AWS vs Azure: Which Cloud Platform is Better?

According to CRN, AWS is the leading Cloud service provider, with a market share of over 31%, but Azure is catching up quickly, with nearly 24%. This comparison is essential in 2024, as both the Cloud giants are rapidly expanding and there is no turning back.

Check out this video on AWS vs Azure to enhance your knowledge:

AWS vs. Azure: An Overview

AWS CEO, Andy Jassy said, ‘Cloud is the new normal’ .Well, clearly, it is a necessity for IT organizations of the day.Gartner predicts that by 2027, over 70% of organizations will be using cloud platforms to accelerate their business activities, up from less than 15% in 2023. AWS leads cloud in 2024 with 50.1% market share among the top 10, with over 2.38 million businesses using it. Azure follows closely with a 23% share, which has created a lot of buzz in the cloud industry.

With this cloud surge, job opportunities have also been increasing rapidly for professionals who have been working on cloud services or even who want to explore cloud-related AWS projects in organizations. You can get these opportunities by getting certified by the respective providers.

AWS vs. Azure: Databases

Amazon Web Services (AWS):

• Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service): AWS provides managed relational database services, including options for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and SQL Server. Resiliency, scaling, and maintenance are handled by the AWS platform.
• Amazon Aurora Serverless: A serverless option for MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, where you’re billed per second for actual compute usage.
• DynamoDB: A NoSQL key-value database.

Microsoft Azure:

• Azure SQL Database: Managed relational database service equivalent to AWS RDS. It supports SQL Server and offers serverless options.
• Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and Azure Database for MariaDB: Similar to AWS RDS, these services provide managed relational databases.
• Azure Cosmos DB: A globally distributed NoSQL database that supports multiple data models, including document, key-value, graph, and more.

AWS vs. Azure: Computation Power

Amazon Web Services (AWS):

• EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): AWS has a basic computational service that offers on-demand, flexible computing. EC2 instances enable users to scale compute resources up or down according to their requirements.
• AWS Lambda: A serverless compute service that allows users to run code in response to events without managing servers.
• Autoscaling: AWS offers autoscaling capabilities to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances based on demand.

Microsoft Azure:

• Azure Virtual Machine: Similar to EC2, Azure VMs provide scalable compute resources. Users have options available from various VM sizes and configurations.
• Azure Functions: A serverless compute service like AWS Lambda, allowing event-driven execution of code.
• Azure Autoscale: Automatically adjusts the number of VM instances based on workload on the users.

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AWS vs Azure: Storage Capacity

Amazon Web Services (AWS):

• Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service): It offers scalable, secure, and reliable storage for all data needs, and efficiently handles both unstructured and structured data.
• Elastic Block Store (EBS): Offers block-level storage volumes for EC2 instances and acts like a virtual hard drive for cloud instances on AWS.
• Glacier: A low-cost archival storage solution.

Microsoft Azure:

• Azure Blob Storage: Similar to S3, it offers scalable object storage for unstructured data.
• Azure Disk Storage: Provides managed disks for VMs.
• Azure Archive Storage: Cost-effective storage for infrequently accessed data

AWS vs. Azure: Machine Learning Modeling

Amazon Web Services (AWS):

• Amazon SageMaker: A comprehensive ML platform that covers model development, training, and deployment. It offers efficient model management and scalability options.
• Amazon Comprehend: For natural language processing (NLP) tasks like sentiment analysis and entity recognition.
• Amazon Rekognition: Handles image and video analysis, including object detection and facial recognition.

Microsoft Azure:

• Azure Machine Learning: Provides model development, deployment, and monitoring. It supports various ML frameworks and allows easy deployment across different Azure environments.
• Azure Cognitive Service: Includes services like Text Analytics, Speech to Text, and Image Analysis.
• Azure Custom Vision: Enables custom image classification models.

Importance of Certifications

Over the years, the boom of Cloud has turned into a blessing for developers as they constantly search for better job opportunities and more projects. Meanwhile, with more professionals entering the field, companies started seeking certified ones. Certiport states that 91% of hiring managers report that certification is an important criterion for hiring. Certifications validate your experience and knowledge in your area of expertise.

Now that you know the importance of certifications in getting better opportunities, you may be thinking about which one to go for among the top two industry leaders, i.e., AWS and Azure.

To get an answer to this question, in this AWS vs. Azure blog, we will first discuss AWS certifications, their benefits, and the most sought-after AWS certifications available, and then will move on with the details of Azure certifications.

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Difference between AWS and Azure

Before we discuss the details of AWS and Azure certifications and other intricacies of the two technologies, let us take a look, in brief, at the difference between AWS and Azure. Below is a table highlighting the basic differences between the two technologies: 

AWS Certifications

In 2013, AWS launched its global certification program. The first certification offered was AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Level. AWS has come a long way ever since, and now in total, it offers 12 certifications in 4 different categories: Foundational, Associate, Professional, and Specialty.

Now, let’s discuss some of the benefits you can get by attaining an AWS certification:

Benefits of AWS Certifications

• Salary hike: The average annual salary of an AWS Solutions Architect Associate in India, according to PayScale, is around ₹12 Lakh per annum. And with experience, it can go above ₹25 LPA. In the United States, these professionals get increments of more than US$12K per annum if they are certified by Citrix and Linux, as per a report published on Forbes. If they have some years of experience in Cloud Computing, then these numbers can go even higher.
• Validation: AWS certifications are one of the most trusted certificates among employers around the world. Thus, the certified AWS professionals can get better opportunities in these organizations as AWS certifications validate their experience and knowledge in the subject matter.
• Badge: Once you are AWS certified, you are given a badge, which you can utilize to attend the AWS summit events, but not just that, it can also influence employers on platforms like LinkedIn.

Top AWS Certifications

As we have discussed, there are a total of 12 AWS certifications you can go for. All of these certifications have equal merit, depending on the subject matter. Though it is often recommended to attain multiple certifications since already numerous organizations have set up AWS, and they need professionals who can oversee multiple AWS operations.

However, when we talk about the AWS Certification salary, the following two certifications are the highest-paying ones.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner are in the list of top 15 highest-paying certifications prepared by Forbes.

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Azure Certifications

Although the Azure market share is less compared to the AWS market share, its growth has been phenomenal in the past few years. According to a Forbes report, Azure has been catching up fast with AWS when it comes to the number of enterprises utilizing it. Almost 95 percent  of Fortune 500 companies are currently utilizing Azure services. Azure’s exceptional hybrid cloud features and its easy-to-use and install on-premises features have been attracting more and more IT organizations across the world toward it.

Thus, Microsoft has been constantly adding more Azure role-based certifications. Currently, it offers 16 Azure certifications. Focusing on Azure’s role-based certifications will validate your subject matter expertise and can offer you great career opportunities.

Various Azure certifications are mentioned in the image below:

Along with the growth of Azure, Azure certifications are also becoming beneficial with time. Now, we will move further and discuss the benefits of Azure certifications:

Also, check out Intellipaat’s blog on Azure Career Opportunities.

Benefits of Azure Certifications

• Salary hike: In India, an average Azure Certified Solutions Architect earns around ₹26 LPA and if you are an experienced one it can go up to a huge sum of 32 LPA as per Glassdoor. In the United States, on the other hand, a Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals IT professional earns US$126K per annum on average as per a survey conducted by Global Knowledge.
• Validation: Proven expertise will give you access to more and more opportunities in organizations that are running on Azure and its features. Even companies that are going to implement Azure features will need experts who can help them. In this scenario, certified professionals will be prioritized when it comes to hiring as they are expected to have both expertise and deep knowledge.
• .NET platform: The .NET platform is a cross-platform, open-source framework from Microsoft that includes tools, libraries, and programming languages for development. So, when you get trained for cracking an Azure certification, you will also be able to learn how to integrate .NET with a company’s infrastructure.

Top Azure Certifications

Just like AWS, Azure also has two of its certifications listed among the top 15 highest-paying certificates. These are:

As you can see, one is of the fundamental level and the other is of the associate level, i.e., there are different stages of certification as per requirements. However, it does not conclude that one of these two certificates will surely open gates for more opportunities. Most employers trust professionals with a wide range of knowledge and expertise.

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Comparison between AWS and Azure Certifications

In this section, we will be distinguishing between AWS certifications and Azure certifications based on several factors.

• Salary: As we have already discussed the salaries of AWS vs Azure certified professionals, we can see that there is a higher chance for AWS certified professionals to get paid more as compared to Azure certified professionals.
• Scope: While AWS is dominating the cloud market, Azure’s growth has been constantly increasing. So, the opportunities that AWS vs Azure certifications can offer you will not differ much. Organizational requirements will also play a substantial role in this criteria.

AWS vs. Azure: Which is Better for Your Career in 2024?

Now, we come to the most crucial question that you might often ask yourself, AWS or Azure which certification should I go for?

First, let us tell you this, there is no exact answer to this question. The answer varies from person to person according to various factors such as your dream job, organizational requirements, desired income, and more.

If your dream job requires an AWS skill set, then you should focus on AWS certifications. If the organization you are working in is utilizing Azure and you want to stay there to add more value to the organization, then you should opt for Azure certifications.

If you want to earn higher wages in the IT industry, then it is preferred that you go for cross-certifications. But, what are they? In the next section, we will discuss cross-certifications and how they open up potential paths for better career growth.

Read about the difference among AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud in our blog now!

Azure vs. AWS: Reliability

Azure and AWS are both highly reliable cloud computing platforms that offer secure and scalable infrastructure to their users. Azure provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee for its virtual machines and also offers a service level agreement (SLA) for its storage services, which guarantees 99.9% availability for storage accounts that have more than one replication copy.

Additionally, Azure provides a range of backup and disaster recovery options, including Azure Site Recovery, which enables users to replicate and recover their applications and data in the event of an outage or disaster. AWS also provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee for its EC2 instances and a range of other services, such as S3, DynamoDB, and RDS.

AWS’s global infrastructure is designed to provide high availability and fault tolerance, with multiple availability zones in each region and automatic failover capabilities. Additionally, AWS offers a range of backup and disaster recovery options, including Amazon Glacier and AWS Backup.

Overall, both Azure and AWS are highly reliable cloud computing platforms that offer secured infrastructure and backup options to ensure high availability and uptime for their users. However, the specific reliability and uptime requirements may vary depending on the specific needs and use cases of each organization or user.

Why are Cross-Certifications Important?

Cross-certification in cloud computing means professionals are skilled in using different cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.Companies can choose the best tool for the job as different cloud providers have their strengths. By having a team with diverse skills, companies can pick the most cost-effective, powerful, or feature-rich option for each task.Avoid being stuck with one provider: Just like relying on a single wrench limits what you can fix, relying on only one cloud provider can restrict your options. Cross-certified professionals can adapt and use the best cloud service for their specific needs.

More opportunities for professionals who have a wider range of skills makes you more valuable in the job market. Companies are looking for people who can navigate different cloud environments.

AWS vs. Azure: Market Share

The cloud market has three major players—namely Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Apart from these, there are other cloud players in the market that are established names but their presence is not as strong, especially in the global market, as the three major players.

Out of the three leading cloud service providers, AWS is the most widely adopted cloud provider with a market share of 31%  percent. It is closely followed by Azure with a market share of 24 percent and Google Cloud with a market share of 11 percent. Apart from these global players, Alibaba and Salesforce have a market share that is around 4 and 3 percent respectively.

In its recent reports, Amazon announced a profit of  $24.2 billion in sales during fourth-quarter 2023.What further adds a feather to Amazon’s cap is its revenue that grew by 13 percent. Furthermore, Microsoft shared that its Intelligent Cloud category’s revenue increased by 30  percent to US$25.9 billion.

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AWS vs. Azure: Job Opportunities

In the recent past, Microsoft Azure  has made inroads against competitors, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), in terms of job availability and interest. However, recent reports tell a different story; while the job searches for AWS have dropped, job seekers’ interest for Azure has risen by 15.39 percent. The share of job postings AWS and Azure have increased by 232.06 percent and 302.47 percent respectively.

AWS vs. Azure: Pricing

To help you get a clear understanding of AWS and Azure pricing, we have curated a list of popular sizes of AWS instances and Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) and compared their prices for OS such as Windows. 

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Conclusion

Cloud is going to be more prevalent in the future than it has ever been. Cloud professionals will have ample opportunities in the IT world very soon. In this light, certifications will validate their credentials and knowledge, and thus they will be approved as subject matter experts. AWS vs. Azure certifications may go back and forth in upcoming years. So, you may have to choose a certification that fulfills your and your organization’s requirements. If you are just starting out with Cloud Computing, then Intellipaat’s Cloud Computing Courses are just for you.