Azure NetApp Files vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct comparison

The compared NetApp and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. NetApp is ranked #8 in CM , with an average rating of 7.3, and holds a 11.7% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #9 in SDS , with an average rating of 7.8, and holds a 7.3% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Azure NetApp Files

Read 17 Azure NetApp Files reviews

2,365 Views
828 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Microsoft Storage Spaces Di...

Read 11 Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct reviews

3,866 Views
1,430 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Azure NetApp Files

Microsoft Storage Spaces Di...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure NetApp Files and Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp, CTERA and others in Cloud Migration.

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Cloud Migration

October 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

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (8th), Cloud Storage (9th), Public Cloud Storage Services (11th)

Microsoft Storage Spaces Di...

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (9th)

Mindshare comparison

Azure NetApp Files and Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Azure NetApp Files is designed for Cloud Migration and holds a mindshare of 11.7%, down 15.3% compared to last year.
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined Storage (SDS), holds 7.3% mindshare, up 7.1% since last year.

Cloud Migration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Azure NetApp Files	11.7%
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP	11.9%
Nasuni	8.8%
Other	67.6%

Cloud Migration

Software Defined Storage (SDS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct	7.3%
Red Hat Ceph Storage	18.4%
DataCore SANsymphony	7.2%
Other	67.1%

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

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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Stanislaw Mielicki

Solution architect at Netland

Achieve cost-effectiveness with superior performance while needing to address cluster support

I am working with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct for applications, SQL, and VRS. I am an integrator for this solution The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct. They introduced the All-Flash array using SSD or NVMe drives without cache drives. It is…

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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

"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."

"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."

"Since we have NetApp's internally, we use the SnapMirror predominantly for this process in the cloud which is beneficial."

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

"One aspect of Azure NetApp Files that I truly appreciate is its remarkable performance capabilities."

"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."

More Azure NetApp Files pros

"The performance, reliability, and affordability has been most valuable."

"The most valuable feature are the caching capabilities using the storage class memory."

"The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The most valuable feature is that there is no single point of failure."

"The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct."

"The flash ability, in terms of tiering and caching, is amazing"

"Its technical support is excellent."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct 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."

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

"The pricing definitely needs to be improved."

"Its pricing can be better."

"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."

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

More Azure NetApp Files cons

"The management tool within this solution could be improved. We would also like to be able to access services like Azure when using this solution."

"I think the online documentation needs a lot of work and so do the sizing tools."

"It is difficult to get a hardware compatibility certification for the solution."

"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the customer service and technical support of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct a three, as there were issues that the Microsoft team could not pinpoint, leading to delays in finding solutions."

"There is a lot of room for improvement. I would like to have more tools to monitor the function and problems."

"More optimization could be done in terms of mirroring."

"Microsoft closed the shared cluster support, which is important for the solution."

"The integration is not difficult because there is no GUI, but we need to use a PowerShell command. This makes it difficult to monitor and to see the components' statuses."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

More Azure NetApp Files pricing and cost advice

"Cost-wise the product is one of the more affordable within the category of products."

"The solution is expensive."

"With the data center licensing and everything that is connected to that, this solution is relatively costly."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	13

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

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 ...

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

It is expensive, especially with NetApp Ultra Storage.

See all answers

How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is best suited for small- to medium-sized organizations. It is easy to create load bal...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

Overall, I find the cost of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct to be affordable for the on-prem Windows pure solution, but I find the Azure Local to be a bit expensive, especially due to hidden costs ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

Microsoft should improve the management aspect of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, as we have raised multiple recommendations but they often refer us to use Microsoft Arc instead of Windows Admin C...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 25% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 23% 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 7% of the time

More Azure NetApp Files Competitors

VMware vSAN vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 56% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 17% of the time

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 8% of the time

StarWind Virtual SAN vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 7% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files

October 2025

Download Azure NetApp Files product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

October 2025

Download Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct product report

Also Known As

NetApp ANF, ANF

MS Storage Spaces Direct

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

Storage Spaces Direct uses industry-standard servers with local-attached drives to create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage at a fraction of the cost of traditional SAN or NAS arrays. Its converged or hyper-converged architecture radically simplifies procurement and deployment, while features like caching, storage tiers, and erasure coding, together with the latest hardware innovation like RDMA networking and NVMe drives, deliver unrivaled efficiency and performance.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

SAP, Restaurant Magic

Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt

Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp, CTERA and others in Cloud Migration. Updated: October 2025.

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