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Amazon S3 Glacier vs Microsoft Azure Object Storage comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.0
Organizations benefit from Amazon S3 Glacier with cost savings and high ROI, despite needing better support and cost management.
Sentiment score
5.1
Microsoft Azure Object Storage offers scalable, cost-effective solutions, enhancing business ROI and efficiency through flexible payment models.
If AWS improves support and cost management, there would be fewer reasons for users to consider other cloud platforms.
Technical Owner at Harman International
As it is Amazon S3 Glacier, it is used only for archival purposes, so it is comparatively okay to use it, and we can save money compared to the standard which is high.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment as it saves both time and money with this agile technology.
Chief Technical Officer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.4
Amazon S3 Glacier support receives mixed reviews, with some praising assistance and others noting delays and occasional unresponsiveness.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Azure Object Storage support is effective but varies in responsiveness, with premium plans and regions affecting user satisfaction.
Amazon S3 Glacier is a good solution for us, and I am very happy with it.
Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US
There is room for improvement in providing more skilled and comprehensive solutions.
Technical Owner at Harman International
They provide documentation and resolve issues.
Big Data Principal at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
If I want to change something on my resources or directly access it via the portal, there is not a service level agreement of 100%, and sometimes it's quite difficult to access.
Consultant - Architecture Solution at Onepoint
The customer support for Microsoft Azure Object Storage is not good.
Chief Technical Officer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Technical support from Microsoft is good.
Enterprise Architect at ATOS
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.1
Amazon S3 Glacier excels in scalability and integration, handling large data volumes effortlessly with high user ratings and reliability.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Azure Object Storage is praised for robust scalability, handling extensive data needs, though some report performance issues.
Amazon S3 Glacier is infinitely scalable, with no issues on our end.
Technical Owner at Harman International
Glacier has excellent scalability, with elasticity and security that meet industry standards.
Big Data Principal at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The storage is very scalable, so you can effortlessly scale it.
Consultant - Architecture Solution at Onepoint
The downloading of high volume data and scalability processes face performance issues related to high data volumes.
Senior Solutions Architect at Think Power Solutions
Most of the time, it fits the requirement, but for drastic demands, we may need to provide quotas and other requirements to Microsoft for them to manage forecast and capacity planning.
Enterprise Architect at ATOS
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Amazon S3 Glacier is highly stable, with minimal outages and enhanced performance from AWS tools, ensuring reliable data access.
Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Azure Object Storage is generally stable, but reliability can vary based on implementation partners and compliance standards.
It is specifically designed for cold storage.
Technical Owner at Harman International
I do not experience any stability issues.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
I would rate the stability of Glacier for archival purposes at around eight out of ten.
Big Data Principal at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The downloading of high volume data and scalability processes face performance issues related to high data volumes.
Senior Solutions Architect at Think Power Solutions
From a security standpoint, there is a question mark due to past cyber attacks.
Enterprise Architect at ATOS
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon S3 Glacier needs improvements in retrieval speed, integration, pricing, support, security, compliance, billing, and storage efficiency.
Microsoft Azure Object Storage needs improvements in performance, cost, UI, integration, and security to meet user expectations.
Support could be more robust, with a focus on providing comprehensive solutions even for novel issues.
Technical Owner at Harman International
Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
Big Data Principal at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Having a guarantee that Amazon S3 Glacier would persist for the amount of time that we require in our archives would be valuable.
Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US
When using Data Lakes for analytics and frequently pulling data from our source database to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, there should be faster methods to download large data from Microsoft Azure Storage Blob to different locations.
Senior Solutions Architect at Think Power Solutions
They need enhancement in security aspects. Security alerts and integrations could be improved as part of lifecycle management, especially for archives and restoration requirements.
Enterprise Architect at ATOS
The improvement needed for Microsoft Azure Object Storage is to reduce the transactional charges, as these read and write operation charges are higher.
senior partner at Niyocon
 

Setup Cost

Amazon S3 Glacier's pricing is affordable but confusing, with no licensing fees and potential long-term costs for large data volumes.
Microsoft Azure's flexible pricing appeals with pay-as-you-go and discounts, despite concerns over complexity and high usage costs.
Compared to competitors like GCP, AWS can work on reducing hidden costs and overall pricing to retain startups and medium-sized businesses.
Technical Owner at Harman International
The storage cost is minimal, which is beneficial for archival purposes.
Big Data Principal at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Amazon S3 Glacier is beneficial due to its lower cost.
Sr. Data Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's a pay-per-use solution and a good idea for proof of concept and value.
Consultant - Architecture Solution at Onepoint
The licensing cost of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is cheaper compared to other competitors, such as Google or third-party solutions, which easily engages customers.
senior partner at Niyocon
Regarding pricing for Microsoft Azure Object Storage, I find it reasonable.
Sr. Manager IT Datacentre Cloud and Network at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Amazon S3 Glacier provides affordable, secure archiving with easy integration, strong encryption, user-friendly features, and reliable data management.
Microsoft Azure Object Storage provides scalable, reliable, and secure data management with strong features for integration, backup, and compliance.
Glacier greatly helps in managing storage costs by moving historical data to a lower-cost storage option.
Big Data Principal at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The security features include object lock encryption and immutability options, so we can use this for backups.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Amazon S3 Glacier offers robust security features and practically infinite storage, where we can store all kinds of media swiftly.
Technical Owner at Harman International
Since I work mostly with AI/ML, data piping, data integrations, and ETL tools, these features are valuable.
Senior Solutions Architect at Think Power Solutions
When talking about storage accounts, customers utilize Azure file as a replica of the file server, allowing them to access file shares or storage accounts from their systems, making it easy to use while automatically syncing data with the cloud.
senior partner at Niyocon
The ability to store everything inside Blob or Object storage and use it for archiving data is beneficial.
Consultant - Architecture Solution at Onepoint
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon S3 Glacier
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Object Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 11.3%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is 3.3%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon S3 Glacier11.3%
Microsoft Azure Object Storage3.3%
Other85.4%
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

PF
Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US
Archiving data has reduced storage costs and provides reliable long‑term retention
We have not really come across any downsides for us. It is possible that the retrieval of data may be expensive, which could be an issue, but we have not experienced that in fairness. Integration with our policies would be beneficial. We have policies for our systems where we delete data after a certain number of years, and having integration with Amazon S3 Glacier would be good. Having a guarantee that Amazon S3 Glacier would persist for the amount of time that we require in our archives would be valuable. In other words, Amazon would need to commit to support for the period we need. We could be talking about 20 years or longer. We cannot always move to the next version because we need to maintain old systems and legacy systems in order to maintain archives. A guarantee around support would be a good thing to have.
Pradeep Saxena - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technical Officer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Cloud storage has improved HR document management, performance, and secure archival
Microsoft Azure Object Storage improves the application performance and reliability, enabling faster processing for critical business workloads. It also reduces the cost and operational overhead with scalable, secure, and easy to manage cloud storage. Switching from public storage to Microsoft Azure Object Storage resulted in cost savings and enhanced security. This application is used on a day-to-day basis, making it useful while providing significant cost savings. In addition, it is secure. Microsoft Azure Object Storage is stable. The scalability of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is that it provides a scalable solution.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Amazon's S3 Glacier or EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon's S3 Glacier or Elastic Block Store data storage software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Amazon's S3 Glacier, whi...
What needs improvement with Amazon S3 Glacier?
We have not really come across any downsides for us. It is possible that the retrieval of data may be expensive, which could be an issue, but we have not experienced that in fairness. Integration w...
What is your primary use case for Amazon S3 Glacier?
We were using Amazon S3 Glacier, and I have experience with this solution. We had an S3 bucket that we were using about a year ago. We just started using Amazon S3 Glacier, and overall, I have been...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Object Storage?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Microsoft Azure Object Storage is very good.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Object Storage?
The customer support for Microsoft Azure Object Storage is not good. If a good engineer is assigned, then it functions well. However, every time we are doing troubleshooting, it is not Microsoft.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Azure Object Storage?
I have used Microsoft Azure Object Storage, which is a blob storage service. Our customers use the services that we provide for blob storage. Our customers use applications, and Microsoft Azure Obj...
 

Also Known As

Amazon Glacier
Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, Azure Object Storage, MS Azure Object Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Umbraco, Xbox, Radioshack, 343 Industries, McKesson
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Microsoft Azure Object Storage and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.