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 #18 with an average rating of 6.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM holds a 3.5% mindshare in PSP, compared to Microsoft’s 12.9% 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

3,154 Views
2,618 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure

Read 324 Microsoft Azure reviews

25,540 Views
14,302 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Red Hat OpenShift

Read 73 Red Hat OpenShift reviews

14,243 Views
6,979 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

IBM Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Red Hat OpenShift

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

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: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

PaaS Clouds

April 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 895,151 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 May 2026, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.5%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure is 12.9%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat OpenShift is 7.4%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure	12.9%
Red Hat OpenShift	7.4%
IBM Public Cloud	3.5%
Other	76.2%

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.

Read full review

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

"Overall, I would say that IBM Cloud is stable, straightforward, and is a good service."

"The platform has everything that I need - or 99% of the requirements we need."

"The stability is excellent; it's 200% stable with no bugs or glitches, it doesn't crash or freeze, and it's extremely reliable with great performance."

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

"We deploy all of our developments and production environments for deploying microservices and APIs on the IBM Public Cloud."

"I've found the stability to be excellent. The performance is good."

"For non-complex applications, the IBM Cloud works fine and the price is much lower than the competitors."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations."

More IBM Public Cloud pros

"The solution is easy to manage within the cloud application, has good performance, and is secure."

"The Azure Portal has an advantage in terms of UX making buying resources or downgrading really easier to understand, and while AWS has micro, smaller functionalities, Azure has more end-to-end focus which makes it easier, saving you time and money."

"The integration with Databricks is the most valuable aspect of the solution; it's easy to use and to put on the pipeline, and Data Factory and Databricks together build a pipeline and really integrate very well."

"Microsoft Azure has a lot of useful features. They have databases, application services, PaaS solutions, such as platform and infrastructure services. The virtual machines' functions and services are good."

"Azure offers broad compatibility with both structured and unstructured data. For example, we use PostgreSQL for storing Azure's official data and manage various types of data, including tabular and image data, accommodating the storage of all data types we handle. So, in many ways, Azure simplified the data storage and management needs."

"There are many useful features. We use web apps, so instead of starting a web server, we just have machines running some web services. This was helpful for us in terms of the scalability of the application. We also use Active Directory for authentication and some services for the data backup. It is a very good and reliable solution. It was easy to implement this solution. It fits very well into our plans and covers our needs to provide infrastructure in the cloud. The portal to configure new resources is very easy, and it is very easy to allocate new resources."

"This is definitely a product that I recommend, but it has to be done smartly."

"We have found the stability and performance to be quite good."

More Microsoft Azure pros

"I find the resilient infrastructure feature of OpenShift very valuable, as it has no downtime at all."

"I think the most valuable feature this solution provides is the possibility to have support throughout the whole platform, including logging, monitoring, op features, and the like."

"The most valuable feature of OpenShift is the containers."

"The main reason that we chose OpenShift rather than Azure or AWS was the scalability."

"Overall, Red Hat is a handy tool to have, like an electric screwdriver instead of a manual one, because we can use what they've already written to make us more productive."

"The most valuable thing about it is the support available."

"This solution helps us to account for peak seasons involving higher demand than usual. It also gives us confidence in the security of our overall systems."

"Self-provisioning support saves a lot of time and unnecessary work from the system administrator who can use this time to run and monitor the infrastructure."

More Red Hat OpenShift pros

Cons

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"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."

"It will be challenging to implement if you do not have any experience."

"The solution needs to be more autonomous. It should let the DL go to allow for more jobs on the cloud."

"Support needs some improvement. Basically, you are doing it all on your own, and it's not easy."

"There is not a lot of support for IBM Cloud. The response from them and the ETA for resolving issues is too slow, and also, the SLA is too expensive."

"The initial setup and the pricing are areas that need improvement."

More IBM Public Cloud cons

"From a security perspective, it could be improved."

"There are times when using a service in Microsoft Azure can be confusing because you have four or five options that do similar operations. It would be helpful if there was a clear decision tree around those features. Microsoft does provide a lot of decision trees around a lot of their services, but it's not for everything."

"Its pricing should be better. In terms of features, I am yet to explore the whole solution, and the current features seem okay."

"It would be helpful if Azure provided more information on the various add-ons to give people an understanding of what they are used for, and how they're applied by other companies or businesses."

"The solution must improve its pricing."

"Support could be improved. If you pay for a higher plan, it's okay, however, the lower plans don't offer as good of a service experience."

"Microsoft Azure could improve by being more secure."

"It took less than three years for the ROI to be zero. Over three years is better in-house for the ROI."

More Microsoft Azure cons

"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—the support is not really up to the mark. It is difficult to get support... When we raise a case, their support people will hesitate to get on a call or a screen-sharing session. That is a major drawback when it comes to OpenShift."

"Latency and performance are two areas of concern in OpenShift where improvements are required."

"Managing batches in Red Hat OpenShift has been a significant challenge."

"I had to frequently upgrade my cluster due to OpenShift's rolling updates every six months, which I found to be excessive."

"The whole area around the hybrid cloud could be improved."

"For some reason there have been some DNS issues."

"Autoscaling issues. It does not increase in a seamless manner. Sometimes, CPU utilization/Memory utilization exceeds and the application just hangs or gets into HeapSpace or OutOfMemory error."

"OpenShift requires a very expensive and complex infrastructure."

More Red Hat OpenShift cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM has a lesser price compared to other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS."

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

"The price of IBM Cloud is very cheap compared to competitors AWS and Azure."

"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."

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

"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."

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

More IBM Public Cloud pricing and cost advice

"The pricing model can be improved because we find that Azure pricing is a bit high."

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

"The long-term cost is higher than if you set up the servers on-premises, which is something that could be improved through more competitive pricing."

"Pricing is comparable but from a cost perspective, this solution is the cheapest."

"If you are not aware of costs, pricing, etc., you can end up with a hefty bill. However, I found that the Azure price calculator is a valuable tool to use before starting to deploy VMs in Azure. This tool will give you an overview of the costs you should expect on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis."

"I believe that we have a three-year license, and I'm happy with the pricing."

"Azure costing can be multi-layered."

"I rate the product price a seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price."

More Microsoft Azure pricing and cost advice

"Pricing of OpenShift depends on the number of nodes and who is hosting it."

"The licensing cost for OpenShift is expensive when compared to other products. RedHat also charges you additional costs apart from the standard licensing fees."

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

"The price depends on the type and the nature of the organizations, along with the types of projects that are of considerable range."

"We had a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) license for all our servers' operating systems. By having multiple Red Hat products together, you can negotiate costs and leverage on having a sort of enterprise license agreement to reduce the overall outlay or TCO."

"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."

"The pricing is standard; the solution isn't particularly expensive or affordable."

"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."

More Red Hat OpenShift pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which PaaS Clouds solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

895,151 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user8586

Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

University

10%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

University

Financial Services Firm

22%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	141
Midsize Enterprise	54
Large Enterprise	153

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	56

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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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....

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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....

See all answers

What needs improvement with OpenShift?

Red Hat OpenShift can be improved by addressing any features, performance, or usability issues. In my view, the perfo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon AWS vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 22% of the time

Google Cloud vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 8% of the time

SAP Business Technology Platform vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

HPE Helion vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Public Cloud Competitors

Google Firebase vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 7% of the time

Alibaba Cloud vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 6% of the time

SAP S4HANA on AWS vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Competitors

Amazon AWS vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 8% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 5% 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

Hyper-V vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 4% of the time

More Red Hat OpenShift Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud

May 2026

Download IBM Public Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure

May 2026

Download Microsoft Azure product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift

May 2026

Download Red Hat OpenShift product report

Also Known As

IBM Bluemix

Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure

No data available

Overview

IBM Public Cloud combines reliability, scalability, and security, offering dedicated hosting with flexible hardware and network configurations. AI integrations and workload management make it a valuable asset for tech environments, ensuring excellent performance with 24/7 customer support.

IBM Public Cloud is noted for its robust offerings, including bare metal servers and strong security measures, appealing to businesses seeking dedicated hosting and server management solutions. Though cost-effective and user-friendly, there are areas for improvement in computing power and deployment processes. The lack of restrictions on data transfers in serverless functions sets it apart from competitors. Users have highlighted issues with configuration complexity and the need for better documentation. While the Cloud Foundry deprecation posed challenges, industries continue to employ IBM Public Cloud for hosting, SaaS infrastructure, and digital laboratories, thanks to its flexibility and resource-intensive data management capabilities.

What are the key features of IBM Public Cloud?

Scalability: Offers flexible hardware ordering and network design.
Security: Enhances protection for sensitive data handling.
Performance: High availability and workload management.
AI Integrations: Supports modern AI-driven solutions.
24/7 Support: Responsive customer assistance.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from IBM Public Cloud?

Cost Efficiency: Provides competitive pricing for services.
Data Transfer: Allows unrestricted serverless function transfers.
Flexibility: Adapts to hosting and SaaS infrastructure needs.
Resource Handling: Optimal for data processing and network tasks.

IBM Public Cloud finds widespread application across industries such as telecommunications, education, and analytics. Organizations utilize it for developing SaaS infrastructure, dedicated server hosting, teaching agreements, and microservices. It plays a crucial role in sensitive data management, disaster recovery, and supporting hybrid architectures.

IBM

Microsoft Azure is a versatile cloud platform known for its scalability, flexibility, and ease of use, offering comprehensive solutions like virtual machines, identity management, and data storage with robust security measures and global data centers.

Azure provides a straightforward setup with dynamic scaling and seamless integration with existing tools. Its robust security, compliance with privacy laws, and global data center presence make it a trusted choice for enterprises. With features supporting DevOps, IoT, AI/ML, and hybrid cloud environments, Azure facilitates efficient cloud migration and modernization, enhancing operational efficiency.

What are some of the key features of Microsoft Azure?

Scalability: Adjust resources automatically to meet demand.
Flexibility: Support for hybrid cloud setup and smooth integration with existing tools.
Virtual Machines: Extensive support for VMs to run various workloads.
Active Directory: Robust identity and access management services.
Data Storage: Diverse storage options for different data management needs.
Security Measures: Comprehensive security protocols and compliance support.

What benefits and ROI should users consider when evaluating Microsoft Azure?

Cost Efficiency: Managed services that reduce operational costs.
Reliability: High availability with global data center coverage.
Ease of Migration: Facilitates transition from on-premises solutions to the cloud.
Operational Efficiency: User-friendly interface and extensive training resources.

Organizations primarily use Azure for infrastructure services, application hosting, and data management across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail. Resellers deploy cloud services for clients in private, public, and hybrid clouds, supporting enterprise applications and digital transformation projects.

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: April 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

895,151 professionals have used our research since 2012.