Microsoft Azure Block Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud comparison

Microsoft and NetApp are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Microsoft is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.4, while NetApp is ranked #19. Microsoft holds a 1.9% mindshare in PCSS, compared to NetApp’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Read 67 Microsoft Azure Block Storage reviews

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502 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes Servic...

Read 3 NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud reviews

530 Views
239 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

NetApp Cloud Volumes Servic...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Microsoft Azure Block Storage and NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud are leading cloud storage solutions. While Azure is often recognized for its cost and support, NetApp's robust feature set can justify its higher price point.

Features: User reviews highlight Azure's durability, seamless integration with other Microsoft services, and cost-effectiveness. NetApp, on the other hand, stands out for its superior performance, advanced snapshot capabilities, and support for multiple protocols, which are essential for enterprise tasks.

Room for Improvement: Users indicate Azure could benefit from enhanced scalability, more flexible data migration options, and better performance consistency under heavy loads. NetApp users suggest improvements in ease of use, more competitive pricing, and better customer support documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure is frequently praised for its straightforward deployment process and robust customer service. NetApp also receives positive feedback for its deployment experience but lags slightly behind in customer service responsiveness compared to Azure.

Pricing and ROI: Reviewers find Azure's initial setup cost reasonable with a good return on investment over time. NetApp's higher setup cost is noted, with users recognizing its long-term value due to superior performance. Azure is seen as more cost-effective in the short term, whereas NetApp is appreciated for its long-term ROI for high-performance capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Block Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Block Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

December 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

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp Cloud Volumes Servic...

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

19th

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (26th), Cloud Storage (18th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is 1.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Block Storage	1.9%
NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud	1.4%
Other	96.7%

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Ajai Jayakumar

Solution Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Has supported secure file sharing and data automation with minimal setup effort

The encryption feature in Microsoft Azure Block Storage is very good, and the security is excellent. It is easy to map the storage to the virtual servers and user desktops, which is also very beneficial. I can perform automations on the data, such as moving hot data and cold data, and I can select storage based on performance. The security provided by Microsoft around Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a very good function. The replication feature in Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a very good function. The analytic capabilities of Microsoft Azure Block Storage can help optimize resources. I usually work with a third-party tool; our data analytics team uses some custom-made tools for analytics data and dashboards, so we do not use the Microsoft dashboard; we are using a third-party dashboard. It is very easy to manage Microsoft Azure Block Storage. If you have good knowledge of it, it is very easy to manage. Microsoft Azure Block Storage service is a very good, 100% reliable service. It is highly scalable, and performance-wise and reliability-wise, it does not go down. It provides 99.9% uptime without downtime, so it is a very good feature. The backup and restoration efficiency of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is good.

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Colin Constable

Co-Founder at Atsign

Enables us to fine-tune storage and capacity on the fly as our needs grow or shrink over time

NetApp delivers High Availability. It's critical to our work. That was the main driver for using NetApp. We have a highly resilient service and if you have a highly resilient service, you are only as resilient as the least resilient part of your infrastructure. That's what we were having trouble with our file system before. It was becoming troublesome, so we needed to find something that was much more highly resilient so that's why we moved to NetApp. The complexity of moving large numbers of files to the cloud depends on what you're trying to do. But for us, it was really simple. I imagine for large enterprise customers it is probably pretty tricky. They're probably on all different technologies inside a large corporation and they may or may not have very large pipes going to them. So if you're in a data center to the cloud then it's going to be easy, but if you have hundreds of branches like if you're a bank and have lots of branch banks, they might have very small pipes out to the internet. It might take forever. In our use case everything's brand new files, so it was pretty trivial. We didn't migrate to the cloud, we were already on the cloud, so it was a nonissue for us. NetApp enables us to share data across VMs. It actually reduced the amount of data storage we need. We were having to have storage attached to each VM. And now we can aggregate that storage across multiple VMs, so that actually gave us a net reduction, which was a good thing. We switched from using block storage to file storage to share data between our VMs. It made it easier, frankly but I worry about the scalability in the future. For the moment it made life easier. We were using block and then we moved back to file with NetApp.

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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

"The most valuable features of this solution are the ease with which you connect and use it."

"We use the solution to develop SaaS platforms on Azure. We utilize various Microsoft components like block storage and databases for this purpose."

"I like the product’s versioning and file share features. The file share feature is most useful when we are connecting on-premises services. Azure file share helps to migrate small data amounts from on-premises to the cloud."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is its performance."

"The most valuable part of Microsoft Azure is its scalability and availability, which make it easy to work with."

"It has capabilities such as versioning and, from a security point of view, you can also back it up."

"The solution is stable."

"I am quite happy with it. I would definitely recommend Azure Block Storage to other users."

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage pros

"High availability is very important to us because we have a production environment. High availability is the highest priority for us to continue keeping our systems running."

"In terms of its storage snapshot efficiencies, the service is highly efficient. We are only doing things in small batches right now because we have not converted all of the data, but we have tested them in the Google Cloud and they work efficiently."

"Storage was taking up maybe 10 to 20% of my life at the startup, and now it takes up zero. I was personally running all the infrastructure for the company. Now that we've moved to NetApp, I don't have to worry about making sure it's up and running. It's made my life personally much better."

Cons

"The tool could be cheaper."

"I have used Amazon's solutions which are better than Microsoft's. However, since I have predominately Microsoft solutions it is a better choice for me to use another Microsoft solution."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage should improve its stability."

"It depends on the level of support from Microsoft; if you are looking for basic support, sometimes you will not get the best support."

"We have not had the best experience with customer service and support."

"The security is poor, and the sharing model is confusing, conceptually. I'd prefer not to use it. I'd like a user-friendly web interface and a better security model."

"They could create more readability of files."

"It should be easier to deploy."

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage cons

"It would help if they increased the area in which they employ artificial intelligence, by starting to do assessments on the environments, to project those. They're not using any AI tools, currently, on the administrative side."

"I would like for the sales team to get in contact more often and let me know what I should be doing next, what we should be doing about new features. So it would be nice if I heard a little bit more from him. From a technology perspective, I have no complaints."

"The user interface has room for improvement. We would like this service to be more integrated with Azure, which is very easy to manage and use. It was easy to create volumes and add capacity pools in Azure, but in Google Cloud, we can only create separate volumes. We need more management or configuration options in the user interface."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of pricing, Azure is quite cheaper than AWS. However, I have recently read that Oracle Cloud Generation 2 storage is quite cheaper than Azure. I haven't used it yet. We need to look at a customer's requirements, and, based on that, we can suggest the storage. You can save at least 20% with Azure as compared to AWS, which is quite costly."

"The price of Microsoft Azure Block Storage is less expensive than other solutions on the market, such as Cloud Storage from GCP."

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

"The price could be more flexible, and it can be expensive."

"I would rate the pricing as five out of ten."

"Azure Block Storage is higher priced than its competitors."

"For the first 50DB, they cost around $50. It's an open solution for everybody. Anybody can go to the Microsoft website and they can get the pricing for it. But the first 50GB of data is a default rate and then it increases for the next 500GB or something like that. It is a pay as you go solution. The more you use, the more you pay. That's normally how you pay for any cloud solutions."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is not an expensive tool. I'm subscribed to the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program, so Microsoft gives me between $120 to $150 credit each month."

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage pricing and cost advice

"We don't need so much space, and there is no option to pay as we go or use just what we need. Also, the only way to increase performance is by increasing the level of the service."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Performing Arts

11%

Non Tech Company

Computer Software Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	24

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Block Storage?

We use the solution to develop SaaS platforms on Azure. We utilize various Microsoft components like block storage and databases for this purpose.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Block Storage?

Our experience with pricing has been positive. The budget for Microsoft Azure services has been within expectations for the last couple of months. The cost for Azure Data Factory ( /products/azure-...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Block Storage?

For improvement in Microsoft Azure Block Storage, they can provide tiered level storages, maybe low-cost storages for storing archive data, but it is already there. I do not think there is much to ...

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Comparisons

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Compared 27% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Compared 13% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 21% of the time

Dropbox Business - Enterprise vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 18% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 17% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

Compared 15% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Block Storage

January 2026

Download Microsoft Azure Block Storage product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

January 2026

NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud report

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud product report

Also Known As

MS Azure Block Storage

CVS for Google Cloud, NetApp CVS for Google Cloud, Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud, Cloud Volumes Service for GCP, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for GCP

Overview

Massively scalable cloud storage for your applications

Store and help protect your data. Get durable, highly available data storage across the globe and pay only for what you use.

Microsoft

NetApp^® Cloud Volumes for Google Cloud is a fully managed or self-managed file service that is integrated into Google Cloud with the multiprotocol support, performance, and availability required to run business-critical applications. It is designed to provide massively parallel shared access to thousands of Google Compute Engine and Google Kubernetes Engine instances, enabling your applications to achieve high levels of aggregate throughput and IOPS with consistent low latencies.

Use cases. Customers can use the service to migrate existing enterprise applications to Google Cloud. Other use cases include hybrid deployments, multicloud mobility, big data analytics, web serving and content management, application development and testing, media and entertainment workflows, database backups, container storage, and more.

Features. Multiple performance tiers, standard file interfaces, advanced data management, metered service, fully managed service, native service experience, integrated support, and integrated billing.

For more information:

NetApp: https://cloud.netapp.com/cloud-volumes-service-for-gcp

Google: https://cloud.google.com/netapp

NetApp

Sample Customers

Mazda, BlinkBox, Rakuten Showtime, Xbox One, Serko, ChronoDrive

Atos, Bandwidth, Wuxi NextCode

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Block Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

December 2025

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