Linux In The Cloud: Windows Azure vs. Amazon Web Services

Until recently, the most viable cloud option for Linux virtual servers has been Amazon Web Services. But in mid 2012, Microsoft launched Linux Virtual Servers on Windows Azure. If you don’t know already, Windows Azure is a cloud platform for hosting back-end content for apps and traditional Windows Server, SQL Server, and now Linux and other open source database servers. Microsoft has come a long way with its support for open source and Linux. Given that, I set out on a mission to review and compare these services to Amazon. I’ll be honest up-front???when I set out on this mission I was completely biased towards Amazon, and I was surprised by what I found.