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

837 Views
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 scalability of the solution is good."

"It provides secure cloud storage."

"The ability to increase and scale out is really easy."

"Storing and then retrieving data are the most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Block Storage."

"The initial setup is very simple and straightforward."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage has the same features as other solutions, but I like that its implementation process is straightforward."

"We use Microsoft Azure Block Storage to store, upload and download data. We can also use it as a backup."

"The price is decent. I rate Azure Block Storage eight out of 10 for affordability."

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

"We don't delete the other tools from the folder directly. There's no folder deletion option in Azure Block Storage. It would be nice if they could update this."

"I encountered a challenge where certain metadata was located on a secured network that could only be accessed through a VPN. As there was no direct connector available to reach the private networks that require VPN access, we had to rely on manual effort to access the data. This could potentially be addressed as an area of improvement, especially with regard to accessibility issues where data is only accessible through a VPN connection."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage could improve the SFTP. The SFTP can be used for exchanging data between two parties and it works but Microsoft is new to this market and they could be a lot better in this area with its features."

"The performance could be improved, but all the services in the cloud are improved every week."

"We cannot properly check the daily cost in the Azure portal."

"Support is an area where improvements can be made, particularly in response time for enterprise support."

"The initial setup isn’t straightforward, whether on-premise or on the cloud. It involves considerable planning and dependencies, unlike conventional systems where a straightforward CIFS connection might suffice."

"Customer support could be improved, it can be difficult getting appropriate support."

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage cons

"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."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is an expensive solution and I pay monthly."

"I use Microsoft Azure Block Storage's free version."

"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a pretty cheap and affordable product, so we have not seen any budget issues related to the solution in our company."

"I would rate the solution’s pricing a nine out of ten and it’s cheaper than Amazon S3."

"The product is costlier than Amazon S3."

"The solution is pay as you go, so it depends on the amount of data that is stored and the transactions."

"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."

"The solution is affordable, and we only pay for what we use."

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

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Compared 27% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Compared 13% of the time

Rackspace Cloud Block Storage vs Microsoft Azure Block Storage

Compared 13% of the time

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

More Microsoft Azure Block Storage Competitors

Amazon FSx vs NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud

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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