IBM SoftLayer vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud comparison

IBM and NetApp are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. IBM is ranked #20, while NetApp is ranked #17. IBM holds a 1.9% mindshare in PCSS, compared to NetApp’s 3.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

IBM SoftLayer

Read 2 IBM SoftLayer reviews

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651 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes Servic...

Read 3 NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud reviews

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1,113 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM SoftLayer

NetApp Cloud Volumes Servic...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

IBM SoftLayer and NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud compete in cloud storage and computing. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service has the upper hand due to its robust capabilities, despite IBM SoftLayer being noted for pricing and support.

Features: IBM SoftLayer users value its global reach, flexibility in configuration, and competitive pricing. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service users benefit from its seamless integration with Google Cloud, high performance, and advanced features.

Room for Improvement: IBM SoftLayer could benefit from a more intuitive management interface, better performance metrics, and a faster support system. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service would gain from more transparent pricing, additional automation options, and enhanced cost management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM SoftLayer has a straightforward deployment process but slower customer support response times. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service offers easy deployment with prompt and effective customer service.

Pricing and ROI: IBM SoftLayer offers competitive pricing and good ROI, appealing to budget-conscious users. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service has higher pricing justified by its advanced feature set, resulting in favorable ROI for those prioritizing feature-rich solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

August 2026

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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

20th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp Cloud Volumes Servic...

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

17th

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (24th), Cloud Storage (19th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of IBM SoftLayer is 1.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud is 3.5%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud	3.5%
IBM SoftLayer	1.9%
Other	94.6%

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

reviewer1032702

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.

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Colin Constable

Co-Founder at Atsign

Enables us to fine-tune storage and capacity on the fly as our needs grow or shrink over time

NetApp delivers High Availability. It's critical to our work. That was the main driver for using NetApp. We have a highly resilient service and if you have a highly resilient service, you are only as resilient as the least resilient part of your infrastructure. That's what we were having trouble with our file system before. It was becoming troublesome, so we needed to find something that was much more highly resilient so that's why we moved to NetApp. The complexity of moving large numbers of files to the cloud depends on what you're trying to do. But for us, it was really simple. I imagine for large enterprise customers it is probably pretty tricky. They're probably on all different technologies inside a large corporation and they may or may not have very large pipes going to them. So if you're in a data center to the cloud then it's going to be easy, but if you have hundreds of branches like if you're a bank and have lots of branch banks, they might have very small pipes out to the internet. It might take forever. In our use case everything's brand new files, so it was pretty trivial. We didn't migrate to the cloud, we were already on the cloud, so it was a nonissue for us. NetApp enables us to share data across VMs. It actually reduced the amount of data storage we need. We were having to have storage attached to each VM. And now we can aggregate that storage across multiple VMs, so that actually gave us a net reduction, which was a good thing. We switched from using block storage to file storage to share data between our VMs. It made it easier, frankly but I worry about the scalability in the future. For the moment it made life easier. We were using block and then we moved back to file with NetApp.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ability to extract 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 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."

"The solution is highly stable."

"In terms of its storage snapshot efficiencies, the service is highly efficient. We are only doing things in small batches right now because we have not converted all of the data, but we have tested them in the Google Cloud and they work efficiently."

"It is a good service for high availability that is very easy to configure."

"Storage was taking up maybe 10 to 20% of my life at the startup, and now it takes up zero."

"Storage was taking up maybe 10 to 20% of my life at the startup, and now it takes up zero. I was personally running all the infrastructure for the company. Now that we've moved to NetApp, I don't have to worry about making sure it's up and running. It's made my life personally much better."

"Overall, they have very impressive technologies."

"High availability is very important to us because we have a production environment. High availability is the highest priority for us to continue keeping our systems running."

Cons

"For us, the versioning was an issue."

"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."

"I would like for the sales team to get in contact more often and let me know what I should be doing next, what we should be doing about new features. So it would be nice if I heard a little bit more from him. From a technology perspective, I have no complaints."

"It would help if they increased the area in which they employ artificial intelligence, by starting to do assessments on the environments, to project those. They're not using any AI tools, currently, on the administrative side."

"The user interface has room for improvement. We would like this service to be more integrated with Azure, which is very easy to manage and use. It was easy to create volumes and add capacity pools in Azure, but in Google Cloud, we can only create separate volumes. We need more management or configuration options in the user interface."

"The user interface has room for improvement."

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"We don't need so much space, and there is no option to pay as we go or use just what we need. Also, the only way to increase performance is by increasing the level of the service."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Construction Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Comparisons

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Compared 20% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle Cloud Software Appliance vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon AWS vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 9% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM SoftLayer Competitors

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 19% of the time

Amazon S3 vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Database Backup Service vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Cloud Object Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Public Cloud Storage Services

August 2026

Download IBM SoftLayer product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

August 2026

NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud report

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud product report

Also Known As

CloudLayer

CVS for Google Cloud, NetApp CVS for Google Cloud, Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud, Cloud Volumes Service for GCP, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for GCP

Overview

IBM SoftLayer, part of IBM Cloud offerings, provides robust infrastructure services designed to meet business demands for scalability and flexibility. It supports a range of computing needs, offering customizable resources with high performance and reliability.

IBM SoftLayer is an enterprise-grade cloud platform that combines powerful networking, security, and redundancy features. It enables users to deploy a combination of physical and virtual devices, facilitating hybrid cloud solutions. Known for its flexibility, it caters to businesses needing infrastructure tailored to specific operational needs, ensuring efficient workload management and performance.

What are the most important features of IBM SoftLayer?

Network Configuration: Offers high-speed networking with options for private, public, and management networks.
Security Measures: Comprehensive security with DDoS protection, firewalls, and encryption services.
Scalability Options: Flexible scaling of resources for dynamic business requirements.
Hybrid Deployments: Seamless integration of physical and virtual environments.
Data Centers: Global presence with numerous data centers offering reliability and low latency.

What benefits and ROI should you expect from IBM SoftLayer?

Cost Efficiency: Competitive pricing and transparent billing to manage IT budgets effectively.
Performance Optimization: High-performance infrastructure enhancing application speed and responsiveness.
Business Agility: Rapid deployment capabilities aiding timely project launches.
Operational Ease: Streamlined management of resources reducing operational overheads.

Industries such as finance, healthcare, and gaming find IBM SoftLayer beneficial due to its secure, reliable infrastructure supporting sensitive data and high transaction volumes. It enables financial services to manage data flows seamlessly, healthcare sectors to ensure compliance with data security regulations, and gaming companies to deliver low-latency user experiences. Designed for enterprises needing tailored solutions to meet operational demands efficiently.

IBM

NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud provides a managed, high-performance storage solution designed for enterprise workloads and complex data environments, ensuring seamless integration with Google Cloud.

It offers enterprises an efficient way to manage storage needs in Google Cloud, with features focused on high performance, ease of use, and robust data management. This service facilitates quick deployment, reliability, and data protection, allowing organizations to focus on operational efficiency without the complexities of traditional infrastructure.

What are the most important features?

High Performance: Delivers consistent, scalable performance for demanding applications.
Ease of Use: Simplified management and deployment reduce administrative overhead.
Data Protection: Includes built-in snapshots and replication for data integrity and disaster recovery.
Flexible Integration: Seamlessly integrates with Google Cloud services for streamlined workflows.
Scalability: Easily scales with business growth, providing storage on demand.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Cost Efficiency: Optimizes storage costs with automated tiering and flexible pricing models.
Enhanced Productivity: Reduces time spent on storage management, allowing teams to focus on core tasks.
Reliability: Provides a dependable infrastructure with high uptime and data availability.
Agility: Enables rapid adaptation to changing business needs with quick scalability.

In industries like finance and healthcare, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud is implemented to ensure secure data handling and regulatory compliance. Its capabilities in data protection and rapid scaling are particularly valuable in these sectors, where data integrity and fast access are priorities.

NetApp

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

Atos, Bandwidth, Wuxi NextCode

Buyer's Guide

IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

August 2026

Free Report: IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

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