Google Cloud Storage Nearline vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Google is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.5, while Microsoft is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.4. Google holds a 10.6% mindshare in PCSS, compared to Microsoft’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Read 10 Google Cloud Storage Nearline reviews

1,732 Views
1,492 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Read 63 Microsoft Azure Block Storage reviews

297 Views
234 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Google Cloud Storage Nearline and Microsoft Azure Block Storage are two leading cloud storage solutions. Azure Block Storage offers superior features and customer deployment experience, while Nearline is more affordable based on pricing.

Features: Google Cloud Storage Nearline integrates seamlessly with Google’s ecosystem and offers excellent scalability. Microsoft Azure Block Storage provides advanced security features and robust disaster recovery solutions. Azure Block Storage outperforms in security and recovery, whereas Nearline excels in integration and scalability.

Room for Improvement: Google Cloud Storage Nearline needs faster data retrieval speeds and enhanced data management tools. Microsoft Azure Block Storage requires improvements in user guidance and cost transparency. Nearline could benefit from performance enhancements, and Azure from clearer cost and user guidance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Google Cloud Storage Nearline is easy to deploy but has mixed reviews on customer service responsiveness. Microsoft Azure Block Storage offers comprehensive deployment support and higher customer service ratings. Azure leads in deployment support and service quality compared to Nearline’s fewer deployment issues.

Pricing and ROI: Google Cloud Storage Nearline offers lower entry costs and good ROI for small to medium-sized enterprises. Microsoft Azure Block Storage, despite higher setup costs, is seen as providing better long-term ROI due to advanced features. Nearline is budget-friendly, while Azure presents better value in the long run.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud Storage Nearline vs. Microsoft Azure Block Storage Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Storage Nearline vs. Microsoft Azure Block Storage

March 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:

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 10.6%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is 0.8%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

AmitKumar36

Solution Architect at HCL Technologies

Flexible, seamless, and scalable document storage with AI and analytics integration, providing reliable support

The solution is very flexible in terms of scalability. It is an online service, so we can scale it anytime with some pre-planning. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. As for the users using this solution in our organization, that varies according to what time of the day and what day it is, but it goes around 2,000 to 3,000 users. The maximum is about 3,000. On average, it stays somewhere between 2,000 and 1,800.

Read full review

MatsHagberg Olsson2

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

Empowers secure data management with affordable tools and minimal hassle

The most valuable feature is that it's very affordable in comparison to competitors. The absolute best feature is the Azure Storage Explorer tool. The tool allows me to download to my device, control access, and manage data with ease. Additionally, the joint use of Azure portal further facilitates management depending on my location.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best part of Nearline storage is the ability to take backups at optimal costs and its availability across multiple regions."

"It can isolate files and stop them from corrupting other files."

"Google is always introducing new features and tends to have a new release every month."

"The most valuable aspect of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is its integration with the wider Google Cloud ecosystem."

"Nearline is highly stable."

"It provides the necessary support and flexibility to manage data storage effectively, especially during times of variable data flow."

"The capacity and space on offer are excellent."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline pros

"The product offers hierarchical storage and we like the main space storage with business."

"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."

"Azure Block Storage lets you customize code you can use on that endpoint. If you want to write a logic for something, Azure Function can be used to deploy that application."

"We use Microsoft Azure Block Storage to store, upload and download data. We can also use it as a backup."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage has the same features as other solutions, but I like that its implementation process is straightforward."

"The solution is easy to purchase and is a Microsoft product, making procurement straightforward."

"The ability to increase and scale out is really easy."

"It can scale."

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage pros

Cons

"The solution needs to offer better System Information and Event Management (SEIM). I'd like to discover how we could implement something like that within Google's cloud."

"One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly."

"The UI could be a little bit more effective."

"They need a better, more visual, user interface for folders and files."

"The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency."

"The interface for managing file storage in the buckets could be improved."

"One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly."

"They should provide more options or flexibility in terms of pricing."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline cons

"The implementation can be quite technical."

"The product is not as stable as we would like it to be."

"There have been problems with integration, but it's getting better."

"In terms of improvement, it could use better integration with non-propriety tools. Azure pushes you down a data factory road for integrations but data factory isn't always a scalable, viable solution, particularly when using large numbers ofconnections to IoT solutions."

"Some alternatives are cheaper and available for long trial periods before the payment."

"One thing that needs improvement is authentication. They need to improve the integrated Azure Active Directory for the enterprise level. For single sign-on, we can try any authentication or portal for Block Azure Function AKS. For example, if you're an administrator or user contributor, you will generate a token, then your internal middleware connects to any Azure Cloud service. You need to generate different credentials for each service. We cannot use the same token."

"There are some space limitations."

"Technical support needs improvement."

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Google Cloud Storage Nearline is very inexpensive. It costs us less than $50 a month to store our files. We use approximately 10 terabytes. Overall, I would rate the product a five out of five for affordability."

"Right now, for the number of servers and the storage that I have, I would say I'm charged between $125 and $150 per month."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is not an expensive tool. I'm subscribed to the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program, so Microsoft gives me between $120 to $150 credit each month."

"I use Microsoft Azure Block Storage's free version."

"For the first 50DB, they cost around $50. It's an open solution for everybody. Anybody can go to the Microsoft website and they can get the pricing for it. But the first 50GB of data is a default rate and then it increases for the next 500GB or something like that. It is a pay as you go solution. The more you use, the more you pay. That's normally how you pay for any cloud solutions."

"The price could be more flexible, and it can be expensive."

"The storage part costs us $223. That's on a monthly basis for 20TB of data storage."

"We pay around $300 to $400 a month for some scenarios where consumption is limited. However, going forward, we're seeing the likelihood of the cost coming to around $2,000 as consumption rises."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a pretty cheap and affordable product, so we have not seen any budget issues related to the solution in our company."

"The solution requires an input-output operations fee as well as pay per gigabyte of storage."

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

The most valuable feature of Nearline is the access. It's helpful to move data that is generated once a month, such as salary information, to Nearline.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

From a pricing standpoint, Google Cloud Storage Nearline is more expensive compared to some alternatives like Amazon. I would rate the pricing at five on a scale of one to ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly. The lack of comprehensive walkthrough guides for specific use cases makes it difficult t...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Block Storage?

We use the solution to develop SaaS platforms on Azure. We utilize various Microsoft components like block storage and databases for this purpose.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Block Storage?

Pricing could be rated as eight out of ten. It is reasonable, however, it can be cheaper.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Block Storage?

At the moment, I do not have anything specific in mind for improvements. The most important thing for me is accessibility and easy provisioning to multiple servers with different vendors.

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Compared 97% of the time

Amazon S3 vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Compared 3% of the time

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline Competitors

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Compared 69% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Compared 31% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

April 2025

Download Google Cloud Storage Nearline product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

March 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Block Storage product report

Also Known As

No data available

MS Azure Block Storage

Overview

A low-cost, highly-durable and highly available storage service for infrequently accessed data, data archiving, online backup and disaster recovery. Data is available instantly, not within hours or days. With sub-second average response times and 1 cent per GB/month pricing, Cloud Storage Nearline gives you terrific performance at a low cost.

Google

Massively scalable cloud storage for your applications

Store and help protect your data. Get durable, highly available data storage across the globe and pay only for what you use.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Mazda, BlinkBox, Rakuten Showtime, Xbox One, Serko, ChronoDrive

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Storage Nearline vs. Microsoft Azure Block Storage

March 2025

Free Report: Google Cloud Storage Nearline vs. Microsoft Azure Block Storage

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