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Amazon S3 Glacier 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.0
Organizations achieved 300% ROI with Amazon S3 Glacier through infrastructure savings, improved efficiency, and resource reallocation, despite support challenges.
Sentiment score
2.5
Microsoft Azure File Storage offers positive ROI and ease of integration but varies based on infrastructure size and business needs.
If AWS improves support and cost management, there would be fewer reasons for users to consider other cloud platforms.
Technical Owner at Harman International
As it is Amazon S3 Glacier, it is used only for archival purposes, so it is comparatively okay to use it, and we can save money compared to the standard which is high.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.0
Amazon S3 Glacier support is mixed: efficient assistance but variable response times, sufficient documentation, and varied support levels impact experiences.
Sentiment score
6.4
Customer feedback on Microsoft Azure File Storage support varies, with experiences ranging from efficient to delayed, depending on circumstances.
There is room for improvement in providing more skilled and comprehensive solutions.
Technical Owner at Harman International
They provide documentation and resolve issues.
Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
If it is a business plan, then the support we have is really good.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
The perspective documentation is good.
Database Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Microsoft technical support is very prompt.
Senior System Administrator at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
As and when we require, they are able to provide solutions or guide us toward solutions.
Senior Technical Architect at Volante
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Amazon S3 Glacier excels in scalability, supporting vast data volumes and seamless integration, meeting diverse enterprise demands globally.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Azure File Storage excels in scalability, favored by various enterprises for ease of scaling and adaptability with DevOps.
Amazon S3 Glacier auto-scales according to the data.
Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global
Amazon S3 Glacier is infinitely scalable, with no issues on our end.
Technical Owner at Harman International
Glacier has excellent scalability, with elasticity and security that meet industry standards.
Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
We successfully handled a huge transaction during an iPhone launch without any issues.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Amazon S3 Glacier is praised for reliable performance, excellent SLA, and is ideal for cold storage despite occasional regional issues.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Azure File Storage is stable and reliable, preferred over competitors, with minor issues in larger files and VPN connectivity.
It is specifically designed for cold storage.
Technical Owner at Harman International
I do not experience any stability issues.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Amazon S3 Glacier is quite stable, nine out of ten.
Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global
I rate the stability of Microsoft Azure File Storage as a seven out of ten.
Database Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We sometimes encounter glitches with bigger files, but everything else works as expected.
Lead Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon S3 Glacier needs improved speed, security, compliance, pricing clarity, user experience, support, cost efficiency, and interface usability.
Microsoft Azure File Storage needs improvements in pricing, support, integration, usability, performance, security, and documentation for better user experience.
I would like to see improvements in the transfer rate as it takes quite a long time to retrieve data from Glacier compared to standard S3 storage.
Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global
Support could be more robust, with a focus on providing comprehensive solutions even for novel issues.
Technical Owner at Harman International
Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Some chunking logics need to be better to address issues with processing bigger files.
Lead Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
There is a limitation on the storage capacity, like four terabytes.
Database Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The information is not readily available on the internet, so we have to double-check and understand everything.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Amazon S3 Glacier provides cost-effective data archiving, though pricing complexity raises concerns despite lower initial costs and operational flexibility.
Microsoft Azure File Storage offers flexible pricing, competitive yet occasionally higher than alternatives, with varied cost opinions among users.
Compared to competitors like GCP, AWS can work on reducing hidden costs and overall pricing to retain startups and medium-sized businesses.
Technical Owner at Harman International
The storage cost is minimal, which is beneficial for archival purposes.
Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Amazon S3 Glacier is beneficial due to its lower cost.
Sr. Data Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would rate it three or three and a half out of ten on the pricing scale.
Lead Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the pricing of Microsoft Azure File Storage seven or eight, where one is high and ten is low.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The pricing for Microsoft Azure File Storage is five out of ten, not so expensive and not so low.
Database Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Amazon S3 Glacier offers affordable, secure, and scalable long-term storage, ideal for infrequent data access and efficient cost management.
Microsoft Azure File Storage is praised for its integration, flexibility, security, speed, and seamless file access across environments.
Glacier greatly helps in managing storage costs by moving historical data to a lower-cost storage option.
Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
The security features include object lock encryption and immutability options, so we can use this for backups.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
The most valuable features of Amazon S3 Glacier are its cost-effectiveness for data archiving and its durability.
Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global
It is satisfying our requirements with encryption and security features in place.
Senior Data Production Engineer at a wellness & fitness company with 5,001-10,000 employees
File storage is complemented by OCR with Azure Cognitive Service.
Lead Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Azure File Storage saves time compared to AWS.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon S3 Glacier
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
42
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
6.5
Number of Reviews
52
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 Amazon S3 Glacier is 11.5%, down from 17.3% 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 (%)
Amazon S3 Glacier11.5%
Microsoft Azure File Storage8.6%
Other79.9%
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

ArunDhwaj - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Owner at Harman International
Versatile data storage improves security and supports increasing data volumes
Amazon S3 Glacier offers robust security features and practically infinite storage, where we can store all kinds of media swiftly. It supports various data types, including semi-structured and raw formats. These features facilitate log management and data dumping since the service is versatile enough to handle large volumes of data and provide necessary security.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Amazon's S3 Glacier or EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon's S3 Glacier or Elastic Block Store data storage software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Amazon's S3 Glacier, whi...
What do you like most about Amazon S3 Glacier?
I like creating buckets where data can be segregated at a high level and then routing the appropriate data to each designated bucket. In terms of value, I would say that the tool gets the job done ...
What needs improvement with Amazon S3 Glacier?
The support could be improved by having specialized support staff. When we submit a question, it gets passed between multiple people before finding the right expert. We typically see the case being...
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

Amazon Glacier
MS Azure File Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Talon, Camden
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,455 professionals have used our research since 2012.