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Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Microsoft Azure File Storage comparison

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Q&A Highlights
Question: Which file storage system is better - Amazon EFS (elastic file storage) or Azure File Storage?
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 solution can scale up or down as needed (as files are added or removed). It is pay-per-use - you will only pay for the storage you are using. This eliminates storage administration tasks and is a real time-saver. There is no minimum fee and no setup cost. You do need to have some programming knowledge to use Amazon EFS. You need to closely monitor the time constraints in relation to the amount of data you are backing up with or your process may fail. You most likely need to manually pause applications and processes backing up, and only backups can be stored on Amazon EFS. With Azure File Storage you can easily share data across cloud and on-premises servers. Azure File Storage can help simplify hosting for high availability workload data and migrate file share-based applications to the cloud, with no code changes. You can access what you need anytime, anywhere, using any device. Setup and deployment with Azure File Storage can be quite complex. We believe this solution should support more legacy storage systems and have better overall integration with other solutions. Azure File Storage has some scalability limitations, which could be problematic for some. The pricing should be more transparent so that you have a better idea of what your incurred costs will be. Conclusion Using either of these solutions, one does need to be a bit tech-savvy. They are not for the complete novice. We like Amazon EFS best. The easy and flexible scale up and down protocol that it has in place is perfect for our ever-changing business organizational needs. For us, Amazon EFS is very cost-effective and time-efficient. We like that.
Featured Review
Marcelo Lucas
A fast, stable, and scalable solution with flexible pricing and good elasticity
Before Amazon EFS, our customer was using EBS volumes in a unique EC2 instance to serve NFS servers. Now, these EC2 instances are not necessary.... Read more →
StefanoFerrero
Azure File Sync has good features that are quick to sync to the on-premise file servers
We are testing and looking at the pros and cons, and we will decide based on features and the cost that will be present to the infrastructure... Read more →
Buyer's Guide
Public Cloud Storage Services
June 2022
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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
"Its elasticity and flexible pricing are the most valuable. For Amazon EFS, you are charged based on the storage. It is also very fast and stable with a very simple and intuitive interface."

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) Pros →

"It was quick to synchronize back from Azure to the on-premise server.""It was easy to set up.""Integration with the entire Azure platform.""The solution can scale to fit any requirement.""The initial setup is fairly easy.""We have not explored the desktop performance analysis of the file storage, but the user interface, API, and the response that we receive over the file storage are very good. We have a lot of customers that connect to the client-side, click the images, and upload them. The beauty of the solution is that we can mount the file storage into a critical server as well as an external drive. The speed that we receive with the images is pretty good."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage Pros →

Cons
"It could be better in connecting with Windows Server instances."

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) Cons →

"The solution should support all the legacy storage systems.""It's not very intuitive.""The storage account key could be a security issue.""In our use cases, we see the weakness in mobile internet connectivity.""Lacks integration with other platforms.""Microsoft Azure File Storage is not that scalable. Once you reach the boundaries, you need to migrate to another solution."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It has flexible pricing. You are charged based on your storage."

    • More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) 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."

    • More Microsoft Azure File Storage Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Which file storage system is better - Amazon EFS (elastic file storage) o...
    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 »
    What do you like most about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?
    Top Answer:Its elasticity and flexible pricing are the most valuable. For Amazon EFS, you are charged based on the storage. It is also very fast and stable with a very simple and intuitive interface.
    Read all 2 answers   →
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EFS (Elast...
    Top Answer:It has flexible pricing. You are charged based on your storage.
    Read all 2 answers   →
    What do you like most about Microsoft Azure File Storage?
    Top Answer:The initial setup is fairly easy.
    Read all 5 answers   →
    What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure File Storage?
    Top Answer:We have performance issues with Microsoft Azure File Storage. We have a standard version and we have also a premium version. I would like to upgrade to premium but that is not possible on the fly. So… more »
    Read all 5 answers   →
    What is your primary use case for Microsoft Azure File Storage?
    Top Answer:We are using the VP storage version. Our primary use case is for roaming profiles flowing on the frictional desktop.
    Read all 4 answers   →
    Ranking
    8th
    out of 26 in Public Cloud Storage Services
    Views
    8,357
    Comparisons
    7,588
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    401
    Rating
    9.0
    4th
    out of 26 in Public Cloud Storage Services
    Views
    12,704
    Comparisons
    11,062
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    831
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Azure File Storage
    Learn More
    Amazon
    Microsoft
    Overview

    Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides simple, scalable file storage for use with Amazon EC2 instances in the AWS Cloud. Amazon EFS is easy to use and offers a simple interface that allows you to create and configure file systems quickly and easily. With Amazon EFS, storage capacity is elastic, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, so your applications have the storage they need, when they need it.

    When mounted to Amazon EC2 instances, an Amazon EFS file system provides a standard file system interface and file system access semantics, allowing you to seamlessly integrate Amazon EFS with your existing applications and tools. Multiple Amazon EC2 instances can access an Amazon EFS file system at the same time, allowing Amazon EFS to provide a common data source for workloads and applications running on more than one Amazon EC2 instance.

    It’s designed for high availability and durability, and provides performance for a broad spectrum of workloads and applications, including Big Data and analytics, media processing workflows, content management, web serving, and home directories.

    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
    Offer
    Learn more about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)
    Learn More
    Learn more about Microsoft Azure File Storage
    Learn More
    Sample Customers
    Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend
    Talon, Camden
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company31%
    Comms Service Provider17%
    Media Company6%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Marketing Services Firm14%
    Comms Service Provider14%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Manufacturing Company14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company31%
    Comms Service Provider17%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise69%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    Public Cloud Storage Services
    June 2022
    Download Free Report
    Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Google, Amazon and others in Public Cloud Storage Services. Updated: June 2022.
    DOWNLOAD NOW
    611,060 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is ranked 8th in Public Cloud Storage Services with 1 review while Microsoft Azure File Storage is ranked 4th in Public Cloud Storage Services with 6 reviews. Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is rated 9.0, while Microsoft Azure File Storage is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) writes "A fast, stable, and scalable solution with flexible pricing and good elasticity". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Azure File Storage writes "Good performance, stable interface, and different storage mounting options". Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is most compared with Google Cloud Storage, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Google Cloud Storage Nearline, Oracle Database Backup Service and Azure NetApp Files, whereas Microsoft Azure File Storage is most compared with Azure NetApp Files, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3 Glacier and Oracle Database Backup Service.

    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.