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IBM SoftLayer vs Microsoft Azure Block 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
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Block Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of IBM SoftLayer is 1.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is 2.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure Block Storage2.6%
IBM SoftLayer1.9%
Other95.5%
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.
Ajai Jayakumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Has supported secure file sharing and data automation with minimal setup effort
The encryption feature in Microsoft Azure Block Storage is very good, and the security is excellent. It is easy to map the storage to the virtual servers and user desktops, which is also very beneficial. I can perform automations on the data, such as moving hot data and cold data, and I can select storage based on performance. The security provided by Microsoft around Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a very good function. The replication feature in Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a very good function. The analytic capabilities of Microsoft Azure Block Storage can help optimize resources. I usually work with a third-party tool; our data analytics team uses some custom-made tools for analytics data and dashboards, so we do not use the Microsoft dashboard; we are using a third-party dashboard. It is very easy to manage Microsoft Azure Block Storage. If you have good knowledge of it, it is very easy to manage. Microsoft Azure Block Storage service is a very good, 100% reliable service. It is highly scalable, and performance-wise and reliability-wise, it does not go down. It provides 99.9% uptime without downtime, so it is a very good feature. The backup and restoration efficiency of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is good.

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 solution is highly stable."
"The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer."
"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is an easy-to-use tool as it has a lot of APIs and libraries, making it a very easy product to get started with for a user."
"It's easy to deploy, easy to scale up, and pay-as-you-go."
"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is widely accepted and people are choosing the enterprise solution."
"It is easy to integrate with applications."
"Its integration is very easy."
"What I like best about Microsoft Azure Block Storage is the accessibility because it's very easy for me to access it. You'll find different resources and documentation about the tool if you need to learn how to start."
"It has improved my organization by reducing costs by 90%."
"The solution's most valuable features are its usability, scalability, and management, which is really easy."
 

Cons

"For us, the versioning was an issue."
"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."
"Azure Block Storage could use more capacity."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement. Microsoft Azure Block Storage is priced higher than alternative solutions."
"The scalability of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The tool could be cheaper."
"One thing that needs improvement is authentication. They need to improve the integrated Azure Active Directory for the enterprise level."
"The pricing or the trial period could be improved. They could try offering free storage for a longer period."
"The platform's technical support services could be enhanced. They could provide better resolution and improve the response time."
"We need to do versioning each and every time, that is, check-in and check-out. If a person forgets to do that, then there could be an issue in the replacement of that particular object in the storage. It will be great if it can be automatically managed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The product's pricing is reasonable, but premium applications can be costly."
"The solution is affordable, and we only pay for what we use."
"The cost of procuring storage depends on the customer's license availability."
"The price of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is less expensive than other solutions on the market, such as Cloud Storage from GCP."
"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is an expensive solution and I pay monthly."
"The solution requires an input-output operations fee as well as pay per gigabyte of storage."
"The price could be more flexible, and it can be expensive."
"The pricing for Microsoft Azure Block Storage is high because of MSA and SBA contracts, where Microsoft takes care of the security aspects, apart from the maintenance, and Microsoft has service level agreements with the customers."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Construction Company
17%
Marketing Services Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Block Storage?
Our experience with pricing has been positive. The budget for Microsoft Azure services has been within expectations for the last couple of months. The cost for Azure Data Factory ( /products/azure-...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Block Storage?
For improvement in Microsoft Azure Block Storage, they can provide tiered level storages, maybe low-cost storages for storing archive data, but it is already there. I do not think there is much to ...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Azure Block Storage?
I am using Microsoft Azure Block Storage for file sharing, automation accounts, data storage, and archiving, and those are the main use cases.
 

Also Known As

CloudLayer
MS Azure Block 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
Mazda, BlinkBox, Rakuten Showtime, Xbox One, Serko, ChronoDrive
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SoftLayer vs. Microsoft Azure Block Storage and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.