Akamai Cloud Computing vs. Microsoft Azure

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Akamai Cloud Computing
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Akamai Cloud Computing (formerly Linode) include scalable and accessible Linux cloud solutions and services. These products and services support developers and enterprises as they build, deploy, secure, and scale applications.
$5
per month
Microsoft Azure
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.
$29
per month
Pricing
Akamai Cloud ComputingMicrosoft Azure
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Developer
$29
per month
Standard
$100
per month
Professional Direct
$1000
per month
Basic
Free
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Akamai Cloud ComputingMicrosoft Azure
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsCPU, transfer, storage, and RAM are bundled into one price. Storage capacity can be increased with additional Block Storage or S3-compatible Object Storage. Instant Backups can be added with complete independence to the stack. Linode NodeBalancers ensure applications are available.The free tier lets users have access to a variety of services free for 12 months with limited usage after making an Azure account.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Akamai Cloud ComputingMicrosoft Azure
Considered Both Products
Akamai Cloud Computing
Chose Akamai Cloud Computing
We chose Linode on a recommendation from a friend and we could don't be happier. We were sitting on three options, one was we put hardware into a datacenter and leased space, Microsoft Azure, and Linode. Ultimately we settled on Linode, it came at a spectacular price point for …
Chose Akamai Cloud Computing
Linode was considerably cheaper than Rackspace, Azure and Amazon when I last checked. It's also pretty simple by comparison.
Chose Akamai Cloud Computing
There are a lot of very good cloud operations. Linode, for us represents a good offering. It offers a simple way to control infrastructure, without being overly simplified. For us, it was a good median giving us the flexibility to explore, experiment and still build for scale. …
Chose Akamai Cloud Computing
Linode's price for performance is unmatched. The scalability and customizability of their offerings is likewise superlative. Uptime is great and they have servers in all of the places we need them. Security is on par with the rest. Their web interface is useful. Their …
Chose Akamai Cloud Computing
Compared to the big cloud players like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, MS Azure, Oracle Cloud, and co., Linode's product is simpler and cheaper. For quick and straightforward client engagements, the power and flexibility afforded by the previously mentioned vendors …
Chose Akamai Cloud Computing
We have some experience with products like AWS and Azure. While they aren't an apples-to-apples comparison, ideally being put to different uses, Linode VPSs are far easier to understand, given that it's "just a computer." If used carefully, Linode can be somewhat cheaper, as …
Chose Akamai Cloud Computing
Compared to the "big three" cloud providers, Linode does not have the enormous range of service offerings that they do. I would not attempt to build the next Instagram on Linode. But for companies that simply want a straight-forward cloud provider, they're definitely our …
Microsoft Azure

No answer on this topic

Features
Akamai Cloud ComputingMicrosoft Azure
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Akamai Cloud Computing
-
Ratings
Microsoft Azure
8.4
28 Ratings
2% above category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings8.227 Ratings
Dynamic scaling00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.725 Ratings
Pre-configured templates00 Ratings8.226 Ratings
Monitoring tools00 Ratings8.327 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings8.425 Ratings
Operating system support00 Ratings8.927 Ratings
Security controls00 Ratings8.627 Ratings
Automation00 Ratings8.225 Ratings
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Akamai Cloud ComputingMicrosoft Azure
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Score 9.4 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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User Ratings
Akamai Cloud ComputingMicrosoft Azure
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(218 ratings)
8.7
(97 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(30 ratings)
10.0
(17 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(22 ratings)
8.4
(37 ratings)
Availability
8.5
(4 ratings)
6.8
(2 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(217 ratings)
8.0
(28 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.7
(12 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Akamai Cloud ComputingMicrosoft Azure
Likelihood to Recommend
Akamai
Akamai Connected Cloud Linode would be a good service to host a content delivery network (CDN) because of its edge network but I'd prefer not to use Akamai Connected Cloud Linode for tasks that need GPU power such as Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence (AI) because Akamai Connected Cloud Linode lacks deep GPU compute compared to AWS or Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure
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Microsoft
Azure is particularly well suited for enterprise environments with existing Microsoft investments, those that require robust compliance features, and organizations that need hybrid cloud capabilities that bridge on-premises and cloud infrastructure. In my opinion, Azure is less appropriate for cost-sensitive startups or small businesses without dedicated cloud expertise and scenarios requiring edge computing use cases with limited connectivity. Azure offers comprehensive solutions for most business needs but can feel like there is a higher learning curve than other cloud-based providers, depending on the product and use case.
Read full review
Pros
Akamai
  • It's super easy-to-use - set up a complete virtual environment in a few minutes.
  • Linode is the ONLY service I know that will let you DOWNSIZE a VM - super useful.
  • The price is right - spin up any size server and add additional block storage if needed.
  • Object memory is cheap and integrates very well with S3 CLIs and applications.
  • I've been very happy with the knowledgeable and friendly customer service.
  • The more recent additions of a firewall and Kubernetes is a welcome plus.
  • The load balancer ("Load Balancer") service is easy to spin up and configure.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Microsoft Azure is highly scalable and flexible. You can quickly scale up or down additional resources and computing power.
  • You have no longer upfront investments for hardware. You only pay for the use of your computing power, storage space, or services.
  • The uptime that can be achieved and guaranteed is very important for our company. This includes the rapid maintenance for security updates that are mostly carried out by Microsoft.
  • The wide range of capabilities of services that are possible in Microsoft Azure. You can practically put or create anything in Microsoft Azure.
Read full review
Cons
Akamai
  • Some of the documentation requires some hand-holding to get started. It does explain how to do things, but sometimes finding the answer takes work.
  • Some of the settings are not obvious, or in locations that are not completely clear without experience.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • The cost of resources is difficult to determine, technical documentation is frequently out of date, and documentation and mapping capabilities are lacking.
  • The documentation needs to be improved, and some advanced configuration options require research and experimentation.
  • Microsoft's licensing scheme is too complex for the average user, and Azure SQL syntax is too different from traditional SQL.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Akamai
I've been with them a long time. They provide me with the capabilities I need coupled with knowledgeable support that's not pay-for-extra. However, if I move to a non-Linux OS, the level of support by necessity will drop off. I can still ask questions about the infrastructure but I my ability to ask about OS features will decrease.
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Microsoft
Moving to Azure was and still is an organizational strategy and not simply changing vendors. Our product roadmap revolved around Azure as we are in the business of humanitarian relief and Azure and Microsoft play an important part in quickly and efficiently serving all of the world. Migration and investment in Azure should be considered as an overall strategy of an organization and communicated companywide.
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Usability
Akamai
Simple and clear, no BS interface. From a design perspective it's no Apple or Stripe, but it does what it needs without making me want to stick a fork in my eyes, like when being forced to use Azure, AWS or GCP.
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Microsoft
As Microsoft Azure is [doing a] really good with PaaS. The need of a market is to have [a] combo of PaaS and IaaS. While AWS is making [an] exceptionally well blend of both of them, Azure needs to work more on DevOps and Automation stuff. Apart from that, I would recommend Azure as a great platform for cloud services as scale.
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Reliability and Availability
Akamai
There is very little planned downtime. Whenever planned downtime is necessary I'm always given lots of advanced notice and an explanation that I can pass along to my users that they'll understand. I really appreciate that Linode appreciates my commitment to reliable service to my users. It shows that they believe they've been successful when I'm successful.
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Microsoft
It has proven to be unreliable in our production environment and services become unavailable without proper notification to system administrators
Read full review
Performance
Akamai
Servers are well dimensioned and price performant. Of course one always wants more, so if they were to upgrade their hardware for the same price I'd consider moving more workloads. Networking - never had an issue. Hardware speeds - disks are fast and can grow to great size.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Akamai
Support was excellent and fast. The documentation is extensive and helpful. I learned many things from their online documentation. I did not contact them by phone, but email took a day or less. Complex problems would probably need a service contract. I liked the friendly and polite tone of the support.
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Microsoft
We were running Windows Server and Active Directory, so [Microsoft] Azure was a seamless transition. We ran into a few, if any support issues, however, the availability of Microsoft Azure's support team was more than willing and able to guide us through the process. They even proposed solutions to issues we had not even thought of!
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Online Training
Akamai
We got kick started with an initial walkthrough along with some free credits. The initial walkthrough helped us to understand Linode's ecosystem and start our hands on with Linode. We tried out some apps from Marketplace initially with the free credits, which not only helped us understand Linode better, but also those apps. We had implemented many such apps to our customers with Linode
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Akamai
We're a small organization. The implementation of our Linode solution was trivial. Once I justified a cloud server to my bosses over a co-location -- the co-lo wasn't as fast as our linode server in load tests -- it was a matter of moving one Linux implementation to another. Trivial.
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Microsoft
As I have mentioned before the issue with my Oracle Mismatch Version issues that have put a delay on moving one of my platforms will justify my 7 rating.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Akamai
We switched to Linode from Namecheap due to poor uptime, and never had any issues with stability ever again after switching. We also cut our costs in half by switching. We compared Linode to DigitalOcean and Vultr, with the primary factor that caused us to go with Linode initially being their documentation. After using Linode for 3 years, their amazing support is another reason why we wouldn't consider anyone else at this point.
Read full review
Microsoft
As I continue to evaluate the "big three" cloud providers for our clients, I make the following distinctions, though this gap continues to close. AWS is more granular, and inherently powerful in the configuration options compared to [Microsoft] Azure. It is a "developer" platform for cloud. However, Azure PowerShell is helping close this gap. Google Cloud is the leading containerization platform, largely thanks to it building kubernetes from the ground up. Azure containerization is getting better at having the same storage/deployment options.
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Scalability
Akamai
Although I use only a fraction of their product offerings, the total set makes scalability an easy goal to shoot for. As I said, I have a few customers that use the services my Linode provides...and I like it that way. However, should I need to scale up, I can...without incurring any more cost than I need to.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Akamai
  • With the partnership of Linode, Configr is today the best performance hosting solution in Brazil.
  • With Linode, Configr can provide a PaaS solution without the cost of taking care of all the infrastructure issues such as IaaS.
  • Linode allowed Configr to be one of the biggest hosting companies in Brazil.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • For about 2 years we didn't have to do anything with our production VMs, the system ran without a hitch, which meant our engineers could focus on features rather than infrastructure.
  • DNS management was very easy in Azure, which made it easy to upgrade our cluster with zero downtime.
  • Azure Web UI was easy to work with and navigate, which meant our senior engineers and DevOps team could work with Azure without formal training.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Akamai Cloud Computing Screenshots

Screenshot of the interface to manage all LinodesScreenshot of the Cloud Manager used to create Linode instances, manage Kubernetes clusters, add backups to Linodes, deploy Marketplace Apps, or create Object Storage buckets.Screenshot of the fully-managed container orchestration engine to deploy Kubernetes clusters.Screenshot of dedicated CPU instances that run on their own CPU cores. No sharing the processor with other instances.