Azure NetApp Files vs Microsoft Azure File Storage comparison

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4,338 views|2,813 comparisons
93% willing to recommend
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5,971 views|4,883 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 6, 2024

We compared Microsoft Azure File Storage and Azure NetApp Files based on our user's reviews in several parameters.

Microsoft Azure File Storage offers strong security measures and efficient file sharing capabilities, with positive remarks on customer service. The pricing is considered competitive, and businesses have seen a significant ROI. However, users note a desire for faster file transfer speeds and an improved interface. Azure NetApp Files emphasizes high performance, scalability, and seamless workload migration, along with excellent customer support. Users find the cost and setup reasonable, experiencing cost savings and enhanced performance. Feedback suggests a need for improved performance during peak times, better documentation, a more intuitive interface, and enhanced security features.

Features: Microsoft Azure File Storage offers valuable features such as scalability, integration with Azure services, efficient file sharing, strong security, and seamless file management. On the other hand, Azure NetApp Files stands out for its ease of use, high performance, scalability, reliability, and seamless migration capabilities. Additionally, users appreciate its cost-effectiveness and excellent customer support.

Pricing and ROI: The setup costs for Microsoft Azure File Storage and Azure NetApp Files are both considered reasonable and affordable based on user feedback. Users appreciate the straightforward and easy management of setup for Microsoft Azure File Storage, while Azure NetApp Files offers a transparent pricing structure and flexible licensing options., In terms of return on investment (ROI), Microsoft Azure File Storage was praised for its cost savings, improved efficiency, scalability, reliability, and ease of integration. On the other hand, Azure NetApp Files focused on significant cost savings and enhanced performance.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure File Storage could benefit from enhancements in file transfer speed, a more intuitive interface, and expanded storage options. In contrast, Azure NetApp Files needs improvements in performance during peak times, documentation and support resources, user interface intuitiveness, security features, and data migration efficiency.

Deployment and customer support: Based on user feedback, it appears that the duration required to establish a new tech solution can vary for both Microsoft Azure File Storage and Azure NetApp Files. However, Azure NetApp Files seems to offer more flexibility in terms of varying timeframes for deployment, setup, and implementation phases. It is necessary to consider the context in which these terms are used to accurately evaluate the overall time required for the entire process., Microsoft Azure File Storage receives positive remarks regarding its customer service and support, with prompt and helpful assistance. Azure NetApp Files also provides highly recommended customer service, consistently exceeding expectations for a smooth experience.

The summary above is based on 35 interviews we conducted recently with Microsoft Azure File Storage and Azure NetApp Files users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure NetApp Files vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage Report (Updated: March 2024).
770,141 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Its security and ease of use are most valuable.""You can change it non-disruptively. You can increase the size and decrease the size online, which is a huge benefit compared to Azure disks. It just works seamlessly. You don't need to stop the instances.""One aspect of Azure NetApp Files that I truly appreciate is its remarkable performance capabilities.""The most valuable features of the solution is replication to another region and the performance. The solution is stable. The solution is scalable. The initial setup is straightforward.""Azure NetApp Files has been stable.""The most valuable feature of this solution is its flexibility.""The availability is good, meaning downtime or network issues rarely occur. The system also offers flexibility, allowing for increases in data volume, IOPS, and other capabilities without requiring downtime, which is a strong point. Based on the money spent, we can get performance improvements and high availability.""It's elastic, so it scales with our demands. We can start small, then with the addition of customer loads, we can expand on-the-fly without the need to reprovision something."

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"General user familiarity with Office 365 products make adopting this solution easy to adopt in production.""This solution supports all file formats.""It was easy to set up.""Its most valuable features are speed and security.""It is very easy to use SSTP and some traditional code to move the data into a database because we can easily use the permissions and we don't have any integration or conversion issues.""The solution is easy to use.""I like that we can copy and download data using Azure. It's not just for file storage; we can also use it for large data sets or to host static web applications.""The profile management option is another valuable feature that allows us to manage the profiles and secure them."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage Pros →

Cons
"I would like to see multi-zone redundancy so that I don't have to worry about it. I just back up my data to that one SMB share and I know that it's replicated to a different region.""We would like to see more paired regions for the replication.""This solution would be improved with more innovation.""Azure NetApp Files is expensive.""Reserved Instances for Azure NetApp Files would improve more use cases, making them more valuable in Azure as the cost would be reduced.""The pricing definitely needs to be improved.""I have a hunch that storage could be now the most expensive portion of our monthly bill. So I can imagine that, not this year, but next year we will be talking about looking deeper into ways how we can optimize the cost.""We were looking for a clustered solution that has over-complicated things because we had it in AWS, which is Amazon. There was a solution for clustered NetApp. That meant there would be two NetApps that were not clustered because there was no solution for a cluster. We would like there to be an HA cluster solution."

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"Microsoft Azure File Storage is not that easy to use.""The product must provide better security functions.""The way retention policies are applied could be more optimized.""I have used the file storage explorer in multiple systems, and it seems a bit cumbersome and not very efficient, particularly with authentication. It can be tricky to set it up.""There is room for improvement in helping customers understand and integrate Azure File Storage into their operations.""If the file is large, there may be a delay in download time.""The provider needs to collect more information about the products.""It’s a challenge to find the right support person."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The solution’s combination of the ease of use, simplicity, and reduction in IT management versus the cost has helped a lot. It is very fast to deploy. It's very easy to maintain. You don't have to do a lot in the cloud to maintain this thing, so it gives good performance. It's fast to deploy, easy to maintain, and it gives a better performance. These are the most basic three criteria for any application. This saves cost because the manpower you need to deploy is going down. You're getting better performance and not buying new resources. You have resources available in the cloud. It's just a couple of clicks, then you're good to go."
  • "The performance has improved by about 30 percent."
  • "The licensing fees for this solution vary, ranging from a single shelf to a full suite."
  • "Our pricing has not been determined because we are still waiting on additional features."
  • "It is expensive in small environments, which could be better. The reason is the four terabyte minimum. A one terabyte minimum would be better."
  • "We are currently on a pay-as-you-go model with the storage that we use."
  • "Its price is double the price of the premium disks, which is the main reason why customers don't go for this solution in the end."
  • "The price of Azure NetApp Files could be better."
  • More Azure NetApp Files Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "For one terabyte of data, we are spending about 150 Euro every month."
  • "One of the major benefits for AWS is that they have a very large customer representative base where clients can be picked from, they offer large discounts and credit. We were not able to receive the same kind of offers from Microsoft Azure File Storage. We tried to approach Azure while hiring for our disaster recovery discussion, but we didn't receive anything from Azure."
  • "The price is comparable to other competitive solutions."
  • "There are fewer hidden costs involved compared to other solutions, and when our customer is already a Microsoft partner, they typically have access to more affordable fees."
  • "Microsoft Azure File Storage has a reasonable price."
  • "I give the pricing of the solution a seven out of ten."
  • "One needs to pay according to the storage they plan to use in the solution. The payments are to be made yearly. It is usually monthly, but we opted for yearly subscriptions in our company."
  • "Microsoft Azure File Storage is expensive."
  • More Microsoft Azure File Storage Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Azure NetApp Files is a Microsoft Azure file storage service built on NetApp technology. The platform combines the file capabilities of Azure and NetApp to move critical file-based applications to the… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable features of the solution is replication to another region and the performance. The solution is stable. The solution is scalable. The initial setup is straightforward.
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    4,338
    Comparisons
    2,813
    Reviews
    3
    Average Words per Review
    585
    Rating
    8.0
    Views
    5,971
    Comparisons
    4,883
    Reviews
    31
    Average Words per Review
    400
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    NetApp ANF, ANF
    MS Azure File Storage
    Learn More
    Overview

    Extreme File Performance
    Azure NetApp Files allows you to target any of your business-critical file workloads with extreme file throughput with sub-millisecond response times.With three service levels you can change on-the-fly, you get the performance that’s best suited to the application.

    Simple, Seamless Experience
    A seamless Azure experience for your file services workloads. You can deploy and manage Azure NetApp Files directory from the Azure Portal or automate using the Azure API or CLI integration.

    Secure Your Data
    Built-in capabilities ensure your data is protected at all times in Azure: from always-on encryption to point-in-time data copies (without added capacity costs). And with Microsoft‘s world class support, you can rest assured that you‘re in good hands with Azure.

    Fully managed file shares that use the standard SMB 3.0 protocol

    Key scenarios:

    • Share data across on-premises and cloud servers
    • Migrate file share-based applications to the cloud with no code changes
    • Integrate modern applications with File storage
    • Simplify hosting for high availability workload data
    Sample Customers
    SAP, Restaurant Magic
    Talon, Camden
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Retailer17%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Government8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization26%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Construction Company19%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Computer Software Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise67%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise34%
    Large Enterprise52%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise41%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise62%
    Buyer's Guide
    Azure NetApp Files vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Azure NetApp Files vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    770,141 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Azure NetApp Files is ranked 10th in Public Cloud Storage Services with 14 reviews while Microsoft Azure File Storage is ranked 3rd in Public Cloud Storage Services with 42 reviews. Azure NetApp Files is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Azure File Storage is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Azure NetApp Files writes "We can expand our storage on-the-fly without the need to reprovision". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Azure File Storage writes "Various storage options available, high availability, and quick deployment". Azure NetApp Files is most compared with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Amazon EFS (Elastic File System), Nasuni, Google Cloud Storage and NetApp ONTAP, whereas Microsoft Azure File Storage is most compared with Amazon EFS (Elastic File System), Wasabi, Amazon S3, Amazon S3 Glacier and Google Cloud Storage. See our Azure NetApp Files vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage report.

    See our list of best Public Cloud Storage Services vendors.

    We monitor all Public Cloud Storage Services reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.