AWS Compete Battlecard

Co
mpete

This battlecard provides summary information and guidance on how to compete with VMware in the cloud space. Please see the AWS Compete portal for additional information

Competitive situation
Originally focused on developers and smaller organizations, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is now attempting to
move into the enterprise market, aggressively recruiting and hiring enterprise sellers, including those from
Microsoft. Unlike other major cloud vendors that provide private/hybrid cloud solutions for enterprises however,
AWS is focusing on its public cloud offering. AWS has alliances with almost every major ISV vendor (including
Microsoft and SAP) and most of the top system integrators (including CapGemini and Wipro). Additionally, VMware
and Citrix (Cloudstack) have recently started offering interoperability with AWS. However, AWS is increasingly
facing more competition from Microsoft, VMware, Cloudstack, and Openstack and their ecosystems.
AWS pursues a retail strategy with high volumes and low margins, attracting customers with a small initial
offering and then selling them the AWS stack and larger platform. Its goal is to become the ubiquitous utility
computing platform of the future. AWS procurement models, security, and privacy issues however, are holding it
back from gaining traction with enterprises.

might operate in their own datacenter.

Amazon CloudFront: A content delivery web service to give developers and

businesses a way to distribute content to end users with low latency and high
data transfer speeds.

WorkSpaces: A desktop computing service that enables customers to

provision cloud-based desktops on multiple devices.

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS): RDS lets businesses set up,
operate, and scale a MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or PostgreSQL database in the
cloud.

Competitor products

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): Scalable virtual compute power designed to

make computing easier for developers and system administrators. Auto Scaling
enables automatic up/down capacity scaling according to predefined
conditions.
Simple Storage Service (S3): Cloud storage infrastructure for storing and
retrieving data from anywhere on the web.
Amazon Glacier: A low-cost storage service that provides durable storage for
data archiving and backup.

Redshift: Fully managed large scale data warehouse service in the cloud.
Businesses can analyze large-size data sets using the same SQL-based tools
and business intelligence (BI) apps in use today.

Amazon EMR (Elastic MapReduce): A web service that enables businesses,

researchers, data analysts, and developers to process large amounts of data.
Amazon EMR uses Hadoop to distribute data and processing across a resizable
cluster of EC2 instances.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk: Service for deploying and scaling web apps and
services developed with popular programming languages such as Java, .NET,
PHP, Node.js, Python, and Ruby.

Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): A way for customers to define a

virtual network topology that closely resembles a traditional network that they

For internal Microsoft use only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied.

Anticipated changes and developments

Continue to offer new instance types and services and to reduce prices

Promote its own hybrid vision by connecting to on-premises

Globally expand services and datacenters

Re-orient its sales approach to prioritize accounts by verticals, segments, &

geography

Explore entering the Analytics as a Service space more strongly

AWS Compete Battlecard

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mpete

This battlecard provides summary information and guidance on how to compete with VMware in the cloud space. P

vfCompetitor claims
AWS says

Microsoft says

Amazon is less expensive

than Microsoft

Amazon is more innovative

than Microsoft.

Amazon is leading the way

to an all cloud future

Microsoft matches AWS

cloud offerings.

platform to easily extend

management needs.
existing tools,
infrastructure, & skills to
the
cloud. for all commodity public
pricing

cloud resources.

Key actions for success

Azure packs more compute
capacity than AWS in the
What to do
instances we offer, so Azure beats AWS on price-toperformance.
Understand customers pains, challenges,
goals,
& majoramount
initiatives.
Reserved EC2 usage above
contracted
is

Wh

I
c
a

charged at the On-Demand

rate.
Build
conversation around Microsofts modern
platform: Windows Server 2012 R2, System
Azure releases new services faster than AWS (most
Center 2012 R2, and Microsoft Azure.
AWS updates are enhancements).
S
Identify and select winning sales tactics and
Azure is 56% faster in write speed than AWS (source:
t
align them with solving key customer pains.
Nasuni, The State of Cloud Storage 2013 Industry
A
Approach customers around specific
Report).
i
scenarios where we have a significant
f
Azure's average availability response time is 25%
competitive advantage, such as Microsoft
i
faster than S3 (source:
workloads.
Amazon labels private clouds as archaic; pitches
Position Microsoft as a more enterpriseinaccurately defined hybrid platform.
trusted advisor than AWS.
Microsoft offers one consistent platform for
Price comparison: support offerings
infrastructure, apps, and data, whether in the
Amazon
Azure
datacenter, a hosting service provider,
and/or the Azure
Enterprise
Pro-Direct
Premie
Microsoft public cloud.

What to sell key Microsoft solution

components

Microsoft Azure

Windows Server 2012 R2 (including

Hyper-V), & System Center 2012 R2

Strategies in customer profile

Win

Surround

Deploy best-in-class
storage, backup, &
disaster recovery
solution in private and
public cloud with one
provider and contract.
For new cloud initiatives,
focus on the hybrid

Surround the customer

environment and
improve datacenter
service agility with
System Center. Position
System Center as a onestop shop for all
datacenter and cloud

Unlimited Phone/Chat/Email Support 24x7

Unlimited phone/e-mail
support 24x7

Unlimited phone
support 24x7

Dedicated Support
Escalation Resource
(reactive only)

Managed Support
Escalation

Dedicated Suppo
Delivery Resourc

Automated Proactive
Checks

Automated Proactive
Checks

Automated Proa
Checks

Architecture Assistance/
Support Service

Self Service Guidance

Proactive Service
Custom Advisory
Assigned Technic

> 1 hour response time

> 1 hour respon

$1000/month

$3k+/month

Extend

15 minute response from

Extend datacenter to use
Azure services for SQL
Server, SharePoint,
and
$15,000+/month
Tier 2 & 3 apps
workloads.

How to sell

Extend the development

and testing1.environment
Position
to use on-demand public

Microsoft as a provider of

AWS Compete Battlecard

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mpete

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end-to-end cloud offerings across the

cloud stack. Shape the discussion as
development and deployment
oriented, which AWS lacks, and focus
on the overall business value.
2.

3.

Highlight the integration between our

networking solutions & the flexibility
in working IaaS and platform as a
service (PaaS) environments.
Emphasize Microsofts commitment to
the cloud and its vision in providing a
continuum of solutions that enable
private clouds, public clouds, and a
hybrid clouds.

4.

Outline Microsoft Azure flexibility over

AWS to move back and forth between
on-premises & off-premises cloud
offerings.

5.

Highlight that Microsoft Azure is

covered under existing EAs in few
countries at a discounted price for
yearly commitment, while declaring
that negotiating an EA with AWS is
challenging.

6.

7.

Highlight that Microsoft is a trusted

technology vendor with decades of
experience in delivering IT solutions.
Showcase Microsoft Azure cloud
solutions as more enterprise ready,
highlighting the product integration
capabilities, strong SLAs, and bundled
support options.

Sales objection handling

AWS offers hybrid
solutions too

AWS is the most flexible and

cheapest available solution

Microsoft customers get the best value

flexibility of a hybrid environment and
is unique in the sense that customers
on-premises to Azure using IaaS virtua
services to the application.

AWS offers developers a fast,

inexpensive way to set up
test environments in the
cloud with tools such as
Elastic Beanstalk and Cloud
Formation

EC2 runs on EBS, which is limited to on

have to buy S3 at an additional cost fo
Azure blob storage includes geo-replic
requires manual effort to replicate. Wi
familiar development tools such as Vis

AWS S3 offers a highlyscalable, reliable, durable,

and low-latency virtual
infrastructure at a low cost
for data storage & disaster
recovery

Microsoft Azures Local Redundancy St

than S3. Azure charges only for the inc
snapshotting a blob whereas S3 charg
With StorSimple, Microsoft offers the b
scalable, cost-effective storage solutio

AWS EC2 running Windows

Server is a secure and
dependable way for
customers to deploy
SharePoint quickly and cost
effectively

Microsoft workloads are not tested on

buggy and unreliable. Any error during
entire configuration.
With Microsoft Azure, customers get fi
(infrastructure and software) for a Sha

RDS is a scalable relational

cloud database that provides
cost-efficient and resizable
capacity

Microsoft customers can easily build m

SQL Server and Azure SQL Database in
is not available on AWS. Microsoft Azu
effective, since customers do not pay

Key feature comparison

Capability
Compute

Virtual Machines, Worker role, Web role

w/elevated privileges, Web role

Hosting (lightweight
web apps)

Web Sites

Database

SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure)

Big Data

HDInsight

Blob storage

Microsoft Azure Blobs

Table storage

Microsoft Azure Tables

Storage Drives

Microsoft Azure Drives

App Deployment

Automatically handled

Storage Archive

Expected H1 FY15

Hybrid Storage

StorSimple

Messaging

Microsoft Azure Service Bus, Queues

Networking

Virtual Network, Connect, Traffic Manager,

Azure DNS

Caching Service
Azure Managed & In-Memory Cache
AWS offers point solutions and tools instead of consistent services and
Delivery
Expected
FY14 (See OneList)
policies across on-premises andContent
public cloud
assets. AWS
doesnt Q3
support
Management
Portal, Power Shell, System
private cloud or any on-premises IT assets. Microsoft provides
the best
Management
Center
2012
hybrid IT support through the Cloud OS and a common set
of technologies
and capabilities across on-premises,
Microsoft Azure, and
service provider
Monitoring
Diagnostics
& Service, Management APIs,
clouds.

AWS Compete Battlecard

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mpete

This battlecard provides summary information and guidance on how to compete with VMware in the cloud space. P
SCOM Pack

Evidence to emphasize

Authentication &
Authorization

Windows Live, Accounts and Subscription,

Federation Future, Azure Active Directory

Development Tools

Toolkit for Eclipse and Visual Studio

Supported Libraries
and SDKs

.NET, PHP, Java, node.js, Python

Industry Specific

Azure Media Services, Mobile Services

Desktop
Virtualization

N/A

Customer evidence
External case studies:

Jidari: Egyptian start-up

Jidari switches its web apps to the
Microsoft Azure cloud system, giving
its social networks users a faster
response than was previously the case
with AWS.
Getit Infomedia: Getit Infomedia
chose to migrate 25 workloads from
on-premises deployments to Microsoft
Azure because AWS could not offer the
same range of components across
IaaS, PaaS and software as a service
(SaaS).
Sangkuriang International: In need
of a cloud solution that could work
with a wide mix of technologies,
Sangkuriang chose Microsoft Azure
over AWS because the company
considered it an easier cloud platform
for achieving its goals.
Wellero: In choosing Microsoft Azure
over AWS, Wellero was able to bring
its new offering to market twice as
fast, save upwards of US$275,000 in
its first year of business, and boost its
scalability and corporate agility.

AWS Compete Battlecard

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mpete

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Callaway Golf: Callaway Golf chose

Microsoft Azure over AWS and Google,
reducing IT costs by US$324,000
annually and giving Callaway

unprecedented flexibility and

scalability to respond to the needs of
its global business.

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Key sites

Resources

AWS Web Insights Tool

AWS-Azure Heatmap

Book a Datacenter Tour

AWS Compete Yammer Group

Key content

Microsoft Azure

StorSimple

Windows Server

Hybrid Devices

On-premises Devices

http://AWS

Cloud OS Conversations,

Enable Modern Business

Applications

Transform the Datacenter

Azure Sales Scenarios

Azure Roadmap

//STBCompete: AWS Compete BOM

and Web
Insights Tool

//Azuresales: Azure sales scenarios

and BOM

AWS Compete group on Yammer

Shikha Chetal for questions

STB Account Grid: Provides

licensing, program, pipeline, usage,
and compete information for
account targeting purposes. AWS
presence data is included

Azure-AWS WW Heatmap: Shows

AWS presence and Azure EA and
Direct usage data to better target
whitespace. Inspired by the work
done in the US Sub.

AWS
weakness

Description

What it means to customers

Lack of
private
cloud
support &
on-premises
IT assets

Other than limited 3rd party integration, AWS

lacks private cloud support or on-premises IT
assets. AWS recently announced partnership
with a startup called Eucalyptus to provide a
private cloud environment compatible with
AWS APIs. In reality, AWS is just providing the
Eucalyptus license to their API and some
technical support.

AWS and Eucalyptus are not working jo

to innovate the private cloud offering o
build new technology that offers
compatibility of broader AWS services w
Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus does not run on
Windows or support Hyper-V.

Customer
lock-in

AWS locks customers into a proprietary AMI

format, making it difficult to move virtual
machines on-premises.

Amazon doesnt have any of their own

development tools, instead relying on 3
party offerings. If customers choose to
to AWS, they are in effect locking
themselves into a proprietary ecosyste

Enterprise

The majority of AWS customers are startups

Architectural visibility and language

AWS Compete Battlecard

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mpete

This battlecard provides summary information and guidance on how to compete with VMware in the cloud space. P

novices

and developers. AWS is just starting to focus

on the enterprise and most of their
experience is at the business unit level.

frustrates traditional enterprise IT buye

Transformation to the Cloud can be risk
AWS is still learning how to sell to
enterprises. Their enterprise sales team
are not available in every state in the U

Poor
support for
Microsoft
workloads

Because AWS uses a proprietary format,

Microsoft workloads are not fully supported.

A proprietary format means that Micros

workloads are not tested on AWS and
receive best-effort support. Customers
wont get 1st rate support on issues on
AWS.

No Oracle
support

Oracle doesnt support AWS virtualization

engine and assumes no
reliability/responsibility for data stored in S3.

What happens to customers who have

existing licenses to run Oracle software
With AWS, they would require additiona
licenses from other vendors. Customer
wont get 1st rate support on issues on
Oracle on AWS

No PaaS
solution

Amazon lacks a comparable PaaS solution to

complement its IaaS solution; RDS for SQL
Server lacks features such as data-sync,
multi-AZ deployment for SQL Server, and read
replica.

AWS is primarily an IaaS service that

depends on partners to fulfill PaaS
scenarios. This limits the flexibility of
customers and necessitates them to
continue to do the same as before (man
the infrastructure).

No unified
AWS lacks unified enterprise management
manageme between on-premises and the AWS cloud.
nt solution Partner offerings are limited.

Amazon is relying on a variety of 3rd-pa

partners to provide a singular view of o
premises and cloud deployments. AWS
its own console, but it doesnt include
integration with other services and
specifically with private cloud
implementations.

Rigid
pricing

AWS billing is not as flexible as it is by the

hour.

The effective rate you pay is dependen

your utilization. When making a
reservation, you need to specify exact
instance type, instance size, and
datacenter location. Your usage has to
match these exact dimensions to get th
reserved instance pricing. Once reserve
the rate is locked for 1-3 years, despite
price drops on on-demand instances.

Lack of
SLAs

AWS has carefully worded guarantees and a

lack of available SLAs for some services.

AWS EC2 provides SLAs for multiple

instances only.