual AWS computer or a dedicated physical computer.  Every service has micro billing. Billing Dashboard in AWS provides a report through an integrated billing dashboard that you can pull out as per your requirements based on services.

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Services Offered by AWS

As of 2024, AWS offers more than 500 services in computing, networking, storage, database, developer tools, application services, analytics, machine learning, deployment, management, mobile, RobOps and tools for the Internet of Things.

About Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure or simply, Azure, is a cloud computing service that is operated by Microsoft. It was launched in the year 2008. It has offices in more than 60 regions and more than 68,000 partners. Azure offers more than 600 services through a global network of Microsoft-managed data centres. These services are provided in three ways: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). It also supports several tools, programming languages and frameworks.

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Advantages of Azure

1. Speed: Azure’s data centres are placed everywhere across the world. Due to this, it has a high speed for scaling your existing capacity through the upgrade of service plans and by adding new features. 
2. Pre-built tools: It comes with many pre-built tools due to which there is no need to create anything from scratch. This saves time to market your built on time. 
3. End-to-end services: Through Microsoft Azure, everything from source control to delivery is possible from within a single environment. These services are created in a manner that they do not disrupt the functionality of already existing services. Bulking up features and security patches are considered while rolling out new updates.

Payment Model of Azure

Microsoft Azure offers cloud services on ‘pay-as-you-go’ pricing. There is no upfront fee, and subscribers can cancel at any time as per their requirements. Customers can customize their billing plans according to their business requirements. They receive a monthly bill for the opted services. Through the Azure Hybrid benefit program, customers having licenses with software assurance can get discounts. They can maximize the value of their existing on-premise SQL server license and Windows server investments while migrating to Azure. 

Explore free cloud computing courses

Services offered by Azure

Azure offers over 600 cloud computing services related to compute (Virtual Machine, Service Fabric, Cloud Service, Functions), AI, ML, networking (Express Route, Azure DNS, Virtual network, Azure CDN), storage (Blob, file, disk and Queue) and development.

AWS vs. Azure Which is best?

While both provide similar services, there are certain factors based on which the two differ. These can be segregated in terms of revenue generation, flexibility, features and adaptability.

1. Open Source Community

Microsoft Azure is still in the process of becoming friendly to the open-source community. This hasn’t changed the industry’s perception of Microsoft. This also contributes to the domination of Amazon AWS in the cloud hosting space. 

2. Storage Capacity

AWS’s cloud object storage solution offers high availability as well as automatic replication across regions. In AWS, temporary storage starts functioning whenever an instance starts and it stops when an instance gets terminated. It also provides block storage which is quite similar to hard disks. It can be either be attached to EC2 instances or can be kept separate. 

On the other hand, Azure uses page blobs and temporary storage for VM based volumes. Its block storage is similar to S3 in AWS. 

3. Machine Learning Model

Both AWS and Azure have machine learning studios for machine learning model development. Unlike Amazon SageMaker, Azure’s studio does not require to delve deep into the complexities of data engineering, python coding and open source libraries. 

4. Compatibility with Hybrid Cloud Market

Azure is more established in the hybrid cloud market in comparison with AWS which is still a work in progress. Microsoft Azure provides holistic hybrid cloud functionality that extends to on-premise data center. Its services enable you to connect your private cloud with its public services.

5. Licensing and License Mobility

Azure and AWS ensure that customers do not have to face difficulties related to licensing or license mobility. You only have to pay for services that you are availing of. In Microsoft Azure, you are eligible for license mobility if you have already paid for the service.

Although Azure is convenient in terms of set-up for Windows admin, AWS is highly configurable and feature-enriched. When it comes to comparing AWS vs. Azure, it is very clear that most of the services are similar in both cases.  On the other hand, Azure leads AWS in terms of features such as Azure Site Recovery, Azure Event Hubs, the Azure Visual Studio Online, and Azure Scheduler. 

In terms of flexibility, adaptability to the open-source community AWS seems to be leading. It also gets an additional point when it comes to revenue generation.

Which is better for career?

If you are planning to choose between Azure and AWS in terms of career, you can consider a few points. According to the data, AWS professionals, on average, earn ₹6.3 lakhs per year, whereas Azure professionals earn around ₹6.1 Lakhs per year. Along with higher salaries, AWS is easier to learn as it has easier documentation.

Conclusion

While choosing between the two cloud computing service providers, do consider all the point of views. Both AWS and Azure have a significant market share as they offer great features at great prices. However, while choosing one of the two in terms of career, you should consider the scope, market, job opportunities as well as ease to learn.