Why Do Companies Choose Microsoft Azure Over Amazon Web Services (AWS)?
- 16 December, 2022

Enterprises around the world have achieved remarkable results with cloud-based business solutions. With scalable and secure cloud-enabled enterprise software, companies are reinventing how they do business by employing cloud technology.
With the numerous benefits of cloud service providers, businesses are shifting mission-critical resources to cloud environments. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure are two of the largest public cloud providers, hosting most of the production workloads.
AWS has led the market for several years and has held a significant lead as the de facto cloud provider. On the other hand, Microsoft Azure has achieved remarkable advances and is witnessing exponential growth in usage. So, why are people choosing Azure over AWS as their cloud provider?
First, let us understand what precisely both services are:
Azure is a broad cloud platform that supports application creation and hosting, service management, and storage. The Azure cloud computing solution uses Microsoft data centres to host web applications over the internet.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a popular, secure cloud solutions platform that provides computational power, content distribution, database storage, and other features to assist organisations in scaling and growing.
Now, let's explore some of the reasons businesses are opting for Microsoft Azure:
Azure is an obvious choice for hundreds of businesses that are already Microsoft partners. Most enterprise-level businesses are already using and acquainted with the Microsoft suite, and most have an Enterprise contract. Azure offers cost savings over competing clouds through Azure licensing discounts in this situation.
When migrating to Azure, you can also utilise your Windows and SQL Server credentials with Software Assurance to pay a lower rate.
AWS and Azure are comparable in terms of Infrastructure as a Service capabilities for functions like data, networking, and virtual servers. However, the equivalency falls apart when Azure and AWS are evaluated based on their Platform as a Service offering. Azure is well ahead in terms of giving software developers what they want.
Azure has a strong PaaS offering across tools, ecosystems, and administration options. Its investment in PaaS allows developers to focus on innovation while designing and delivering cloud services.
Microsoft is well known for providing industry-leading security. Microsoft's security is so strong that government agencies and businesses trust it; 95% of Fortune 500 organisations use Azure. In addition, Microsoft analyses trillions of threat signals, spending more than $1 billion yearly on security research and advancement.
As previously said, Azure offers an environment that enables users to use the languages, infrastructure, and third-party applications that they are most accustomed to or that their specific needs necessitate. This integrated platform provides the ideal setting for developing, testing, and deploying cloud-based applications. Azure's Platform as a Service is unparalleled in terms of merging the devices, apps, collaborators, and data that an enterprise-class firm needs and making them accessible both physically and in the cloud.
Contrary to many of its alternatives, Microsoft Azure offers high reliability and redundancy across each data centre. In addition, Azure is well-suited to enterprises with a worldwide reach because it operates in 55 regions and is available in 140 countries. Because of its massive footprint, Microsoft can provide service-level agreements that specify availability targets, depending on the service and configuration.
Microsoft's pay-as-you-go model allows you to pay only for the resources you use when developing or growing your applications using Azure services. Hence, IT management costs are minimal as Microsoft manages the underlying infrastructure on Azure. It can also connect data centres to the cloud seamlessly, unlike any other.
Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS have gained significant market share in the last 15 years. It is primarily owing to the numerous benefits they provide to their customers. However, choosing the right cloud service provider requires careful consideration.
We can be sure that every firm is unique, and AWS and Azure are fully aware of this distinction. As a result, cloud migration and service use will follow a distinct pattern. Both providers offer customisable service options to meet individual business requirements.
Similar services are provided by Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, in addition to Microsoft Azure. However, given the rate at which Microsoft releases new Azure elements, it is clear that it ranks higher in the market.
Trusted Microsoft licensees such as Smart-Tech are assisting organisations in developing scalable and secure cloud-native apps by leveraging the Azure Platform.
Smart-Tech can assist you if you are starting with cloud computing. Our Cloud Competency Solution is intended to assess your cloud maturity and develop a roadmap to help you transition to the cloud.