Azure NetApp Files vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline comparison

NetApp and Google are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. NetApp is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.3, while Google is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.5. NetApp holds a 7.9% mindshare in PCSS, compared to Google’s 9.6% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Azure NetApp Files

Read 17 Azure NetApp Files reviews

2,634 Views
1,738 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Read 10 Google Cloud Storage Nearline reviews

1,627 Views
1,611 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Azure NetApp Files

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Google Cloud Storage Nearline and Azure NetApp Files compete in the storage solutions category. Azure NetApp Files showcases superior features valued by users, making it worth the higher price.

Features: Google Cloud Storage Nearline features low latency, integration with Google Cloud services, and cost-effectiveness. Azure NetApp Files offers high performance, scalability, and support for multiple protocols.

Room for Improvement: Google Cloud Storage Nearline could improve accessibility, security features, and integration with non-Google services. Azure NetApp Files needs better documentation, a simpler setup process, and improved user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Google Cloud Storage Nearline deployment is straightforward, with responsive customer support. Azure NetApp Files deployment can be complex but is supported well by Microsoft's customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Google Cloud Storage Nearline is recommended for its low setup costs and good ROI for less critical data. Azure NetApp Files has higher setup costs but offers better ROI for enterprises needing robust performance and advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure NetApp Files vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

July 2025

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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 Public Cloud Storage Services

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (8th), Cloud Storage (9th)

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Azure NetApp Files is 7.9%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 9.6%, up from 6.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

AjayKumar13

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.

Read full review

Victor Oladejo

Data Engineer at Electronics Collections Group

A reliable solution for long-term data storage with room for improvement regarding its cost efficiency

The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency. Currently, Google Cloud Storage Nearline charges a minimum of thirty days for data access. I propose a more flexible approach. Instead of a fixed thirty-day minimum charge, there could be a programmatic adjustment based on data access patterns. For instance, if Google Cloud notices that certain data is no longer frequently accessed, they could automatically adjust the billing. When data isn't actively used, the charges for access to that data should decrease. This approach would ensure that users are billed fairly for the actual access they require, especially when data access patterns vary over time.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"It has saved a lot of time. Because in the older, conventional hardware system, they need to raise a ticket to go to storage engineering, then storage engineering would increased the size. Now, it's dynamic. You don't have to do anything. This improved the time by more than 50 percent."

"Azure NetApp Files has been stable."

"It's elastic, so it scales with our demands. We can start small, then with the addition of customer loads, we can expand on-the-fly without the need to reprovision something."

"The critical features of this solution are SnapMirror for replication, data protection, and SnapLock."

More Azure NetApp Files pros

"Google is always introducing new features and tends to have a new release every month."

"It provides the necessary support and flexibility to manage data storage effectively, especially during times of variable data flow."

"It can isolate files and stop them from corrupting other files."

"The most valuable feature of Nearline is the access. It's helpful to move data that is generated once a month, such as salary information, to Nearline."

"The best part of Nearline storage is the ability to take backups at optimal costs and its availability across multiple regions."

"The capacity and space on offer are excellent."

"The most valuable aspect of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is its integration with the wider Google Cloud ecosystem."

"I find the flexibility in storing documents or data and the ease of retrieval valuable with this solution."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline pros

Cons

"The deployment process is somewhat complex compared to other storage solutions."

"This solution would be improved with more innovation."

"I would like to see multi-zone redundancy so that I don't have to worry about it. I just back up my data to that one SMB share and I know that it's replicated to a different region."

"The main area for improvement is in the support ticket system. Since it's a SaaS platform, support tickets are managed by Microsoft or NetApp backend. This can sometimes lead to cross-functional challenges for organizations."

"The main hurdle in promoting this solution is the price. Its price definitely requires an improvement. It is more expensive than other options, so customers go for a cheaper option."

"I have a hunch that storage could be now the most expensive portion of our monthly bill. So I can imagine that, not this year, but next year we will be talking about looking deeper into ways how we can optimize the cost."

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

"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."

More Azure NetApp Files cons

"From a storage standpoint, it would be beneficial if the retrieval cost could be optimized, as it is comparatively higher than storage costs in Nearline."

"They need a better, more visual, user interface for folders and files."

"Nearline security could be better. The solution could integrate better with SEIM tools."

"One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly."

"The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency."

"They should provide more options or flexibility in terms of pricing."

"One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly."

"The interface for managing file storage in the buckets could be improved."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

"It is expensive, especially with NetApp Ultra Storage."

"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."

"The performance has improved by about 30 percent."

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

"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

"Google Cloud Storage Nearline is very inexpensive. It costs us less than $50 a month to store our files. We use approximately 10 terabytes. Overall, I would rate the product a five out of five for affordability."

"Right now, for the number of servers and the storage that I have, I would say I'm charged between $125 and $150 per month."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

17%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 ...

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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 ...

See all answers

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

It is expensive, especially with NetApp Ultra Storage.

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

The most valuable feature of Nearline is the access. It's helpful to move data that is generated once a month, such as salary information, to Nearline.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

The storage and access cost of Nearline are considered optimal compared to other cloud storage solutions, although I lack a clear view of other cloud storage costs.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

From a storage standpoint, it would be beneficial if the retrieval cost could be optimized, as it is comparatively higher than storage costs in Nearline.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 31% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 27% of the time

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 7% of the time

Nasuni vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon FSx vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 6% of the time

More Azure NetApp Files Competitors

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Compared 94% of the time

Amazon S3 vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Compared 6% of the time

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files

August 2025

Download Azure NetApp Files product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

August 2025

Download Google Cloud Storage Nearline product report

Also Known As

NetApp ANF, ANF

No data available

Overview

Azure NetApp Files is designed for unstructured data, virtualized SAP systems, SQL backups, NFS and CIFS protocols, Azure Virtual Desktop storage, and optimizing file share services. It supports high performance and networking integration in Microsoft Azure.

Azure NetApp Files offers features such as SnapMirror for data protection, rapid provisioning, elastic scaling, and ultra-fast SQL backup and restore. It provides a seamless experience with fast snapshotting, high availability, security, and ease of setup. Users benefit from significant performance improvements and the ability to manage substantial workload migrations effortlessly. This service is ideal for environments like Azure Kubernetes Service and cloud EPM platforms, where speed, flexibility, and performance are crucial.

What are the key features?

Flexibility: Adaptable to diverse storage needs.
Rapid response time: Ensures quick data access and operations.
SnapMirror: Provides replication and data protection.
SEC compliance: SnapLock ensures regulatory adherence.
Ultra-fast SQL backup: Quicker backup and restore operations.
Elastic scaling: Easily adjusts resources based on demand.
Fast snapshotting: Enables quick data snapshots.
High availability: Ensures consistent data access.
Security: Robust measures for data protection.

What are the expected benefits and ROI?

Performance: Notable improvement in processing speeds.
Simplicity of setup: Easy deployment and configuration.
Scalable management: Handles significant workload migrations with ease.
Cost efficiency: Allows comparing throughput versus cost effectively.

Azure NetApp Files is implemented in various industries requiring robust file storage solutions, from educational environments where performance boosts are critical to businesses leveraging Azure Kubernetes Service for containerized applications. It supports high-demand environments, optimizing data management and improving efficiency.

NetApp

A low-cost, highly-durable and highly available storage service for infrequently accessed data, data archiving, online backup and disaster recovery. Data is available instantly, not within hours or days. With sub-second average response times and 1 cent per GB/month pricing, Cloud Storage Nearline gives you terrific performance at a low cost.

Google

Sample Customers

SAP, Restaurant Magic

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

July 2025

Free Report: Azure NetApp Files vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

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