Azure NetApp Files vs Densify comparison

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Azure NetApp Files

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Densify and Azure NetApp Files are competing in the cloud optimization space. Densify is preferred for cost management, while Azure NetApp Files has an edge in Azure integration and performance.

Features: Densify offers real-time resource optimization with insights for cloud efficiency, integrated ITSM/EA applications, and the ability to forecast resources for better planning. Azure NetApp Files provides seamless Azure integration, ultra-fast SQL backup and restore, and SnapMirror for data protection and replication.

Room for Improvement: Densify could enhance multi-cloud support, improve intuitive dashboard interfaces, and refine integration with analytics tools for more real-time insights. Azure NetApp Files might develop more competitive pricing structures, extend flexibility beyond Azure to other platforms, and enhance support for non-Azure environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Densify is known for its user-friendly deployment and robust customer support, aiding in smooth integration with current systems. Azure NetApp Files benefits from strong integration within Azure, making it more straightforward for Azure users but may need improved support for non-Azure-related queries.

Pricing and ROI: Densify offers competitive pricing with potential for strong ROI through cloud optimization savings. Azure NetApp Files is perceived as more expensive but delivers ROI through enhanced performance and Azure integration, beneficial for businesses committed to the Azure platform.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure NetApp Files vs. Densify Report (Updated: August 2026).

Azure NetApp Files vs. Densify

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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 NetApp Files

Ranking in Cloud Migration

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Storage (12th), Public Cloud Storage Services (14th)

Densify

Ranking in Cloud Migration

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (31st), Virtualization Management Tools (8th), Cloud Analytics (6th), Cloud Cost Management (20th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Migration category, the mindshare of Azure NetApp Files is 4.2%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Densify is 4.5%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Migration Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Azure NetApp Files	4.2%
Densify	4.5%
Other	91.3%

Cloud Migration

Featured Reviews

Rajat Wadhwa

Cloud Architect at IBM

Cross-region replication has delivered seamless disaster recovery for enterprise storage needs

In terms of improvement, I would say cost reservation; the cost is a bit high. If we compare Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files, I know that customers are using less of Azure NetApp due to the cost. If they bring the cost a little bit closer to what Azure Files offers, it can be a great product in the market and bring a lot of business to NetApp. Backup is quite critical. As of now, Azure NetApp Files requires you to use Azure NetApp Backup solution, which is in public preview at the moment. I would definitely expect NetApp to come up with that solution so that customers can start using it because they do not have confidence in backup as it is still in preview. They are still doing some testing and research on that product, which is not officially released for use by multiple customers.

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AbhishekGupta2

Sr PreSales Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Optimized cloud costs and automated right‑sizing have reduced spend while reporting needs improvement

The best features Densify offers are actionable optimization recommendations, which tell you how to reduce costs while maintaining performance; the ML-powered predictive analytics feature, which considers historical patterns to provide recommendations; multi-cloud coverage for optimization across AWS, Azure, and GCP; and a solid balance between performance and cost. Out of those features, I find myself relying on actionable optimization recommendations and predictive analytics features the most because Densify goes one step beyond by providing recommendations considering historical patterns, especially for workloads that only spike during certain times of the month. Densify has positively impacted my organization by providing significant cost savings through right-sizing and eliminating inefficient resources, allowing faster decisions based on data, and reducing manual intervention for cloud operations, thus providing automation of basic cloud routines. I usually see a twenty-five to thirty percent cost saving in my customer's environment, and from a time-saving perspective, it has almost halved the time of the operations team.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Azure NetApp Files has been stable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its flexibility."

"We use Azure NetApp Files mainly for backup."

"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."

"You can change it non-disruptively. You can increase the size and decrease the size online, which is a huge benefit compared to Azure disks. It just works seamlessly. You don't need to stop the instances."

"I like the SnapMirror feature in Azure NetApp Files. It helps me create backups with snapshots and makes data recovery and compression."

"Azure NetApp Files gives our clients better options."

"It all depends on the requirement; if the customer is an enterprise customer wanting a disaster recovery solution without manual efforts to migrate or replicate data from one Azure region to another, then Azure NetApp Files is a seamless solution."

More Azure NetApp Files pros

"I would say that the initial thing is that it provides us with a technological basis to expand capacity management beyond Excel."

"Using the reports from Densify will provide us with the trusted advisor backing for our own purchase and provisioning decisions."

"The Densify Control Console, and Environment Status."

"Our team members are now spending more productive time on other priorities and are handling much more effective tasks."

"The tool will come back and tell us that we can operate with 1,000 minutes as an example, save 90% on the contractual rate and not run into any issues."

"One would be the automatic rebalancing of the environment. That was one feature which helped. With that, we could improve our efficiency of our VMware infrastructure."

"The Control Console is an incredible way to give a quick view of current capacity utilization allowing technical people to drill down quickly and allowing business/management people to get a quick overview of the environment."

"This product has provided us with a more comprehensive solution that is now replacing nearly all other tools which were previously used in the different platforms and environments within the account."

More Densify pros

Cons

"Reserved Instances for Azure NetApp Files would improve more use cases, making them more valuable in Azure as the cost would be reduced."

"The initial setup was not straightforward. We had help from the NetApp team."

"This solution is very expensive compared to the alternatives."

"The solution needs to improve it's ABS environment."

"In terms of improvement, I would say cost reservation; the cost is a bit high. If we compare Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files, I know that customers are using less of Azure NetApp due to the cost."

"It is about four times the cost of premium storage on Azure, so in order for us to use it, we'd have to be willing to increase our storage costs by four times."

"The pricing definitely needs to be improved."

"Features are being added to this product at a very slow pace, and they should be speeding that up and being a little more aggressive."

More Azure NetApp Files cons

"There are times when results are very slow when we search for servers."

"Service management level integration is probably the biggest area for improvement."

"Densify can be improved in a couple of areas: the learning curve for new users, where it feels like an advanced optimization tool that needs time for full leverage; enhancements in reporting and filter options for more detailed custom reports; and improvements in UI performance since some users feel that the UI is a bit slow or outdated, especially with certain interfaces such as the Kubex Console or the Cloud Decks."

"The solution's stability is the primary concern for me."

"Some parts of the interface are rather complex and require a bit of time to navigate, but this has never stopped us as a Densify advisor is readily available to help with our "how to" queries."

"Initially we talked about some custom reporting, wherein our customer expected certain reports on a few areas, like how the storage is allocated, how the network performance is doing, and how the network utilization is happening for a virtual machine."

"In terms of integration, the tool has great data. However, it's not always meaningful because the true business attributes of how most Fortune 500 companies operate are not maintaining in one tool, they're in a school of many tools."

"It seems that the mechanism for integration is, it goes so far but I think there could be some standard integration to normal remedy service now etc. I think that should be out of the box."

More Densify cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Azure NetApp Files could be better."

"The licensing fees for this solution vary, ranging from a single shelf to a full suite."

"NetApp is a premium offering, so it's not a cheap product, but it is well-priced. It combines a couple of properties which customers like us are willing to pay. Could it be cheaper? Yes, but if you combine fully supported, fully managed, easily provisioned, scalable, and quick all in one product, it's a good selling point. You can ask a lot of money for all these. If you have a use case like we do, it's a perfect match. It's like the Porsche of storage solutions in the cloud. It is totally worth the cost."

"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 pricing depends on your scaling and consumption."

"We are currently on a pay-as-you-go model with the storage that we use."

"It is expensive in small environments, which could be better. The reason is the four terabyte minimum. A one terabyte minimum would be better."

More Azure NetApp Files pricing and cost advice

"Setup cost is negligible, as it scales fairly well."

"Cost is always involved, but then I feel that this solution is better than other products that we have."

"Densify has licensing setup so you can collect data without licensing. It gives you the ability to collect on everything, then choose later what you would like to license."

"There was some sticker shock, as this is not just another software product to spit out graphs."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Educational Organization

Construction Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure NetApp Files?

On pricing, I would rate it around eight. It's highly priced, and there's no cost reservation option available compared to Azure Files. If NetApp could bring that kind of model for customers to sav...

What needs improvement with Azure NetApp Files?

What needs improvement with Densify?

Densify can be improved in a couple of areas: the learning curve for new users, where it feels like an advanced optimization tool that needs time for full leverage; enhancements in reporting and fi...

What is your primary use case for Densify?

My main use cases for Densify include cloud cost optimization, predictive resource sizing, assistance in multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, and reducing the manual analysis of the environme...

What advice do you have for others considering Densify?

My advice for others looking into using Densify is to focus on setting up governance policy early, integrate optimization results into your usual sprints, and train FinOps and engineering teams tog...

Amazon S3 vs Azure NetApp Files

Comparisons

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 7% of the time

Nasuni vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs Densify

Compared 6% of the time

PerfectScale vs Densify

Compared 6% of the time

CloudSphere vs Densify

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Service Delivery Manager vs Densify

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Azure NetApp Files

Download Azure NetApp Files product report

Download Densify product report

Also Known As

NetApp ANF, ANF

No data available

Overview

Azure NetApp Files offers flexibility, speed, and tight Active Directory integration, making it versatile. Its scalability, rapid response time, and replication capabilities like SnapMirror enhance its value, along with SEC compliance through SnapLock and efficient database management.

Azure NetApp Files is a robust service for unstructured data storage within Microsoft Azure and on-premises environments. It supports NFS and CIFS protocol testing, SQL backups, SAP virtualization, Azure Virtual Desktop, and event collection. This service facilitates seamless provisioning, non-disruptive resizing, and fast snapshots for disaster recovery. Known for high availability and cost-effective throughput, its ease of use and security make it preferred by users. Issues with high pricing and support highlight areas for enhancement, alongside desires for expanded regional availability, better security, and integration with diverse solutions.

What are the key features of Azure NetApp Files?

Flexibility: Supports diverse applications with robust Active Directory integration.
Scalability: Easily adjusts to increased performance demands.
Fast Snapshotting: Enhances disaster recovery capabilities.
SnapMirror: Provides effective replication features.
SnapLock: Ensures SEC compliance.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

High Availability: Delivers reliable performance.
Cost-effective Throughput: Balances performance with expenditure.
Ease of Use: Simplifies data management tasks.
Non-disruptive Resizing: Facilitates seamless storage adjustments.
Enhanced Security: Protects sensitive data effectively.

In educational contexts, Azure NetApp Files shines by offering seamless data handling and high IOPS performance, supporting high-demand environments like research facilities. For enterprises, it aids legacy system migrations and optimizes virtual environments while enhancing data protection and file share performance.

NetApp

Densify provides advanced cloud resource optimization, driving efficiency and performance for businesses. Leveraging AI and analytics, it ensures precise resource allocation.

Densify caters to the dynamic needs of businesses in optimizing their cloud environments. By integrating sophisticated analytics with AI-driven insights, Densify facilitates efficient resource management. It minimizes waste and enhances operational efficiency through continuous monitoring and real-time recommendations. The platform is tailored for enterprises looking to enhance cloud resource utilization and reduce costs without compromising on performance.

What are the essential features of Densify?

AI-Powered Analytics: Leverages machine learning to provide actionable insights.
Real-Time Monitoring: Continuously tracks resource usage for optimal efficiency.
Automated Recommendations: Suggests improvements to enhance performance and reduce costs.
Cloud-Specific Solutions: Tailored optimizations for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Integration Capabilities: Easily integrates with existing IT management systems.

What benefits can users expect from using Densify?

Cost Reduction: Optimizes resource allocation to decrease unnecessary spending.
Improved Efficiency: Enhances system performance by aligning resources with demand.
Scalability: Supports business growth by adjusting resource management strategies dynamically.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Densify is implemented to manage extensive data workloads efficiently, ensuring resources are aligned with organizational performance goals. It helps IT departments meet compliance requirements and maintain high throughput in data-sensitive sectors.

Sample Customers

SAP, Restaurant Magic

AIG, Bank of America, Cigna, Citi

Azure NetApp Files vs. Densify