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Firstly let me say that AWS and Azure are in many ways equivalent - there’s nothing you could build in one you couldn’t build in the other. But from the POV of

Firstly let me say that AWS and Azure are in many ways equivalent - there’s nothing you could build in one you couldn’t build in the other. But from the POV of an enterprise AWS requires you to have serious full-time AWS gurus in-house or rely on expensive external consultants. You probably need a whole team just for cost optimisation. Whereas most of what you actually want in Azure can probably be done by your existing Windows guys that you have anyway, its layered services are much more mature and aligned with typical enterprise use cases, especially if you have existing workloads you want to migrate. AWS maybe has the edge for a pure greenfield play but those are rare in the big corporate space. Google cloud is nowhere, they are not a player in this space at all.

teddyuk 7y ago
This is spot on
peterbozso 7y ago
Ex-MS employee, Azure consultant here. I don't have any experience with AWS or GCP other than some very trivial, getting started stuff. But I really don't think what you say is true. While most of the stuff in Azure has a very familiar feel and intuitive interface (either on the UI or the API level) if you are coming from a MS background, there are still glaring exceptions and you certainly need experienced/certified people to build something that's ready for serious production usage. I agree though that Azure has a very nice and happy path for most enterprise cloud migration and hybrid cloud stories.
- heavenlyblue 7y ago
  >> you certainly need experienced/certified people to build something that's ready for serious production usage As with everything else really...
- goatinaboat 7y ago
  Yes you always need skilled people but the path from on-prem Windows guy to Azure guy is much shorter and easier than the path from say on-prem Red Hat guy to AWS guy.
  - fuzzy2 7y ago
    I don’t think so. If you’re just spinning up a Windows VM then yes, your Windows guy can take it from there. But that’s not cloud computing. That’s just a “server”. To really use Azure with secured applications using databases, logging, storage, auto-scaling, ... I don’t see how being a Windows guy makes Azure easier to grasp. It’s mostly not even Windows you’re interacting with.
    - peterbozso 7y ago
      Exactly this.
    - goatinaboat 7y ago
      I don’t see how being a Windows guy makes Azure easier to grasp. It’s mostly not even Windows you’re interacting with. Because you’re already familiar with the Microsoft ecosystem and they have invested a lot in making it a smooth transition. If you know C# or Powershell or use Visual Studio and watch Channel 9 and know your way around MSDN etc etc etc it’s all the same. Whereas AWS is a cold start and uphill in comparison.

teddyuk 7y ago

This is spot on

peterbozso 7y ago

Ex-MS employee, Azure consultant here. I don't have any experience with AWS or GCP other than some very trivial, getting started stuff. But I really don't think what you say is true. While most of the stuff in Azure has a very familiar feel and intuitive interface (either on the UI or the API level) if you are coming from a MS background, there are still glaring exceptions and you certainly need experienced/certified people to build something that's ready for serious production usage. I agree though that Azure has a very nice and happy path for most enterprise cloud migration and hybrid cloud stories.

heavenlyblue 7y ago
>> you certainly need experienced/certified people to build something that's ready for serious production usage As with everything else really...
goatinaboat 7y ago
Yes you always need skilled people but the path from on-prem Windows guy to Azure guy is much shorter and easier than the path from say on-prem Red Hat guy to AWS guy.
- fuzzy2 7y ago
  I don’t think so. If you’re just spinning up a Windows VM then yes, your Windows guy can take it from there. But that’s not cloud computing. That’s just a “server”. To really use Azure with secured applications using databases, logging, storage, auto-scaling, ... I don’t see how being a Windows guy makes Azure easier to grasp. It’s mostly not even Windows you’re interacting with.
  - peterbozso 7y ago
    Exactly this.
  - goatinaboat 7y ago
    I don’t see how being a Windows guy makes Azure easier to grasp. It’s mostly not even Windows you’re interacting with. Because you’re already familiar with the Microsoft ecosystem and they have invested a lot in making it a smooth transition. If you know C# or Powershell or use Visual Studio and watch Channel 9 and know your way around MSDN etc etc etc it’s all the same. Whereas AWS is a cold start and uphill in comparison.