Why is aws configure sso needed to login when azure is as easy as az login?

[TheKevinWang]

Is there some technical difference that explains why it can't be just as easy? My guess would be that on Azure, the username is the email address and that contains the domain, which is the SSO url. Needless to say, that is way easier and more intuitive.

[uldyssian-sh]

The difference comes from how identity and account discovery work in AWS versus Azure, not from a CLI design oversight.

In Azure, identity is centralized. A user logs in with an email address, and that email is globally unique within Azure AD (Entra ID). From that single identity, Azure can automatically discover:

• the tenant
• subscriptions
• default endpoints

That’s why az login can be a single command — the identity itself is enough context to locate everything else.

AWS is fundamentally different.

AWS identity is account-scoped, not global. There is no single global “AWS user”:

• identities live inside specific AWS accounts
• SSO (IAM Identity Center) is configured per organization
• users may belong to multiple AWS accounts and roles
• the CLI cannot infer which account, role, or start URL you want from an email address alone

Because of this, AWS needs explicit configuration before login:

• the SSO start URL (organization-specific)
• the SSO region
• which account and role to use

aws configure sso is not “logging in”; it is telling the CLI which identity context to use. The actual login happens later with aws sso login.

Why AWS cannot simply do aws login like Azure:

• Email addresses do not uniquely identify an AWS organization or account
• A single user can legitimately have access to dozens of accounts and roles
• Automatically choosing one would be ambiguous and potentially unsafe
• AWS avoids implicit assumptions about account/role selection

Once configured, AWS SSO behaves similarly to Azure:

• You run aws sso login
• Credentials are cached locally
• Multiple profiles can reuse the same SSO session via sso-session

In short:

Azure has a globally discoverable identity model.
AWS has an explicitly scoped, multi-account model.

That architectural difference is why AWS requires an explicit configuration step, while Azure can get away with a single az login.

[uldyssian-sh]

Thanks! If this helps, please consider marking it as “Helpful” or “Accepted” 😊