Is AWS a Better Solution Than Azure?
Today’s increasingly digital world calls for evolving digital services. Gone are the days when a company could build a static website or simple digital marketplace and call it good.
Instead, customers expect dynamic digital shopping and browsing experiences and merchants require their own dynamic backends to make that happen.
That’s where infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud computing offerings come into play.
The most well-known and dominant vendors in the cloud computing space are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, with the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba’s options not too far behind. How do you know which — AWS or Azure — will be best for your business? This quick guide breaks down some of the pros and cons of each.
The Pros of the Amazon Web Service Suite
In the American eCommerce marketplace, Amazon’s cloud computing platform is accessible for a monthly or yearly subscription fee. This model has often been considered confusing and sometimes deters users.
That fee includes access to plenty of hard-to-beat features, like database management, content delivery, networking capabilities, security services, storage offerings, and the Amazon Active Directory, among many others.
Its scope of operations is seemingly as endless as Amazon’s current reach, providing a comprehensive network with plenty of automation features for minimal daily time input by busy teams, as well as AWS CloudHSM, AWS Cloudtrail, AWS Config, and Cloudwatch.
Most notably, the AWS platform is cost-effective, enabling businesses to only pay for what they need. It’s also easy to use, flexible, high performing, reliable, scalable, and secure.
Why People Like Microsoft Azure
For Microsoft traditionalists, the Azure platform takes the company’s many products and adds them into a cloud-based offering. That list includes .Net, Active Directory Federation Services, Azure Active Directory, Multi-Factor Auth, Office, Sharepoint, SQL, and Windows Server, many of which companies already use in their day-to-day operations for computing, data management, networking, performance management, and security tools.
That proliferation has been a significant driver of Azure’s success, though the platform reportedly lacks some of the “enterprise-ready” finesse it has been marketed to have. It lacks some of the automation and requires more manual management, for example. But it’s scalable, flexible, cost competitive, and reliable.
The End Result: Which Option Works Best for Your Business’ Needs?
Choosing AWS vs Azure can seem complicated, particularly since both offer plenty of important business features, but the end decision really comes down to a few simple questions:
- How much time does your team have for manual entry and management of tasks?
- How interested are you in enterprise-ready technology?
- How long are you planning to use your cloud computing system?
AWS boasts greater automation features, enabling your team to spend less time manually inputting data and managing databases. Azure has more well-known programs that are likely already installed in your work environment, making current proliferation a business draw.
If you’re looking for a short-term commitment, Azure is probably best, but transferring your data to the AWS suite comes with enhanced security features and dynamic offerings that are best employed for long-term use.
Both platforms have their merits, and it requires a deep dive into the nitty gritty to decide which is best for your company. More important than which platform you choose, though, is having an IT professional to advise you on what you need and how to use it.
Call SADOS for More Information
When it comes time to transfer your digital assets to the AWS platform, SADOS is ready and waiting to handle all aspects of your data migration process. We’re ready and waiting to provide the ongoing and emergency IT support to keep your team running at its best. Give us a call at (301) 812-3170 to speak with one of our tech support specialists now.
