Cloud computing is now a dominant part of just about any business. With the global public cloud computing market reaching $258 million in 2019, hosting applications and data in the cloud are rapidly displacing all other hosting solutions because of the dependability and security of the cloud-based solutions.
Let’s Start With the Market Leader
Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the pioneer of cloud computing, holds a 32% market share and is considered the leading cloud vendor today. AWS accounts for 13% of Amazon’s sales, while it continues to expand its market share globally in countries like China, the UK, Germany, and Japan.
AWS hit upon the idea of cloud hosting so it could add a more flexible way of increasing resources. Even during the eCommerce peak season sales, the company realized that the server hardware was underutilized. That was the beginning of the AWS cloud solution. The idea was to deliver a service wherein other businesses could “rent” the use of resources from the server farm and scale their operations and application requirements accordingly.
There are plenty of businesses that have migrated to the AWS framework. Instantly recognizable brands include Netflix, Nasa, Expedia, Slack, and Samsung. Although the cloud infrastructure industry is already spending $55 million as of 2017, the figures have now broken new barriers of $80 million this year.
So What About Microsoft’s Azure?
Microsoft Azure; is a cloud computing service for building, testing, deploying, and managing application services through Microsoft-managed data centers. In contrast to AWS, Azure also has several companies under its belt: Apple iCloud, Pixar, eBay, Travelocity, and Boeing.
Azure began as the project Project Red Dog and was released the project later as Azure on the 1st of February, 2010. The company cashes in this potential in the cloud industry thanks to AWS. Azure dash to develop and capture as much market as possible.
The next few moves Azure makes confirm its strategy of expansion. Since it was aware of the direct competition, the only way forward was to open the playing field for other web application developers to join.
Popular Features of Azure
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Hybrid Stack
Azure provides a hybrid option known as Azure Stack, Hybrid SQL Server. The point of this hybrid solution is to overcome the complexities startups face in setting up cloud-based operations, which is not as straightforward as working with other hosting options.
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Integration and Intuition
Microsoft already has several products out there in the market. So it’s easier for companies to integrate their email inbox, office documents, and related business components with Azure’s infrastructure. So plugging Azure into this existing ecosystem makes it easier for companies to integrate without facing resistance and migration complexities.
Azure has a more intuitive platform to welcome users of all skill sets. Compared to AWS, which often overwhelms the user with complex jargon. Thus, popular opinion about Azure among startup owners has been very positive, and the users can go straight to setting up their. -
Enterprise Solution
A lot of companies opt for multi-vendor cloud hosting. This means they benefit from budget-friendly options while bypassing potential price hikes, DDoS attacks, and vendor-related server issues.
With that being said, these companies miss out on enterprise deals. Larger companies that can afford an enterprise agreement get many additional deals and features thrown into the contract from Microsoft. This helps in selling top-tier packages that the company can maintain.
Azure makes Bold Moves.
Notice that AWS gives a year’s free with limited services. Azure imitates the same marketing strategy with $200 in credit. A company that puts out such a marketing strategy is making a bold statement to take on competition against the big dog, which means Azure is ready to take up the heat from AWS.
The moves Azure has made are similar and bold competitive intent. For instance, the architecture first limited to Microsoft products (.net) widened their cloud architecture scope for open source technology. In addition, like AWS, Microsoft has 12 Microsoft Azure certifications, which are classified into three levels: Fundamental, Associate, and Expert. These certifications focus on building skills and knowledge related to the particular market job roles.
Reeling into Artificial Intelligence
To bring out more artillery to compete against AWS, Azure became the first to start dipping its toes into Artificial Intelligence. Last month in July, Microsoft revealed its latest work in AI translation technology. In addition, they demonstrate the results of holoportation; through this technology, Microsoft can capture 3D models of any subject and reconstruct them globally in real time.
Azure Corporate’s Vice President, Julia White, put on the HoloLens 2 headset and demonstrated the holoportation. What’s more interesting about this demonstration is how the demonstration shows the ability of this technology to translate what she was saying into a different language while maintaining her speech cadence and pattern. Azure aims to stay on top of its game with this AI development and concretize its market position among Cloud architecture providers.
In a nutshell
- AWS is the pioneer in cloud hosting, but Azure cashed right after.
- Azure and AWS marketing campaigns are strikingly similar.
- Azure provides intuitive and simple PaaS for Cloud along with many features.
- Under the umbrella of Microsoft, Azure as an enterprise is a sweet deal.
- Azure has been working on AI with text-to-speech and Azure’s Speech Services.
- Google Cloud hosting has also joined the race in the hope of becoming the cloud computing industry leader.
Author bio:
Salman is a software engineering graduate and digital marketer by profession. He works as a Digital Marketer Strategist at Cloudways. He loves to create value for the Startup community & help entrepreneur reach their goal. He is a big cricket fan and plays AAA games in his free time.
