Cloud
Azure
Microsoft's cloud, strongest where organisations already run Windows, Active Directory and Office — deep enterprise integration, hybrid support and compliance certifications. It is often the default in Microsoft-centric and regulated shops. Feature parity with AWS is close, so the choice usually follows existing vendor relationships and in-house skills.
Purpose
Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, competing head-to-head with AWS across compute, storage, data and AI. Its distinctive strength is continuity with the Microsoft estate — Active Directory becomes Entra ID, Windows Server licensing carries over, and Office/365 integration is native.
When to Use It
Organisations already running Windows, .NET and AD adopt it with the least friction; its hybrid story (Azure Arc, on-prem integration) and compliance certifications make it common in government and regulated industries. AKS is a mainstream managed Kubernetes.
Trade-offs
Service-for-service parity with AWS is close, so the decision usually follows existing vendor relationships, enterprise agreements and in-house skills rather than raw capability. Its portal and naming churn draw criticism, and multi-cloud knowledge does not transfer one-to-one.
Implementation
The mapping from AWS: EC2→Virtual Machines, S3→Blob Storage, Lambda→Azure Functions, RDS→Azure SQL/Database services, IAM→Entra ID with RBAC. Organise resources into resource groups, define infrastructure with Bicep or Terraform, and govern spend with budgets and policy from the start.