Comparing AWS and Azure

I'm currently studying for the Microsoft Azure 70-535 (Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions) exam. Since I'm also AWS certified, why not do a personal blog post about a high-level comparison between the two. When it comes to a comparison I know people are passionated and often a discussion ends up in a heavy debate, so I'm trying to put aside my biases as much as possible. Here are my main observations when it comes to comparing AWS and Azure:

• Both Cloud providers are working very hard to cover all new areas of cloud computing interactions. Both AWS and Azure are head-to-head in the amount of services. Both Cloud Providers offer you all the capabilities needed in order to fulfill any business requirement.
• AWS gain significant growth in the beginning and leverages from the very large developer community. Microsoft has an immediate leg up with existing enterprises and historically have been seen as a key partner at many firms.
• AWS started of with IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and provides many configuration options for flexibility. You can see more clearly that PaaS (Platform as a Service) from AWS utilizes this underlying IaaS layer. Microsoft started by focusing on PaaS, consequently most of the Azure services have a higher degree of abstraction, compared to AWS. You could argue that Azure is more easy to use and AWS provides a greater flexibility, but looking at the documentation and all the IaaS and PaaS capabilities this statement won't hold up. The amount of options however differ in certain categories. AWS has more options for databases (Spectrum, S3 API's, EMR & Redshift integration) & Serverless, while Azure has many options for deploying (Deployment Slots, Web Apps) and managing (.NET) applications.
• Microsoft Azure uses the (Windows) Hyper-V hypervisor, while AWS uses the (Linux) KVM and Xen hypervisors. Microsoft does provide a lot of PowerShell scripting options, while AWS leverages more from the Bash scripting language. Although both Cloud Providers support Windows and Linux, you could argue that AWS targets Linux more versus Azure, which targets Windows more.
• The Microsoft developer tools are much tighter integrated into Azure. Visual Studio has many integration options. AWS has more of an 'open-source' background and this can be seen in their capabilities (CodeDeploy, CodePipeLine).
• Generally speaking I think that Microsoft developers or companies which are heavily using the Microsoft Windows stack, including .Net, MS SQL Server and PowerShell scripting, feel more comfortable using Azure. Azure needs a smaller learning curve if you are already familiar with Windows. Unfettered developers, who don't wont to be limited, on the other hand might be more attracted to AWS given the higher degree of loose coupling and integration options.
• Microsoft's true strength is showed when it comes to hybrid solutions and on-premises integration. Service Bus Relay, Active Directory Synchronization and System Center are really strong concepts and work very well in a hybrid solutions. This doesn't prohibit you from building the same on AWS, but this is expected to require more effort.
• There's a fundamental design difference when it comes to high availability (HA). AWS has implemented HA across all logical data centers (Availability Zones) in all region from the beginning. This feature is baked into almost every capability. Azure started by covering HA within a single location (single logical data center in a region) and later added Availability Zones within a region. Currently not all regions support Availability zones and some are still in preview.
• AWS has many connectivity options; internet, VPN, partner, and Direct Connect options. Azure has similar options but this isn't as fully developed since there are differences between the entire ecosystem (Office 365 vs Azure).

Do you have a different opinion or are interested to share any of your thoughts or comments, please do so. We are also looking for very strong Cloud Architects. Do you think you know better, feel free to reach out.