A recent Microsoft commissioned study that found the company's Azure cloud platform is faster and cheaper than Amazon Web Services (AWS). In response, Amazon's market-leading cloud company has now responded to the study. As you may expect, AWS refutes the findings and say Microsoft's data is flawed.
As a recap, Microsoft's study conducted by GigaOm and published in December compared costs of SQL Server databases on Microsoft Azure against AWS competitor EC2. According to the study, Azure was “up to 3.4 times faster and up to 87 percent less expensive” than AWS in that scenario.
In a rebuttal published last week, AWS general manager of enterprise and benchmarking Fred Wurden, argued against the study.
Wurden claims the study is not valid because “Microsoft and GigaOm use configurations of AWS that generate weaker performance, they have not been transparent on how it was run, and the benchmarks are not reproducible.”
It is worth pointing out that Amazon is not alone in casting doubt over the study. Corey Quinn, CEO of Duckbill Group and an expert in cloud pricing structure tweeted that the study was “worthless”. Quinn's assessment was based on the obvious vested interest Microsoft has in the cloud market.
When it comes to assessing affordability across Azure and AWS, Microsoft's Windows has become a determining factor. Simply, most organizations use Windows so understanding how much it costs to run the platform in a cloud environment can gauge which provider is cheaper.
JEDI Cloud Contract
Microsoft and Amazon are currently locked in a cloud legal battle over the Pentagon's $10 billion JEDI contract.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains desperate to stop Microsoft from working on the $10 billion JEDI cloud contract the company won late last year. In its latest move, AWS has filed to take a temporary restraining order stopping Microsoft from beginning the project. The company has taken Microsoft to court over the contract.