January 18, 2022

Comparing AWS and Azure Services

By Muhammad Marakkoottathil Cloud Computing & Services, Multicloud 0 Comments

This blog compares Key foundational cloud services offered by Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services

Compute Services

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)	Virtual Machine	Virtual servers allow users to deploy, manage and maintain OS and server software
Autoscaling	Virtual Machine Scale Sets	Allows to automatically change compute capacity

Containers and container orchestrators

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
ECS (Elastic Container Service	Container Instances	Container services on the cloud
EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Services)	AKS (Kubernetes Services)	Deploy orchestrated containerized application with Kubernetes
App Mesh	Service Fabric Mesh	Fully managed service that enables developers to deploy microservices

Serverless Architecture

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
Lambda	Functions	Run code to build services instead of pre-provisioning in advance

Database Service

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
RDS	SQL MySQL PostgreSQL MariaDB	Managed Relational database
Aurora	SQL serverless	Serverless relational DB
DynamoDB	Cosmos DB	NoSQL/Document
ElastiCache	Cash for Redis	Distributed caching service for database

Networking

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)	Virtual Network	Private Network segmentation in the cloud
NAT GW	Virtual Network NAT	Provide Out-bound internet connectivity
VPN Gateway (VGW)	VPN Gateway	VPN service to connect on-prem (Site to Site)
Route 53	DNS, Traffic Manager	DNS services, DNS based routing
Direct Connect	ExpressRoute	Dedicated Reliable Network connectivity
NLB (Network Load Balancing)	LB (Load Balancer)	Layer 4 (TCP, UDP) load balancing service
ALB (Application Load Balancer)	Application Gateway	Layer 7 load-balancer
VPC Endpoint	Private Endpoint	Provide Private SaaS connectivity
Cloud Front	Azure CDN	Provides Content Delivery Network

Security, Identity, and access

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
IAM	Active Directory	Allow users to securely control access to services and resources
MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)	Azure Active Directory	Multi-factor encryption
S3 key management	Storage Service Encryption	Encryption service
Cloud HSM	Key Vault	Provides manage, create and control encryption keys
Web Application Firewall	Web Application Firewall	Protect from common web exploits
Direct Connect	ExpressRoute	Dedicated Reliable Network connectivity
NLB (Network Load Balancing)	LB (Load Balancer)	Layer 4 (TCP, UDP) load balancing service
ALB (Application Load Balancer)	Application Gateway	Layer 7 load-balancer
VPC Endpoint	Private Endpoint	Provide Private SaaS connectivity
Cloud Front	Azure CDN	Provides Content Delivery Network
Shield	DDoS Protection service	Provides protection from DDoS
Certificate Manager	App Service Certificate	Allows customers to create, manage and consume certificate

Storage and backup

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
S3	Blob Storage	Object storage service
EBS (Elastic Block Storage)	Managed Disks	Block storage service
Elastic File System (EFS)	Files	File-based storage services
Storage Gateway	StorSimple	Integrates IT with cloud storage and disaster recovery
Snowball	Data Box	Petabyte to exabyte-scale data transport

Web Applications

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
Elastic Beanstalk	App Service	Managed hosting platform providing easy to use services for deploying and scaling web applications and services
CloudFront	Content Delivery Network	A global content delivery network solution

End-user Computing

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
Workspace and AppStream	Azure Virtual Desktop	Manage virtual desktop and application

Hybrid Cloud Platform

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
Outposts	Stack	Hybrid cloud platform

Automation

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
CloudFormation	Resource Manager	Automate frequently repeated IT task
OpsWorks (Chef based)	Automation	Template-based automation

Management and Governance

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
Trusted advisor	Advisor	Advice on best practices and optimum configuration
Cloud Trail	Activity log	Provides various logging services
Cloudwatch	Application Insights	Provide performance monitoring

Messaging and Event

AWS Service	Azure Service	Description
SQS (Simple Queue Service)	Queue Storage	Provides a managed message queuing service
SNS (Simple Notification Service)	Service Bus	Event and notification services
Kinesis	Event Hub	Fully Managed real-time data ingestion service

Hope this blog was able to gave a quick comparison between Azure and AWS services. For more information on various architecture and related discussion please refer to the data center networking & security section. Happy Learning

About Author

Muhammad Marakkoottathil(MM)

Expert in the field of SDN, cloud computing, virtualization, active-active data center design & migration. Passionate about helping organizations to achieve their digital transformation objectives with strong 15+ years of experience in design, deployment, and managing heterogeneous network solutions across the industry verticals. Major Industry Certifications: Cisco CCIE, CCDP, VMware VCAP-NV_DESIGN, TOGAF, ITIL, NUTANIX NCSE, Google Cloud Architect, Azure Fundamentals More info please visit my page @ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/contactmm/