Comparison of AWS EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines?(VMs)

Introduction:

AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are two prominent server deployment services that offers scalable and flexible infrastructure for running applications & services in the cloud. This article aims to provide you with an extensive comparison of their features, capabilities, and technical aspects, enabling cloud architects & other cloud professionals to make informed decisions when selecting between AWS EC2 and Azure VMs for their compute deployment requirements.

Underlying Architecture and Infrastructure:

1.1 AWS EC2 Architecture:

AWS EC2 is built on a virtualization infrastructure that utilizes the Xen hypervisor. It offers a wide range of instance types optimized for various workloads, including general-purpose, memory-optimized, compute-optimized, and GPU instances. EC2 instances are provisioned from Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) and can be organized with Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) to create isolated network environments.

1.2 Azure VM Architecture:

Azure VMs are built on top of the Hyper-V hypervisor, which provides hardware virtualization. Azure offers a diverse set of VM sizes and series, optimized for different workload requirements. VMs are provisioned from Azure Marketplace images or custom images created by users. Azure VMs are grouped within Virtual Networks (VNets) to establish isolated networking environments.

Instance Types and Performance:

2.1 AWS EC2 Instance Types:

AWS EC2 provides a broad range of instance types, including T3, M5, C5, R5, and P3 instances, among others. These instances vary in terms of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capabilities. EC2 instances offer high-performance networking and Elastic Block Store (EBS) for persistent storage.?

For more information refer to this link “https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/”

2.2 Azure VM Sizes and Series:

Azure VMs offer a variety of sizes and series, such as B-series, D-series, F-series, and N-series. Each series is designed for specific workload requirements, offering different combinations of CPU, memory, and storage capacities. Azure VMs utilize Azure Managed Disks for persistent storage and provide high-performance networking options.?

For more information refer to this link “https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes"

Operating Systems and?Images:

3.1 AWS EC2 Operating Systems and Images:

AWS EC2 supports a wide range of operating systems, including various Linux distros, Windows Server versions, and other specialized OS options. Users can choose from pre-configured Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) provided by AWS or create custom AMIs as per their specific requirements. Also it gives you access to AWS marketplace, where you can find lots of images and other virtual appliances for different use cases. For more information about AMIs, refer to this link “https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AMIs.html".

3.2 Azure VM Operating Systems and Images:

Similarly like AWS, Azure VMs also support large number of operating systems, including different versions of Windows Server, Linux distributions, and specialized OS images. Users can select from a marketplace catalog of VM images or create custom images using Azure VM image builder. Azure also offers Azure Gallery images, which are pre-configured VM images provided by Microsoft.

Networking and Connectivity:

4.1 AWS EC2 Networking:

AWS EC2 instances can be deployed within Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and subnets, which provides isolated networking environments based on your traffic/security requirements. EC2 instances can have public and private IP addresses, and virtual firewalls called security groups for your instances that are used to control inbound and outbound traffic. AWS also offers VPN connectivity options, Direct Connect for dedicated network connections, for hybrid/cross cloud communications and different types of Elastic Load Balancers (ELB) for distributing traffic across instances.

4.2 Azure VM Networking:

Similar to AWS VPCs, Azure VMs are organized within Virtual Networks (VNets) and subnets inside that, which allow for isolation and segmentation of network traffic. VMs can have public and private IP addresses, and virtual firewalls called Network Security Groups (NSGs) which can be used for controlling inbound and outbound traffic. Azure offers VPN Gateway for connecting on-premises networks/Cross Cloud, Azure ExpressRoute if you need dedicated connectivity, and different types of Azure Load Balancers for distributing traffic.

Scalability and Auto?Scaling:

5.1 AWS EC2 Scalability and Auto Scaling:

AWS EC2 provides scalable computing resources, allowing users to scale instances up or down based on demand. Auto Scaling enables automatic/manual scaling based on variety of predefined policies, ensuring optimal resource allocation to meet your precise business use cases. We can also do vertical scaling in AWS by simply changing the size of Instances through the console/CLI. AWS EC2 also offers a feature called placement groups which is really great to help you organize your instances across independent underlying hardware & multiple availability zones free of cost. We can also use Elastic Load Balancing to distribute traffic across instances and Availability Zones for high availability.

5.2 Azure VM Scalability and Auto Scaling:

Azure VMs can be scaled vertically by changing the VM size or horizontally by increasing the number of VM instances. Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets allow for automatic/manual scaling based on variety of custom-defined rules. Azure Load Balancer can distribute traffic across VM instances, and Availability Sets (Indeed a great feature by Azure which can be critical for your BCDR requirement. While I use, both AWS placement groups and Azure Availability Sets, the Azure one is my favorite because of flexibility?:-) ) to provide fault tolerance within Azure regions.

Who Wins:

Both the AWS EC2 and Azure VMs are robust, feature rich cloud infrastructure services that offer a wide range of features and capabilities for running servers & other applications in the cloud. Like the same way AWS EC2 provides a comprehensive set of instance types, high-performance networking, and advanced scalability options, Azure VMs also offer diverse VM sizes, efficient networking, and seamless integration with other Azure services.?

At the end of the war, both wins, as both of these services are capable enough and having almost similar capabilities, some better than other based on your business use case.