Mar 31, 2017

Can Azure Cloud Overtake Amazon's AWS: Offering Microsoft Insights

Azure vs aws cloud

Azure market share take over...

The speculation that Azure Cloud could eventually overtake Amazon's AWS is growing louder among experts, even though just two and a half years ago this seemed unlikely. However, the recent missteps regarding the AWS outage, plus Microsoft doubling down on their own commitment to its Cloud platform in the last 12 months, has some rethinking their earlier position. 

While AWS still has four times the business that Azure has, Azure is no slouch when it comes to the market share that it holds alongside AWS. Plus Azure grew twice as fast (111%) in 2016 compared to AWS. 

Another move that will likely bolster confidence in Microsoft's potential customer base is the announcement that Azure Government Cloud has been "approved to handle the Department of Veterans Affairs’ most sensitive data." This means that the VA has issued what they call a FedRAMP High Authority to Operate (ATO) because Azure meets their requirements for security and compliance. The next likely step, as the VA attempts to modernize their systems and make usage more customer friendly for veterans, is to use the cloud storage for a variety of applications.

Investor's Business Daily declared recently that "Azure cloud computing platform is gaining ground as an alternative to Amazon Web Services." Microsoft's advantage may come from the fact it's "doing especially well with large enterprise customers because it offers products that span on-premise and cloud environments." Although it does look like a big win for Microsoft in this area wouldn't come overnight - it's more of a long-haul commitment given the size of AWS customer base, and the fact it has an advantage of several years worth of experience over the others in this market.

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