Azure NetApp Files vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline comparison

Azure NetApp Files vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

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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

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (7th), Cloud Storage (8th)

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Azure NetApp Files is 7.7%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 10.3%, up from 5.7% 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.

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AmitKumar36

Solution Architect at HCL Technologies

Flexible, seamless, and scalable document storage with AI and analytics integration, providing reliable support

The solution is very flexible in terms of scalability. It is an online service, so we can scale it anytime with some pre-planning. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. As for the users using this solution in our organization, that varies according to what time of the day and what day it is, but it goes around 2,000 to 3,000 users. The maximum is about 3,000. On average, it stays somewhere between 2,000 and 1,800.

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 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."

"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."

"This solution definitely makes us more efficient in being able to provide storage quickly to our customers in the Azure Cloud."

"Azure NetApp Files has been stable."

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

"Its security and ease of use are most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is that the sixty-terabyte database snapshot can be done in less than two to three minutes."

"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."

More Azure NetApp Files pros

"The data structure and the types of data that are supported are very good."

"Nearline is highly stable."

"The capacity and space on offer are excellent."

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

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

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

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

"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."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline pros

Cons

"I don’t like the solution’s configuration and support."

"We would like to see more paired regions for the replication."

"Azure NetApp Files is expensive."

"Azure NetApp Files could improve by being more diverse to integrate better with other solutions, such as Splunk and the on-premise version. There are some use cases that are not covered natively by Azure. It is not the best solution because it is not external from the cloud which for me is the best type of solution."

"The pricing definitely needs to be improved."

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

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

"Its pricing can be better."

More Azure NetApp Files cons

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

"The solution needs to offer better System Information and Event Management (SEIM). I'd like to discover how we could implement something like that within Google's cloud."

"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 pricing is quite high."

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

"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."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

"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 pricing depends on your scaling and consumption."

"Our pricing has not been determined because we are still waiting on additional features."

"In the cloud, pricing depends on how you manage it. It's not necessarily cheap, but it's all about optimizing charges and showing the cost back. So, it's more about managing the expenses rather than being inherently expensive or cheap."

"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 price of Azure NetApp Files could be better."

More Azure NetApp Files pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

17%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

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 ...

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 ...

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

It is expensive, especially with NetApp Ultra Storage.

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.

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.

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.

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Azure NetApp Files

Comparisons

Compared 36% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 30% of the time

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon FSx vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 7% of the time

Nasuni vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 7% of the time

More Azure NetApp Files Competitors

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Compared 97% of the time

Amazon S3 vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Compared 3% of the time

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline Competitors

Product Reports

Azure NetApp Files

Download Azure NetApp Files product report

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

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

Azure NetApp Files vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline