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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
232
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 (23rd)
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

"Deduplication is an excellent feature. I also like the NAS and support."
"We've been using FlashArray's snapshot for backups. Their replication across sites and response time are also excellent."
"The support team is available all the time and they seem to know what they are doing."
"It has been very stable. I have not seen or heard of downtime storage issues after moving over to it."
"It is simple, powerful, and a beautiful solution."
"We're getting good performance, and the compression ratio is also very good in Pure Storage FlashArray."
"The back-end data reporting for Pure Storage is phenomenal. The data that you can see on the performance of your customers' array, so you can be proactive about upgrades or enhancements, and is a phenomenal tool to have access to as a partner. I haven't seen this type of stuff out of anything of the other storage systems."
"The speed is the most valuable feature, along with the ease of getting it connected. We were able to get it online in less than a day."
"If we need to migrate data, Azure Files allows a seamless data migration."
"We see a clear return on investment with Azure Files, primarily through reduced infrastructure management effort and improved operational efficiency."
"The best features of HPE GreenLake for File Storage are that customers appreciate them because they can make availability of the products through the options of service."
"The feature I have found most valuable is its glove service capabilities."
"It is extremely important for my business that the HPE GreenLake for File Storage solution has independent scaling of performance and data capacity."
"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."
"The entire solution is excellent for me."
"GreenLake for File Storage provides more security, allowing customized security for different file types. Block Storage can't do that. That's the most intriguing feature I have always looked for in a FlashArray or file system."
"The most valuable feature of HPE GreenLake for File Storage is the pricing model."
"The solution helps with scaling. It helps with a fast response to changing realities."
 

Cons

"They should work on their upgrades, they're not smooth."
"There's always an opportunity for new feature functionality."
"If there is one thing that I did not appreciate about Pure, it is that between the two different lines, which would be FlashBlade and Everpure FlashArray, there is no easy way to migrate LUNs as far as being able to replicate across those platforms."
"They have a product, FlashBlade, which is their object storage integration, and that's something that we haven't integrated with yet. This might be an area for additional focus as it would play into scalability, because the very nature of object storage is that it's infinitely scalable."
"Had some issues with Purity not being entirely compatible with VMware ESXi."
"A noticeable area for improvement is the support for object storage. The FlashArray does not natively support object storage like S3 or Swift, which pushes customers needing these features towards the more expensive FlashBlade."
"We ran into some issues with the program at first and we had to work around those issues to fix our problems."
"There was some complexity in the initial setup."
"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."
"I think if Azure Files could integrate migration using Storage Mover, that would be an improvement."
"One of the issues is that sometimes it crashes frequently and experiences slowness."
"The HPE GreenLake for File Storage can be improved by increasing integration with Silver Peak."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Some challenges with a multi-cloud environment due to some compatibility issues."
"The file system arrays have multiple nodes, so one node automatically comes up if another goes down. The system should allow the primary node to remain the master node and the secondary node to function as a non-master node. HP has already deployed AI in GreenLake's cloud features, but they should also integrate them into the flash array."
"I would suggest an improvement for the next release to provide another way to connect people who want to use this system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is too high."
"We consume it as a service, and that's actually something we really like, or at least I really like from the technical perspective. That's because it means there is no hassle when we need to upgrade arrays to add capacity. We just interact directly with technical counterparts, and we say, "Hey, we're filling up," and they say, "All right, here's another data pack." They ship it in, and we install it. So, the as-a-service model has worked very well. Given the outstanding data reduction rates, it has improved our profitability because we're selling allocated volumes as part of the cloud service or recovering those costs from our tenants. It is very efficient, but that has offset the premium price. It started out that way, but over time, as we've added capacity, the price per gig has gone down a lot because we have a lot of it."
"We have seen a reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO)."
"It is not the cheapest one out there. We're paying yearly, but I'm not 100% sure."
"You get what you pay for. It is expensive, but it really works."
"The price of the solution is not expensive."
"The price-to-performance is good. I looked at Pure about three to four years back, but the price-to-performance wasn't right for us. Now, it's right."
"Once you purchase Pure Storage FlashArray it is all-inclusive, you receive all the licenses needed."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
No data available
Media Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business73
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise160
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: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.