Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
Kok Hoong Lam - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical BDM at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
Provides storage for cloud container data and backup data
Pros and Cons
  • "In terms of latency, bandwidth, and productivity, Azure Block Storage is better than other solutions."
  • "There have been problems with integration, but it's getting better."

What is our primary use case?

We're mainly using this solution for cloud container data and backup data. 

It's deployed on a hybrid cloud.

There are around 500 users in my organization.

What is most valuable?

In terms of latency, bandwidth, and productivity, Azure Block Storage is better than other solutions.

What needs improvement?

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

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Microsoft Azure Block Storage for more than a year.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Block Storage
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Block Storage. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability as seven out of ten. We sometimes face issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability as six out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was simple. Between 5-10 people are required for maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would rate the pricing as five out of ten.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I compared Azure Block Storage with AWS. The cost is the main difference.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the solution as six out of ten. I would recommend it to others.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Cloud Architects at Metro Systems Corporation Public Company Limited
Real User
Helpful support, useful back ups, but better integration needed
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is the backing up of files."
  • "Microsoft Azure Block Storage could improve by having integration with Amazon AWS. The file transfer could be easier."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is the backing up of files.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure Block Storage could improve by having integration with Amazon AWS. The file transfer could be easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Block Storage for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure Block Storage is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is good.

We have approximately 30 people using this solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from Microsoft Azure Block Storage is good.

I rate the support from Microsoft Azure Block Storage a five out of five.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have not used another solution in the category of Microsoft Azure Block Storage.

How was the initial setup?

The installation of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is simple.

What about the implementation team?

I did the implementation of Microsoft Azure Block Storage myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of  Microsoft Azure Block Storage could be less expensive.

I rate the price of Microsoft Azure Block Storage a four out of five.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage a seven of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Block Storage
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Block Storage. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Technical Infrastructure Analyst at Socridge Bank
Real User
Very robust, flexible and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "This is a very robust and flexible solution."
  • "Data gathering features could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We recently moved to Block Storage for SQL on Azure. It enables our employees to work remotely. We are customers of Microsoft and I'm a technical infrastructure analyst.

What is most valuable?

This is a very robust and flexible solution.

What needs improvement?

I'd like them to improve the features of data gathering - sometimes you need to get the data from the block and it's usually very expensive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for six months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is very scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft provides good support. They respond quickly and their technical people are very helpful. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. 

What other advice do I have?

It's important to analyze your requirements because it can sometimes be a problem in terms of price. Pay attention to locking because sometimes the amount of data on the block can lock your business.

I rate the solution 10 out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1382583 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director - Infrastructure Solution Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
It provides easy versioning and great security
Pros and Cons
  • "It has easy versioning. The versioning is amenable to any changes. It also has great security. It can only be accessed through an API, and only the requested users can access it. It is optimized for data lakes and comprehensive data management."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Microsoft Azure Block Storage to accumulate and store all unstructured data, that is, different files such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, or any other streaming or video files. Whenever there is any unstructured data, you can use the Microsoft Azure Block Storage to deal with it.

What is most valuable?

It has easy versioning. The versioning is amenable to any changes. 

It also has great security. It can only be accessed through an API, and only the requested users can access it. It is optimized for data lakes and comprehensive data management.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for the last two to three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There are absolutely no issues. They're really great at stability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has great scalability.

How was the initial setup?

It is quite straightforward. You can set it up even when you don't know much about it. You log into Azure.com, which is free for one year, and take a virtual machine and storage and then run your own website through Microsoft Azure Block Storage. You can store your image files, videos, and other document files from there. It is very easy. Oracle Cloud and AWS also provide the same ease of use, not only Azure.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In terms of pricing, Azure is quite cheaper than AWS. However, I have recently read that Oracle Cloud Generation 2 storage is quite cheaper than Azure. I haven't used it yet. 

We need to look at a customer's requirements, and, based on that, we can suggest the storage. You can save at least 20% with Azure as compared to AWS, which is quite costly.

What other advice do I have?

I have worked on similar solutions from Oracle and Amazon. Feature-wise, they all provide the same features. However, I found Azure more convenient to work on than other solutions. It is very easy to use for data analytics purposes as well as for storing the archive data or long-term use data, that is, non-relational and unstructured data.

I would rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage a ten out of ten. It is really good.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
GauravGupta3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder & Solution Architect at Fluidech
Real User
A solution with an easy integration and straightforward setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The ease of integration with services like CDN and computing makes it compelling and cost-effective."
  • "We have not had the best experience with customer service and support."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is deployed on public cloud.

What is most valuable?

Besides compression and encryption, the ease of integration with services like CDN and computing makes it compelling and cost-effective.

What needs improvement?

Encryption, data analytics and behaviour analytics can be improved. Encryption and usage analytics optimization, built into the setup, can take it to the next level.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for four years and are currently using the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution, but it has a high variability factor. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. As a consulting and services company, we implement solutions for customers. Over 50 customers use this solution in our organization. Regarding maintenance, one is enough if it is within the same timezone because there is significantly less administrative overhead on Blob Storage. Unless there are complex workloads requiring operational tasks to be done, we can add more people. But from an organizational standpoint, one is enough.

How are customer service and support?

We have not had the best experience with customer service and support. I rate them an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the highest and one being the lowest. The price could be slightly lower because there has not been a price revision. They should revise prices, but they've not done that. Since we captured enough markets, they don't care anymore.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated S3 before choosing this solution. S3 has a wider adoption. Other than that, technically, I do not see much of a difference between both. They have similar functionalities.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to other users. I rate this solution an eight out of ten. The solution is good, but improvements can be made to behaviour analytics and data encryption.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Florian Leray - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Director /Product- CTO/CPO at DIAKSE
Real User
More stable but less scalable than some solutions
Pros and Cons
  • "The ease of setup is the primary reason we use Azure Block Storage. The setup takes one or two days, and we had help from Microsoft. We had five people on our team."
  • "The support response time could be quicker."

What is our primary use case?

We use Block Storage for virtual stores that we build in our company. We use the blocks to connect one store to another.  The virtual shops we build on Azure have half a million users monthly. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Block Storage for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Block Storage is the most stable cloud storage solution we've used.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Block Storage isn't as scalable as AWS.

How are customer service and support?

The response time could be quicker. 

How was the initial setup?

The ease of setup is the primary reason we use Azure Block Storage. The setup takes one or two days, and we had help from Microsoft. We had five people on our team.

What about the implementation team?

We worked directly with Microsoft. We were in their startup partnership at the beginning.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Azure Block Storage seven out of 10. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Vishwas Samant - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Enterprise Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A reliable product with good data synchronization and integration with the Microsoft suite
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure Block Storage has very good integration with the Microsoft suite, which helps a lot when creating a digital workspace."
  • "The solution could have better archival policies and localization of data."

What is our primary use case?

I develop the solution for customers, so the use case varies.

What is most valuable?

The ability to synchronize data in a distributed environment is very useful. It makes it easier to work with different geographic and availability zones.  

What needs improvement?

The solution could have better archival policies and localization of data.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for about three or four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability and reliability of the product are very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is there, I never see an issue with the scalability of the solution.

How are customer service and support?

We sometimes have issues during data migration or face a bug, which requires us to contact the support team. I would mark them four out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

I would say the setup is simple. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I also work with AWS, so that was a consideration. 

What other advice do I have?

Azure Block Storage has very good integration with the Microsoft suite, which helps a lot when creating a digital workspace. That's why I like this product.I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
System & Security Engineer at Connex Information Technologies
Real User
Provides backup storage on our on-premise backup
Pros and Cons
  • "We use this solution for backup storage on our on-premise backup."
  • "There are capacity limitations that could be expanded."

What is our primary use case?

This solution is integrated to the backup console, so there's no user interaction. We're using Azure Block Storage as our second copy storage.

We're working as a distributor.

What is most valuable?

We use this solution for backup storage on our on-premise backup.

What needs improvement?

There are capacity limitations that could be expanded.

When freeing the backup capacity on our disk, we have to create another block storage and integrate with that. The limitations may be an issue with the customer.

It should be more flexible for customers. For example, if a customer needs 10TB of capacity, it should be flexible for the customer to expand to that capacity.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are some limitations when it comes to the capacity and scalability.

How was the initial setup?

Installation is simple. You don't need an integrator or consultant for setup.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We compared this solution with AWS S3. It mostly works like object storage.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user