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IBM SoftLayer vs Microsoft Azure File Storage comparison

 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM SoftLayer
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
22nd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure File Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of IBM SoftLayer is 1.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure File Storage is 8.6%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure File Storage8.6%
IBM SoftLayer1.2%
Other90.2%
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1032702 - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Principal Cloud Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Stable with excellent speed and agility
The most valuable aspect of the solution is simply to have the ability to host in a cloud form and out of the data center - the IBM big iron solution. It's the speed and the agility that really sell SoftLayer. The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer. The ability to extract act from your current location, load into your future location, with limited change, and then be able to take the transfer actions slowly and methodically after you're in your new location is the part that really makes this awesome. The stability and scalability are quite good.
Karthik-A - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has simplified customer data management and improved file transfer workflows
We are using AWS as well, and the main difference is that Microsoft Azure File Storage is more user-friendly for configuration-related and admin-related activities. We do not have to perform many complex activities, making it simpler compared to AWS. Security-wise, there are some concerns because it is in the cloud. The customers need to double-check, and they are not giving complete approval when it comes to security. I would rate Microsoft Azure File Storage's security compliance features seven or eight out of ten. It is secure, but since it is in the cloud, we have to convince customers when providing solutions. Many questions were raised while providing the architecture and solution for this file transfer management system. We convinced them because we have the feature and showed a demo, but it is still a prototype. We have to get approval before starting the work. The data redundancy options in Microsoft Azure File Storage are good. I am facing some challenges in convincing customers, and additional information would be helpful to address these challenges. Microsoft Azure File Storage saves time compared to AWS. We tried the prototype in AWS as well, but Azure is easier. Regarding cost, it is slightly less compared to AWS. The functionality of Microsoft Azure File Storage does not pose any issues, though basic users find it complex and require training. Regarding stability, I would rate Microsoft Azure File Storage 8.5 to 9. Scalability in Microsoft Azure File Storage is impressive. We recently handled a huge transaction during an iPhone launch without any problems.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer."
"The stability is the solution's most valuable aspect for our organization."
"General user familiarity with Office 365 products make adopting this solution easy to adopt in production."
"I recommend Microsoft Azure File Storage for medium and above-sized companies."
"The functionality is easy."
"It is very easy to use SSTP and some traditional code to move the data into a database because we can easily use the permissions and we don't have any integration or conversion issues."
"Integration with the entire Azure platform."
"The profile management option is another valuable feature that allows us to manage the profiles and secure them."
"File storage is complemented by OCR with Azure Cognitive Service."
"Azure File Storage gives good value for money, so I don't find it expensive."
 

Cons

"For us, the versioning was an issue."
"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."
"It would be helpful if we could remove data that we don't frequently access to reduce the cost of the storage."
"Considering the enterprise licensing required for the solution, the cost of the solution is an area where the product needs improvement."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage should improve its pricing."
"Some chunking logics need to be better to address issues with processing bigger files. It should allow better methods for handling large files."
"Azure File Storage's stability is okay, but sometimes we have trouble with the link to the Azure VPN disconnecting."
"The pricing and technical support could be better."
"Importing and exporting data needs to have a bit more documentation."
"The integration of the site storage with SQL was not completely seamless."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The product must improve its price."
"The price of Microsoft Azure File Storage is expensive, we do not know exactly how the price is calculated."
"We pay for both yearly and monthly licenses. The yearly one is cheaper than the monthly one."
"One needs to pay according to the storage they plan to use in the solution. The payments are to be made yearly. It is usually monthly, but we opted for yearly subscriptions in our company."
"We have Microsoft Azure File Storage's enterprise license."
"One of the major benefits for AWS is that they have a very large customer representative base where clients can be picked from, they offer large discounts and credit. We were not able to receive the same kind of offers from Microsoft Azure File Storage. We tried to approach Azure while hiring for our disaster recovery discussion, but we didn't receive anything from Azure."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage has a reasonable price."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being the most expensive. It's not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

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Which file storage system is better - Amazon EFS (elastic file storage) or Azure File Storage?
Amazon EFS is easy to set up: you can use the AWS management console, API, or command-line. Amazon EFS can grow to petabytes and deliver consistent low latencies and high levels of throughput. This...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure File Storage?
The cost of Microsoft Azure File Storage depends on the storage account, whether it is premium or standard; there is a cost difference, with the cost being higher for premium and lower for standard...
 

Also Known As

CloudLayer
MS Azure File Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Whogohost Ltd., Skypicker, Infinity Computers and Communications Company, Grace Co. Ltd., Keyword, Uvionics Tech, Tennis Australia, immixGroup, Salesbox, Cxense ASA, Avnet Inc., Komsomolskaya Pravda, Seekr
Talon, Camden
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SoftLayer vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.