Running head: REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS
Report Evaluating AWS and Azure Providers
For BallotOnline Senior Management
Student name
Student ID
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 1
Executive summary
The main purpose of this report is to compare the offerings from two cloud providers which are
AWS and Azure and provide a recommendation for the best provider for BallotOnline. This will
be done by carrying out some research such as networking and auxiliary services in the cloud,
trends in the cloud, best practices, and migration issues, and architectures of cloud deployment. A
comparison of the two service providers will be done and then provide the best company for
BallotOnline. The intended audience is the senior management of BallotOnline who will
spearhead the cloud migration to the recommended service provider
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 2
Comparison of architecture deployment feasibility
AWS and Azure architecture
For both Azure and AWS environments, the basic architecture for cloud servers is
already present such as cloud servers, storage, and security. However, there are some features
present in AWS such as load balancing and elastic load balancing which improve the efficiency
of the server as well as application. AWS has the Amazon S3 (Simple storage service) which
provides a simple web service interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data
any time anywhere on the web. A unique feature with AWS is the auto-scaling feature which can
dynamically scale the web application fleet on-demand to handle changes in traffic
For Azure architecture, it runs on a massive collection of servers and networking
hardware which in turn hosts a complex collection of applications that control the operations and
configurations of the software and the virtualized hardware on these servers. This powerful
architecture makes it easy for users since they do not have to spend time maintaining and
upgrading computer hardware since Azure takes care of this behind the scenes (Madhuri &
Sowjanya, 2016).
Considering the two cloud providers, it seems that they are both powerful and have the
best features for BallotOnline but looking at the features closer, Azure seems better in terms of
the features. For example, they store three backups of the customer’s data in three different
locations in the data center and three other remote backups in a remote data center which is not
the case with AWS. With Azure, it is also possible to integrate with Active directory which can
supplement the existing access and identity capabilities. It also gives the DNS improved security,
worldwide reach, and centralized management which could be beneficial to BallotOnline.Below
is the proposed architecture for BallotOnline
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 3
In the proposed diagram above, there is an internet gateway and a firewall for securing entry for
the application servers. The application is then load balanced to direct requests to application
servers based on server use and round robin queuing. Auto scaling is used to handle additional
load on volume voting days. Between the master database server and application server, a NAT
gateway is placed to ensure that it is only trusted traffic gets in. the database servers have master
and slave with private network connection for replication and also for purposes of
synchronization to make sure that there is fault tolerance. In the diagram, two datacenters have
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 4
been included which are in west coast and the other one in east coast. This will increase the rate
of availability and disaster recovery. BallotOnline will also be performing regular maintenance to
ensure they are up to date
Implementing BallotOnline business requirements.
BallotOnline being a company that provides online voting solutions, one of the best features it
should possess is security and performance. This means that the company should not have
downtimes and the risks for security compromise should be almost equal to zero. This means that
between Azure and AWS, we need to find the provider with the best security and the company
with the best performance and backup. Looking at AWS performance, there are some appealing
features such as load balancing and elastic load balancing features which improve efficiency, In
term of storage and backup, AWS is effective for data which needs to be accessed as block
storage and requires persistence beyond the life of the running instance, such as database
partitions and application logs (Đorđević, Jovanović & Timčenko, 2014) In terms of
BallotOnline, the most important thing is assurance for availability of data and high
performance. In terms of Microsoft Azure, there is improved backup and disaster recovery
capabilities with built in integration. Also the fact that the provider stores data in three different
backups is an added advantage. Azure also provides robust protection against threats such as
DDoS attacks and network breaches. Microsoft Azure can easily meets the business requirements
for BallotOnline due to their advanced performance, storage and backup capabilities
Availability and ease of use of cloud services required by BallotOnline
BallotOnline needs to have a cloud solution that is secure and supports all the operations needed.
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 5
This means that there will be a need for an application that will be used to access the database in
the service provider. These are services that are offered by both AWS and Azure. With AWS, one
of the best things that I came across was that they allow the customer to choose their preferred
operating system, web application platform, and much more. Their platform makes it easier to
load any service or software that a customer wants. This in return makes it easier to migrate from
existing platforms easier and eases the deployment of new ones. Apart from flexibility, you also
have the option of affordability. The application will have an authorization and authentication
mechanism to ensure those accessing the database in the cloud are only the authorized users.
This is one step towards data security and ensuring that there are data confidentiality and
integrity.
With Azure, it is also easier to create and globally deploy applications that are compatible with
all popular web and portable platforms. Azure also can get the current insights on how the cloud
network is performing so that one can take action to resolve slowdowns, bottlenecks or service
failures
Support for application migration and monitoring.
In terms of monitoring, Microsoft Azure comes with integrated health monitoring and alert
capabilities. This can help in instant knowing of issues or outages that are impacting the
business. Microsoft also offers discounts for migrating their existing apps to Azure which
represents even more saving opportunities. On the other hand, AWS is also helping thousands of
organizations including enterprises such as Coca Cola and Samsung successfully migrate the
significant workload to the cloud. Migration to AWS includes moving any workload from an on-
premises environment, hosting facility, or other public clouds. AWS has been proved to move
workloads.
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 6
Comparison of ease of deployment
Capabilities for deploying web applications using the PHP language and MySQL database.
When it comes to deploying a web application using PHP language and MySQL database on
AWS and Azure was easy after I tried to open an account. From the AWS console, I clicked
Elastic Beanstalk and then on Create New Application. I gave a name to my web application and
clicked the ‘click’ button. I then clicked the web server environment and specified the new
environment properties. I checked on the web application on the Elastic Beanstalk and it was
green which meant that the health was okay. I found this process very easy and fast. I also did the
same thing on the Azure platform but the process was long but the result was just the same
(Microsoft Azure, 2019). Arguably I would prefer AWS due to the short process and ease of use.
Compare ease of use of user interfaces, portals, and management consoles.
The portal for Azure is designed for continuous availability and resiliency. In Azure, you can
choose the default menu for the portal. It can act as fly out panel or a docked one. With Azure,
you can choose to use graphical user interface or even command line tools. You can build,
manage, and monitor everything from simple web apps to complex cloud deployments. On the
other hand, AWS ElasticWolf Client Console is a client side application for managing AWS
cloud resources with an easy to use graphical user interface. ElasticWolf is designed to work
with all AWS regions including the AWS GovCLoud region. In addition, it integrates easily with
the AWS command line interface (CLI) tools so that you can use it and the Command Line
Interface together.
Compare POC environment deployment times.
Looking at Azure, Azure supports various languages and integrates with the existing on premise
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 7
environment. The POC services for Azure reduce time to create, test, provision and deploy
applications to the cloud. From platform as a service through solutions of data science to internet
of things, the POC services service for Azure enables one to make key decisions for the business
in the cloud. On the other hand, AWS would help to discover value from solution by providing
you with AWS credits to support a proof of Concept or access to consulting offers from AWS
competency (Amazon Web Services 2019). In this case, Azure provides a clear explanation for
POC compared to AWS
Comparison of costs
Pricing plans available, costs of servers, and services.
On demand instance pricing
Type of VM AWS on
demand hourly
in $
Azure on
demand houry
in $
AWS on
demand/GB
RAM in $
Azure on
demand /GB
RAM in $ Standard 2
vCPU w Local
SSD
0.133 0.100 0.018 0.013
Standard 2
vCPU no local
disk
0.100 0.100 0.013 0.013
Highmem 2
vCPU w Local
SSD
0.166 0.133 0.011 0.008
Highmem 2
vCPU no local
0.133 0.133 0.009 0.008
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 8
disk Highcpu 2
vCPU no local
disk
0.085 0.085 0.021 0.021
Discounted cloud instance pricing
Type of VM AWS annually
in $
Azure annually AWS annual
/GB RAM
Azure
annual /GB
RAM Standard 2
vCPU w Local
SSD
867 508 116 64
Standard 2
vCPU no local
disk
622 508 78 64
Highmem 2
vCPU w Local
SSD
946 683 63 43
Highmem 2
vCPU no local
disk
850 683 56 43
666 543 178 136
From the above comparisons, it is clear that the charges from Azure are better compared to AWS
by a great margin. There are better discounted rates for standard, Highmem and high cpu
compute instances
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 9
Conclusions and recommendations
There are good offers in both Azure and AWS and they can both fit for BallotOnline In terms of
navigation, it was easier to navigate in AWS and also create POC deployment in AWS
environment. Azure works very well with windows based systems but BallotOnline due to its
ease of use and graphical user interface, In terms of cost, Azure is far much better compared to
AWS due to its less charges in various types of virtual machines. Also in terms of architecture
and ease of deployment, Azure proved to be the best. It is therefore necessary that BallotOnline
adopts Azure for their cloud migration
References
Amazon Web Services (2019). Retrieved from https://aws.amazon.com
Đorđević, B. S., Jovanović, S. P., & Timčenko, V. V. (2014, November). Cloud Computing in
https://aws.amazon.com/
REPORT EVALUATING AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS 10
Amazon and Microsoft Azure platforms: Performance and service comparison. In 2014
22nd Telecommunications Forum Telfor (TELFOR) (pp. 931-934). IEEE.
Madhuri, T., & Sowjanya, P. (2016). Microsoft Azure v/s Amazon AWS cloud services: a
comparative study. International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering
and Technology, 5(3), 3904-3907.
Microsoft Azure (2019). Retrieved from https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/
REPORT ON THE EVALUATION OF AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS
Report on AWS and Azure Service Providers
a
Senior Management at BallotOnline
Name of the student
Identification of a student
EVALUATION OF AWS AND AZURE PROVIDERS REPORT 1
a brief summary
The major goal of this paper is to compare the services provided by two cloud providers.
AWS and Azure, and make a recommendation for the best BallotOnline provider. This will be beneficial.
be done by carrying out some research such as networking and auxiliary services in the cloud,
trends in the cloud, best practices, and migration issues, and architectures of cloud deployment. A
comparison of the two service providers will be done and then provide the best company for
BallotOnline. The intended audience is the senior management of BallotOnline who will
spearhead the cloud
