Who Should You Choose, and Why?

✋ Stick with your principal cloud provider

If you are currently embedded in the Azure or AWS ecosystem for other reasons, there is very little reason to store your data on the other provider. It adds unnecessary complexity and both are similarly expensive for the raw cost of storing data.

🤔 Strongly consider Azure Blob Storage over Amazon S3 if

• You use MBCS file formats or need Azure’s more durable object storage, which promises 16 9’s of durability in its Geo-Redundant Storage tier (GRS).
• You want to use storage types that automatically replicate your data cross-region.

📝 Other Notes

• Both platforms do exceptionally well compared to specialized storage providers in “eventing” (e.g., triggering AWS Lambda or Azure Functions off of storage events).
• On Amazon S3, you can also replicate your data cross-region, but it's a feature that needs enabling and can double your raw storage cost.
• Besides tiers, Azure has more varied types and versions of storage compared to AWS.
  

• The data stored in the Azure GRS tier that is replicated to other regions is only available to you in a failover state.
• Azure's Geo-redundant Storage (GRS) only replicates your data in a SINGLE zone of two different regions, whereas Azure's Geo-zone Redundant Storage (GZRS) replicates within 3 zones in the primary region and 1 in the secondary region.
• Azure Blob Storage Archive requires a minimum retention period of 180 days for files.

Product Information

• Azure Storage Redundancy

Pricing Pages

• Amazon S3 Pricing
• Azure Blob Storage Pricing

Other

• Amazon S3 Documentation
• Amazon S3 Customer Case Studies
• Azure Blob Storage Documentation

Louis-Victor Jadavji (or "LV") is a recognized leader in the cloud services industry. He's helped 50+ digital native companies like ModusBox, Later, and NS1 choose the right cloud stack for their applications. His work has been featured in Forbes (30 Under 30 All-Star), HuffPost, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and Inc. Magazine.