Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

The compared Azure NetApp Files and NetApp ONTAP solutions aren't in the same category. Azure NetApp Files is ranked #8 in CM , with an average rating of 7.3, and holds a 14.0% mindshare in the category. NetApp ONTAP is ranked #1 in SS , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 41.4% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Azure NetApp Files users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of NetApp ONTAP users who would recommend it.

Azure NetApp Files

Read 17 Azure NetApp Files reviews

2,634 Views
948 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

NetApp ONTAP

Read 90 NetApp ONTAP reviews

1,146 Views
860 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Azure NetApp Files

NetApp ONTAP

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure NetApp Files and NetApp ONTAP based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Zerto acquired by HPE, Nasuni and others in Cloud Migration.

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Cloud Migration

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

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 (10th)

NetApp ONTAP

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Storage Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

Azure NetApp Files and NetApp ONTAP aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Azure NetApp Files is designed for Cloud Migration and holds a mindshare of 14.0%, down 17.1% compared to last year.
NetApp ONTAP, on the other hand, focuses on Storage Software, holds 41.4% mindshare, down 44.6% since last year.

Cloud Migration

Storage Software

Q&A Highlights

Netanya Carmi

Content Manager at PeerSpot

Nov 01, 2021

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 the cloud. Azure NetApp Files provides high-performance computing at high-speed and is SAP and HIPAA certified. Azure NetApp Files helps for cloud-based workloads that need low latency and high performance. When you need to access a large volume of data, other features we like are its elasticity and the support for multiple protocols. One downside of Azure NetApp Files is that it is not available in the Azure Free tier. Also, it is relatively more expensive than other Azure options like file storage. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is an enterprise-level storage management solution. NetApp gives you not only storage management but data protection too. NetApp ONTAP supports multiple use cases, like block-level storage serving NAS and SAN, backup, archive, DevOps, databases, and disaster recovery. We like having the same consistent storage experience on Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Other features we like from ONTAP are the dynamic mapping of storage devices and the central management of storage components. The solution provides compression and deduplication. NetApp Cloud Volumes enables our administrators to design, configure, and deploy storage in a hybrid cloud environment. You can also scale the issues easily. Integration with third-party tools is limited, though. Migrating storage workloads between cloud service providers can also be a hassle. From the three major providers, its integration with AWS is the best. The documentation is a bit poor. You can not manage storage across hybrid and multiple cloud environments. ONTAP is more suited for organizations with large storage volumes or that need high performance for their cloud environment. Conclusions It will depend on the use case. Cloud Volumes ONTAP is specifically designed to manage large storage volumes. If you can afford the extra cost, Azure NetApp Files can provide a more comprehensive solution for smaller organizations.

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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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Naveen Radhwani

Head IT at TO THE NEW Digital

Provides good performance, stability, and complete data security

Our upcoming investments would be prioritized around a hybrid cloud solution because we ourselves promote the cloud in the market. We are the premium service provider for AWS, so we have that inclination toward cloud computing. From the experience that we had during the pandemic, we are looking for some kind of hybrid solution for our environment. NetApp should focus on a hybrid cloud solution because none of the media houses are opting for cloud storage. The files are quite heavy, and it becomes quite difficult to maintain them on the cloud. If NetApp can provide such technology and fill the gap of storing media files in the cloud, it would give them an advantage.

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 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."

"Using NetApp Files got us out of a really difficult situation quickly, effectively, and at a reasonable cost."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

More Azure NetApp Files pros

"Snapshot and SnapMirror technologies make it easier to replicate data to disaster recovery scenarios."

"Deduplication, data protection, and NetApp block are some of the valuable features of the product."

"It's very fast, NetApp is always dependable, so if we have an issue, they're very responsive."

"One of the things I find most valuable is the way they do the Snapshots, taking incrementals at points in time... Often someone will say, "Hey, I deleted this thing yesterday, can you get this back for me?" It's good that we have all those incremental Snapshots at different points in time that we can refer back to, to get them whatever they need."

"From a storage standpoint, NetApp is the number one partner and the number one equipment manufacturer."

"Previously we didn't have DR, but ever since we purchased the NetApp server, we are able to use Snap Mirror and then create DR scenarios, so that's been a huge benefit. This solution has helped reduce the overall cost of storage space in our organization by allowing us to use one data center, instead of two, and then allowing us to replicate the data; so that saves us money to buy more storage. We have been able to save space by using this solution."

"Their SAN storage is great."

"You can add storage capacity on the fly with Clustered ONTAP. You can add nodes and increase the entire horsepower of ONTAP."

More NetApp ONTAP pros

Cons

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

"Its pricing can be better."

"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 pricing definitely needs to be improved."

"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."

"We were looking for a clustered solution that has over-complicated things because we had it in AWS, which is Amazon. There was a solution for clustered NetApp. That meant there would be two NetApps that were not clustered because there was no solution for a cluster. We would like there to be an HA cluster solution."

"We would like for the files which are coming in that we can version them. So, if a file is accidentally deleted, there should have a recycle bin option where we can go back, and at least once, clean it up."

More Azure NetApp Files cons

"The older UI is not ideal."

"They could also improve on their ability to back up storage."

"The only thing that they have to improve in NetApp is that they're still relying on padding each node in active/active in CDOT. That has to go away. They should look at the scalability on a platform level. The computer will have that one file system with multiple nodes on it. If even one node fails, any node in that cluster could take over the functionalities. But today, it absolutely relies on that active-active uncoupling it. That needs to be improved in such a way that it would be one namespace. If this node goes down, any node in the cluster should take over and run that environment."

"It is not as good as we need from a performance perspective. At the moment, we are always running out of CPU on the controllers, even the high-end solutions."

"NetApp should focus on a hybrid cloud solution because none of the media houses are opting for cloud storage. The files are quite heavy, and it becomes quite difficult to maintain them on the cloud. If NetApp can provide such a technology and fill the gap of storing media files onto the cloud, it would give them an advantage."

"Technical support is hit or miss sometimes. Level 1 support is not very good. Level 2 and Level 3 (the escalation support) are very good. They are knowledgeable people, but sometimes you get some hiccup in the Level 1 support. After you pass Level 1, it is smooth sailing. There is a lot of room for improvement."

"Because most of us were new to the product, the initial setup was a bit cumbersome. Once we were trained, it was fine."

"It would be nice if they make it so that one can operate the console without the need for interface-related comments."

More NetApp ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The pricing depends on your scaling and consumption."

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

"The performance has improved by about 30 percent."

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

"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."

"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."

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

More Azure NetApp Files pricing and cost advice

"NetApp ONTAP is moderately priced."

"The price point is very competitive and inexpensive compared to what you receive from other vendors in the market."

"While it is going to cost a lot of money, their technologies is worth it."

"We save a lot because of the deduplication and compression."

"This solution helped our organization reduce our overall cost of storage. Because idle data which was residing on high cost tiers, once we sifted the ONTAP, we were able to scale and place it where it should be, then offload the data which was unnecessary to different locations."

"Because of its manageability, we have fewer people managing it."

"Additional costs exist if you want a license for a feature like SnapMirror."

"ONTAP has helped our organization reduce its overall cost of storage (somewhere in the high millions)."

More NetApp ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

23%

Computer Software Company

14%

Transportation Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Azure NetApp Files compare to NetApp ONTAP?

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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

What do you like most about NetApp ONTAP?

We do not face any glitches or downtime.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp ONTAP?

The pricing is high. That said, we received favorable pricing at Intel due to the company's large NetApp ONTAP deployment across different organizations. While we're not in the IT department (we're...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp ONTAP?

They could expand what is possible to do with automation as there are gaps in the Ansible module coverage they have. There is certain functionality that NetApp ONTAP offers that these modules are i...

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

IBM Turbonomic vs Azure NetApp Files

Compared 2% of the time

More Azure NetApp Files Competitors

DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 41% of the time

Dell PowerPath vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 32% of the time

StorONE Storage-as-a-Service vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 10% of the time

More NetApp ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure NetApp Files

August 2025

Download Azure NetApp Files product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp ONTAP

August 2025

Download NetApp ONTAP 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

NetApp is the data authority for hybrid cloud. We provide a full range of hybrid cloud data services that simplify management of applications and data across cloud and on-premises environments to accelerate digital transformation. Together with our partners, we empower global organizations to unleash the full potential of their data to expand customer touchpoints, foster greater innovation and optimize their operations.

NetApp

Sample Customers

SAP, Restaurant Magic

1&1 IONOS, Acıbadem Healthcare Group, Adder Technologies, Aero Vodochody Aerospace

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Zerto acquired by HPE, Nasuni and others in Cloud Migration. Updated: July 2025.

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