Why migrate from AWS to Azure?

When companies consider moving workloads to the cloud, the choice typically comes down to two clear market leaders: AWS and Microsoft Azure. According to the 2025 State of the Cloud report, AWS still leads in running larger workloads (53% vs. 50%), yet Azure comes out on top in overall adoption when smaller workloads are included (81% vs. 79%).

The financial results reflect a similar trend. In Q1 2024, AWS reported $25 billion in revenue, while Azure slightly outperformed it with $26,7 billion for the same period. While both cloud providers dominate the market, Azure is now growing at a faster pace thanks to its strong enterprise adoption and the broader Microsoft Intelligent Cloud ecosystem.

This growing trend raises an important question: if your business is already on AWS, what might you gain by migrating to Azure?

From the start of the cloud computing era and growing competition among vendors, AWS has confidently taken the lead and maintained it for years. That prompted other cloud vendors to consider the competitive benefits they could offer their customers to capture a share of the growing market.

The question now is: where does Azure outperform AWS, and why should businesses take notice?

AI is now at the heart of digital transformation, with 83% of organizations already using or experimenting with generative AI, according to the State of the Cloud report. In this race, Microsoft and Azure have emerged as clear leaders.

Microsoft has positioned itself at the forefront of AI innovation. Recently, the company announced its plans to invest a record $30 billion in capital spending in AI during the current fiscal first quarter. These plans are largely driven by the growing returns on its massive investments in artificial intelligence.

Microsoft also secured an exclusive partnership with OpenAI, the creator of market-leading large language models. This partnership provides Azure customers with early access to cutting-edge AI capabilities, including generative AI models, DALL·E for image generation, advanced voice synthesis technologies, and other AI-powered tools. Unlike AWS, which offers strong but more fragmented AI services, Azure provides a more integrated and future-ready foundation for AI-driven workloads.

This trend is reflected in enterprise adoption. According to Yahoo Finance, nearly 60% of CIOs plan to increase their Azure spending in the coming year, and 97% expect to adopt Microsoft’s AI tools. This demonstrates Azure’s leadership in the AI space, as well as the trust enterprises place in Microsoft to deliver next-generation solutions.

Microsoft understands that not every organization wants to or even can move 100% of its infrastructure to a single cloud provider. Real-world scenarios often involve a mix of on-premises systems, private clouds, and multiple public clouds. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 90% of organizations will adopt a hybrid cloud strategy. One of the most urgent challenges in this model, especially with the rise of generative AI, will be ensuring reliable data synchronization across hybrid environments. To address this, Azure offers powerful tools specifically designed for managing complex, hybrid IT landscapes.

At the center of this approach is Azure Arc. It extends Azure’s control plane (Azure Resource Manager) to virtually any infrastructure, including on-premises Windows and Linux servers, virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, and even resources hosted in AWS or Google Cloud. With Arc, businesses can apply consistent policies, security controls, and monitoring across all environments using familiar Azure services like Azure Policy, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and Azure Monitor.

In 2024, Microsoft was once again recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure. This recognition highlights that one of Azure’s core strengths is providing businesses with capabilities to seamlessly operate across hybrid and multicloud environments.

One of Azure’s biggest advantages lies in the Microsoft ecosystem that stands behind it. Azure offers seamless, native integration with widely used corporate tools, including Microsoft 365, Microsoft Entra ID, Dynamics 365, and the Power Platform. So if your company already relies on these solutions, migrating to Azure will give you simpler integration, stronger security, reduced complexity, and lower costs thanks to having everything under one roof.

By contrast, AWS also provides a wide range of integrations, but most of them come through third-party solutions rather than being part of a single, unified ecosystem. This makes Azure particularly attractive for enterprises that want a tightly connected technology environment without the need for multiple external add-ons. For instance, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) handles permissions, but connecting it to productivity tools like Office 365 or Dynamics 365 requires third-party solutions such as Okta or JumpCloud.

At the heart of Azure’s enterprise capabilities is Microsoft Entra ID, a cloud-based IAM service. Entra ID provides native, unified management across Azure on-premises environments, Microsoft 365, and other cloud infrastructure. It’s a single platform that allows you to provision users, enforce security policies, and efficiently and securely manage access.

In contrast, AWS offers its own IAM services, including AWS IAM and Cognito, which are highly flexible but less unified across services. Configuring identity and access management across AWS, third-party applications, and enterprise systems often requires additional setup, custom integration, and ongoing maintenance. These complexities increase both time and cost and raise the risk of misconfiguration.

Azure provides reach and deep integration with key corporate tools and applications like Office 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Visual Studio. This ecosystem allows you to implement complex business features and workflows more smoothly. Thanks to it, Azure developers can focus more on business processes and features rather than worrying about complex relationships between separate services.

A major advantage is Azure DevOps, an integrated set of services covering the entire software development lifecycle. It is used for gathering and analyzing requirements, building artifacts, and deploying them to corresponding services.

In contrast, AWS developers often need to put together multiple separate services to achieve the same functionality. For example:

• Task management might rely on Jira
• Source code management would typically use GitHub or CodeCommit
• Continuous integration and deployment would require CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy, each of which should be configured separately

While AWS provides flexibility, this fragmented setup requires extra effort, time, and cost, and introduces more possibilities for misconfiguration or integration issues.

Most big cloud providers offer free tiers, which can make a big difference, especially for startups, as they can reduce risk in the early stages of product development. While both Azure and AWS offer free tiers, they have different capacities and limitations. For instance:

• AWS offers a free tier primarily for new accounts, which lasts 6–12 months and is limited to approximately $200 in credits. After that, usage incurs standard costs.
• Azure, in addition to a similar initial credit, offers a set of “Always Free” services with ongoing usage quotas, including platform services (PaaS) and a full DevOps toolchain. This allows startups to experiment, build, and iterate without worrying about costs, even after the first year.

Here’s a detailed AWS vs. Azure comparison of services:

Advantage: Azure
Azure gives startups the flexibility to try services beyond the standard free tier or temporarily exceed usage limits to test performance. This allows teams to validate ideas and run experiments freely during the first month, without worrying about cost barriers.

Advantage: Azure
Azure’s “Always Free” PaaS offering (App Service) is especially valuable for MVPs. Businesses can run up to 10 separate microservices or small apps indefinitely without managing a VM. This makes deployments simpler, faster, and better aligned with modern MVP architectures, unlike AWS, where the free tier is limited to a single VM.

Advantage: Parity
Both platforms provide a strong Always Free tier for serverless functions, which is usually more than sufficient for most MVP workloads. This makes either option a solid choice for building event-driven back ends.

Advantage: Azure
Azure’s 1000 RU/s free allowance in Cosmos DB is far more generous and flexible than DynamoDB’s 25 WCUs/RCUs. This enables an MVP to support more complex queries and handle a higher initial user load before costs begin to accrue.

Advantage: Azure
Azure SQL Database offers 250 GB of free storage, compared to just 20 GB with AWS RDS. This provides MVPs with significantly more room to grow and store data before requiring an upgrade, which is crucial for data-driven applications.

Advantage: Azure
Azure DevOps offers a complete, integrated toolkit suite (i.e., repos, boards, pipelines) free for small teams. In contrast, AWS requires stitching together multiple separate services, and its free build minutes are limited and expire after 12 months. With Azure, teams get a fully functional project management and CI/CD system from day one, with no time limit.

This combination of upfront credit, continuous free services, and integrated development tools gives Azure a clear edge for startups and teams focused on rapid hypothesis testing and fast MVP deployment.

One of Azure’s key strengths is its PaaS offerings. Compared to AWS, Azure’s PaaS services are generally more integrated, mature, and ready to use out of the box, which can lead to faster release cycles.

The difference comes from the approaches Azure vs. AWS use. AWS has historically focused on providing developers with maximum customization and fine-grained control over their infrastructure. While giving powerful advantages, this often requires more setup and management effort. Azure, on the other hand, emphasizes ready-made, business-focused services that reduce complexity and allow teams to start building immediately.

With today’s software development trends shifting toward speed, containerization, and rapid delivery, Azure aligns well with modern needs. By relying on Azure PaaS, teams can spend less time on configuration and low-level infrastructure and more time on building features.

If you are considering migration from AWS to Azure, it’s important to remember that most infrastructures are the result of years of gradual evolution. Services and components were added over time to address specific needs or challenges, which makes every setup unique. Because of this, there’s no single migration plan that works for everyone. Each case requires careful analysis and a tailored strategy.

However, there are common patterns and stages that you can follow when moving from AWS to Azure.

The first and most important step in any migration is a thorough assessment of the existing AWS environment. Simply moving infrastructure “as is” without analysis is a common mistake that can result in uncontrolled costs and carry old problems into the new environment.

After completing a detailed technical audit of your software, the next step is to use the Azure Migrate tool. It acts as a central hub for discovery, assessment, and even the migration itself. The tool supports two types of assessments:

• As-is assessment. Replicates current configurations directly. While quick, this approach often leads to over-provisioning and inflated costs in Azure.
• Performance-based assessment. Analyzes actual resource usage (CPU, memory, IOPS) over a certain period. This makes it possible to right-size virtual machines, optimizing performance while keeping costs under control.

Azure Migrate also provides dependency mapping, showing how servers, applications, and resources interact. This ensures you migrate complete systems together, avoiding troubles that can occur if only part of an application is moved.

Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) for Azure outlines several proven migration methodologies, commonly referred to as the “7 Rs”, to help you structure your migration journey. Based on Leobit’s experience, not all seven are equally relevant for AWS-to-Azure migration scenarios.

In the table below, we highlight the approaches that bring the most value in practice, along with their typical use cases when migrating from AWS to Azure.

The choice of the migration strategy depends on your business priorities. However, in practice, most companies combine approaches and apply various strategies to different parts of their infrastructure rather than relying solely on one. According to a Red Hat survey, 47% of organizations plan to replatform applications before eventually refactoring them, while 38% take a staged approach, starting with rehosting, then moving to replatforming, and finally refactoring.

Alongside these strategies, there are also execution patterns that define how migration is rolled out.

The migration process may introduce new risks and uncertainties that can easily lead to budget overruns if not addressed upfront. To avoid such unpleasant surprises, you need to calculate the total cost of ownership before migrating workloads to Azure.

At this stage, you need to calculate the following expenses:

• Current AWS costs (your baseline for comparison)
• One-time migration costs (expenses tied to the transition itself)
• Future operational costs in Azure (ongoing expenses after migration)

Tools like Azure pricing calculator can come in handy and ease this task. It enables you to model various scenarios, compare service options, and estimate costs based on your anticipated workloads.

It’s also essential to review your existing Microsoft agreements and identify potential discounts. The most impactful program is Azure Hybrid Benefit, which allows you to reuse existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses in Azure and pay only for the underlying infrastructure.

However, not all the costs associated with cloud migration to Azure can be easily calculated. Be mindful of potential hidden costs that may not appear at first glance, like:

• Data egress fees from AWS when transferring large volumes of data
• Application refactoring costs, including the time spent by developers adapting the code
• Staff training expenses to upskill your team on Azure technologies
• Parallel environments, where infrastructure may need to run in both AWS and Azure simultaneously during the transition period

Thorough financial planning at this stage helps minimize risks, avoid surprises, and ensure that the migration delivers the expected ROI.

Any cloud migration comes with risks, but most of them can be anticipated and mitigated with the right approach and an experienced software development partner. The main categories to keep in mind are:

• Technical risks. These include downtime during cutover, data loss, or performance issues after migration. To mitigate these risks, it’s crucial to have a robust backup plan. Database backups, replication tools, and load testing before go-live can help minimize downtime and prevent costly mistakes.
• Security risks. The biggest challenge isn’t usually platform vulnerabilities, but misconfigurations when transferring security policies from AWS to Azure. IAM models, network rules, and security policies are not identical across the two platforms. Instead of copying configurations, it’s safer to fully audit and rebuild the security architecture using native Azure tools.

By addressing these risks proactively, you reduce the likelihood of failures and also build a stronger foundation for long-term success in Azure.

Once planning and preparation are complete, you can begin the actual AWS-to-Azure migration. Based on Leobit’s experience in migrating cloud workloads, we recommend a phased approach: starting with non-critical environments and conducting thorough testing after each stage to minimize risk. Key tools to support this process include:

• Azure Site Recovery (ASR) – for migrating virtual machines smoothly
• Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) – for transferring databases safely and efficiently

After the migration is complete, your focus should turn to continuous improvement and optimization. We suggest using tools like Azure Advisor, which provides recommendations on how to enhance cost efficiency and performance.

Another best practice is adopting cloud cost optimization and FinOps principles to manage cloud spending effectively. They involve:

• Implementing mandatory resource tagging to track costs
• Setting up budgets and alerts in Azure Cost Management
• Regularly reviewing and right-sizing resources based on actual usage

By combining these practices, you can ensure a smooth migration and continue to optimize your Azure environment for both cost and performance over time.

Migrating from AWS to Azure requires both technical expertise and practical experience, and Leobit can offer you both. We combine deep cloud knowledge with hands-on experience gained from real-world projects. Our team includes over 40 Azure and AWS-certified specialists, who have passed certification exams that validate their skills in cloud architecture, security, and service management.

Over the past several years, we have successfully delivered more than 60 cloud development projects, ranging from complex cloud migrations to the development of enterprise-grade SaaS platforms and cloud-native applications.

As a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Digital and App Innovation, we use best practices in cloud consulting, architecture design, optimization, and migration to ensure a smooth, low-risk transition.

What makes Leobit different is our holistic approach. We don’t just transfer workloads from one platform to another; we optimize them to fully leverage Azure’s capabilities. With a strong track record of successful cloud transformations, we help businesses simplify migration, reduce risks, and speed up the adoption of next-generation cloud solutions.

Our expertise has been recognized globally: Leobit was named a Top Cloud Consulting Company in 2024, a Top AWS Company in 2024, and a Top Azure Company in 2025 by Clutch.

In recent years, Azure has significantly strengthened its position and enhanced its competitive edge by fostering strong ecosystem integration, unified identity and access management, and offering generous programs for startups. With the rapid rise of AI, Microsoft has further pulled ahead by securing an exclusive partnership with OpenAI and embedding advanced AI capabilities directly into Azure’s ecosystem.

However, moving complex, long-running systems with multiple interdependencies to Azure requires careful planning, technical expertise, and hands-on experience. This is why having a trusted software development partner is crucial to ensure a smooth and low-risk transition.

At Leobit, we’ve helped dozens of businesses navigate this journey with confidence. If you’re considering migrating from AWS to Azure, our team is ready to help you unlock the full potential of Azure. Get in touch with Leobit today to discuss your AWS-to-Azure migration strategy.