In full
The default reflex is AWS, and for most teams that is right. For regulated finance, identity and governance posture pull us toward Azure more often than not.
The Fourths · Engineering for regulated industries
Blog / Platform Engineering
Why we build regulated platforms on Azure, not AWS.
Tenancy, identity, and compliance posture decide the stack long before performance does.
Platform Engineering · 9 min read · May 2026
The short version
Is Azure better than AWS?
Not in general. For regulated financial workloads in our two markets, Azure's integrated identity and governance model usually makes the audit shorter.
What specifically do you use?
Entra B2C for identity, Key Vault for secrets, PostgreSQL Flexible Server with row-level tenant isolation, mapped cleanly onto FCA and POPIA expectations.
Does performance matter in the choice?
Rarely. Both platforms perform. The regulator's questions, not throughput, drive the decision.
