When building applications in the cloud, choosing the right virtual machine service can significantly impact performance, cost, and operational efficiency. Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Machines stand as industry titans, each offering robust infrastructure-as-a-service capabilities but with distinct approaches and strengths.
Our comprehensive comparison breaks down over 100 dimensions across both services, helping you navigate the complexities of cloud infrastructure and identify the best fit for your specific requirements. Let’s explore how these cloud computing powerhouses stack up against each other.
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AWS EC2 | Azure VMs |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Characteristics | ||
| Service Definition | Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) – Resizable compute capacity in the cloud | Azure Virtual Machines – On-demand scalable computing resources |
| Launch Year | 2006 | 2010 |
| Parent Cloud Provider | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Microsoft Azure |
| Virtualization Type | Xen and Nitro (KVM-based) | Hyper-V |
| Console Interface | AWS Management Console | Azure Portal |
| Instance Types and Compute Options | ||
| General Purpose Instances | T4g, T3, T2, M6g, M5, M4, A1 | B-series, D-series, A-series |
| Compute Optimized Instances | C6g, C5, C4 | F-series |
| Memory Optimized Instances | R6g, R5, R4, X1, X1e, z1d | E-series, M-series |
| Storage Optimized Instances | D2, I3, H1, I3en | L-series |
| GPU Instances | P3, P2, G4, G3 | N-series |
| FPGA Instances | F1 | Not directly available |
| Bare Metal Instances | Available | Available |
| Max vCPUs per VM | 448 vCPUs (High Memory instances) | 416 vCPUs (M-series) |
| Max Memory per VM | 24 TB (High Memory instances) | 11.4 TB (M-series) |
| ARM-based instances | Available (Graviton processors) | Limited preview as of 2023 |
| Operating System Support | ||
| Windows Server Support | Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022 | Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022 |
| Linux Distribution Support | Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, CentOS, etc. | Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, CentOS, Debian, CoreOS, etc. |
| Custom OS Images | Supported via AMIs (Amazon Machine Images) | Supported via custom VM images |
| Windows Desktop Support | Windows 10/11 via WorkSpaces (separate service) | Native Windows 10/11 Multi-session support |
| Container Support | Docker, Kubernetes | Docker, Kubernetes |
| Pricing Models | ||
| On-Demand Pricing | Pay per hour/second with no commitments | Pay per hour/minute with no commitments |
| Reserved Instances | 1 or 3-year terms with upfront payment options | 1 or 3-year reserved instances |
| Spot Instances | Bid on unused capacity (up to 90% discount) | Azure Spot VMs (up to 90% discount) |
| Dedicated Hosts | Physical servers dedicated to a single customer | Azure Dedicated Hosts |
| Savings Plans | Available (compute commitment-based) | Azure Savings Plan for compute |
| Minimum Billing Increment | Per-second billing (60-second minimum) | Per-second billing (60-second minimum) |
| Free Tier Offering | 750 hours of t2.micro instance per month for 12 months | B1S instance free for 12 months plus monthly credit |
| Hybrid Benefit | Limited license mobility options | Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server and SQL Server |
| Cost Management Tools | AWS Cost Explorer, Budgets, Trusted Advisor | Azure Cost Management, Advisor |
| Enterprise Agreement Discounts | Available for enterprise contracts | Available through Microsoft Enterprise Agreements |
| Storage Options | ||
| Instance Store (Ephemeral) | Physically attached, lost on stop/hibernate | Temporary disk, lost on deallocation |
| Block Storage | EBS (Elastic Block Store) | Azure Managed Disks |
| SSD Options | General Purpose SSD (gp2/gp3), Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1/io2) | Premium SSD, Standard SSD |
| HDD Options | Throughput Optimized HDD (st1), Cold HDD (sc1) | Standard HDD |
| Max Volume Size | 64 TiB (io2 Block Express) | 32 TiB (Ultra Disk) |
| Max IOPS | 256,000 (io2 Block Express) | 160,000 (Ultra Disk) |
| Max Throughput | 4,000 MiB/s (io2 Block Express) | 2,000 MiB/s (Ultra Disk) |
| Disk Encryption | AWS EBS encryption | Azure Disk Encryption |
| Storage Tiering | Not native to EBS (requires data movement) | Not native to managed disks |
| Disk Snapshot Capability | EBS Snapshots to S3 | Azure Snapshots to Blob Storage |
| Networking Features | ||
| Virtual Network | Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) | Azure Virtual Network (VNet) |
| Maximum Network Bandwidth | Up to 100 Gbps (certain instance types) | Up to 200 Gbps (certain VM series) |
| Private IP Addressing | Supported within VPC | Supported within VNet |
| Public IP Addressing | Elastic IPs (static) and auto-assigned public IPs | Static and dynamic public IPs |
| Enhanced Networking | Elastic Network Adapter (ENA), SR-IOV | Accelerated Networking |
| Security Groups | Instance-level stateful firewall rules | Network Security Groups (NSGs) |
| VPN Connectivity | AWS Site-to-Site VPN, Client VPN | Azure VPN Gateway, Point-to-Site VPN |
| Direct Connect | AWS Direct Connect | Azure ExpressRoute |
| Load Balancing | Application, Network, Gateway, and Classic Load Balancers | Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway |
| IPv6 Support | Supported | Supported |
| Security Features | ||
| Instance/VM-level Firewall | Security Groups | Network Security Groups |
| Host Firewall | Network ACLs | Application Security Groups |
| DDoS Protection | AWS Shield (Standard and Advanced) | Azure DDoS Protection (Basic and Standard) |
| Identity Management | AWS IAM | Azure Active Directory, RBAC |
| Encryption at Rest | EBS encryption, KMS | Azure Disk Encryption, Key Vault |
| Encryption in Transit | TLS for API endpoints and VPN options | TLS for API endpoints and VPN options |
| Hardware Security Module | AWS CloudHSM | Azure Dedicated HSM |
| Security Assessment | Amazon Inspector | Azure Security Center |
| Privileged Access Management | AWS Systems Manager Session Manager | Azure Privileged Identity Management |
| VM Login Protection | Key pairs for Linux, passwords for Windows | SSH keys for Linux, passwords for Windows, Azure AD login |
| Management and Monitoring | ||
| Management Console | AWS Management Console | Azure Portal |
| Command Line Interface | AWS CLI | Azure CLI, PowerShell |
| API Access | RESTful API | RESTful API |
| Native Monitoring | Amazon CloudWatch | Azure Monitor |
| Logs Management | CloudWatch Logs | Azure Log Analytics |
| Metrics Collection | CloudWatch Metrics | Azure Metrics |
| Dashboard Creation | CloudWatch Dashboards | Azure Dashboards |
| Auto Scaling | EC2 Auto Scaling | Virtual Machine Scale Sets |
| Resource Tagging | Supported (key-value pairs) | Supported (key-value pairs) |
| VM/Instance Scheduling | Instance Scheduler, Lambda functions | Azure Automation, Logic Apps |
| High Availability and Disaster Recovery | ||
| Availability Zones | Multiple physically separate zones within a region | Multiple physically separate zones within a region |
| Regions | 27+ regions worldwide | 60+ regions worldwide |
| Instance Placement | Placement Groups (cluster, spread, partition) | Availability Sets, Proximity Placement Groups |
| SLA for Single Instance | 99.5% (when using EBS) | 99.9% (for single instance with premium storage) |
| SLA for Multiple Instances | 99.99% (across multiple AZs) | 99.99% (with availability sets/zones) |
| Automated Backups | AWS Backup, custom scripts | Azure Backup |
| VM Recovery | Manual recovery from snapshots | Azure Site Recovery |
| Cross-Region Replication | Available via custom setup | Azure Site Recovery |
| Health Monitoring | Instance Status Checks | Azure Service Health |
| Maintenance Notifications | Supported | Supported |
| Performance | ||
| Compute Performance | Varies by instance type | Varies by VM series |
| Instance/VM Bursting | Burstable instances (T-series) | Burstable VMs (B-series) |
| Max Disk Throughput | Up to 4,000 MB/s (io2 Block Express) | Up to 2,000 MB/s (Ultra Disk) |
| Max IOPS | Up to 256,000 IOPS (io2 Block Express) | Up to 160,000 IOPS (Ultra Disk) |
| Performance Optimization | Enhanced Networking, Placement Groups | Accelerated Networking, Proximity Placement Groups |
| GPU Performance | Up to 8 NVIDIA V100/A100 GPUs | Up to 8 NVIDIA V100/A100 GPUs |
| CPU Options | Intel, AMD, AWS Graviton (ARM) | Intel, AMD |
| CPU Optimization | CPU core and thread specification | CPU core and thread specification |
| Performance Monitoring | CloudWatch, CloudWatch Application Insights | Azure Monitor, Application Insights |
| Performance Diagnostics | CloudWatch, third-party tools | Azure Performance Diagnostics |
| Integration with Other Services | ||
| Container Orchestration | Amazon ECS, EKS | Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Container Instances |
| Serverless Integration | AWS Lambda | Azure Functions |
| Database Services | RDS, DynamoDB, etc. | Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, etc. |
| Storage Services | S3, Glacier, EFS | Blob Storage, Files, Data Lake |
| DevOps Integration | CodeDeploy, CodePipeline | Azure DevOps |
| IoT Integration | AWS IoT | Azure IoT Hub |
| AI/ML Integration | SageMaker | Azure Machine Learning |
| Migration Tools | AWS Migration Hub, Server Migration Service | Azure Migrate |
| API Gateway | Amazon API Gateway | Azure API Management |
| Queue Services | SQS, SNS | Service Bus, Queue Storage |
| Additional Features | ||
| Instance Metadata Service | Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) | Azure Instance Metadata Service |
| Instance User Data | Supported | Supported (Custom Script Extension) |
| Hibernation Support | Supported for select instance types | Limited support |
| Resource Quotas | Service Quotas (adjustable) | Subscription limits (adjustable) |
| Compliance Programs | SOC, PCI DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, GDPR, etc. | SOC, PCI DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, GDPR, etc. |
| VM Import/Export | VM Import/Export | Azure Migrate |
| Dedicated Hardware | Dedicated Hosts, Dedicated Instances | Dedicated Hosts, Isolated VMs |
| Image Builder | EC2 Image Builder | Azure VM Image Builder |
| Capacity Reservation | On-Demand Capacity Reservations | Azure Reserved VM Instances |
| Specialized Hardware | FPGA instances, Inferentia (ML acceleration) | FPGA VMs (NPU), Azure Stack |