IBM Public Cloud vs Microsoft Azure vs Red Hat OpenShift comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. IBM is ranked #19 with an average rating of 6.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. IBM holds a 3.3% mindshare in PSP, compared to Microsoft’s 14.5% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM Public Cloud

Read 18 IBM Public Cloud reviews

2,360 Views
2,006 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure

Read 323 Microsoft Azure reviews

20,175 Views
11,500 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Red Hat OpenShift

Read 64 Red Hat OpenShift reviews

11,487 Views
5,973 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

IBM Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Red Hat OpenShift

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Public Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Red Hat OpenShift based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Red Hat and others in PaaS Clouds.

To learn more, read our detailed PaaS Clouds Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

PaaS Clouds

March 2026

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Helped 885,667 peers since 2012

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 April 2026, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.3%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure is 14.5%, down from 20.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat OpenShift is 8.2%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure	14.5%
Red Hat OpenShift	8.2%
IBM Public Cloud	3.3%
Other	74.0%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

Premnath Jaganathan

Product Manager at Uop Ipl

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.

Read full review

Syed Abid

Snr. Infrastructure Architect (Data Centre) at LogicEra

Versatile integrations and reliable customer satisfaction elevate cloud service experience

For Microsoft Azure improvement, they need to enhance their support system. The first level of support should be improved in terms of quality and response time. They need more technical support at the first level, as there are currently only one or two technical people among five to ten staff members at this level. They should ensure that the first level support is more technical because we normally provide services to technical users ourselves. When an issue arises, it usually escalates to the second or third level. When facing first level support, they may have limited knowledge and only collect screenshots to forward to their seniors. They should ensure that the first level support is aligned with L2 and L3 to better assist us, especially since we mention in the ticket that our issues are related to specific problems and require that sort of support.

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Pratul Shukla

Vice President at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Adopting a flexible and efficient approach with noticeable improvements in operational costs and continued challenges in job management

Currently, one of the biggest challenges we face is with services and jobs. For spawning batches, although it has crons, it is not easy to integrate with enterprise systems such as Autosys. The entire company uses Autosys, but we are not able to integrate it effectively. We need intermediate servers to run OC utility commands and initiate the cron job. We have to do a lot of modifications to ensure our batches work properly. With physical or virtual servers, even in AWS, we are able to write and manage multiple jobs. Managing batches in Red Hat OpenShift has been a significant challenge. Integrating third parties is a challenge with Red Hat OpenShift. For example, with Elasticsearch, onboarding itself was difficult, running file beats and dealing with routing issues. It is not straightforward, especially since we have some components in AWS as. AWS has many capabilities that come out of the box and are easier to work with compared to Red Hat OpenShift. Red Hat OpenShift's biggest disadvantage is they do not provide any private cloud setup where we can host on our site using their services. The main reason we went with Red Hat OpenShift was because it is a private cloud, and we have regulatory requirements that prevent us from using public cloud.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup was very easy. It's quite straightforward. Deployment took about fifteen minutes. Everything is well organized."

"This is a predictable and dependable service."

"I am very much satisfied with the technical support team at IBM Public Cloud."

"This product is very good because it is accessible in remote locations, and anyone can deploy from any place."

"The price of IBM Cloud is most valuable for us."

"It provides robust analytics and management tools to give customers complete visibility into their environment and infrastructure."

"IBM Public Cloud is a stable solution; it gives you SLA notifications all the time of what could be done, what is going to happen in the next hour regarding downtime, or anything that affects you, and so far I never noticed any issue, so I'm very happy with the solution."

"One of the features that I really like about IBM Cloud is the flexibility where you can order your own hardware."

More IBM Public Cloud pros

"The best features of Microsoft Azure are the interface and the ease of use of that interface, which is very friendly."

"The scalability is good."

"We have a full Azure plus Office 365 implementation for servers and desktops, authenticating users on Azure AD over 802.1X switching and wireless, with no on-premise servers, domain controllers, or file servers."

"We are satisfied with this solution and have not had any issues with the performance or the stability, and it is more user-friendly than AWS."

"Kubernetes service and API management are the most valuable."

"Microsoft Azure is built for scalability; it's perfect."

"It has multiple features that can be used from the start."

"The solution is easy to use and flexible."

More Microsoft Azure pros

"I would recommend Red Hat OpenShift, especially for its automation capabilities."

"Valuable features include time to market, avoiding vendor lock-in, and the ease of working in a multi-cloud environment."

"What I like best about OpenShift is that it can reduce some of the costs of having multiple applications because you can just move them into small container applications. For example, applications don't need to run for twenty days, only to be used up by Monday. Through OpenShift, you can move some of the small applications into any cloud. I also find the design of OpenShift good."

"The most valuable feature of OpenShift is the security context constraint (SCC). The solution’s security throughout the stack is good. And security context constraints provide port-level security. It's a granular level of control, where you can give privileges to certain users to work on certain applications."

"OpenShift is more enterprise-oriented, offers good support, and provides integration with multiple solutions."

"Our small team developed and rolled out everything to production in a short time, mostly thanks to OpenShift."

"OpenShift is based on Kubernetes and we try to use all the Kubernetes objects of OpenShift. We don't use features that are specific to OpenShift, except internal certificates for the services. The one feature that is missing from Kubernetes and that is really useful in OpenShift is the lifecycle of the cluster and the ease of installation. We use VMware and VMware integration internally with the OpenShift installer, which is very good. With OpenShift it's easy to spin up or scale out a cluster."

"It is a stable platform."

More Red Hat OpenShift pros

Cons

"While they have about 99% of what we need, the only exception, perhaps, was the push notification feature that was discontinued. They delayed the replacement product."

"It could be more secure."

"The IBM Cloud is less stable than AWS, Google, and Oracle."

"An area for improvement in IBM Public Cloud is getting up-to-date information on how to set up everything. It's hard to find new documentation."

"While they have about 99% of what we need, the only exception, perhaps, was the push notification feature that was discontinued. They delayed the replacement product."

"An area for improvement in IBM Public Cloud is getting up-to-date information on how to set up everything. It's hard to find new documentation."

"The product should offer more computing, similar to Amazon."

"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."

More IBM Public Cloud cons

"Virtual networks might be improved by adding more rules for the validation of protocols and peripheral elements in security assurance."

"Microsoft Azure is not always a user-friendly solution. There are too many people who develop this solution. For the end-users, sometimes it's not really fun to use or simple to use. It could be improved."

"Technical support isn't so good. We'd like them to be more helpful and responsive."

"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."

"They should create integrations with more platforms."

"The scalability could improve."

"Needs fast Internet connectivity."

"There needs to be better data security. There are organizations that do not want their data to be submitted to Microsoft, they should have strong encryption."

More Microsoft Azure cons

"There have been some issues with security, in particular, that we had to address. At times they make it “clunky." I am quite confident these parameters will appear in the next releases. They have been reported as bugs and are actually in process."

"My team has found some bugs in OpenShift due to continuous integration, and this is an area for improvement in the platform. RedHat should fix the bugs. Another area for improvement in OpenShift is that upgrading clusters can be challenging, resulting in downtime. Application support also needs improvement in OpenShift because the platform doesn't support all applications in the cloud. I'd like upgraded storage in the next release of OpenShift, especially when I need to do a DR exercise. It would also be good if the platform allows mirroring with another cluster, or more portability in terms of moving applications to another cluster."

"Documentation and technical support could be improved. The product is good, but when we raise a case with support—say we are having an image issue—support is not really up to the mark."

"We want to see better alerting, especially in critical situations requiring immediate intervention. Until we go to the dashboard, it can be challenging to quickly recognize that there's an issue for us to deal with. Therefore, a popup of the event or a tweaked GUI to catch our attention when it's alerting would be a welcome change. Everything else is good. We don't need any additional features. From the operations perspective, as an administrator, there is nothing concerning."

"OpenShift could be improved if it were more accessible for smaller budgets."

"The GUI could have more capabilities, particularly around virtualization."

"Areas where Red Hat OpenShift can be improved include the licensing being a bit complex and maybe expensive, as that is something in the hands of the organization's higher management, especially when those licensing agreements are done, and I think Red Hat OpenShift is quite resource-heavy because the control plane and default monitoring stack consume significant resources, meaning for small clusters, a large percentage of compute goes just to running Red Hat OpenShift itself, not our apps."

"We had to discontinue this solution due to many limitations."

More Red Hat OpenShift cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of IBM Cloud is very cheap compared to competitors AWS and 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 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 licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."

"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."

"We are using the trial version of this solution, so we have not paid anything."

"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."

More IBM Public Cloud pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft Azure comes with a long-term license and trial licenses as well."

"Microsoft Azure is a cost-effective solution where you use it as per your requirement and pay for it."

"It is affordable, but its subscription price could be cheaper."

"The current pricing is on a pay-as-you-go subscription."

"All cloud services are expensive."

"There are no licensing fees."

"The pricing is relatively high."

"Licensing costs for Enterprise are on an annual basis."

More Microsoft Azure pricing and cost advice

"The pricing for OpenShift includes support and licensing, which costs approximately $400."

"The model of pricing and buying licences is quite rigid. We are in the process of negotiating on demand pricing which will help us take advantage of the cloud as a whole."

"It's important to start small because the solution is scalable. We can build our cluster and look at the bundle option, not the external subscriptions. Talking to the people at Red Hat can save us money."

"I don't deal with the cost part, but I know that the cost is very high when compared to other products. They charge for CPU and memory, but we don't worry about it."

"The cost is quite high."

"We use the license-free version of Red Hat Openshift but we pay for the support."

"OpenShift is really good when we need to start, but once we get to a certain scale, it becomes too expensive."

"We are currently using the open version, OKD. We plan to get the enterprise version in the future."

More Red Hat OpenShift pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user8586

Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Aug 14, 2013

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

University

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Construction Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

University

Financial Services Firm

23%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	140
Midsize Enterprise	54
Large Enterprise	149

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	43

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 ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Public Cloud?

The prices are relatively lower compared to others. It is a good option for medium-sized businesses. However, busines...

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What needs improvement with IBM Public Cloud?

The connectivity and speed of IBM Public Cloud are much lower compared to the competition.

See all answers

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....

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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. ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

How does OpenShift compare with Amazon AWS?

Open Shift makes managing infrastructure easy because of self-healing and automatic scaling. There is also a wonderfu...

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Which would you recommend - Pivotal Cloud Foundry or OpenShift?

Pivotal Cloud Foundry is a cloud-native application platform to simplify app delivery. It is efficient and effective....

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What needs improvement with OpenShift?

Areas where Red Hat OpenShift can be improved include the licensing being a bit complex and maybe expensive, as that ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon AWS vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 22% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 10% of the time

Google Cloud vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

Heroku vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Public Cloud Competitors

Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

Google Firebase vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 8% of the time

Alibaba Cloud vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 8% of the time

Google Cloud vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Competitors

Amazon AWS vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 7% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 6% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 5% of the time

Proxmox VE vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 4% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 4% of the time

More Red Hat OpenShift Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud

March 2026

Download IBM Public Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure

March 2026

Download Microsoft Azure product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift

March 2026

Download Red Hat OpenShift product report

Also Known As

IBM Bluemix

Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure

No data available

Overview

IBM Cloud is a full-stack cloud platform that spans public, private and hybrid environments. Build with a robust suite of advanced data and AI tools, and draw on deep industry expertise to help you on your journey to the cloud.

IBM

Microsoft Azure integrates services and offers flexibility, ensuring compatibility with diverse environments. Its scalability, security, and cost-efficient features enhance deployment and management, making it ideal for infrastructure services and application hosting.

Azure provides a comprehensive suite of tools for application deployment, virtual machine management, and data analytics. It allows seamless integration with Power BI and offers a user-friendly interface supported by detailed documentation and technical support. Though users appreciate its capabilities, they sometimes face challenges with costs, setup, and interface complexity, alongside integration and performance issues. Frequent updates and a learning curve are also noted, though Azure's cloud-based security and scalability remain critical for disaster recovery and business continuity.

What are Azure's key features?

Integrated Services: Ensures compatibility with Microsoft and non-Microsoft environments.
Scalability: Supports growing business demands with flexible computing power.
Security: Offers robust cloud-based security features for data protection.
Cost Efficiency: Provides options that optimize costs for diverse requirements.
Application Deployment: Facilitates quick rollout of apps and services.

What benefits should users expect from Azure?

Operational Optimization: Allows companies to streamline processes effectively.
Innovative Efficiency: Empowers businesses to innovate with powerful tools.
Reliable Support: Backed by strong technical support and comprehensive documentation.
Flexible Cloud Solutions: Offers a range of options for cloud migrations and infrastructure management.

Microsoft Azure is widely implemented in industries like financial services, healthcare, and logistics for hosting enterprise applications and vital services. Companies utilize its capabilities for IoT applications, DevOps, and Kubernetes clusters, benefiting from its cloud migrations, data analytics, and active directory support.

Microsoft

Red Hat OpenShift is a comprehensive platform offering versatile container orchestration capabilities, suitable for businesses seeking robust, scalable, and secure solutions for application modernization efforts and microservices deployment.

Red Hat OpenShift combines a user-friendly interface with powerful CLI tools, ensuring rapid deployment and process automation. It seamlessly integrates with Docker and Kubernetes, providing cloud-native stacks for flexibility and compliance. Enhancing development efficiency, OpenShift includes built-in CI/CD tools and dynamic scaling features. It supports multi-cloud environments, avoiding vendor lock-in. However, documentation gaps, interface complexity, and infrastructure demands present challenges, alongside improving integration with third-party tools and monitoring capabilities. Licensing complexities and resource consumption remain areas for improvement, with user experience varying due to support response times.

What are Red Hat OpenShift's key features?

User-Friendly GUI: Offers an intuitive interface for managing containers and applications.
CLI Tools: Robust command line tools for efficient development workflows.
Scalability: Supports dynamic scaling to meet changing demands.
Integration: Seamless integration with Docker and Kubernetes.
Security: Features like role-based access control enhance security.
CI/CD Tools: Built-in tools like Jenkins streamline the development lifecycle.
Multi-Cloud Support: Enables use across different cloud providers.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Deployment Speed: Faster application rollouts and updates.
Automation: Reduces manual tasks, increasing operational efficiency.
Security: High-security standards for protecting applications.
Adaptability: Flexible framework suited for diverse environments.
Resource Management: Efficient allocation of resources for cost savings.

In industries embracing cloud-native architectures, Red Hat OpenShift is adept for hosting containerized applications and transitioning legacy systems. It excels in managing DevOps processes, supporting production and development in sectors such as finance, healthcare, and technology, ensuring robust hybrid on-premise and cloud operations.

Red Hat

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.

UPS, Cathay Pacific, Hilton

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Red Hat and others in PaaS Clouds. Updated: March 2026.

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