Microsoft Workloads are best run on AWS!
If you are a Microsofty, you are now aghast. In a state of absolute shock? You read with utter disbelief. Why not Azure you ask? Surely, like meets like. Surely MICROSOFT workloads belong on the MICROSOFT cloud platform; AZURE. If you don’t want to be quite as dramatic, in the least, you look at the statement through a lens of extreme doubt.
Microsoft workloads for a long time, have formed the basis of enterprise business. They continue to do so. However, the birth of cloud technology has led to enterprise organisations moving traditional ‘data-centre residing’ Microsoft workloads to the cloud. When it comes to enterprise cloud providers, the market has several players: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud etc. As an IT leader you can decide which cloud platform you wish to move your designated Microsoft workloads to. The position I take is that running your Microsoft workloads on AWS is not merely an option. In many circumstances, it may even be a better option.
Now you might not be evaluating which cloud provider to move your Microsoft workloads to. Rather, you are considering whether migrating your Microsoft workloads out of your datacenter into a cloud environment is even right for you.
Cloud Migration Helps Create Significant Savings
Operating your Microsoft workloads in an internal data centre environment has never been a cost-effective strategy. The investment of buying, storing and maintaining hardware for legacy systems, as well as hiring the professionals to administer these systems, has long been an expenditure of prerequisite for businesses.
The cloud computing era ushered in an absolution. The migration of applications to the cloud allows businesses to move away from legacy operating environments, while boosting efficiency, mitigating risk, enhancing scale and saving money.
With a cloud operating environment and the resulting business model, you only pay for the resources you use. Furthermore, you can scale up and down based on your business needs.
The flexibility allowed by cloud environments allows for growth with reduced risk and guesswork when calculating computing needs. AWS also caters for a bring your own licenses (BYOL) policy. This allows businesses to save money on existing workloads moving to AWS. According to an IDG research survey, approximately 39% of survey respondents cited the cost savings from cloud adoption to be substantial.
Seamless Deployment and Management of Windows Server Applications
AWS launched Windows Server based instances back in 2008. As a Gold Certified partner of Microsoft, AWS has worked closely with Microsoft to make Windows workloads available on the AWS Cloud. Microsoft and AWS share mutual customers running Windows workloads on AWS today.
AWS has worked on making Microsoft native to the AWS cloud. Customers globally, have successfully deployed Microsoft applications on the AWS cloud. AWS has succeeded in creating an opportunity for customers to deploy all aspects of Microsoft onto the AWS cloud. AWS not only runs IT applications like SharePoint and Exchange, but also fully managed database services to run SQL servers through Amazon RDS and Amazon EC2. For developers, AWS offers a flexible development platform with EC2 for Windows Server and easy deployment and scaling with AWS Elastic Beanstalk, which helps scale and deploy applications built on .NET, Java, PHP, node.js, Python, Ruby, and Docker.
The Benefit of High Availability and Strong Security
AWS’ infrastructure is truly ‘global.’ With 69 zones across 22 geographical regions, AWS offers high availability across the world. Each AWS Region has multiple Availability Zones and data centers. The scale allows for fault tolerance and extremely low latency. Couple this with 99.95% availability and you have robust maintenance of mission critical data, systems that are highly available and an infrastructure that well and truly protects you from catastrophic failure.
Just as AWS approaches infrastructure with a multilayered thought process, so too, it approaches Security with a multilayered thought process. Business applications running on the AWS platform are kept highly secure through End-to-end encryption, AWS Direct Connect, and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). Information is kept protected through dedicated connectivity to security groups and access control lists.
Whether you subscribe to a hybrid cloud approach or run your entire enterprise operations on AWS, you have access to a cost effective, efficient and state of the art approach to running Microsoft workloads.
Examples of Microsoft workloads on AWS
There is little doubt about AWS’ capability as a cloud platform. Be it scalability, flexibility, security, ease of use or innovation, AWS sets the benchmark as a cloud player. At a functional and technical layer, what is not as widely known is AWS’ vast capability to run a broad and diverse range of Microsoft workloads.
Take SQL server workloads for instance. Tests conducted by AWS and third parties suggest that Microsoft SQL Server performs better on AWS than on Microsoft Azure. Whether you assess technical performance or price to performance measures, Microsoft SQL Server on AWS outperforms Microsoft SQL Server on Microsoft Azure.
AWS is versatile in its handling of diverse workloads. AWS is also more proficient at running a wide-ranging assortment of workloads than most in the industry believe. Furthermore, the total cost of ownership with AWS makes a case of monetary efficiency too. If you are a technical decision maker, it makes sense to consider AWS for the running of your Microsoft workloads. If you are a financial decision maker, there is a compelling financial reason to do so.
If you are a software developer or leading the software development function which primarily employs .Net based development, it is obvious to think that Microsoft Azure is the ideally suited home to Microsoft .Net developed applications. However, upon conducting an astute comparison of AWS and Azure, developers would realise that the AWS .Net developer experience; including .Net Core and .Net Developer Center, helps ensure rapid deployment, cost savings and a seamless experience.
If the SQL Server or .Net examples do not have you convinced that AWS is a suitable home for your Microsoft workloads, please consider that AWS has a fully integrated and supported Windows file system. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server allows easy and seamless migration of Windows-based applications requiring file storage to AWS. FSx provides a high-performance environment to support a vast range of Windows-based applications.
AWS’ track record, capability and expertise
There are a plethora of reasons as to why AWS is the cloud provider of choice for organisations all over the world. This applies to Microsoft-centric organisations too. Many don’t realise that AWS has an established track record of running Microsoft workloads in its cloud environment. Not only is AWS experienced in the Microsoft landscape, the backdrop is run by experts, and provides all the tools and functionality that Microsoft clientele need.
AWS’ experience in the Microsoft workload sphere has made it one of the most popular cloud destinations for Windows users. More than 57% of Windows instances in the public cloud are deployed on AWS.
Whether you are deploying Microsoft workloads (or any other workloads for that matter), AWS has the features that the IT team needs. Be it rapid deployment or migration to robust and in-depth compliance, a host of tools, License Manager etc., AWS provides the scope to build and migrate a large number of varied workloads.
So why consider PolarSeven for migrating your Microsoft Workloads to AWS?
At PolarSeven, we are an experienced cloud services provider. We are a digital native firm. We were born in the cloud era. It is what we do, and we do it well.
As a provider of cloud computing services to businesses, with over seven years of experience under our belts and AWS Advanced Consulting Partner status to our name, we know a thing or two about cloud.
As specialists in migrating Microsoft workloads to the AWS cloud, both in terms of services and applications, I believe that AWS is the best destination for your Microsoft workloads. In fact, some of the earliest work PolarSeven did was deploying Microsoft workloads on AWS. If you wish to discuss how we can help you plan for and eventually migrate your Microsoft workload into the cloud, please reach out to me.