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Azure Data Lake Storage vs Azure NetApp Files 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Data Lake Storage
Ranking in Cloud Storage
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Azure NetApp Files
Ranking in Cloud Storage
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (2nd), Public Cloud Storage Services (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Azure Data Lake Storage is 1.0%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure NetApp Files is 8.8%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Storage
 

Featured Reviews

Chetan Jayatheertha - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides valuable features such as access keys, container strings, lifecycle management, audit logs, and the soft delete option
Data Lake Storage provides valuable features such as access keys, container strings, lifecycle management, audit logs, and the soft delete option. These features help in cost-saving and provide an excellent mechanism for backing up data. Furthermore, Data Lake Storage can interact with any other Azure resources, providing seamless integration and connectivity.
AjayKumar13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast, reliable, and helps meet our SLAs
The most valuable feature is that the sixty-terabyte database snapshot can be done in less than two to three minutes. It is faster. It is quicker. It is reliable. You don't need to take the snapshot. Snapshots are compressed. It doesn't take storage from the back end. It takes three minutes to do sixty terabytes of the database. You don't have to go to the tape and store it outside, which takes hours and hours. It also uses a lot less of the storage. It's very easy to restore or copy the snapshots to other locations for disaster recovery. There are a lot of benefits. In terms of the snapshot's rapid restore capability, we were testing the load of performance testing, and we needed to rebuild the DR site. If I need to rebuild the DR for a standby database, it takes sixty terabytes to copy onto the another site, which will take at least a day. Now, the snapshot is easy. We just copy the snapshots, and then we do the cross-region application. The snapshots came along with that, and that's where we were able to build the DR site within a few hours rather than days. All together, instead of a four-day process, instead of a day.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is its simplicity of configuration and setup."
"I'd rate the solution nine out of ten."
"The solution is worth the money because it allows you to gain insights into your business and implement forecasting solutions to predict future trends."
"The tool's best feature is that it can store different types of data - structured, unstructured, and semi-structured—in one lake. We can use the required data for analytics and dashboard design."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability due to the blob, which allows us to scale our data effectively."
"The hierarchical structure allows us to create multiple hierarchies inside, such as storage containers, directories, and subdirectories."
"The tool offers a big storage layer. The security aspect is quite good. In Azure, there's an option for soft deletes and policy management. This allows us to store only the most up-to-date data while everything else can be policy-managed. This makes handling and management easier."
"Azure Data Lake Storage is a user-friendly and easy-to-learn solution."
"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."
"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."
"Since we have NetApp's internally, we use the SnapMirror predominantly for this process in the cloud which is beneficial."
"One aspect of Azure NetApp Files that I truly appreciate is its remarkable performance capabilities."
"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."
"Its security and ease of use are most valuable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its flexibility."
 

Cons

"Maybe the solution could be a bit more user-friendly."
"The high price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Azure Data Lake Storage should support other formats apart from the Data Lake format, such as the Iceberg format."
"It would be beneficial if some AI features were added."
"I suggest enhancing the connectors for improvement. Some software, like HubSpot and Xero, has connectors, but they're limited to a few fields. That's why we use REST API calls instead. It would be better if the connectors could retrieve all data."
"When you store your files manually, you can't ensure complete data integrity, which can impact data security."
"The solution needs to improve APIs and make them more accessible."
"Improvement is needed in the migration process from Lakehouse to Enterprise Data Lake (EDL). Currently, migration is only one-way possible, and it would be beneficial if this aspect could be improved."
"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."
"The pricing definitely needs to be improved."
"This solution would be improved with more innovation."
"I don’t like the solution’s configuration and support."
"Azure NetApp Files could improve by being more diverse to integrate better with other solutions, such as Splunk and the on-premise version. There are some use cases that are not covered natively by Azure. It is not the best solution because it is not external from the cloud which for me is the best type of solution."
"The solution needs to improve it's ABS environment."
"The initial setup was not straightforward. We had help from the NetApp team."
"Azure NetApp Files is expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price as five."
"The tool is cheap, depending on the services and requirements you need."
"It's a pay-as-you-go model. Your charges are based on the amount of data you store."
"One of the most affordable products from the vendor"
"Compared to other options we've explored, I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"The tool's licensing model is pay-as-you-go. Regarding pricing, there's always competition between Azure Data Lake Storage and AWS. They're quite similar, but to attract more customers, Azure Data Lake Storage could consider adjusting its pricing to be more competitive with AWS. This might make Azure Data Lake Storage a more appealing option for users."
"I rate the product price as two or three, where one is high, and ten is low. The product's price is really high."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The performance has improved by about 30 percent."
"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."
"Our pricing has not been determined because we are still waiting on additional features."
"The licensing fees for this solution vary, ranging from a single shelf to a full suite."
"It is expensive, especially with NetApp Ultra Storage."
"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."
"This solution is very expensive compared to the alternatives."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Educational Organization
27%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Data Lake Storage?
The tool's most valuable feature is security access policies.
What needs improvement with Azure Data Lake Storage?
The speed of support response needs to improve, especially for critical, high-priority issues. Having a quick SLA response time is crucial.
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 file capabilities of Azure and NetApp to move critical file-based applications to ...
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, allowing for increases in data volume, IOPS, and other capabilities without requiring ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
NetApp ANF, ANF
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
SAP, Restaurant Magic
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Data Lake Storage vs. Azure NetApp Files and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.