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Amazon Web Services vs Microsoft Azure
March 09, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
26★
IaaS/PaaS cloud platform with over 200 services, including computing, storage, database engines and machine learning. Provides a global network of data centers and pay-as-you-go pricing model.
21★
Microsoft Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can build applications using any alternative language, tool or framework. And you can integrate your public cloud applications with your existing IT environment.
See also:
Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Cloud computing, much like interstellar travel, is a bafflingly complex concept made simple by two behemoths: AWS and Azure. Both promise near-infinite storage, computing power and AI-driven magic, all housed in enormous data centers that might as well be orbiting Alpha Centauri. They whisper sweet nothings about hybrid clouds, security so tight even the Vogons couldn’t breach it and pay-as-you-go pricing that makes it sound like a budget airline for your data. Their compliance certifications are longer than a Vogon poetry recital, but somehow, companies still listen.
AWS, the elder statesman of the cloud, has been around since 2006, giving it the advantage of both experience and the occasional unwieldy legacy system. It dominates the market, grinning smugly from its lofty perch, offering startups, developers and daring adventurers an open-source paradise. With a staggering array of services and integrations, AWS is like the friendly but slightly overwhelming host of a never-ending space party. And yes, it hails from the USA, because of course the biggest cloud in the world had to be born in Seattle, where actual clouds never leave.
Then there’s Azure, the younger, corporate-savvy sibling, arriving in 2010 and immediately making friends with every business that had ever touched a Microsoft product. It seamlessly connects to Windows, Office 365 and anything else that might lurk in a company’s IT department, making it the ideal choice for enterprises that like their technology to be as reassuringly bureaucratic as possible. It excels in hybrid cloud, meaning if your data ever gets bored, it can hang out both on-premises and in the ether. Also from the USA—because clearly, no other country was allowed to compete—Azure is Microsoft’s way of ensuring that if you work in an office, you’ll never truly escape its grasp.
See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
AWS, the elder statesman of the cloud, has been around since 2006, giving it the advantage of both experience and the occasional unwieldy legacy system. It dominates the market, grinning smugly from its lofty perch, offering startups, developers and daring adventurers an open-source paradise. With a staggering array of services and integrations, AWS is like the friendly but slightly overwhelming host of a never-ending space party. And yes, it hails from the USA, because of course the biggest cloud in the world had to be born in Seattle, where actual clouds never leave.
Then there’s Azure, the younger, corporate-savvy sibling, arriving in 2010 and immediately making friends with every business that had ever touched a Microsoft product. It seamlessly connects to Windows, Office 365 and anything else that might lurk in a company’s IT department, making it the ideal choice for enterprises that like their technology to be as reassuringly bureaucratic as possible. It excels in hybrid cloud, meaning if your data ever gets bored, it can hang out both on-premises and in the ether. Also from the USA—because clearly, no other country was allowed to compete—Azure is Microsoft’s way of ensuring that if you work in an office, you’ll never truly escape its grasp.
See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
