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IBM SoftLayer vs Microsoft Azure Object 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 Object Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of IBM SoftLayer is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is 2.1%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1032702 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Akram Zabat - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides versatile data storage solutions with a simple setup and easy to use
It's similar to S3 for AWS. The ability to store everything inside Blob or Object storage and use it for archiving data is beneficial. For example, you can transform data from relational databases, flatten it, and store it in Object storage to save space within the databases. If I want to save data and do not require legacy access, it's a good solution, for instance, to migrate archives from databases to Object storage. This can also be used for business intelligence purposes. Having a storage solution for data makes it the best place to store it. Azure has its own solution for StatsQ Web Apps.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability is the solution's most valuable aspect for our organization."
"The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer."
"I appreciate the scalability of this solution; it is fully scalable and excellent for certain tasks."
"The tool's most valuable feature is performance."
"The layout of Microsoft is professional."
"It is a stable solution and serve our purposes"
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is that it is on the cloud."
"For security solutions in Microsoft Azure, I particularly appreciate Microsoft Azure AI foundation."
"The best thing is it's on the cloud. It's easily accessible to everyone through a mobile device, tablet, or laptop. Secondly, it's secure. Like any URL shared will not work after a few hours. Only the person concerned who has that URL can use it within a few hours to download the document. After that, it expires. Thirdly, we all keep an archive. For example, if there are old documents, they are still stored over there. Another nice Azure feature is that they have the regional set up for that storage, and there's no downtime, and I'm grateful for that. We don't have to worry, because it's secure. If something goes down, they have other copies of it on a separate server, and it's accessible."
"Object Storage's best feature is that it's easy to deploy."
 

Cons

"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."
"For us, the versioning was an issue."
"The efficiency depends on various operations, and therefore, it should involve multiple vendor support."
"I have no complaints about Microsoft Azure Object Storage, but maybe its market size could be more extensive, and its backup speed enhanced."
"The downloading of high volume data and scalability processes face performance issues related to high data volumes."
"The stability of the product is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The password retrieval process was very difficult."
"Microsoft Azure Object Storage has had a number of failures last week due to the lack of hardware available to support the resources. However, it was only for a short time, approximately two days."
"One of the things that are currently important is consistency. To achieve this, another database called Cosmos DB is available. We want to have a similar consistency to the one in Cosmos DB but at a cheaper price."
"The deployment process needs improvement, and it requires a lot of expertise to use and to utilize it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It has a pay-as-you-go model. So, you are only paying for what you store. It's an attractive model. You don't pay for a set; you pay for what you actually use."
"The licensing cost of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is monthly. We have two types of licenses. One is the EA enterprise license and the other is a CSP license."
"The price will be more competitive when we increase the time spent using the tool. For our company's size range, I think the price is okay."
"The cost should be reduced to make it more competitive."
"We don't need to pay for the solution's license."
"The cost is based on the amount of traffic and we paid approximately 18 lakh Rupees ($25,000 USD) last year."
"Microsoft Azure Object Storage requires a license. We are using a pay-as-you-go model and we have an enterprise subscription model as well."
"The solution's cost is on a pay-per-use basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Retailer
9%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Object Storage?
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. They also get multiple servic...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Object Storage?
The improvement needed for Microsoft Azure Object Storage is to reduce the transactional charges, as these read and write operation charges are higher. If reduced, we could engage more customers. M...
 

Also Known As

CloudLayer
Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, Azure Object Storage, MS Azure Object 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
Umbraco, Xbox, Radioshack, 343 Industries, McKesson
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SoftLayer vs. Microsoft Azure Object Storage and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.