What is the best Cloud Platform: AWS vs Azure

It is already a well-known fact that Cloud Computing is currently one of the most dynamic markets, fueling progress in numerous sectors, ranging from manufacturing to services and software development. It is no wonder that many of the most powerful tech companies around the world have focused on providing Cloud Computing services to their numerous customers, trying to dominate this expanding market. Two of these companies are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, both of them being undisputed leaders in these contemporary developments. 

Between these two, AWS is the oldest platform, as it was launched back in 2006 (https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/) and quickly rose to dominance in the market. Azure, on the other hand, was announced 12 years ago, in 2008, while it was finally released a decade ago, in 2010. Since then, both have grown immensely both in terms of market share, as well as in terms of technological progress, offering a huge array of tools and services to their customers.

The following article will outline the basic differences that exist between these two platforms, explaining their strengths and weaknesses, to aid in a better understanding of each company and what ultimately might suit you best.

Market Share

The market share of a company can act as a first indicator of the quality of a service or product, despite being a number influenced by many more parameters. Years of presence, marketing campaigns, and many other features can greatly influence the market share that a company earns, thus it can't be considered as an absolute measure of quality, efficiency, and pricing policy Despite this, it is an element that undeniably reflects the success of a company and its ability to reach their customers.

When comparing directly the market share of the two companies, AWS is undoubtedly the winner, as it currently controls 32,3% of the market according to data that concerns the entirety of 2019. At the same time, Azure controls a little more than half of AWS's share, which is about 16.9% of the 2019 market. Despite these companies are currently the two biggest in terms of market share, the difference between them is arguably significantly big, with AWS being the absolute dominant force in Cloud Computing.

It is very important to note though that other indicators exist, giving a different picture. It has already been noted that AWS is the strongest company in the market, controlling about a third of it. It is no secret though, that currently, the subsidiary of Amazon is stagnant in terms of growth, while their competitors are gaining ground and have significantly higher growth rates. The growth of AWS for 2019 was only 36.0%, a number which is lower than the 37.6% growth of the market. This means that despite having economic growth, the company lost a small percentage of the market share to their competitors, as they had 32.7% in 2018. 

Azure has a very different outlook, as it featured a high growth rate (63.9% )that surpassed that of the market. This rapid growth of Azure indicates that gradually more people prefer it and that the Microsoft platform gains ground against AWS, but it is not easy to foresee a dominance of Azure in the following years. The most probable scenario is that Azure will continue to grow until it reaches its market cap, just like AWS did.

https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/canalys-worldwide-cloud-infrastructure-Q4-2019-and-full-year-2019

It has to be underlined though, that even with the trend of AWS slowing down, the market is remarkably healthy, as it constantly grows, with more companies migrating part of their workload to the Cloud. According to 2019 data, 91% uses some form of public Cloud services, while 84% uses multi-cloud strategies to optimize their workload. Finally, indicative of this positive outlook is that 31% of enterprises consider Cloud Computing as the TOP priority of their development. This last feature is a testament to the significance of Cloud Computing in the contemporary economy.

Services

Tracking the services offered by each company can be an intricate task, as they are constantly evolving, following the needs of the Cloud Computing market. Naturally, a technology-based sector has a very high innovation index, constantly trying to improve and offer new services to their customer base, while at the same time some older services might cease to exist or drastically alter. Such a strategy is crucial both for attracting new customers, but also for retaining the customer base that you already have, trying to constantly satisfy the expanding demands.

AWS currently offers numerous services, with each one including even more specialized sub-services (https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/). 21 major categories cover almost any possibility concerning the modern company or even private needs, while the specialized services that exist in these categories are over 160. Azure offers the same number of main categories, but has a slightly enhanced number of sub-services, as these are over 200 (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/). 

It can be understood that Azure offers to the customers a slightly wider array of available tools, services, and products, especially in terms of specialization. On the other hand, though, the categories of the two companies mostly overlap with each other and it can't be considered as an undeniable advantage against AWS.

Both of the companies cover all of the needs that have arisen within the contemporary industries and markets, responding quickly to demands like machine learning, enhanced AI software, and blockchain, while at the same time constantly refining raw computing strength, analytics, database management and storage of data.

Prices

The pricing policy is one of the most important factors when considering which service one should choose. When it comes to Cloud Computing, an accurate estimate of prices is arguably a little hard to pinpoint, as they tend to be based on a pay-per-use policy, thus wildly fluctuating between companies, seasons, workloads, etc. Additionally, you pay only for the services that you use, thus the final price is even more personalized and hard to compare between different cases. Taking into consideration all the above, the best way to approach such a comparison is to directly juxtapose several similar, fundamental services, that are possibly some of the most commonly used between their customers. 

AWS service examples

(https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/)

• S3 Standard (data storage) $0.021 to $0.023 per GB according to data load. This price can fluctuate from $0.0125 to even $0.00099 per GB, but without having quick access to your data and used primarily for backups.
• EC2 (computing) $0.0255 per hour of usage. This cost is extremely fluid and the price mentioned refers to one of the most basic computing services offered. Since there are hundreds of different options, this cost can fluctuate according to the parameters.
• Amazon Aurora (Database) $0.10 per GB per month and $0.20 per 1 million requests of I/O (input/output). 
• Amazon Kinesis (Video Streaming) $0.00850 per GB of data ingested and egressed
• Amazon Athena (Analytics) $5.00 per TB of data scanned, with the cost being drastically lowered if data is compressed, partitioned and converted to columnar formats
• Amazon Connect (Customer Engagement) $0.018 per minute of voice usage and $0.004 per message for chat usage.

Azure service examples 

(https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/#product-pricing)

• Data Storage $0.0184 per GB. The price can fluctuate and be as low as $0.00099 per GB in cases of archival storage.
• Computing $0.0207 per hour of usage for specifications similar to those of AWS. Be aware that the cost of computing can fluctuate wildly according to your needs.
• Azure Cosmos (database) $0.25 per GB per month for row-oriented storage and $0.02 per GB per month for column-oriented storage. Row-oriented storage has no additional cost for I/O operations, while column-oriented storage is billed with $0.05 per 10.000 inputs and $0.005 per 10.000 outputs
• Media services $0.087 to $0.05 per GB according to data load.
• Azure Synapse (analytics) starting from $1.210 per hour of usage 
• Azure Bot Service $0.50 per 1,000 messages

The examples mentioned above showcase that both companies have their strengths and weaknesses in terms of pricing, maybe with AWS having a slight edge. Obviously, there are hundreds of more services that can be compared and thousands, if not more, different scenarios that can wildly alter according to the specific needs of your company. Additionally, it has to be noted that the companies frequently choose different billing methods (per hour of usage vs pers usage, etc.), something that further complicates this comparison.

Strengths & Weaknesses

All the above services, prices and details of these companies can help us form some more concise conclusions about their overall strong and weak points. These are based both on the facts, as well as the overall consensus of the market about their services.

AWS

AWS Strengths

• Controls the largest market share and is the biggest company in the field
• Excellent global coverage
• Generally has low prices, especially when it comes to archival storage
• Longer presence in the market
• Easy to use and understand pricing guides
• Much easier navigation in their website
• Offers many different solutions
• Generally considered very user-friendly
• Many hybridization possibilities
• More media possibilities

AWS Weaknesses

• Currently stagnating in terms of market growth
• Discounted services can feature much slower computing time
• Not all services are competitive in terms of pricing

Azure

Azure Strengths

• The second biggest company in the market in terms of market share
• Has a healthy growth rate compared to AWS
• Very good connectivity with Microsoft software and products
• Very good availability worldwide
• Very good balance between innovation & stability
• Competitive computing & database services
• Excellent security

Azure Weaknesses

• Some services are expensive
• Some services are more complicated and hard in terms of maintenance
• DevOps services could be better

Conclusion

So, concluding this comparison between the two leaders of the Cloud Computing industry, it is easy to understand that both of them have weaknesses and strengths that can become the reason for adopting one or the other. Generally speaking, Azure is considered by many as a more specialized solution, one that demands more dedication and has a steeper learning curve compared to AWS. This doesn't mean that a company shouldn't start right away with Azure, but it must be adequately prepared to set everything correctly and fully exploit the possibilities of this platform.

AWS, on the other hand, is considered easier to begin with and much more user-friendly, without meaning that it is a weaker or a simplistic solution. Both of them are excellent and can cover all of your needs without a doubt, but they have a different approach. Perhaps, as more companies migrate their workloads to the cloud and workers become more efficient at using it, Azure will gain even more support, but for the time being AWS seems to have the edge overall. To conclude, it is important to remember that it is possible to use both of these platforms in order to utilize different services and avoid some of their weaknesses.