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Amazon S3 Glacier 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
Amazon S3 Glacier offers cost savings, simplified data management, and security, with room for improvement in support and cost management.
Sentiment score
6.8
Microsoft Azure Object Storage is valued for cost savings, scalability, real-time capabilities, uptime, and transitioning data benefits.
If AWS improves support and cost management, there would be fewer reasons for users to consider other cloud platforms.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
Feedback on Amazon S3 Glacier is mixed, noting helpful service but concerns over responsiveness, costs, and regional support.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Azure Object Storage customer service is generally praised for expertise and responsiveness, despite occasional delays and communication issues.
There is room for improvement in providing more skilled and comprehensive solutions.
They provide documentation and resolve issues.
If I want to change something on my resources or directly access it via the portal, there is not a service level agreement of 100%, and sometimes it's quite difficult to access.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
9.2
Amazon S3 Glacier offers highly scalable infrastructure trusted by many for managing large data volumes and expanding user adoption.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Azure Object Storage is highly scalable and easily accommodates extensive data, efficiently meeting diverse organizational needs.
Amazon S3 Glacier auto-scales according to the data.
Glacier has excellent scalability, with elasticity and security that meet industry standards.
Amazon S3 Glacier is infinitely scalable, with no issues on our end.
The storage is very scalable, so you can effortlessly scale it.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon S3 Glacier is highly stable, reliable for cold storage, with robust monitoring and minimal issues, within AWS environment.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Azure Object Storage is stable, with minimal bugs, good performance, but occasional downtime and rare hardware disruptions reported.
It is specifically designed for cold storage.
Amazon S3 Glacier is quite stable, nine out of ten.
I would rate the stability of Glacier for archival purposes at around eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon S3 Glacier requires faster retrieval, simplified pricing, better security, user-friendly interface, and enhanced integration, compliance, and support.
Microsoft Azure Object Storage faces high costs, performance issues, complex pricing, slow support, and requires usability and technical improvements.
Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
Support could be more robust, with a focus on providing comprehensive solutions even for novel issues.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon S3 Glacier offers cost-effective archival, but complex pricing and hidden costs concern enterprises with large data volumes.
Microsoft Azure Object Storage is seen as costly yet flexible, with scalable pricing, more affordable through reserved instances.
Compared to competitors like GCP, AWS can work on reducing hidden costs and overall pricing to retain startups and medium-sized businesses.
The storage cost is minimal, which is beneficial for archival purposes.
While it's generally cost-effective, the pricing model could be clearer.
It's a pay-per-use solution and a good idea for proof of concept and value.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon S3 Glacier is cost-effective for data archiving, offering ease of use, security, scalability, and intelligent data management.
Microsoft Azure Object Storage provides scalable, reliable, and secure data management, with flexible integration and strong performance for large files.
Glacier greatly helps in managing storage costs by moving historical data to a lower-cost storage option.
These features facilitate log management and data dumping since the service is versatile enough to handle large volumes of data and provide necessary security.
The most valuable features of Amazon S3 Glacier are its cost-effectiveness for data archiving and its durability.
The ability to store everything inside Blob or Object storage and use it for archiving data is beneficial.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon S3 Glacier
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Object Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 17.4%, up from 15.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is 2.0%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

ArunDhwaj - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Retailer
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 cost of retrieval in Glacier is quite high. It would be excellent if Amazon could work on reducing retrieval costs. Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Object Storage?
I can't share a lot about the costs. I am focused on the technical aspect. It's a pay-per-use solution and a good idea for proof of concept and value. If I want to test a product before deploying i...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Object Storage?
In terms of compliance and security, everything is fine. I do not know of any immediate needs for improvement. However, one potential area for improvement is the replication process. Some clients c...
 

Also Known As

Amazon Glacier
Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, Azure Object Storage, MS Azure Object Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Umbraco, Xbox, Radioshack, 343 Industries, McKesson
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Microsoft Azure Object Storage and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,194 professionals have used our research since 2012.