Forum Discussion
Azure vs AWS for nonprofits - Looking for advice
My organization, a Canadian nonprofit consulting agency that helps NGOs set up monitoring and evaluation systems, just got government funding to set up an evaluation platform for all of Ontario. We are fans of Microsoft products, and got an Azure donation of $5,000/year. (Thanks, Microsoft!) However, none of our software developers is comfortable with Azure and it would cost us more to move from AWS than it would to stay, even paying the AWS hosting costs.
I have tried to get advice from various sources including Microsoft Nonprofit services in Canada - no response at all. This initiative will have a large impact on the nonprofit space in Canada and internationally, since we are building a platform that integrates two major open source software programs - DHIS2 and Limesurvey - plus an open source ISO 11179-compliant metadata registry (Aristotle MDR). We are already working in several countries with DHIS2 implementations (on AWS). It seems a pity to give up on Azure. Any suggestions on where I can get some advice?
Thanks
Gillian Kerr
1 Reply
- Guillermo Gomez
Microsoft
Hi Gillian, thank you for reaching out. The TechCommunity is the perfect place for you to seek such advice, and we`re happy to help :)
We`re glad to see your nonprofit organization is eligible to the Azure Product Donations and you`re looking forward to start using it. Some of key Azure differentiators can be found at:https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/azure-vs-aws/
If your team is familiar with AWS we could recommend starting at the below links which map the Azure services.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/guidance/guidance-azure-for-aws-professionals-service-map
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/guidance/azure-for-aws-professionalsAlso, there are in depth free online training resources that are available for developers to learn about Azure:
https://openedx.microsoft.com/
https://mva.microsoft.com/training-topics/cloud-app-development#!lang=1033This should hopefully start your team off.
Separately we would be happy to chat with your team on any specific questions they have in their assessment, experts in the Canadian office will be reaching out to you.
Let us know if we can help you further.
Thanks,
Guillermo
