Mark Adams
When organizations are evaluating public cloud platforms, they generally compare the market leaders: Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). There is an abundance of online content comparing the pros and cons of these platforms, and choosing a cloud service can be difficult as the leading platforms, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, have a variety of factors to take into consideration. Organizations need to choose the one that best fits their culture.
Microsoft Azure is a comprehensive cloud platform that offers an array of features and services to manage various workloads such as applications, websites, databases, mobile devices, IoT, and more. It also offers a wide range of pricing plans that can be customized based on the needs of the customer. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is another popular cloud computing platform that provides a set of different services, such as compute power, storage capacity, content delivery network (CDN), database hosting service, etc.
Developer technology preferences and expertise play a key role in cloud choice. How you judge a major player in the industry will depend on who you talk to and the unique requirements of your business. Regardless of your requirements, you will generally see the same major players. Microsoft Azure has taken the lead with organizations that are more likely to have a traditional enterprise IT environment. On the other hand, AWS has taken the lead in industries that are looking to work with streaming data.
When you are searching for a provider, you want to choose the best. How do you determine which provider is the best? An organization will typically look for a few needs in a cloud provider, such as providing a secure environment and having the ability to handle intensive workloads. I reached out to a community of experts to discuss Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and they provided some interesting insights, including what platform they would recommend and why they chose their current cloud platform.
Ashu Bhoot, CEO, Orion Networks
“We recommend either AWS or Azure, depending on the core needs. Both are equally evolving and driving the latest technology trends, which helps ensure companies can stay ahead. There are several benefits of a cloud platform. However, some key benefits that stand out for the majority of companies versus on-prem are around the flexibility it offers in a rapidly changing environment, especially after COVID. Also, it’s a much lower upfront cost than in a cloud environment.”
David Carreiro, Owner/Chief Executive Officer, CEU Technologies
“CEU Technologies utilizes Azure and AWS to give each partner a multi-cloud presence. Microsoft Azure is our primary cloud provider, and most of the VMs, Directory Services, and cloud apps are built and designed on Azure. Azure was chosen as the primary cloud partner because it utilizes known products and scripting languages that IT professionals have been utilizing for years via PowerShell. CEU Technologies partners with AWS as a backup repository of all partner data from Azure and on-prem. CEU Technologies can spin up AWS instances from backups or recover data onto any new instance in any disaster scenario.
One of the other significant reasons CEU Technologies relies heavily on Microsoft Azure is the direction Microsoft is going with their cloud services. CEU Technologies can now offer cloud solutions to everyday devices from laptops to mobile phones by utilizing Azure Active Directory and Azure Intune. CEU Technologies can apply business standards and security to all devices that perform partner business interactions. Specifically, businesses that require challenging compliance can benefit from these types of standardizations.
The most significant benefit of CEU Technologies utilizing Azure is using PowerShell commands to perform the most basic to the most advanced tasks. PowerShell is a powerful scripting language that we currently use at the Windows Enterprise level. CEU Technologies also believes that Microsoft Azure is a complete solution integrating Office 365 and Windows 365 to offer excellent cloud services and manage the entire environment.
CEU Technologies believes that any cloud service is a more robust solution than on-prem. A very rigid solution is tied down to a local data center with significant hardware and license costs, not including dealing with multiple vendors to maintain the environment. You can see that cloud platforms are the correct route for the future by making accurate financial calculations. Given the current environment with more and more users working from home, IT companies have better control over devices and security when implementing a complete cloud solution, specifically utilizing Azure correctly.
Also, when working with prominent device manufacturing and implementing Azure Intune AutoPilot, having the IT luxury of sending a device directly from manufacturing to someone’s home with very little IT interaction makes IT jobs more efficient and significant turnaround times for end-users. The primary factor in moving to a complete cloud solution is reducing what an IT professional provides. Again, in my example of utilizing Azure Intune Autopilot, there are no more imaging devices, and devices can be shipped directly to the end-user. Products like this example cut costs and refocus your staff on important, more worthwhile projects.”
Ilan Sredni, CEO/President, Palindrome Consulting, Inc. – “Delivering Peace of Mind”
“For us, the decision on which cloud provider to partner with came down to integration with our overall environment. Being that we are Microsoft-centric in the products that we use, it made more sense to use Azure instead of AWS or GCP. The ability to integrate the cloud with the on-premise environment gave us additional flexibility which at the time was not even available with the other providers. Although some of the same feature sets are currently available, at this point it does not make sense for us to look at changing because we are happy with your decision.”
Joe Cannata, Owner, Techsperts, LLC
“We recommend Azure. Microsoft seems to be leading the way in terms of innovation and reliability. But most important is the seamless integration across all Microsoft products. The benefit of Azure over on-prem is the freedom of mobility, scalability, and reliability. Once a client is migrated to the cloud, there is no maintenance of servers and they are always on the latest platform.”
Both Microsoft and Amazon are constantly innovating, so it is difficult to say which one will come out on top. However, there’s no doubt that Microsoft Azure and AWS will have a huge impact on the future of technology.
If you have chosen Azure after reading this article, and you need help from experienced professionals you should definitely check out this Azure management service.
