Microsoft Azure → Amazon Web Services
AWS equivalent of Foundry Agent Service
The closest AWS equivalents of Foundry Agent Service are Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Bedrock Agents Classic and Amazon Nova.
About Foundry Agent Service
| Provider | Microsoft Azure |
|---|---|
| Status | Generally available Voice-based agents and some monitoring/eval/telephony capabilities are in preview. |
| What it is | Managed agent platform. Prompt agents (declarative), voice-based prompt agents (Voice Live), and hosted agents (your container or zip, any framework), plus the Responses API for "ephemeral" agents. Shared toolbox via a managed MCP endpoint. |
| Documentation | learn.microsoft.com |
| Pricing | Official pricing page |
AWS mappings (6)
| Capability | AWS equivalent | Match |
|---|---|---|
| Managed AI agent platform | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Direct match |
| Configuration-based agents (legacy Bedrock Agents) | Amazon Bedrock Agents Classic Maintenance, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Partial match |
| Agent tools, MCP gateway & sandboxes | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Partial match |
| Agent memory (short- & long-term) | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Partial match |
| Agent identity, policy & registry | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Partial match |
| Real-time speech-to-speech AI | Amazon Nova | Partial match |
AI agents(5)
Managed AI agent platform Direct match
The Azure equivalent of Amazon Bedrock AgentCore is Foundry Agent Service. Both host declarative or code-based agents from any framework and model.
- Shape. AgentCore is a set of modular services you can use independently: Harness (config-defined managed agent loop in an isolated microVM), Runtime (serverless hosting for code agents), Memory, Gateway, Identity, Code Interpreter, Browser, Observability, Evaluations, Optimization, Policy, Registry, and Payments.
- Foundry Agent Service has three agent types. Prompt agents are declarative. Voice-based prompt agents run on Voice Live (preview). Hosted agents run your container or zip. You can also call the Responses API for "ephemeral" agents you define in code.
- Frameworks. AgentCore Runtime lists Strands, LangGraph, CrewAI, LlamaIndex, Google ADK, and OpenAI Agents SDK. Foundry hosted agents list Microsoft Agent Framework, LangGraph, OpenAI Agents SDK, Anthropic Agent SDK, and GitHub Copilot SDK.
Configuration-based agents (legacy Bedrock Agents) Partial match
Bedrock Agents Classic is in maintenance (no new customers since July 30, 2026). On Azure, the equivalent concept is a Foundry prompt agent, and on AWS the successor is the AgentCore managed harness.
- AWS's migration path is the AgentCore harness. Action groups become MCP tools through AgentCore Gateway, and knowledge bases become gateway-fronted tools, with memory, guardrails, and tracing added.
- Foundry prompt agents are the declarative counterpart. They support instructions, a model, and tools (file search, code interpreter, web search, MCP, functions).
Agent tools, MCP gateway & sandboxes Partial match
AgentCore Gateway, Code Interpreter, and Browser map to the Foundry Agent Service toolbox (a managed MCP endpoint with web search, file search, code interpreter, OpenAPI, functions, and MCP tools).
- AgentCore Gateway turns REST APIs, Lambda functions, and existing services into MCP tools, and fronts existing MCP servers with interceptors and Cedar-compatible policy.
- AgentCore Browser is a managed cloud browser runtime for agents (Playwright and BrowserUse compatible). It's a standalone service, not just a tool flag.
- The Foundry toolbox curates tools once and shares them across agents through a single managed MCP endpoint with central auth and versioning. It also offers Microsoft-ecosystem tools (SharePoint, WorkIQ, Fabric IQ).
Agent memory (short- & long-term) Partial match
AgentCore Memory maps to Foundry Agent Service memory (preview). AgentCore's memory is GA and more configurable today.
- AgentCore Memory offers short-term (multi-turn) and long-term memory with configurable strategies, sharing across agents, and namespace-scoped IAM controls.
- Foundry lists memory as a built-in tool and describes it as preview on the Foundry overview. Hosted agents also get session-level state persistence.
Agent identity, policy & registry Partial match
AgentCore Identity, Policy, and Registry map to Microsoft Entra agent identities, Foundry guardrails (tool-call controls), the Foundry control plane, and the Entra Agent Registry.
- AgentCore Identity vends short-lived credentials from a token vault, and works with any IdP (Cognito, Okta, Entra ID, Auth0).
- AgentCore Policy enforces deterministic rules on every tool call at the Gateway, written in natural language or Dogwood (Cedar-compatible).
- On Azure, hosted agents get a dedicated Microsoft Entra identity. Guardrails can inspect tool calls and tool responses (preview), and hosted agents support network egress controls (preview).
Speech & conversational AI(1)
Real-time speech-to-speech AI Partial match
Amazon Nova Sonic (speech-to-speech on Bedrock) maps to Azure Voice Live and voice-based prompt agents in Foundry (preview), which also support realtime audio models.
- Nova 2 Sonic is a single speech-to-speech foundation model you call through Bedrock's bidirectional streaming.
- Voice Live is a managed orchestration service (speech recognition, turn-taking, model interaction, synthesis) that works with realtime models or a cascaded STT → LLM → TTS chain. Foundry voice agents add telephony and avatar options (preview).