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Azure Files vs HPE GreenLake for File Storage comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Everpure FlashArray
Sponsored
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
231
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (3rd)
Azure Files
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Storage (17th), File and Object Storage (24th)
HPE GreenLake for File Storage
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (7th)
 

Featured Reviews

Sowjanya MV - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
Has improved performance for mission-critical workloads and enabled seamless non-disruptive upgrades
The availability is 99.99%, which is the main factor any customer would need because their data should be available whenever they want to access it. This is one main critical thing. It is very easy to upgrade since Pure Storage FlashArray handles it well. Everything is non-disruptive now; previously, there were forklift shifts, but now that is not the case. Pure Storage FlashArray says no to forklift upgrades. Usually hardware requires downtime, but Pure Storage FlashArray has improved their footprint so that they are not asking for downtime; everything is just a non-disruptive activity, which is why customers are more inclined towards Pure Storage FlashArray. Customers want more of the models in their environment due to the performance they are giving, and everything is in one Pure1 Array console where we can view all the models on one page or just an orchestration tool. You don't miss anything; you have replication, notifications about replication, and details about which host groups replication is happening in and if that replication is successful or failed. On a daily basis, our purpose is to create volumes for infrastructure; our daily activities include creating volumes and mapping them to the host, doing any migrations from a VM, clearing the data stores, and carving the volumes to those VMs. One key factor is the data compression with a ratio of 5:1, focusing on space efficiency, inline deduplication, and the compression Pure Storage FlashArray works on; that is a major factor we can suggest to any customer. Analytical capabilities are crucial. Daily, we check the throughput and consumption, and Pure Storage FlashArray provides predictions for one year regarding usage. This prediction helps plan updates well ahead. For support, we just raise a case, and they follow up and get it done. There is also AI readiness, but with the model R2, we don't have much of that AI readiness. For others, we do have AI readiness that predicts capacity based on daily or monthly trends, enabling us to analyze how much space we need or if we need to expand the disk shelf. From an operational point of view, a good feature is that if you accidentally delete a volume, it will be retained in the destroyed state for the next twenty-four hours, which is not the same with any other vendor. I have worked in this storage domain for the past fifteen years, and this option is remarkable, benefiting any L1 or L2 engineer. Additionally, from a compliance perspective, Pure Storage FlashArray has REST APIs enabled. I have not explored automation much, but from a security standpoint, it is strong with encryption data. If you want to automate, you can easily integrate with all clouds and explore Pure Cloud for scheduling workloads, including volume creation. Customers find benefit in Pure Storage FlashArray's single management pane of glass due to the dual controller and active-active setup. If one of the controllers goes down, all workloads automatically shift to the other controller, ensuring their data is safe and accessible at all times. This is a highlighted feature that any customer desires because their data should always be accessible. For SAN workloads, we use Pure Storage FlashArray because for SAN FC fiber channel, we don't use it; we use NetApp for NAS activities. We have clearly split this, so SAN is for mission-critical applications, while network-attached storage handles file systems. This architecture helps us maximize the benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray due to the significant workloads from this giant retail client. From a footprint and energy consumption perspective, you can see energy consumption from the Pure1 storage portal on a daily basis, and it is very compact. The three models we use consume only three units, which is quite low. From a footprint and data center perspective, it doesn't occupy much space. As everything moves to cloud, there are requirements to avoid excess spending on data centers, and Pure Storage FlashArray is efficient in energy consumption and is environmentally friendly.
Yogesh Autade - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Engineer at Softcell Technologies Limited
Centralized file sharing has improved security and compliance but still needs better analytics
From our experience, Azure Files could be improved with more granular performance visibility, simpler troubleshooting tools, and enhanced reporting around file shares, uses, and access patterns. We would also prefer more streamlined management for large-scale development deployments, better monitoring of SMB and NFS performance issues, and deeper integration of storage analytics to help identify bottlenecks and optimize cost efficiency. Another area where Azure Files could improve is the administrative experience for hybrid environments. More intuitive troubleshooting for authentication, SMB connectivity, and synchronization-related issues would help reduce operational efforts. Enhanced reporting, proactive recommendations, and clearer root cause analysis and diagnostics would also be valuable for storage and infrastructure teams managing large deployments.
NemiGeorge - PeerSpot reviewer
VP CISO at PDS Health
Exceptional service and hands-off infrastructure management enhance data handling and AI workloads
The features of HPE GreenLake for File Storage that I value the most include compute, storage, and managed service, and monitoring managed service. I appreciate the fact that my team doesn't have to manage all the infrastructure every day, handle patches, security updates, and similar tasks. Time saving is an example of how these features have benefited my organization. My team can focus on supporting our core businesses and not worry about infrastructure management. Also, expertise plays a role; we're a first-time HPE GreenLake customer, so having them manage that gives my team the opportunity to upskill without breaking anything.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would definitely suggest this solution to a colleague because of the ease of use."
"I would recommend Pure Storage FlashArray to other users because, first, the speed that I get with Pure Storage FlashArray is not remotely possible with any other product at this price range, and second, the support is absolutely fantastic."
"Pure Storage FlashArray's overall speed is its most valuable feature."
"They are quite responsive and our local team was pretty good."
"The stability is very good. I've done destructive testing on it and never had any type of storage outages from it."
"We consume less physical storage because of the solution’s deduplication and compression."
"The most valuable features of Pure Storage FlashArray are management and administration user-friendliness, provisioning, and performance."
"The security operating system is its most valuable feature because it's very simple, easy to use, and operate. You don't have to do very serious training to operate this equipment. It's user-friendly and pretty straightforward."
"We see a clear return on investment with Azure Files, primarily through reduced infrastructure management effort and improved operational efficiency."
"If we need to migrate data, Azure Files allows a seamless data migration."
"The technical support and customer service with HPE in Colombia is good."
"The file system is very stable and it rarely goes down."
"The most valuable features of HPE GreenLake for File Storage for my team are the managed switches and access points."
"I find the speed and the resiliency of the HPE GreenLake for File Storage to be the most valuable features."
"The most valuable feature of HPE GreenLake for File Storage is the pricing model."
"For us, the utilization of cache when the data is traveling between media, from any location to any location or within that cluster, was seamless."
"What I really appreciate about HPE GreenLake for File Storage is its well-organized, packaged platform for running enterprise workloads on the cloud."
"The biggest impact is that we doubled our data center capacity from six racks to 12 racks while still using the same team to manage this infrastructure."
 

Cons

"It is a bit expensive."
"Just some nit picky stuff, like allowing servers and volumes to be grouped. Therefore, it would easier to work with them in the GUI."
"In the next version of this program, I would like to see increased security, higher encryption, and faster throughput."
"The 3PAR SSD arrays that we have are still failing a lot so even though we're under warranty, we still have to get someone out and usually have someone troubleshoot so that usually adds onto the cost. With Pure, we've had a disc fail and we pop it out and you pop it in and it's good to go."
"I would like to see them develop the ability to integrate with more AWS services."
"The product should improve its response time. I have also encountered issues with its configuration."
"I would rate this solution an eight. To make it a ten it would have to be a little cheaper."
"A three wave application or multi wave application synchronization would be an improvement."
"I think if Azure Files could integrate migration using Storage Mover, that would be an improvement."
"From our experience, Azure Files could be improved with more granular performance visibility, simpler troubleshooting tools, and enhanced reporting around file shares, uses, and access patterns."
"HPE GreenLake for File Storage can be improved by incorporating better AI technology, though consumers are hesitant to move to other technologies due to concerns it might be worse."
"The HPE GreenLake for File Storage can be improved by increasing integration with Silver Peak."
"We have a problem at this moment with the prices when customers want to do the change request; the prices are higher than the customer expects."
"The only con I have is when I register a device to HPE GreenLake for File Storage, it takes a while for it to connect to Aruba Central."
"I would like if they could do data immutability on the backup side. It's still the traditional backup in the way that we take incremental data points, but I would prefer to see the backups be air-gapped from the rest of the network, so if there's ransomware, we don't have that concern about reintroducing bad data that might be corrupted."
"In Argentina, the cost to implement different solutions is very challenging."
"Improvement for this solution comes from a maturity between our two organizations. As HPE GreenLake for File Storage gets to know our organization and environment better, they provide recommendations about necessary actions for both compute and network, aligning with what we discussed in the beginning, fostering organic growth together, which leads to a point where they know our environment as we do, effectively becoming an extension of our teams."
"There were instances where the system went down due to heavy IO or intense data flow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are no fees for licensing. The hardware is paid for only once."
"Pure Storage has not helped us to reduce our licensing costs."
"While more expensive than NetApp, Pure Storage FlashArray offers superior performance that often justifies the higher cost and adds value overall."
"The cost of Pure Storage is subjective and determined by your environment. Pure Storage tends to be more expensive than NetApp, but it is cheaper than EMC. Performance varies with data workload, making cost considerations complex."
"Pure is not a cheap product. It is not something that is inexpensive. But, the total cost of ownership tends to be lower than with other solutions, because you don't need a lot of expertise, you don't need a lot of training or very expensive engineers or very expensive consultants."
"In terms of other contemporary arrays, Pure is something you need to have a use case for, as it's not priced for you to buy one off-the-shelf. If you have a use case, heavy lift Oracle Databases, any type of noticeable virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), or need low latency and high throughput, you should consider all-flash at least and probably Pure Storage."
"The solution could be cheaper."
"The pricing of Pure Storage is all-inclusive. It is very fair, and very easy. In comparison, Dell EMC has licensing that needs to be added if you wan to work in a complex environment or in specific functionalities."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
No data available
Media Company
14%
Construction Company
8%
Logistics Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business71
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise159
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?
Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Stor...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashArray?
I find the pricing of Everpure FlashArray to be quite high compared to other storage solutions; however, the reliabil...
What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?
I believe we have covered the most important features; the architecture of Pure Storage is essential, and features su...
What needs improvement with Azure Files?
From our experience, Azure Files could be improved with more granular performance visibility, simpler troubleshooting...
What is your primary use case for Azure Files?
Our primary use case for Azure Files is centralized file sharing, application data storage, and replacing traditional...
What advice do you have for others considering Azure Files?
I would recommend this product without hesitation. I would also recommend starting with a pilot workload to validate ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE GreenLake for File Storage?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing in our last journey with HPE GreenLake for File Storage was gre...
What needs improvement with HPE GreenLake for File Storage?
One area for improvement would be a unified management console that brings Infosight analytics and GreenLake provisio...
What is your primary use case for HPE GreenLake for File Storage?
Our current use cases for HPE GreenLake for File Storage include being our main backup storage and main server storage.
 

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas
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Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Files vs. HPE GreenLake for File Storage and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.