Azure Blob Storage vs. Quantum ActiveScale

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Blob Storage
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Blob Storage system on Azure is designed to make unstructured data available to customers anywhere through REST-based object storage.
$0.01
per GB/per month
Quantum ActiveScale
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Quantum offers the ActiveScale cloud object storage system, acquired from Western Digital February 2020, designed to provide a highly durable, scale-out economic storage system. ActiveScale is a more recent model replacing the former Amplidata Object Storage product line that was acquired by Western Digital from HGST in 2015.N/A
Pricing
Azure Blob StorageQuantum ActiveScale
Editions & Modules
Block Blobs
$0.0081
per GB/per month
Azure Data Lake Storage
$0.0081
per GB/per month
Files
$0.058
per GB/per month
Managed Discs
$1.54
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Blob StorageQuantum ActiveScale
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Blob StorageQuantum ActiveScale
Considered Both Products
Azure Blob Storage
Chose Azure Blob Storage
Blob storage lets us control the file source/hosting and retain everything within our Microsoft ecosystem. Blob is less feature-rich than some of the other products. Still, we consider it as a value-added product included within our environment, and alternative products are not …
Chose Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage was used only because we were already using it for other projects, and it has a good reputation for being a reliable cloud provider. It also has widespread regional availability and allows for data replication. It can also be easily accessed via the API or by …
Chose Azure Blob Storage
We didn't actually evaluate anything but Azure Blob Storage since it worked so well for backups and Audit logs and the price point was good enough for us.
Chose Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage is the best choice to store files when the app runs in Azure. It also has some advantages over S3, like Shared Access Signatures, that make it easy to control access to files directly via a URL. Azure Blob Storage is very fast and we have not had any major …
Chose Azure Blob Storage
S3 seemed to be just as functional as blob storage in our analysis. The only real difference is we already were on the Microsoft platform with 365, and it was an easy system to continue to learn. That was the only real deciding factor between the two that made any difference …
Chose Azure Blob Storage
Ease of use and availability to actual usage makes it my first choice. I feel like IBM Cloud is where azure was 5 years ago in terms of implementation and ease of use. AWS has some great functionality but it almost feels like you need to learn how to work under the hood of a …
Chose Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob is the only major cloud object storage platform that we use today.
Quantum ActiveScale
Chose Quantum ActiveScale
What sets Amplidata apart is the cloud-based storage capability. We’ve realized cost savings due to the fact that we are no longer housing the data on premise, and clients rest assured that they have greater visibility into their data.
Best Alternatives
Azure Blob StorageQuantum ActiveScale
Small Businesses
Amazon S3 Glacier
Amazon S3 Glacier
Score 9.1 out of 10
Amazon S3 Glacier
Amazon S3 Glacier
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Pure Storage FlashBlade
Pure Storage FlashBlade
Score 9.9 out of 10
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Pure Storage FlashBlade
Pure Storage FlashBlade
Score 9.9 out of 10
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Blob StorageQuantum ActiveScale
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Blob StorageQuantum ActiveScale
Likelihood to Recommend
Azure Blob Storage is well suited for cases where you are working with different data formats and looking for cost-effective storage solutions based on access frequency. Another area of strength is the encryption of data at rest, and encryption can be managed on your own. However, it may not be appropriate for transferring large data very fast.
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Enterprise grade organizations with B2B clientele would be served well by using this product. It alleviates the need for an on-premise storage solution by offering a cloud-based alternative. Smaller organizations with less data capacity needs would be better served with an in-house solution, unless they come out with more reasonable pricing down the road.
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Pros
  • Reduced cost. We were able to reduce our storage infrastructure by several hundred terabytes by consolidating redundant copies and dedupe/compression on files.
  • Extremely high level of redundancy. We can replicate data in a variety of ways that we would never have been capable of on our own hardware.
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  • Flexible data management options
  • Powerful data housing system storing trillions of bits of data seamlessly
  • Conveniently built in the cloud
  • Safe option for storing sensitive data
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Cons
  • If we are transferring huge amount of data (outbound), it can get quite expensive.
  • With new features being added constantly, although a good thing, at times it becomes difficult to keep up with the changes. Documentation needs to keep UpToDate and should include best practices.
  • Performance can be improved especially when it comes to cold storage.
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  • Lack of customization, though not much is needed with the out of the box solution
  • Better options for B2C customers
  • More flexible pricing plans
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It has been a fantastic solution, and now it is so highly integrated into our business, it would be difficult to imagine continuing to without it. It is part of our customer contracts as well, and it saves us from having to invest in the on-premise alternative to provide the required storage capacity.
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Usability
Blob storage is fairly simple, with several different options/settings that can be configured. The file explorer has enhanced its usability. Some areas could be improved, such as providing more details or stats on how many times a file has been accessed. It is an obvious choice if you're already using Azure/Entra.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Documentation sometimes appears to be out of date or not fully documented properly with new releases. It is like documentation comes out for a specific version and is quickly out of date. Another issue is documentation is scarce on new releases and only seems to get properly updated (and sometimes is still wrong) once enough people hit the forums to complain.
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Support has been wonderful. Representatives are generally empathetic and knowledgeable, and they’re quick to provide status and resolution.
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Alternatives Considered
Blob storage lets us control the file source/hosting and retain everything within our Microsoft ecosystem. Blob is less feature-rich than some of the other products. Still, we consider it as a value-added product included within our environment, and alternative products are not needed for our requirements. Keeping the hosting within our tenant locale is vital to us.
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What sets Amplidata apart is the cloud-based storage capability. We’ve realized cost savings due to the fact that we are no longer housing the data on premise, and clients rest assured that they have greater visibility into their data.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Made it easy for organization to move to cloud from on-premise based solution.
  • We were able to centralize all our documents.
  • Cost savings compared to on-premise based solutions.
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  • Amplidata has enabled us to replace our on-premise data storage for many of our larger clients, thus reducing the cost to deploy and house this ourselves
  • Clients feel confident in storing their sensitive data with us knowing that they have full management and visibility at their fingertips
  • The ability to quickly scale allows us to meet the needs of clients of all sizes
Read full review
ScreenShots