Will you run Windows on AWS or Microsoft Azure? IDC’s new TCO report weighs in

IDC, a global market intelligence firm, interviewed Amazon Web Service (AWS) customers running Windows workloads in the AWS Cloud to find out what the benefits were from running Windows on AWS, and the results are telling. IDC’s “The Business Value of Efficiently Running Windows Workloads on AWS” released in July 2019, interviewed AWS customers that averaged 28,579 employees, and represented multiple industries.

Why run Windows workloads on AWS?

Organizations who run Windows workloads on the AWS cloud realize significant improvements in performance, efficiency, and security by providing the foundation for new services like CI/CD workflows, a self-service model for software development, and seamless mobile access to applications and data, the whitepaper found.

On average, IDC finds that AWS customers generate $157,300 in value per 100 Windows users over five years – that’s $6.59M per organization. And they experience 98% less unplanned downtime on AWS and 31% higher internal customer satisfaction for Windows. Download the IDC whitepaper.

In this report, IDC dives deeper into the benefits that customers experience while running their Windows workloads on AWS and quantifies their reductions in overall operating costs, increased developer and gross productivity, and five-year return-on-investment (ROI) among other factors.

The IDC report accounts for:

• Lowering the cost of infrastructure by moving away from on-premises setups and efficiencies gained from using infrastructure and application licenses
• Enabling IT teams by freeing them up for more value-add activities
• Supporting more effective and agile development activities
• Enhancing security and reducing the impact and risks of unplanned outages on operations
• Improving results and operating more efficiently

Additional benefits of running Windows workloads on AWS, according to the IDC whitepaper, include:

Read the full IDC whitepaper.