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Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
3.7
Amazon EFS offers scalable, cost-effective storage with minimal maintenance, enhancing productivity and benefiting businesses through pay-as-you-go pricing.
Sentiment score
6.5
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP delivers cost savings, increased efficiency, and improved performance, reducing storage, maintenance, and power expenses.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
Customers find Amazon EFS support reliable, though resolution times may vary based on the complexity and support plan.
Sentiment score
7.0
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP customer service is praised for expertise and responsiveness, with room for improvement in initial support.
While the time to respond was good, the time to resolve was not optimal, as it took more than a week.
Regional Manager at Aspire Lifestyles
Training and support depend on the plan you have, with centralized support being very helpful in case issues arise.
Head of Engineering - Data and Machine Learning at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Amazon's support model is consistent across services.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Amazon EFS offers scalable and cost-effective file storage, but users occasionally face challenges with scalability, latency, and connections.
Sentiment score
7.2
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP offers scalable growth, dynamic expansion, and flexibility, though large environments face data size limitations.
Its auto-scaling feature is a crucial point, providing high scalability that I would rate at ten out of ten.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Elastic File Systems allow me to scale up or down easily.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
It is very cost-effective, and there's no need for initial charges.
Head of Engineering - Data and Machine Learning at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It wouldn't help with outages either; the scaling is manual, and there are no processes we've used to automate that for unexpected scenarios.
Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Amazon EFS is generally stable, with users praising reliability, though some report minor issues mitigated by strong support.
Sentiment score
7.7
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP offers high stability and reliability, with users valuing performance and responsive support despite occasional minor issues.
Amazon EFS is extremely stable, as it is managed by AWS.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
While I experienced an EFS mount dropping, it was related to server issues rather than EFS itself.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon EFS needs improved connectivity, Windows integration, cost transparency, and one-click setup for enhanced user experience and support.
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP users seek improved scalability, integration, ease of use, and features like security, monitoring, and cloud compatibility.
Database-type workloads do not run properly on Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) because at the end of the day, it is a network file system and requests must travel from one place to another and then return.
Sr. Technical Account Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enabling AI-driven or automatic features would be beneficial for new or nontechnical users.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
In my project, there are challenges related to AWS, such as ensuring proper security measures with IMS code and encryption.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
My opinion is that support is generally very good. There are instances where they take longer to respond or resolve issues, especially when customers have urgent needs, but ultimately, resolution is achieved.
Technical Specialist at Softcell Technologies Limited
It would be nice to see technology supporting the Elastic Fabric Adapter on Amazon AWS, therefore getting RDMA technology for more low-latency connections.
Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Amazon EFS charges based on usage with higher costs compared to S3, making it less budget-friendly.
Enterprise users enjoy NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for its features despite higher costs, with discounts available for extended commitments.
EFS could cost around $30 to $50 per month for similar usage.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
It is very cost-effective with no need for initial charges.
Head of Engineering - Data and Machine Learning at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Elastic File Systems can be expensive due to the nature of data transfer costs.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
 

Valuable Features

Amazon EFS provides scalable, secure, and flexible storage with fast data access, auto-scaling, and seamless AWS integration for dynamic workloads.
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP offers reliable, flexible data protection, seamless integration, and optimized storage across diverse cloud environments.
Its ease of integration with other AWS services enhances our infrastructure, while the shared storage access improves reliability and processing continuity for our applications.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They help me process data while maintaining low latency, which is crucial for efficient data processing.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
The AWS service is excellent security-wise, and I have seen some other features besides security, such as automatic scaling that helped us significantly.
Regional Manager at Aspire Lifestyles
The granular ability to divide up the performance and the amount of storage you want is really fantastic.
Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EFS (Elastic File Sy...
Ranking in Cloud Storage
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (10th)
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP
Ranking in Cloud Storage
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (2nd), Cloud Backup (27th), Public Cloud Storage Services (13th), Cloud Software Defined Storage (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is 3.3%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is 7.0%, down from 13.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Storage Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP7.0%
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)3.3%
Other89.7%
Cloud Storage
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Auto-scaling capabilities enhance file management while reducing downtime
The most valuable feature of Amazon EFS is its auto-scaling capability. It's really easy to configure EFS by just creating it and running a command to directly configure it with my servers. It supports unlimited use, and charges are applied based on the file usage at the end of the month. The solution offers reduced downtime and increased durability through its auto-scaling features.
Punit Waghela - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Specialist at Softcell Technologies Limited
Offers advanced features with notable emphasis on innovation
The best features of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP include deduplication, compaction, and autonomous ransomware technology that native cloud storage solutions in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud do not support. Moreover, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP allows the use of multiple protocols including NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI, whereas native options may only support NFS and iSCSI. Customers already using on-premises NetApp storage such as FAS, AFF, or ASA can experience the same functionality on the cloud with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, which adds significant value. For data protection, customers can take advantage of the Snapshot technology available with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP. This technology facilitates data recovery by allowing snapshots to be stored either on the same storage or on a disaster recovery (DR) storage. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP helps us to take snapshots and store them on the same storage, with options for migration or replication of those snapshots to different storage, including on-premises DR storage or other cloud storage, providing excellent disaster recovery capabilities.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise53
 

Questions from the Community

Which file storage system is better - Amazon EFS (elastic file storage) or Azure File Storage?
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...
What do you like most about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?
The product's initial setup phase is easy, as per the configurations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?
We don't need to purchase it; we are just using it and paying Amazon as per the utilization. We make direct payments to Amazon based on our usage.
What do you like most about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?
So a lot of these licenses are at the rate that is required for capacity. So they're they're able to reduce the license consumption and also the consumption of the underlying cloud storage.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is actually quite reasonable in price compared to other native cloud storage options. For example, a customer using 100 TB of AWS storage would not benefit from deduplica...
What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?
It would be nice to see technology supporting the Elastic Fabric Adapter on Amazon AWS, therefore getting RDMA technology for more low-latency connections.
 

Also Known As

No data available
ONTAP Cloud, CVO, NetApp CVO
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend
1. Accenture 2. Acer 3. Adidas 4. Aetna 5. AIG 6. Apple 7. Bank of America 8. Barclays 9. Bayer 10. Berkshire Hathaway 11. BNP Paribas 12. Cisco 13. Coca-Cola 14. Comcast 15.ConocoPhillips 16. CVS Health 17. Dell 18. Deutsche Bank 19. eBay 20. Eli Lilly 21. FedEx 22. Ford 23. Freescale Semiconductor 24. General Electric 25. Google 26. Honeywell 27. IBM 28. Intel 29. Intuit 30. JPMorgan Chase 31. Kellogg's 32. KeyCorp 33. Liberty Mutual 34. L'Oréal 35. Mastercard
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,899 professionals have used our research since 2012.