Why choose AWS for Microsoft workloads?

Unlock innovation  – Moving from a traditional monolithic architecture to a cloud-based microservices architecture can give you the freedom to adapt and experiment quickly, unlocking innovation faster. AWS offers a broad set of container technologies, including Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), and AWS Fargate. It also offers a comprehensive serverless portfolio, led by AWS Lambda. With deeply integrated .NET support, open-source database options (such as Amazon Aurora), DevOps automation tools, and a growing suite of generative AI services, AWS provides the tools you need to build and modernize applications at any scale.

Reduce costs – You can avoid paying for expensive Windows or SQL Server licensing by moving to open-source database solutions. For example, Amazon Aurora provides the same functionality as commercial databases at one-tenth the cost. If you move to open source technologies and use containers and serverless solutions, you can reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO) and maximize compute consumption.

Improve security – AWS offers a broad portfolio of security, compliance, and governance services. For Active Directory, AWS Directory Service provides flexible options: create a new fully managed Active Directory domain in the cloud by using AWS Managed Microsoft AD, extend your existing on-premises Active Directory to AWS by using AWS Managed Microsoft AD (Hybrid Edition), or use AD Connector to proxy AWS applications directly to your on-premises directory without replication. AWS identity services enable single sign-on across AWS accounts and enterprise applications so that users can access resources with their existing credentials without synchronization or re-entry.

Develop skills with trusted experts – AWS has unmatched experience helping organizations reach their migration goals faster. The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) for Windows provides best practices, tools, and financial incentives to reduce the complexity and cost of migrating to the cloud, with support from AWS Partners and AWS Professional Services. AWS is recognized as a Leader with the highest position for Ability to Execute in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services.

Improve the price and performance of your processing power – AWS leads in processing innovation, offering AWS Graviton4-based instances. These instances deliver up to 30%  better performance than the previous generation and up to 40% faster performance for database workloads, at a lower cost. Amazon Aurora delivers five times the throughput of standard MySQL and three times the throughput of standard PostgreSQL, on par with commercial databases, at one-tenth the cost.

Take advantage of flexible licensing options – AWS offers the most options in the cloud for using new and existing Microsoft software licenses. If you purchase license-included Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) or Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) instances, it includes SQL Server licenses. You can also bring your existing licenses to AWS by using Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts or Microsoft License Mobility through Software Assurance. AWS License Manager makes it easier to track license usage across AWS and on-premises environments, reducing the risk of non-compliance.