AWS EC2 vs Azure: Key Differences and Similarities

As you're deciding between AWS EC2 and Azure for your cloud infrastructure needs, it's essential to understand the key differences and similarities between these two popular services.

AWS EC2 and Azure offer a wide range of instance types to suit various workloads, but AWS EC2 has a broader selection with over 300 types, including specialized instances for high-performance computing and graphics rendering.

One significant difference between the two is their pricing models. AWS EC2 offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, while Azure charges based on the number of vCPUs and memory allocated.

Both services provide a robust set of tools for managing and monitoring your instances, but AWS EC2's CloudWatch service is more comprehensive, offering real-time monitoring and logging capabilities.

Compute and Performance is a crucial aspect to consider when choosing between AWS EC2 and Azure. Both providers offer a wide range of instance types, including general-purpose, memory-optimized, compute-optimized, storage-optimized, and GPU instances.

AWS EC2 provides a broad range of instance types, including T3, M5, C5, R5, and P3 instances, among others. These instances vary in terms of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capabilities.

Azure VMs offer a variety of sizes and series, such as B-series, D-series, F-series, and N-series. Each series is designed for specific workload requirements, offering different combinations of CPU, memory, and storage capacities.

Here is a comparison of the maximum specifications for each provider's VMs:

Both providers group VM types into categories optimized for specific usage. These categorizations include general-purpose, memory-optimized, compute-optimized, storage-optimized, GPU, and high-performance instances.

Images play a crucial role in compute and performance, allowing you to deploy pre-configured virtual machines that include an operating system and supporting software.

Both Azure and Amazon EC2 support the use of machine images, which accelerate your deployment by providing a pre-configured setup. You can choose from proprietary ready-made image configurations or access images developed by third-party vendors through platforms like AWS Marketplace and Azure Marketplace.

You also have the option to create and store your own custom images for private use, giving you the flexibility to tailor your virtual machines to your specific needs.

Azure VMs support a wide range of operating systems, including different versions of Windows Server and Linux distributions. You can select from a marketplace catalog of VM images or create custom images using Azure VM image builder.

Here's a comparison of the operating system options available on AWS EC2 and Azure VMs:

Azure also offers Azure Gallery images, which are pre-configured VM images provided by Microsoft.

Temporary instances are a cost-effective way to access the power of the cloud, with prices up to 90% lower than standard pay-as-you-go rates.

They're perfect for workloads that can be interrupted without losing work, such as tasks that are not time-sensitive or low-priority jobs.

Temporary instances are available on both Amazon and Microsoft cloud platforms, with similar naming conventions and features.

You can control temporary instances when they're running, limit the instance types and machine images available, and access the same performance as on-demand instances when they're running.

Temporary instances are ideal for workloads that benefit from increased compute power when available, such as video rendering.

Here are some key features of temporary instances on AWS and Azure:

Both Amazon and Microsoft have created comprehensive cloud pricing calculators to help you navigate and form an accurate pricing comparison.

These calculators put every product, configurable option, and associated price at your fingertips. You can access the AWS Pricing Calculator and the Azure Pricing Calculator to get started.

Understanding your business needs and the associated cloud products you need will allow you to focus on your situation. This will help you narrow your options and begin to form your cloud pricing comparisons.

Here are the cloud pricing calculators available:

Compute Comparison is a crucial aspect of evaluating cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. AWS EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines are the fundamental building blocks of cloud infrastructure, providing scalable and on-demand computing resources.

Both providers offer a wide range of instance types, including general-purpose, memory-optimized, compute-optimized, storage-optimized, graphics processing (GPU), and high-performance instances. These instance types are designed to cater to specific workload requirements, offering different combinations of CPU, memory, and storage capacities.

AWS EC2 provides instance types such as T3, M5, C5, R5, and P3, while Azure offers B-series, D-series, F-series, and N-series. Each series is designed for specific workload requirements, and both providers allow customization of instance types to meet unique business needs.

The table below lists the up-to-date machine types for both services as of January 2021:

VM technology offers a range of benefits for compute and performance, but it's not without its drawbacks.

AWS EC2 and Azure VM are two popular cloud-based options that have their own set of pros and cons.

AWS EC2 has a wider range of functions for computing and storage optimisation usage, making it a great choice for businesses that need flexibility.

However, it may not be cost-effective for medium to large-scale usage due to itemised costing.

Server maintenance and downtime can also affect availability, which is a major concern for businesses that rely on high uptime.

On the other hand, Azure VM offers a wider range of functions for General Memory and Accelerated/High-Performance usage, making it a great choice for businesses that need high performance.

It also offers cost-effective usage options and high availability, which are major benefits for businesses that need reliability.

However, Azure VM does not have a hibernation mode, which can be a drawback for businesses that need to conserve resources.

Here's a summary of the pros and cons of AWS EC2 and Azure VM:

Ultimately, the choice between AWS EC2 and Azure VM depends on your specific business needs and requirements.

AWS EC2 and Azure both offer robust networking features that allow for flexible and secure deployment of applications. Both platforms provide isolated networking environments based on traffic and security requirements.

AWS EC2 instances can be deployed within Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and subnets, while Azure VMs are organized within Virtual Networks (VNets) and subnets. Each allows for isolation and segmentation of network traffic.

Both platforms offer VPN connectivity options, Direct Connect for dedicated network connections, and different types of load balancers for distributing traffic across instances. AWS offers Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), while Azure offers Azure Load Balancer.

Here's a comparison of load balancing features:

Firewall management is also crucial for securing network traffic. Both AWS and Azure offer centralized firewall management options, including AWS Firewall Manager and Azure Firewall Manager.

Networking is a critical aspect of cloud computing, and both AWS and Azure offer robust networking features to support your applications. With hundreds of thousands of lit fiber optic and undersea cable systems, these cloud platforms deliver high-speed performance, high availability, and strong security.

AWS and Azure have a global network of interconnected data centers that span multiple continents, regions, countries, and locations. This comprehensive network redundancy ensures high fault tolerance and low latency.

AWS has the largest global cloud infrastructure footprint, with 24 regions, 77 zones, 210 network edge locations, and 245 countries and territories. This geographic proximity means data has less distance to travel, reducing latency times.

Both Amazon and Microsoft offer similar cloud-based DNS solutions: Amazon Route 53 and Azure DNS. However, Amazon Route 53 has an edge with three distinct features: geography-based routing, latency-based routing, and DNSSEC signing.

Here's a comparison of AWS and Azure's DNS features:

Both AWS and Azure offer load balancing services that automatically distribute traffic across multiple VM instances to improve performance, fault tolerance, and availability. Microsoft's Load Balancer documentation provides a detailed look at their product offerings.

AWS's Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) offers several features and functionality, including load balancing internal and external traffic, increasing availability by distributing traffic across multiple availability zones, and integrating with AWS Auto Scaling.

Both Amazon EFS and Azure Files support NFS v4, the newer and higher-performing Network File System Protocol.

Amazon EFS has been supporting NFS v4.1 since early 2017, giving users a reliable and high-performing option for file sharing.

Azure Files, on the other hand, only supports NFS v4.1 in preview as of September 2020, indicating that this feature is still in development.

Storage and Security is a top priority for any cloud-based infrastructure. Both AWS and Azure offer robust security features to protect your data and applications.

AWS and Azure provide a wide range of security and identity services, including AWS Secrets Manager and Azure Vault for securely managing sensitive data, and AWS Cognito and Azure Active Directory B2C for secure user identity management.

Encryption is also a key aspect of cloud security. Both AWS and Azure offer encryption by default, both at rest and in transit, using 256-bit AES. They also provide encryption services such as AWS Key Management Service (KMS) and Azure Key Vault to centrally manage encryption keys.

Here are some key storage features to consider:

Both AWS and Azure also offer specialized instances for storage-intensive workloads, such as the I instances for high I/O performance and the Ls-series for high disk throughput and IOPS.

Network-Attached Disks are volumes connected to your VM instance via your cloud provider’s network, delivering cloud-native benefits such as built-in redundancy and disk snapshots.

You can attach multiple instances to a single volume, but the number of instances varies between cloud providers. Amazon EBS allows up to 16 instances, while Azure VHDs limit it to 10 instances.

Both Amazon and Azure offer encrypted disk volumes by default, providing an additional layer of security for your data.

Here's a comparison of network-attached disk features between Amazon EBS and Azure VHDs:

Both Amazon and Azure offer the ability to create and store snapshots of your disk volumes, allowing you to create new volumes at a later date. These snapshots can be used to back up critical workloads and data for failover in the event of system failures.

When you need to store files, you have two main options: Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) and Azure Files. Both services offer simplicity, scalability, and security at their core.

Amazon EFS and Azure Files deliver a fully managed service, allowing you to quickly create and configure file share systems without the burden of deploying and managing the underlying infrastructure. This makes it easy to get started with file storage.

Security is ensured through encryption of data by default, both at rest and in transit. This means your files are protected from unauthorized access.

Both Amazon EFS and Azure Files support NFS v4, the newer and higher-performing Network File System Protocol. However, Azure Files only supports NFS v4.1 in preview as of September 2020, while Amazon EFS has had this functionality since early 2017.

If you need to store large amounts of data, you can use Storage Optimized Instances. These instances are designed for high throughput and I/O performance, making them ideal for applications like big data processing and relational databases.

Here are some key features of Storage Optimized Instances:

Encryption is critical to the protection of your data, regardless of its location. Both AWS and Azure cloud platforms offer your data encryption by default, both at rest and in transit.

Data is encrypted using 256-bit AES, one of the strongest encryption ciphers available. This ensures that your data remains secure and protected from unauthorized access.

AWS Key Management Service (KMS) and Azure Key Vault are their competing encryption services. Both let you centrally create and manage the keys used to encrypt and digitally sign your data.

Both providers' encryption services meet the Federal Information Process Standard 140-2 (FIPS 140-2), which validates that their cryptographic modules meet well-defined security standards.

Here's a quick comparison of the encryption features offered by AWS and Azure:

Firewall Management is a crucial aspect of maintaining the security and integrity of your cloud-based infrastructure. Centralized management allows you to configure and manage firewall rules across all your accounts, applications, instances, and locations.

Amazon's AWS Firewall Manager and Microsoft's Azure Firewall Manager are two popular solutions that enable this centralized management. These tools help you streamline your firewall management, reducing the risk of misconfigurations and security breaches.

You can access a managed firewall service to deploy essential network protection across your cloud-based VPNs quickly. This service centralizes the creation, enforcement, and logging of your application and network connectivity policies.

Here are some popular firewall management solutions: