Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp Cloud Insights comparison

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure NetApp Files and NetApp Cloud Insights based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Migration solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure NetApp Files vs. NetApp Cloud Insights Report (Updated: May 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files vs. NetApp Cloud Insights

May 2024

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Helped 787,779 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

IBM Turbonomic

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2024, in the Cloud Migration category, the mindshare of IBM Turbonomic is 12.9%, up from 6.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure NetApp Files is 19.4%, down from 21.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Insights is 4.8%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Migration

Unique Categories:

Cloud Management

6.9%

Virtualization Management Tools

14.6%

Cloud Storage

9.4%

Public Cloud Storage Services

6.8%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

0.2%

Cloud Monitoring Software

0.1%

Featured Reviews

Arun Dhanaraj

Vice President at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Aug 1, 2023

Helps us optimize costs and allocate resources, but we need PaaS component optimization

The platform is continually updated with new features. If they would educate their customers to understand the latest updates, that would help customers be more satisfied with the updates and push them into their environments. Also, there are a lot of features that are not available in Turbonomic. For example, PaaS component optimization and automation are still in the development phase. If they could provide those enhancements, that would be really great. For example, we are spending a lot of time on Azure Databricks, exploring it and trying to do cost optimization as well as setting up the policies. If Turbonomic could help us understand how much the Databricks CPU is using per instance or workspace, that would help us optimize it, scale it according to our business requirements, and decrease costs.

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ALBERT SITATI

Microsoft Azure Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 20, 2023

Significantly improves performance, especially for large-scale enterprise needs

The deployment process for Azure NetApp Files was somewhat complex. It involved steps such as setting up the Azure interface in a dedicated subnet and configuring services. Coordination with different teams for infrastructure and identity was needed. With everyone on board, the deployment took about one and a half hours. While not overly lengthy, it required careful preparation, including having the necessary subscriptions and an established Azure environment. Overall, it was a manageable process with the right resources. Maintenance for Azure NetApp Files is relatively straightforward. A skilled engineer, like the installer, can handle governance and management tasks post-deployment. This involves tasks such as granting access to Azure NetApp Files and scaling up resources if needed. In my experience, we deployed it for a single institution - a school with approximately 300 users.

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reviewer2304747

Senior Systems Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Nov 2, 2023

Facilitates the identification of excesses in workloads, helping in the optimization of infrastructure

The most valuable features are the dashboards and data visualization. There are multiple ways to visualize data. It's cleaner than traditional graphs like bar graphs or line charts. For monitoring, the infrastructure stack is pretty holistic. It's not a LAN WAN monitoring tool, so it's not really going to look at the network side of things other than SAN Fabrics. As far as the infrastructure deck that we have, it's also pretty holistic. Moreover, the solution is good at pinpointing problem areas; it is able to pull in metrics from all different sources in the infrastructure stack, figure out the relationships between them, and then allow me to graph it all in a unified interface and consume the data in one place. Being able to look at latency literally in a single graph and examine it at the VM level, data store level, and SAN level and compare that within a single graph is hugely powerful.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool provides the ability to look at the consumption utilization over a period of time and determine if we need to change that resource allocation based on the actual workload consumption, as opposed to how IT has configured it. Therefore, we have come to realize that a lot of our workloads are overprovisioned, and we are spending more money in the public cloud than we need to."

"It has automated a lot of things. We have saved 30 to 35 percent in human resource time and cost, which is pretty substantial. We don't have a big workforce here, so we have to use all the automation we can get."

"Turbonomic has helped optimize cloud operations and reduced our cloud costs significantly. Overall, we are at about 40 percent savings, and we spend about three million a year just in Azure. It reduces the size of the VMs, putting them into the right template for usage. People don't realize that you don't have to future-proof a virtual machine in Azure. You just need to build it for today. As the business or service grows, you can scale up or out. About 90 percent of all the costs that we've reduced has been from sizing machines appropriately."

"Before implementing Turbonomic, we had difficulty reaching a consensus about VM placement and sizing. Everybody's opinion was wrong, including mine. The application developers, implementers, and infrastructure team could never decide the appropriate size of a virtual machine. I always made the machines small, and they always made them too big. We were both probably wrong."

"It is a good holistic platform that is easy to use. It works pretty well."

"In our organization, optimizing application performance is a continuous process that is beyond human scale. We would not be able to do the number of actions that Turbonomic takes on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. It is humanly impossible with the little micro adjustments that it can make. That is a huge differentiator. If you just figure each action could take anywhere very conservatively from five to 10 minutes to act upon, then you multiply that out by thousands of actions every month, it is easily something where you could say, "I am saving a couple of FTEs.""

"I like the analytics that help us optimize compatibility. Whereas Azure Advisor tells us what we have to do, Turbonomic has automation which actually does those things. That means we don't have to be present to get them done and simplifies our IT engineers' jobs."

"With Turbonomic, we were able to reduce our ESX cluster size and save money on our maintenance and license renewals. It saved us around $75,000 per year but it's a one-time reduction in VMware licensing. We don't renew the support. The ongoing savings is probably $50,000 to $75,000 a year, but there was a one-time of $200,000 plus."

More IBM Turbonomic pros

"Its security and ease of use are most valuable."

"I think the easiest part is, when you do a comparison, it is the throughput versus the cost. And it's much easier to set up."

"This solution definitely makes us more efficient in being able to provide storage quickly to our customers in the Azure Cloud."

"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."

"Using NetApp Files got us out of a really difficult situation quickly, effectively, and at a reasonable cost."

"The critical features of this solution are SnapMirror for replication, data protection, and SnapLock."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its flexibility."

"Azure NetApp Files has been stable."

More Azure NetApp Files pros

"Among the most valuable features are the queries and reporting that allow us to look at the utilization of resources, at how well the storage is performing, and to report on which resources are being used by which business units. We can track usage across the entire environment, across applications, business units, cost centers, etc."

"NetApp Cloud Insights helps with login monitoring and troubleshooting. Previously, if we had performance concerns or needed to interface with other groups and their products, a task that should require only one or two people turned into a six-person job."

"Cloud Insights' best features are visibility and the connector to move the workloads."

"One feature we appreciate the most is its ability to take snapshots, which adds an extra layer of security and allows us to protect our data effectively."

"The solution is 98 percent stable."

"The visibility and assistance with security vulnerabilities are valuable."

"Its ability to quickly inventory our resources, figure out interdependencies across them, and assemble a topology of your environment is brilliant. There is a price associated with it. Whenever you target a NetApp environment, it is included in the price but whenever you want to add different vendors, like VMware and Cisco, the price greatly spikes. Inventorization helps us a lot to visualize the environment."

"It is good for giving an overview of the systems and for tracking long-term trends. It is handy for root cause analysis, e.g. it can eliminate whether storage is the cause of an issue."

More NetApp Cloud Insights pros

Cons

"The reporting needs to be improved. It's important for us to know and be able to look back on what happened and why certain decisions were made, and we want to use a custom report for this."

"The planning and costing areas could be a little bit more detailed. When you have more than 2,000 machines, the reports don't work properly. They need to fix it so that the reports work when you use that many virtual machines."

"Recovering resources when they're not needed is not as optimized as it could be."

"Some features are only available via changes to the deployment YAML, and it would be better to have them in the UI."

"I would like Turbonomic to add more services, especially in the cloud area. I have already told them this. They can add Azure NetApp Files. They can add Azure Blob storage. They have already added Azure App service, but they can do more."

"We're still evaluating the solution, so I don't know enough about what I don't know. They've done a lot over the years. I used Turbonomics six or seven years ago before IBM bought them. They've matured a lot since then."

"I would love to see Turbonomic analyze backup data. We have had people in the past put servers into daily full backups with seven-year retention and where the disk size is two terabytes. So, every single day, there is a two terabyte snapshot put into a Blob somewhere. I would love to see Turbonomic say, "Here are all your backups along with the age of them," to help us manage the savings by not having us spend so much on the storage in Azure. That would be huge."

"The deployment process is a little tricky. It wasn't hard for me because I have pretty in-depth knowledge of Kubernetes, and their software runs on Kubernetes. To deploy it or upgrade it, you have to be able to follow steps and use the Kubernetes command line, or you'll need someone to come in and do it for you."

More IBM Turbonomic cons

"We would like to have backup functionality built-in so that we don't run into the issue where the replication process makes a copy of the corrupted data."

"This solution would be improved with more innovation."

"We would like for the files which are coming in that we can version them. So, if a file is accidentally deleted, there should have a recycle bin option where we can go back, and at least once, clean it up."

"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."

"The pricing definitely needs to be improved."

"The main hurdle in promoting this solution is the price. Its price definitely requires an improvement. It is more expensive than other options, so customers go for a cheaper option."

"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."

More Azure NetApp Files cons

"Cloud Insights could offer more detail when we drill down into the Azure environment."

"When I did need support because I was having problems with the solution, the first or the second line just didn't understand it. They were providing this only on a software as a service basis. So, they were asking all the wrong questions."

"The IP-based monitoring could be added in a future release."

"The visualization needs some improvement because there are occasional delays while the system queries information."

"Most of the time, I initially connect with entry-level support, and then I need to request a higher-tier support level, which can result in delays."

"Their pricing model needs improvement."

"There is room for improving the creating and managing or modifying of reports. That is still a difficult task to do and requires knowledge beyond the storage itself. I would love to see reporting improved so that we can create reports by dragging and dropping pieces into a report form and publish a report that way."

"The support is not very quick."

More NetApp Cloud Insights cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price is a big one. VMTurbo was very competitively priced."

"When we have expanded our licensing, it has always been easy to make an ROI-based decision. So, it's reasonably priced. We would like to have it cheaper, but we get more benefit from it than we pay for it. At the end of the day, that's all you can hope for."

"I know there have been some issues with the billing, when the numbers were first proposed, as to how much we would save. There was a huge miscommunication on our part. Turbonomic was led to believe that we could optimize our AWS footprint, because we didn't know we couldn't. So, we were promised savings of $750,000. Then, when we came to implement Turbonomic, the developers in AWS said, "Absolutely not. You're not putting that in our environment. We can't scale down anything because they coded it." Our AWS environment is a legacy environment. It has all these old applications, where all the developers who have made it are no longer with the company. Those applications generate a ton of money for us. So, if one breaks, we are really in trouble and they didn't want to have to deal with an environment that was changing and couldn't be supported. That number went from $750,000 to about $450,000. However, that wasn't Turbonomic's fault."

"The pricing is in line with the other solutions that we have. It's not a bargain software, nor is it overly expensive."

"I'm not involved in any of the billing, but my understanding is that is fairly expensive."

"If you're a super-small business, it may be a little bit pricey for you... But in large, enterprise companies where money is, maybe, less of an issue, Turbonomic is not that expensive. I can't imagine why any big company would not buy it, for what it does."

"It's worth the time and money investment if you can afford it."

"IBM Turbonomic is an investment that we believe will deliver positive returns."

More IBM Turbonomic pricing and cost advice

"Our pricing has not been determined because we are still waiting on additional features."

"This solution is very expensive compared to the alternatives."

"The price of Azure NetApp Files could be better."

"NetApp is a premium offering, so it's not a cheap product, but it is well-priced. It combines a couple of properties which customers like us are willing to pay. Could it be cheaper? Yes, but if you combine fully supported, fully managed, easily provisioned, scalable, and quick all in one product, it's a good selling point. You can ask a lot of money for all these. If you have a use case like we do, it's a perfect match. It's like the Porsche of storage solutions in the cloud. It is totally worth the cost."

"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."

"In the cloud, pricing depends on how you manage it. It's not necessarily cheap, but it's all about optimizing charges and showing the cost back. So, it's more about managing the expenses rather than being inherently expensive or cheap."

"We are currently on a pay-as-you-go model with the storage that we use."

"The licensing fees for this solution vary, ranging from a single shelf to a full suite."

More Azure NetApp Files pricing and cost advice

"We are billed based on management units, so we can purchase units based on six months, twelve months, twenty-four months, or thirty-six months upfront or pay as you go depending on our requirements."

"The licensing is complex. The calculation depends on what you're ingesting. A terabyte of one product is not a terabyte of another product. Virtual machines don't equate so easily. It's all about the end-use managed units and having an easy place to reference how far those units go."

"The solution's pricing is based on the device you purchase and includes support services."

"The licensing model could be improved. We love that you can use it for free for looking at NetApp products. You only need licenses to look at non-NetApp products, but as soon as you do that, you start utilizing licenses that actually would have been free in the public. So, there is a bit of an anomaly in the licensing model."

"The solution is expensive."

"Be aware of the capacity licensing and understand how that works, because it is based on capacity. Getting an understanding of that is the biggest thing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

28%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Turbonomic?

I have not seen Turbonomic's new pricing since IBM purchased it. When we were looking at it in my previous company be...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Turbonomic?

I would like Turbonomic to add more services, especially in the cloud area. I have already told them this. They can a...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Turbonomic?

I mostly provide it to my clients. There are multiple reasons why they would use it depending on the client's needs a...

See all answers

How does Azure NetApp Files compare to NetApp ONTAP?

Azure NetApp Files is a Microsoft Azure file storage service built on NetApp technology. The platform combines the fi...

See all answers

What do you like most about Azure NetApp Files?

The availability is good, meaning downtime or network issues rarely occur. The system also offers flexibility, allowi...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure NetApp Files?

In the cloud, pricing depends on how you manage it. It's not necessarily cheap, but it's all about optimizing charges...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp Cloud Insights?

NetApp Cloud Insights helps with login monitoring and troubleshooting. Previously, if we had performance concerns or ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp Cloud Insights?

The licensing is complex. The calculation depends on what you're ingesting. A terabyte of one product is not a teraby...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Insights?

Ease of reporting is one thing that they're trying to tackle. If you have a specific set of data you want from Cloud ...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware Aria Operations vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 20% of the time

Azure Cost Management vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Intersight vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 10% of the time

VMWare Tanzu CloudHealth vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 8% of the time

Google Cloud Billing vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM Turbonomic Competitors

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 40% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 25% of the time

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 10% of the time

Nasuni vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 10% of the time

Wasabi vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 1% of the time

More Azure NetApp Files Competitors

Dell CloudIQ vs NetApp Cloud Insights

Compared 23% of the time

Datadog vs NetApp Cloud Insights

Compared 19% of the time

Zabbix vs NetApp Cloud Insights

Compared 11% of the time

ServiceNow IT Operations Management vs NetApp Cloud Insights

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs NetApp Cloud Insights

Compared 7% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Insights Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Turbonomic

June 2024

Download IBM Turbonomic product report

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files

June 2024

Download Azure NetApp Files product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Insights

June 2024

Download NetApp Cloud Insights product report

Also Known As

Turbonomic, VMTurbo Operations Manager

NetApp ANF, ANF

No data available

Learn More

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IBM

NetApp

Interactive Demo

IBM

Demo not available

NetApp

Demo not available

NetApp

Overview

IBM Turbonomic is a performance and cost optimization platform for public, private, and hybrid clouds used by customers to assure application performance while eliminating inefficiencies by dynamically resourcing applications through automated actions. Common use cases include cloud cost optimization, cloud migration planning, data center modernization, FinOps acceleration, Kubernetes optimization, sustainable IT, and application resource management. Turbonomic customers report an average 33% reduction in cloud and infrastructure waste without impacting application performance, and return-on-investment of 471% over three years. Ready to take a closer look? Explore the interactive demo or start your free 30-day trial today!

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.

NetApp Cloud Insights is an infrastructure monitoring tool that gives you visibility into your complete infrastructure. With Cloud Insights, you can monitor, troubleshoot and optimize all your resources including your public clouds and your private data centers.

Sample Customers

IBM, J.B. Hunt, BBC, The Capita Group, SulAmérica, Rabobank, PROS, ThinkON, O.C. Tanner Co.

SAP, Restaurant Magic

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files vs. NetApp Cloud Insights

May 2024

Free Report: Azure NetApp Files vs. NetApp Cloud Insights

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure NetApp Files vs. NetApp Cloud Insights and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.

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