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Cloud Foundry vs Microsoft Azure
March 10, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
9★
Open Source Cloud Application Platform that makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy and scale applications, providing a choice of clouds, developer frameworks, and application services. It is an open source project and is available through a variety of private cloud distributions and public cloud instances.
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 Foundry and Microsoft Azure, at first glance, appear to be quite similar. Both allow developers to throw their applications into the ether and hope they land somewhere useful. They support various programming languages, containers and even the modern wizardry of auto-scaling, which, much like a good butler, ensures things run smoothly without drawing too much attention to itself. If you're into CI/CD pipelines, both will happily integrate with your chaotic development process, ensuring your software is always in a state of near-readiness.
Cloud Foundry, however, comes from the open-source realm, a place where developers roam free, occasionally bumping into governance boards and enterprise adoption committees. It emerged in 2011, courtesy of VMware and is particularly fond of hybrid-cloud environments where it can remain delightfully vendor-agnostic. Large organizations with private cloud obsessions tend to gravitate toward it, possibly because it allows them to claim they are "doing cloud" without having to fully commit. It was born in the United States but has since become a citizen of the world, much like an aging rock star who's gone indie.
Microsoft Azure, on the other hand, has the distinct advantage (or disadvantage, depending on your perspective) of being deeply and irrevocably Microsoft. Launched in 2010, it does everything: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, AI, IoT and probably even makes a decent cup of tea if you configure it correctly. It is the ultimate solution for businesses that like the reassuring embrace of Microsoft products and don’t mind a little lock-in along the way. Unlike Cloud Foundry, which enjoys a good multi-cloud fling, Azure prefers to keep things in-house, promising a seamless experience if you just trust it enough to move everything under its watchful, corporate gaze.
See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Cloud Foundry, however, comes from the open-source realm, a place where developers roam free, occasionally bumping into governance boards and enterprise adoption committees. It emerged in 2011, courtesy of VMware and is particularly fond of hybrid-cloud environments where it can remain delightfully vendor-agnostic. Large organizations with private cloud obsessions tend to gravitate toward it, possibly because it allows them to claim they are "doing cloud" without having to fully commit. It was born in the United States but has since become a citizen of the world, much like an aging rock star who's gone indie.
Microsoft Azure, on the other hand, has the distinct advantage (or disadvantage, depending on your perspective) of being deeply and irrevocably Microsoft. Launched in 2010, it does everything: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, AI, IoT and probably even makes a decent cup of tea if you configure it correctly. It is the ultimate solution for businesses that like the reassuring embrace of Microsoft products and don’t mind a little lock-in along the way. Unlike Cloud Foundry, which enjoys a good multi-cloud fling, Azure prefers to keep things in-house, promising a seamless experience if you just trust it enough to move everything under its watchful, corporate gaze.
See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
