Cloud computing has taken the center stage in the IT world in recent years. If you are a budding developer with big ambitions to catch on the latest trends and technologies, you might have already felt the impetus to jump into the bandwagon of cloud computing and learn one of the leading cloud platforms. But since there are some equal and formidable alternatives like amazon AWS web development services and Microsoft Azure, you are undecided about taking the right move. AWS vs Azure: the question is, which of these two cloud platforms is to learn first? Well, this is why we are here to present a comparative understanding of the two platforms.

Understanding Some Facts 

If you are beginning your journey with cloud computing and if you are not quite sure about the right platform to step forward, both AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Microsoft Azure should have equal appeal as far as market reach and popularity are concerned. But when it comes to the job market, both platforms have serious differences as well. 

Burning Glass, the company that analyses job postings in different skills and categories around the world, recently predicted the growth rate for Azure development jobs for the decade to come will be 38.4%. The same Burning Glass report predicted an overwhelming 45.6% growth rate for the next 10 years for jobs demanding AWS expertise. 

Let’s understand one big thing in this respect. In spite of the differences between the two skills and their corresponding job and career opportunities, a developer can easily switch from Azure to AWS and vice versa at a later stage of the career. Following this same principle, we can actually find many AWS developers to have Azure development skills and vice versa. 

Multiplicity Of Numerous Technologies To Begin Learning 

Both platforms are hugely multifaceted with too many technologies, IDEs, developer tools, operating systems, databases, and shells to deal with. So, as a developer, you need to begin by choosing your preferred expertise area. You need to choose the languages and IDEs that you can find it easy to be with. 

You can have key four areas where you can interact with Azure or AWS. First is the web project that allows configuring and using Azure or AWS through browsers.

At the very next stage, you have the command-line that allows configuring and controlling cloud resources.

Thirdly, you have plugins for IDEs that help to make interactions with cloud resources by typing commands and by clicking menu options. The last but not the least of all these options are SDKs that allow making interactions with cloud resources through programs.

AWS vs Azure: Which Is More Preferred In The Job Market? 

Basically, on the basis of your target job role and employment ambition, you figure out whether to learn Microsoft Azure or AWS. You need to figure out the companies and the employers you wish to start your cloud development career with and accordingly should choose the platform preferred by them.

For example, if the target job role and your wished-for employees prefer Azure, the market trend around AWS will hardly matter. So, it is basically the job you want to get should be the deciding factor for choosing one cloud certification over others. 

With AWS certification you can qualify for cloud developer job roles in 29,000 positions compared to 16,000 positions for Azure. Apart from these figures, there are too many job positions requiring cloud certifications either from Azure or AWS or Google Cloud Platform. 

AWS vs Azure: Comparing The Popularity 

When it comes to popularity, AWS wins the race with a really considerable margin. In spite of Azure’s share of one-third of the market, AWS at least has 10% more market share. Around 41% of web apps and services only use AWS as a single cloud service. AWS also enjoys a lead with top companies and organizations like NASA to small companies having their first footprint in the cloud scene. 

On the other hand, Azure consistently made its position as the second-biggest cloud service provider clear and continued to serve many of the world’s leading companies and their cloud-based processes. Having one-third of the market share it has a very dominant presence. 

AWS vs Azure: Understanding The Challenges of Learning

Both AWS and Microsoft Azure platforms offer great value propositions and key attributes that make them stand out from the rest and from each other. You need to learn the intricacies and features intently to understand their specific contexts and challenges.  

Try To Be Affectionate With Command Line 

Not every developer and learner are command line experts but when learning cloud skills they may find it irreversible. Well, to make the learning process easier it is noteworthy that the command-line tools can be found right inside shell scripts. Since most small enterprises do computing with the command line, you as a cloud developer need to be versed with the command line scripts. 

Over and above these tools, it is important to understand and learn the basics of cloud technology. All those hundreds of different technologies that are accommodated under AWS or Azure banner won’t help you to learn the cloud fundamentals. You need to start with the basics.

Computing 

Thanks to Cloud technology the developers can quickly establish and spin the new servers responsible for computing. Apart from selecting the required memory and specifying the CPU requirements, you also need to select the operating system for the server.

Disk Space 

Just like computers the servers launched by the cloud service also need a fixed disk space to accommodate system files and the operating system files. You need to mention whether the disk is SSD or magnetic and the total amount of available space.

Additional Storage Space 

Since Cloud services are preferred due to the capability to store and accommodate huge volumes of data, you need to learn about the additional storage capacity and corresponding technologies of these two platforms.

The storage of AWS is called S3 and the same from Azure is called Blob. These storage spaces are completely external and hence they are called additional storage spaces. For accessing the additional storage space different APIs in the code or the shell scripts using the CLIs are used. The Cloud program allows easy offloading and downloading of data as per the requirement. 

Containers

Two leading container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes have already become key parts of cloud platforms. To getting expertise on containers, you need to learn about these containerization technologies separately other than studying cloud platform docs. With containers, you learn to implement serverless technologies. 

Databases

Both the Cloud service platforms, respectively AWS and Azure offer really formidable database capabilities. These two cloud platforms provide multiple database technologies ranging from SQL to NoSQL. 

Conclusion

We just explained the very basic aspects of learning about two major cloud services and their corresponding job opportunities, the building blocks of learning, and the learning curve as well as certifications. Since Cloud is the way to go for most enterprises in the years to come, both AWS and Azure will continue to enjoy the popularity among would-be developers for the sheer career graph and opportunities.

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