AWS vs Azure Services Comparison

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AWS vs Azure Services Comparison

Last updated on July 25, 2023

AWS vs Azure Services Comparison Cheat Sheet

To help you learn the different Microsoft Azure services, we’ve come up with this AWS vs Azure services comparison. If you already have some background in AWS (or cloud computing in general) either through work experience or AWS certifications then you won’t have a hard time learning Microsoft Azure.

The following shows the related AWS and Azure services based on function and capabilities. Each AWS service in this list has a similar service in Azure. 

Compute

Amazon EC2 vs. Azure Virtual Machine

 

Amazon EC2

Azure VM

Description

A virtual server that supports both Linux and Windows operating systems.

A Linux-based / Windows-based virtual server that you can provision.

Configurations

EC2 configurations are called instance types.

Virtual machines configurations are called VM series

Images

AMI or operating systems are stored in a root volume. 

VM Images or operating systems are stored in an OS disk.

OS Volumes

Root volume type: General purpose SSD (gp2), Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 and io2), and Magnetic (standard

OS disk type: Standard HHD, Standard SSD, and Premium SSD

Storage Volumes 

Persistent storage volumes for your data using Elastic Block Storage volumes.  

Persistent storage volumes for your data using Azure Disk. 

Encryption

Encrypt EBS volumes with  AWS KMS.

Encrypt OS and data disks with Azure SSE.

Script 

Add a script that will be run on an instance boot called user-data.

Add a script that will be run into the virtual machine while it is being provisioned called custom data.

Security

Security group enables you to create security rules to allow the traffic going to your instances.

NIC network security group  enables you to create security rules to allow or deny the traffic going to your virtual machine. 

Monitoring

Monitor the performance of your EC2 instances with Amazon CloudWatch.

Monitor the performance of your virtual machines with Azure monitor.

Network

All EC2 instances are launched in an isolated network called VPC.

All virtual machines are launched in an isolated network called VNet.

Other Compute Services Comparison

  • AWS Batch and Azure Batch – provision tens, hundreds, or thousands of compute resources based on the job requirements.
  • AWS Auto Scaling and Azure VM Scale Sets – increase or decrease the number of your resources as demand changes.
  • AWS Lambda and Azure Functions – a serverless computing platform to run code in response to events.
  • Amazon ECS, AWS Fargate, and Azure Container Instances – run containerized applications without managing any servers.
  • Amazon ECR and Azure Container Registry – a repository to store and manage container images.
  • Amazon EKS and Azure Kubernetes Service – simplify the management of your containerized applications across a cluster of nodes.

Storage

Amazon S3 vs. Azure Blob

 

Amazon S3

Azure Blob

Description 

Object storage service of AWS

Object storage service of Azure.

Components

S3 is composed of Buckets and objects.

Blob storage resources: Storage Account, Container, and Blob

Max File Size 

The maximum file size for each object is 5 TB.

The maximum file size for each blob: Block (190.7 TiB), Append (195 GiB), and page (8 TiB).

Max Storage Size

Bucket capacity is virtually unlimited.

Single blob container size is the same as the maximum storage account capacity.

Tiers

S3 tiers: Standard, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Intelligent – Tiering, Glacier, Deep Archive

Blob tiers: Hot, Cool, and Archive.

Durability

Data durability across multi-AZ is 11 9’s.

Data durability across LRS (11 9’s), ZRS (12 9’s), GRS, and RA-GRS, and RA-GRS (16 9’s).

Replication 

Copy objects across S3 buckets in different AWS Regions using Cross-Region Replication. 

Copy block blobs between a source and destination account using Object Replication.

CDN 

Cache content from a static website with Amazon CloudFront.

Cache content from a static website with Azure CDN.

Encryption 

Encrypt objects using Client-Side and Server-Side Encryption.

Encrypt storage account using Microsoft- and Customer-manage keys.

Endpoint 

Endpoint:

<tutorialsdojo> .s3. <region> .amazonaws.com

Endpoint:

<tutorialsdojo> .blob.core.windows.net

Other Storage Services Comparison

  • Amazon EBS and Azure Disk – a disk storage to store your data and operating system.
  • Amazon EFS  and Azure Files – create and configure file systems and share your files across multiple resources.
  • AWS Storage Gateway and Azure StorSimple – simplify storage management by using a hybrid cloud storage solution.
  • AWS Snow Family and Azure Data Box – transfer petabytes and exabytes of data to the cloud.

Database

Amazon RDS vs. Azure SQL

 

Amazon RDS

Azure SQL

Description

Configure and scale a relational database in the cloud.

Fully managed and intelligent relational database in the cloud. 

DB Engines 

Database engines: Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MariaDB, and Microsoft SQL Server  

Database Engine: Microsoft SQL Server

Serverless

The serverless database is called Amazon Aurora Serverless.

The serverless database is called Azure SQL Database serverless,

Templates 

DB templates are Free Tier, 

Dev/Test, and Production.

DB templates are Basic, Standard, and Premium.

Performance

DB performance: Standard, Memory-Optimized, and Burstable Classes

DB performance: General Purpose, Hyperscale, and Business Critical

High Availability 

Eliminate a single point of failure with Multi-AZ deployment.

Eliminate a single point of failure with zone redundant configuration.

Secondary DB

Create readable secondary databases in the same or different region with read replicas 

Create readable secondary databases in the same or different region with active geo-replication

Backup

Automated backups retention period up to 35 days.

Monitoring 

Monitor the metrics of your database with Amazon CloudWatch

Monitor the metrics of your database with Azure Monitor.

Endpoint 

Endpoint: 

rds. <region> .amazonaws.com

Endpoint: 

<server_name> .database.windows.net

Other Database Services Comparison

  • Amazon DynamoDB and Azure Cosmos DB – a database model for document and key-value stores.
  • Amazon Redshift and Azure Synapse Analytics – a cloud data warehouse service used for analytics and business intelligence tools.
  • Amazon ElastiCache and Azure Cache for Redis – an in-memory-based caching service to improve the performance of your existing database.
  • AWS DMS and Azure DMS – automate the migration of your data from multiple databases.

Networking

Amazon VPC vs. Azure VNet

 

Amazon VPC

Azure VNet

Description

A virtual network service in AWS where you can launch your resources.

An isolated network service in Azure to run your VMs and applications.

Default

Default VPC in each region. 

Default VNet is not existing.

Reserved  IP address 

AWS reserves 5 IP addresses within each subnet.

Subnets

Subnets are from /28 to /16.

Subnets are from /29 to /8.

Subnet Types

Subnets types: Private, Public and VPN-only

Subnets types: Private, Public and Gateway 

Static IP address

You can assign a static IPv4 to your resources with Elastic IP address 

You can assign a static IPv4 and IPv6 address to your resources.

Security 

Secure your network using NACLs and Security Groups.

Secure your network using NSGs and ASGs.

Gateways

Types of gateways: Internet Gateway, Egress-only, NAT Gateway, Virtual Private Gateway, and Customer Gateway

Types of gateways: VPN Gateway and ExpressRoute Gateway 

Route Table

By default, subnets are automatically associated with the main route table.

Route tables are not automatically associated with your subnets.

Peering 

A VPC peering enables communication between two VPCs.

A VPC peering enables the communication between virtual networks. 

Other Networking Services Comparison

  • AWS VPN Gateway and Azure VPN Gateway – secure connection from your on-premises network to your cloud private network.
  • Amazon Route 53 and Azure DNS – helps you manage your DNS records.
  • AWS Direct Connect and Azure ExpressRoute – dedicated private connection between the cloud provider and your data center.
  • AWS Exam Readiness Courses
  • Amazon ELB: NLB and Azure Load Balancer – layer 4 load balancer for TCP and UDP protocols.
  • Amazon ELB: ALB and Azure Application Gateway – load balancer for layer 7 traffic (SSL termination, cookie stickiness, and round-robin routing).

Security and Identity

AWS Identity & Access Management (IAM) vs. Azure Active Directory & RBAC

 

AWS IAM

Azure AD & RBAC

Description 

Create and manage users, 

Groups, roles, and policies in your account. 

Create users and group with Azure Active Directory.

MFA

Secure your account by activating MFA.

Secure your account by activating MFA in Azure AD.

Groups

IAM groups allow you to organize a large number of IAM users.

Azure AD allows you to assign a large number of users to groups.

Roles

Delegate administrator roles using identitybased policies.

Delegate administrator roles using Azure AD.

Access 

Access resources only in the AWS console

Azure AD supports hybrid identity to access resources in the cloud or on-premises.

Monitoring

Monitor the status of your user accounts with a credential report.

Monitor the security and usage patterns of your environment with Azure AD reports and monitoring.

Domain 

Unique account sign-in page URL: https://<My_AWS_Account_ID>.signin.aws.amazon.com/console/

The domain name of Azure AD tenant:

<Azure_Tenant>.onmicrosoft.com

Permission 

Grant users temporary permission using IAM roles.

RBAC enables you to grant users certain roles to access specific resources.

Policy 

A collection of permission written in JSON is called IAM policies.

A collection of permissions written in JSON is called role definition in RBAC.

Multiple roles

You can assign multiple permissions to an IAM user.

You can assign multiple roles to a resource group with RBAC.

Other Security and Identity Services Comparison

  • AWS WAF and Azure WAF on Application Gateway – protects web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities.
  • AWS Shield and Azure DDoS Protection – protect your resources from denial of service attacks.
  • AWS KMS and Azure Key Vault – create and manage the keys used to encrypt your data.
  • AWS Trusted Advisor and Azure Advisor – provides recommendations in operational excellence, security, performance, reliability, and cost.

References:

https://aws.amazon.com/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/aws-professional/

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Written by: Jon Bonso

Jon Bonso is the co-founder of Tutorials Dojo, an EdTech startup and an AWS Digital Training Partner that provides high-quality educational materials in the cloud computing space. He graduated from Mapúa Institute of Technology in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in Information Technology. Jon holds 10 AWS Certifications and is also an active AWS Community Builder since 2020.

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