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IBM Public Cloud vs Microsoft Azure vs Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.2%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure is 18.8%, down from 19.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is 7.1%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
PaaS Clouds
 

Featured Reviews

Premnath Jaganathan - PeerSpot reviewer
Affordability and security improve our cloud experience while learning new systems
I'm not working with any AI features in IBM Public Cloud, but they are in the process of building it.I am very satisfied with the security that IBM Public Cloud provides. I would rate IBM Public Cloud eight out of ten, where one is worst and ten is the best.
Nicolas Chabrier - PeerSpot reviewer
Promotes clear, logical structures preventing impractical configurations and offers seamless integration
The only thing is regarding the management of multi-cloud environments. That's not really possible. So basically, it's wonderful if you manage Microsoft clearly and if you manage Microsoft Azure, but if you need to consume external services and have a global overview of all your consumption, it's not the case. Google, for instance, has tools that help you manage multiple environments, which makes sense because Google is really the cloud provider. So that's why they need to be compliant with the others. But for sure, Microsoft's approach is different, and it's wonderful when you're one hundred percent on Azure. But if you'd like to have something more of a multi-cloud strategy, that's a bit of a gap where they could improve.
Labhesh Hase - PeerSpot reviewer
Cost-effectiveness and pricing consistency support diverse high-intensity applications
The services of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) are quite competent when compared to AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) Cloud, and they are also lower in cost. We use compute, storage, and network services. A notable feature is Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's consistent global pricing, which is advantageous. Furthermore, applications using Oracle Database ( /products/oracle-database-reviews ) not only work seamlessly on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) but also benefit from a 25% offset on Oracle Database licenses.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is a predictable and dependable service."
"It is a scalable product. You can scale it up and down."
"There is no installation for this product because it is a cloud product."
"It's straightforward, has a good environment and is cost-effective."
"One of the features that I really like about IBM Cloud is the flexibility where you can order your own hardware."
"The beauty of cloud service providers, especially public cloud service providers, is that they are scalable every time when you need them because their payment model is pay-as-you-go."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations."
"I am very much satisfied with the technical support team at IBM Public Cloud."
"The solution has enabled us to provide advanced indicators and analytics to the client on their data."
"The automated connectors to some of our critical enterprise systems are an important feature. These are very large, critical, global HCM systems."
"It is a reliable solution that is easy to set up."
"Easy to deploy services"
"The product is rather stable. We haven't had any issues with it in that sense."
"The most efficient feature of Microsoft Azure is that we can use it to update a website with a few clicks."
"Its ability to scale is most valuable. There are certain periods of the year when we are busier, and we're able to scale up and scale down with Azure depending upon our needs."
"We have implemented the ExpressRoute connection, which is an established circuit between the local provider and the Microsoft network edge."
"The main benefit is that you're getting all of the resources you require on a subscription base. So, you get to pay as you go instead of having to have a CAPEX, you convert your CAPEX to OPEX to cover the data center cost."
"The scalability feature of the product is very impressive, especially considering the fact that the tool offers its users a pay-as-you-go model."
"The most valuable feature is that it offers several adaptors."
"Overall, I would rate Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as nine out of 10."
"It's a cloud, so it is easy to access anywhere."
"The strength of this product is that they have many good database options, compared to other vendors."
"I have found Oracle Cloud to be a scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the high level of performance for the databases."
 

Cons

"It will be challenging to implement if you do not have any experience."
"Maybe performance enhancers and reports could be better improved. If they do so, it would be better. Of all the drawbacks I saw, this would be the biggest enhancement."
"They do not have a very good virtual network implemented, and the VPC is the most important feature that needs to be improved."
"It could be more secure."
"Support could be improved."
"The deployment can be a bit of a pain. There are a lot of packages and a lot of options and it can require complex configuration to get it right."
"Normally, for any cloud, we get a lot of information on the web, but that is missing in the case of IBM Public Cloud. We need some technical support documents. That is the only thing missing in IBM Public Cloud."
"The solution needs to be more autonomous. It should let the DL go to allow for more jobs on the cloud. It could have a better interface as well."
"The local support is fair but it is sometimes limited, the service could be better."
"When we are doing transfers of records in large amounts, for example, petabytes of data or few long datasets, the performance should not degrade as it does."
"The security of the solution could always be much better."
"Maybe Azure could add an address code to create your analysis without SQL or Python because some business users don't want it to code. So it's good to have a service application that connects to the data lake to conduct analysis and simplify the business process."
"Due to the pandemic, I haven't been able to utilize their full resources. This has made it complicated to scale up. I hope this will be resolved after the pandemic."
"The interface for configuring the environment is not very intuitive. Certain things are at different places, and it is not easy to navigate. They should have a more transparent licensing model. Currently, Microsoft's licensing is a bit clunky, and it keeps changing depending on the type of subscription you have. Different features are included, and sometimes, it is very hard to figure out the right licensing. So, the commercial aspect of the licensing can be improved, and they can make it easier to understand all the features that are included."
"You eventually end up with a large collection of 'bits' all working together, I find it hard to be able to create a logical 'box' and put all the 'bits' that need to be in that box / application into the one place."
"The authentication method only allows me to have up to 90 users, and there are 2,300 people in the company."
"Lacking in additional PaaS services."
"The solution does not follow a retention policy while taking ad hoc backups. Since it does not follow the retention policy, we had to do the manual task to check the backups."
"The solution's reporting part is not good and needs more development."
"The scalability requires some improvement. This is one of the most important things they need to get better at."
"In general, the systems application needs improvement."
"Amazon AWS has a better solution overall."
"Some of the features of this solution, such as the digital assistant, require extensive configuration before they are suitable for use. We would like these to be made more straightforward and to require less manual input."
"The solution's scalability is an area with shortcomings...Mid-level customers feel that Oracle is not scalable in their environment and is an enterprise-level segment solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."
"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."
"IBM has a lesser price compared to other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS."
"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."
"IBM Public Cloud is pretty cheap. They have an ongoing free tier that basically won't expire, so as long as your solution is small enough, you can have a test set that you can use for demos, which will cost you almost nothing."
"In order to be competitive, you have to commit to a contract for at least one year, but you pay a fixed monthly fee."
"The price of IBM Cloud is very cheap compared to competitors AWS and Azure."
"The current pricing is on a pay-as-you-go subscription."
"I pay for a yearly subscription."
"Microsoft Azure's pricing is reasonable. We pay around 5000 dollars per annum."
"We pay our bill in a monthly or 6 monthly billing cycle. The cost depends on how much you use during the period."
"The pricing for the end-user packages is a bit high. It is full of very interesting services, but I would still like it to be less expensive."
"Reducing the price would be of benefit to our customers."
"Several thousand dollars and counting, we haven't needed to upgrade on premises hardware (In fact we eliminated all of the old on-premises hardware and run 100% on Azure) or pay for it's maintenance, power etc."
"We are on an annual subscription. However, there are other options available."
"The best aspect of the Oracle Cloud Platform is the relation between the performance and the price. When you compare the price with Amazon AWS, Microsft Azure, or any other, the price for performance is the best."
"Oracle Cloud is an expensive solution."
"Oracle Cloud's pricing is competitive. The tool changes its pricing when there is a change in its architecture."
"The solution is free to use."
"The pricing for Oracle Cloud services is reasonable. Additionally, compared to other service providers, Oracle has a substantial presence and established infrastructure in Bangladesh. Considering all these factors together makes Oracle Cloud an ideal choice and a strong contender in the market."
"The subscription is a pay-as-you-go model, with fees that are dependent on usage."
"The price is middling; it's not the most expensive product, but there is still some room for it to be more flexible."
"The licenses for this solution are very comprehensive and, therefore, very economical; there is only one cost, and it covers all available features without any chargeable add-ons."
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Comparison Review

it_user8586 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 14, 2013
Amazon vs Rackspace vs Microsoft vs Google: Cloud Hosting Services Comparison
Amazon Web Services, Rackspace OpenStack, Microsoft Windows Azure and Google are the major cloud hosting and storage service providers. Athough Amazon is top of them and is oldest in cloud market, Rackspace, Microsoft and Google are giving tough competition to each other and to Amazon also for…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?
IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to ...
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud?
The front end is not pervasive, so it is very difficult get the status of your current services or account from a mob...
What do you like most about IBM Public Cloud?
The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations.
Which is better - SAP Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure?
One of the best features of SAP Cloud Platform is that it is web-based and you can log in from anywhere in the world....
How does Microsoft Azure compare to Google Firebase?
I would recommend Google Firebase instead of Microsoft Azure, simply for the array of features that it has to offer. ...
How does Salesforce Platform compare with Azure?
Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform is not easy or intuitive to deploy. The difficulty will be impacted by the type of...
What are the biggest differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors?
Differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud,w and SAP SuccessFactors:w Oracle: "simple interface and deep customizatio...
What do you like most about Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry?
It's reliable, performs well, and is often faster than running applications on separate machines due to optimized per...
What needs improvement with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry?
AWS services typically offer more flexibility to end users. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is evolving and incorpo...
 

Also Known As

IBM Bluemix
Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry, Oracle OCIR, OCIR, Oracle Cloud, Oracle Cloud Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Uvionics Tech, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alpha Modus, Inventive, Web Business Consulting, FindBrok, SilverHook Powerboats, United Way of Allegheny County
BMW, Toyota, easyJet, NBC Sports, HarperCollins, Aviva, TalkTalk Business, Avanade, and Telenor.
Kenya Airways, Cell, Panasonic, Frontera, M&C Saatchi, Lumentum, WA
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Red Hat and others in PaaS Clouds. Updated: July 2025.
864,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.