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Microsoft Azure vs VMware Cloud Foundation comparison

Microsoft and VMware are both solutions in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4, while VMware is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.1. Microsoft holds a 15.5% mindshare in ISI, compared to VMware’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of VMware users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Azure
Read 321 Microsoft Azure reviews
  • 19,910 Views
  • 10,552 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
VMware Cloud Foundation
Read 32 VMware Cloud Foundation reviews
  • 2,934 Views
  • 734 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

Microsoft Azure and VMware Cloud Foundation are competitors in the cloud computing and virtualization market. Microsoft Azure appears to have an edge due to its extensive range of deployment options, programming language support, and seamless integration with Microsoft services.

Features: Microsoft Azure offers global deployment, support for various programming languages and frameworks, and Azure Active Directory for enhanced security. Its platform is known for scalability and efficient integration with Microsoft tools. VMware Cloud Foundation emphasizes management simplicity for data centers, offering streamlined lifecycle management and robust virtualization capabilities with an integrated infrastructure stack.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure users often point to the need for simplified debugging, improved pricing clarity, and enhanced integration with non-Microsoft systems and security management. VMware Cloud Foundation could benefit from increased flexibility in integrations, easier lifecycle management processes, and reduced pricing to be more accessible to a wider range of businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure facilitates deployment with numerous templates and automation options but has variable technical support quality influenced by service tiers. VMware Cloud Foundation's deployment may seem complex initially due to its converged infrastructure needs but automates many configurations for smoother implementation. Its customer support is generally well-rated, though users desire faster response times.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure implements a pay-as-you-go pricing model, often seen as competitive but sometimes unpredictable due to licensing complexities. It is recognized for its cost-effectiveness in smaller environments. VMware Cloud Foundation involves higher upfront costs yet promises significant long-term savings over traditional infrastructures. Both solutions deliver robust ROI, with Azure favoring an OPEX approach and VMware focusing on hardware reduction efficiencies.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure vs. VMware Cloud Foundation Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
September 2025
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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Azure reduces costs with scalable services, pay-as-you-go model, and improved infrastructure, enhancing long-term returns and performance.
Sentiment score
5.1
Transitioning to VMware Cloud Foundation offers 30-40% savings through reduced tickets and improved stability, despite limited immediate ROI.
The value for money is good, and Microsoft Azure has positively impacted our operational costs.
When we use Microsoft Azure, it provides enhanced security from our perspective, though I am not certain about the financial return on investment or benefits for our users as I do not have that information.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure report
VMware Cloud Foundation allows cost and time savings by quickly deploying infrastructure requests and integrating automatic ticketing and backup services.
In terms of ROI, although VMware Cloud Foundation is expensive, it saves time in most cases, which indirectly saves costs for users.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
HM
FP
MH
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Azure's support is often effective, yet some face delays; higher-tier support and self-help resources improve experiences.
Sentiment score
7.0
VMware Cloud Foundation's support is responsive and expert, though improvements in speed and product familiarity are desired.
Microsoft needs to engage L3 and L2 in support when specified in service tickets.
The support from Microsoft Azure is good.
Regarding technical support from Microsoft, I find they are responsive and helpful, depending on which support package you're on.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure report
There are times when support is unclear, and even VMware support personnel may lack familiarity with certain parts, causing difficulties.
Based on my nine years of experience with VMware, I would evaluate their technical support as effective.
Our technical support team is capable of providing support on the operating system side.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
Syed Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
HM
JE
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewerNarasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Azure offers scalable solutions, but users face challenges with costs and resource limits, leading some to prefer competitors.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMware Cloud Foundation is versatile and scalable, highly rated but dependent on licensing and hardware for optimal performance.
Microsoft Azure is not just one product; it is a platform with multiple products within Microsoft Azure, and I would say it is scalable and would rate it a nine.
The scalability of Microsoft Azure is excellent for growth and adaptation, depending on company requirements.
It has different kinds of designs that allow for management and deployment in multi-zones, offering both scalable and non-scalable options.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure report
When more hosts are added, performance goes slow.
VMware Cloud Foundation supports scalability and company growth.
VMware Cloud Foundation is quite scalable, receiving a rating of eight and a half to nine out of ten.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
JE
FP
Syed Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
MH
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Azure is stable with good uptime, though stability varies by configuration; users generally rate it highly.
Sentiment score
7.7
Users rate VMware Cloud Foundation highly for stability, noting minor migration challenges but appreciate its reliable performance and regular updates.
We noticed a few critical servers went down due to a Microsoft Azure-end hardware issue.
We are now migrating clients without the zoning into mandatory multi-zone deployments, so if one zone goes down, their application and database remain live.
Microsoft Azure is quite stable, but recent outages and security issues have slightly decreased my confidence.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure report
The stability of VMware Cloud Foundation is very high.
If one component fails to operate in a timely manner, the entire infrastructure can go down because everything is interconnected.
I am currently satisfied with the stability of VMware Cloud Foundation, though having started only two to three months ago, I am still in the monitoring phase.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
reviewer1561173 - PeerSpot reviewerSyed Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
KP
AA
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewerNarasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure users seek simplified pricing, improved security, better integration, enhanced documentation, responsive support, and intuitive management tools.
VMware Cloud Foundation faces pricing, licensing complexities, integration challenges, and high costs, needing enhancements in customization and support services.
Recent outages and security issues are also a concern, causing a decrease in confidence, especially when partnering with third-party companies.
The administrative side is suitable for technical people, but our finance and HR super users find it less user-friendly, as they prefer drag-and-drop features to build their own solutions without contacting IT.
There is still room for improvement in terms of pricing.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure report
VMware Broadcom needs to include auto resource allocation at the VM levels.
The maintenance cost has increased significantly, especially after Broadcom acquired VMware, with a shift from socket-based licensing to core-based licensing.
Each user needs deep knowledge of every aspect of virtualization.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
KP
HM
JE
AA
MH
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure provides flexible pricing with pay-as-you-go, free tiers, and discounts, emphasizing cost-effectiveness despite complexity.
VMware Cloud Foundation pricing is seen as high but is justified by reliability and features, impacting affordability variably.
Microsoft solutions might be cheaper than some services like AWS, but some solutions may be more expensive depending on the services compared.
Copilot is expensive based on recent pricing for our POC.
They have discounts and also provide promotions for a three-year reservation which comes with significant discounts on the infrastructure part.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure report
The cost has become very high, especially after Broadcom's acquisition, altering the licensing model to a more expensive core-based system.
The price is quite higher than some other vendors.
VMware Cloud Foundation is quite expensive when compared to its competitors, but it does save time, which in turn saves money.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
KP
HM
Syed Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
MH
AA
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure is praised for scalability, ease of use, diverse services, strong security, and seamless integration with various technologies.
VMware Cloud Foundation excels in automation, scalability, and user-friendly management, enhancing efficiency with seamless integration and advanced features.
Power BI, another feature of Azure, is extremely elegant and has robust features that support forecasting using R and Python.
If Microsoft gives a report, such as a server performance report in a detailed way, which shows what is consuming more CPU, memory, and disk IO, and network utilization during a particular time, it would be helpful to visualize that information.
What is very interesting in terms of scalability is the automatic possibilities to provision some new machines to be able to absorb the number of users we have in the system.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure report
The solution now offers auto-deployment of VMs.
All features of VMware Cloud Foundation are valuable to us, as it covers every industry standard protocol and requirement protocol.
VMware Cloud Foundation allows for extensive customization, aligning with our customer requirements.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
KP
reviewer1561173 - PeerSpot reviewerSylvain CAILLAU - PeerSpot reviewerNarasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
MH
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure
Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
321
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (1st)
VMware Cloud Foundation
Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure is 15.5%, down from 18.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Cloud Foundation is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure15.5%
VMware Cloud Foundation1.4%
Other83.1%
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Narasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
There is progress in performance and stability, but further advancements are needed for end-user satisfaction
VMware Cloud Foundation's best features include its advanced capabilities, security purposes, and performance levels. The solution offers efficient licensing options. Previously, vSphere essential was available, but now it has moved to VMware Cloud Foundation 8.0. It includes advanced features such as lifecycle manager, patching level, and cluster level patching options. The solution now offers auto-deployment of VMs. Previously, I had to use the content library, right-click, and create VMs manually. With VMware Cloud Foundation, auto-deployment is possible by simply right-clicking and assigning a specific DHCP IP, enabling physical to vCenter level communication for automatic VM deployment. The workload portability feature in VMware Cloud Foundation provides good workload balance. For instance, in a cluster level with four to five ESXi hosts, each host has minimum resources allocated for CPU and memory, resulting in significantly reduced utilization at the VMware Cloud Foundation level.
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Comparison Review

it_user8586 - PeerSpot reviewer
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%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business139
Midsize Enterprise53
Large Enterprise148
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise27
 

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 manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...
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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. SAP Cloud Platform is suitable for companies of any size; it works well with bo...
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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. In particular, the Firebase library grants you access to a shared data structure...
See all answers
What do you like most about VMware Cloud Foundation?
VMware Cloud Foundation provides us with the vSphere dashboard through which we can manage, monitor, schedule, and spin up your virtual machines. We can manage, monitor, and get reports of your inf...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Cloud Foundation?
Regarding pricing, VMware Cloud Foundation includes normal licensing costs. Since VMware's move to Broadcom, the pricing has increased significantly. Compared to Nutanix, which many people consider...
See all answers
What needs improvement with VMware Cloud Foundation?
Regarding improvements in VMware Cloud Foundation, stability has significantly improved, and many issues have been resolved. The efficiency, stability, scalability, and advanced level features have...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Alibaba Cloud vs Microsoft Azure Logo
Alibaba Cloud vs Microsoft Azure
Compared 13% of the time
Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure Logo
Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure
Compared 10% of the time
Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Microsoft Azure Logo
Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Microsoft Azure
Compared 9% of the time
Red Hat OpenShift vs Microsoft Azure Logo
Red Hat OpenShift vs Microsoft Azure
Compared 8% of the time
SAP Cloud Platform vs Microsoft Azure Logo
SAP Cloud Platform vs Microsoft Azure
Compared 8% of the time
More Microsoft Azure Competitors
Azure Stack vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Azure Stack vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 45% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 11% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 11% of the time
AWS Outposts vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
AWS Outposts vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 9% of the time
Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 6% of the time
More VMware Cloud Foundation Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure
August 2025
Microsoft Azure reportDownload Microsoft Azure product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware Cloud Foundation
August 2025
VMware Cloud Foundation reportDownload VMware Cloud Foundation product report
 

Also Known As

Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure
No data available
 

Overview

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

VMware Cloud Foundation makes it easy to deploy and run a hybrid cloud. VMware Cloud Foundation provides integrated cloud infrastructure (compute, storage, networking, and security) and cloud management services to run enterprise applications in both private and public environments.

VMware
 

Sample Customers

BMW, Toyota, easyJet, NBC Sports, HarperCollins, Aviva, TalkTalk Business, Avanade, and Telenor.
ricoh, dell technologies, sky
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
September 2025
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