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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
1.0
Azure Data Lake Storage reduces costs, enhances processing speed, and improves data management, analytics, and integration for better decision-making.
Sentiment score
7.4
Azure NetApp Files boosts performance, eases deployment, reduces downtime, and optimizes costs, despite higher initial expenses than on-premises.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Customers find Azure Data Lake Storage support variable, but good documentation and expert architects enhance overall satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.4
Azure NetApp Files receives mixed feedback on support, praised for integration and ease, but some users seek more specialized assistance.
You can't expect her to know everything about Azure, but she knows who does know, so things can get handled by who knows about the topic the best, and that's usually the best way to handle anything anyway.
Vice President, Technology at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
A good support experience is marked by the speed of reply and the relevancy of resolution tips.
EPM Practice Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The support team is very supportive, and most issues are resolved quickly once we get in touch with them.
DevOps Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
They have top-notch people.
Cloud/Data/Database Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Azure Data Lake Storage is highly scalable, though some challenges exist with complex processes and initial migrations for businesses.
Sentiment score
7.6
Azure NetApp Files is scalable, flexible, and cost-effective for large setups, but pricing concerns exist for smaller setups.
You can't automatically scale across the world, so for something that requires global scaling, you may have to do more work to get the scalability.
Vice President, Technology at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
For scalability, I rate Data Lake Storage around eight to nine on a scale of one to ten.
DevOps Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The scalability is limited.
Data Architecture and Engineering Specialist at coprocenva
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Azure Data Lake Storage is highly reliable and stable, with a 99.99% SLA and rare interruptions, ideal for data applications.
Sentiment score
8.4
Azure NetApp Files is rated highly for stability due to its reliability and consistency under increased workloads and migrations.
Stability is rated around eight to nine out of ten.
DevOps Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
I find the stability of Azure Data Lake Storage to be excellent and would rate it as an eight out of ten.
EPM Practice Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Data Lake Storage enhances affordability and integration, needing better security, support, and documentation for improved user experience.
Azure NetApp Files needs improved features, cost efficiency, easier deployment, regional integration, and strengthened security to meet user demands.
Currently, migration is only one-way possible, and it would be beneficial if this aspect could be improved.
DevOps Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The premium tier, which they recommend for analytics, can't be switched off once enabled. Similarly, if you start on standard tier, you can never upgrade it; you have to delete it and make a new one. These limitations are quite annoying.
Vice President, Technology at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
With the emergence of AI technology, it would be convenient for storing vector indexes, essential for AI solutions.
Data Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would like for them to have more compression so that it can avoid using more storage.
Cloud/Data/Database Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Azure Data Lake Storage offers competitive, pay-as-you-go pricing, balancing affordability with comprehensive storage, despite licensing complexities.
Azure NetApp Files pricing is premium yet justified by features like management, scalability, and flexible licensing options.
Azure Data Lake Storage is cheaper and provides three options for data storage tiers.
Data Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing for Data Lake Storage depends on several factors, like the configuration for multiple or single locations and if it uses geo-redundancy storage, which is beneficial but consumes higher costs.
DevOps Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is expensive, especially with NetApp Ultra Storage.
Cloud/Data/Database Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Azure Data Lake Storage provides secure, scalable, cost-effective big data analytics with seamless Microsoft integration and efficient data management.
Azure NetApp Files enhances performance, scalability, and management with integrated features for backup, recovery, and seamless Azure integration.
Data Lake Storage can interact with any other Azure resources, providing seamless integration and connectivity.
DevOps Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Allows for automated configuration of data operations such as deletion and transfer between repositories.
Data Architecture and Engineering Specialist at coprocenva
It's essentially the blob storage but with more features that are analytics focused because usually that's what people are going to do with the Data Lake, which is ingest data for analytics.
Vice President, Technology at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
The most valuable feature is that the sixty-terabyte database snapshot can be done in less than two to three minutes.
Cloud/Data/Database Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Data Lake Storage
Ranking in Cloud Storage
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Azure NetApp Files
Ranking in Cloud Storage
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (7th), Public Cloud Storage Services (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Azure Data Lake Storage is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure NetApp Files is 4.4%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Storage Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Azure Data Lake Storage1.4%
Azure NetApp Files4.4%
Other94.2%
Cloud Storage
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2767269 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President, Technology at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Has improved analytics workflows through seamless integration and strong data management capabilities
It depends on the tool when it's outside of the Microsoft portfolio as to whether it integrates; it really depends on what you're doing with the other tool. The cost is something that everyone is cost-sensitive about. There was a curious feature that I was interested in; I think it was something in preview, a blob scanning ability, the ability to have a hardware-level querying of the data there. I don't think it worked with Parquet data; I think it mainly worked with plain text data. That's something that I would want to have added, is the ability to scan and query data with Parquet, because currently, that's what you have to use Databricks to do. They make it easy to set up, and their licensing for Azure Data Lake Storage is just pay-as-you-go, so you can get into it quite easily. The devil's in the details, because the cost as you use it can be difficult to forecast because it really depends upon all the other services and how heavily it's being used. There are other features that can catch you, such as a storage security scanner that automatically scans your storage for malware. Compliance departments and IT departments love that type of feature, so people will blanket enable that, but then that racks up tons of bills because it's reading massive files constantly that should be excluded from that type of scan because it's not a type of file capable of having malware; it's the backend database. There are some gotchas with the pricing; you have to be careful. There's not really a way to throttle it either. The premium tier, which they recommend for analytics, can't be switched off once enabled. Similarly, if you start on standard tier, you can never upgrade it; you have to delete it and make a new one. These limitations are quite annoying.
AjayKumar13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud/Data/Database Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise13
 

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?
It depends on the tool when it's outside of the Microsoft portfolio as to whether it integrates; it really depends on what you're doing with the other tool. The cost is something that everyone is c...
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: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.