Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

Microsoft and NetApp are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Microsoft is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.8, while NetApp is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0. Microsoft holds a 1.9% mindshare in PCSS, compared to NetApp’s 7.4% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure Object Storage

Read 52 Microsoft Azure Object Storage reviews

470 Views
319 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Read 62 NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP reviews

2,128 Views
701 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Object Storage

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Both Microsoft Azure Object Storage and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP are prominent cloud storage solutions. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced data management features, despite higher costs.

Features: Microsoft Azure Object Storage is noted for reliability, scalability, and ease of integration with Azure services. It has a variety of storage options and seamless API integration. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is recognized for its advanced data management features, integration with multiple cloud providers, and powerful data protection capabilities. It includes features like Snapshot, FlexClone, and Data Tiering.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure Object Storage users suggest enhancements in performance during peak times, better security features, and improved cost optimization tools. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP users call for a simpler setup process, better documentation, and enhanced education resources.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure Object Storage users generally find the deployment process straightforward and appreciate the extensive support resources available. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP users experience a steeper learning curve during deployment and express a need for more intuitive guidance. However, they value the robust customer support provided by NetApp.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure Object Storage is considered cost-effective, with good ROI due to its pay-as-you-go pricing model and efficient resource use. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, though more expensive upfront, offers high ROI through its advanced features and data management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

June 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 Object Storage

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

6th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (1st), Cloud Storage (2nd), Cloud Backup (14th), Cloud Software Defined Storage (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Object Storage is 1.9%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is 7.4%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Akram Zabat

Consultant - Architecture Solution at Onepoint

Provides versatile data storage solutions with a simple setup and easy to use

It's similar to S3 for AWS. The ability to store everything inside Blob or Object storage and use it for archiving data is beneficial. For example, you can transform data from relational databases, flatten it, and store it in Object storage to save space within the databases. If I want to save data and do not require legacy access, it's a good solution, for instance, to migrate archives from databases to Object storage. This can also be used for business intelligence purposes. Having a storage solution for data makes it the best place to store it. Azure has its own solution for StatsQ Web Apps.

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Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Allows customers to manage SAN and NAS data within a single storage solution

The tool's most valuable features are the SnapLock and SnapMirror features. If something goes wrong with the data, we can restore it. This isn't a mirror; we store data in different locations. If there's an issue on the primary site, we can retrieve data from the secondary site. Multiprotocol support in NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is beneficial because it allows customers to manage SAN and NAS data within a single storage solution. This feature eliminates the need to purchase different types of storage.

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 tool's maintenance is not complex."

"I appreciate the scalability of this solution; it is fully scalable and excellent for certain tasks."

"The file retention and object retention have been most valuable."

"The reason is that I believe they only offer the corporate interface we use, and perhaps they should consider creating a historical customer interface. I haven't created a virtual machine; instead, I've established a personal GED. This allows me to provide customers with the necessary role functions, enabling them to download files without incurring excessive costs."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the tool's price since it is not expensive."

"The most valuable feature is the API because it is very flexible."

"The solution offers good documentation."

"We can easily create a storage layer in any system."

More Microsoft Azure Object Storage pros

"There is unified storage, which provides flexibility. It is set up perfectly for performance and provisioning. We are able to monitor everything using a separate application. It provides error and critical warnings that allow us to take immediate action through ONTAP. We are able to manage everything, log a case, and follow up with the support team, who can fix it. That is how it is unified."

"Its functionality and technical support are adequate to help prevent failure due to errors."

"The solution’s unified file and block-storage access across our infrastructure is invaluable. Without it, we can't do what we do."

"The ease of use in terms of how the product works is valuable. We are able to work with it and deploy the storage that we need."

"If anything happens, their technical support will come onsite and fix it."

"It is much easier to control data since we can run queries across all our platforms with just one solution. Not only that, we can also monitor all the platforms with Active IQ, where we can see all the alerts, messages, and space consumption through a single application. This is regardless if the data is on-prem or AWS. It is much more efficient."

"It gives a solution for storage one place to go across everything. So, the customer is very familiar with NetApp on-prem. It allows them to gain access to the file piece. It helps them with the training aspect of it, so they don't have to relearn something new. They already know this product. They just have to learn some widgets or what it's like in the cloud to operate and deploy it in different ways."

"It's very easy to set up, and within 40 minutes, you can apply storage notes in Azure."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pros

Cons

"They could improve AI and ML-based modules. They should add more modules based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Pricing is a little bit tricky with Microsoft Azure. They do provide the estimates, but it is not easy to guess the exact amount that we will be billed after a month or two because it is based on usage. This is a little confusing."

"Microsoft Azure Object Storage needs to improve stability and cloud user interface."

"Technical support should be faster at resolving issues for tickets that we create."

"Object Storage's integration with other backup software could be improved."

"The tool doesn't offer Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft AI."

"The solution needs to improve the custom domain integration with static web pages. Even though Blog Storage is providing the static content hosting feature, due to the custom domain availability, the integration is not available. In most cases, we withdraw from that service and use our app service to host our static data feeds."

"If we look at the different versions of that ADLS, it really does not have a hierarchical storage mechanism."

"Microsoft Azure Object Storage has had a number of failures last week due to the lack of hardware available to support the resources. However, it was only for a short time, approximately two days."

More Microsoft Azure Object Storage cons

"Multipathing for iSCSI LUNs is difficult to deal with from the client-side and I'd love to see a single entry point that can be moved around within the cluster to simplify the client configuration."

"In terms of improvement, I would like to see the Azure NetApp Files have the capability of doing SnapMirrors. Azure NetApp Files is, as we know, is an AFF system and it's not used in any of the Microsoft resources. It's basically NetApp hardware, so the best performance you can achieve, but the only reason we can't use that right now is because of the region that it's available in. The second was the SnapMirror capability that we didn't have that we heavily rely on right now."

"I would like to see more aggressive management of the aggregate space. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP that we use for offsite backup copies, most of the data sits in S3. There are also the EBS volumes on the Cloud Volumes ONTAP itself. Sometimes what happens is that the aggregate size just stays the same. If it allocates 8 terabytes initially, it just stays at 8 terabytes for a long time, even though we're only using 20 percent of that 8 terabytes. NetApp could undersize that more aggressively."

"The navigation on some of the configuration parameters is a bit cumbersome, making the learning curve on functions somewhat steep."

"The cost needs improvement."

"There is room for improvement in tier one support, especially with potential language barriers and communication challenges."

"Only AWS and Azure public clouds are currently available from China, and I would like to see support for Aliyun (Alibaba Cloud)."

"I would like to see better integration with Active IQ."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think we pay per bit as per usage. There is a billing pattern for the subscription, and we get a monthly bill. I've seen that happen over there. I haven't seen any fixed costs. It always depends on what we're using and how much the servers are running. The breakdown appears on the bill."

"The solution's cost is on a pay-per-use basis."

"It has a pay-as-you-go model. So, you are only paying for what you store. It's an attractive model. You don't pay for a set; you pay for what you actually use."

"The tool's licensing costs are annual. It should be made reasonable."

"The tool has a pay-per-use pricing model...There is no need to pay extra money for the licensing costs since the price is based on the storage you consume."

"Microsoft Azure Object Storage is an expensive solution."

"The cost is based on the amount of traffic and we paid approximately 18 lakh Rupees ($25,000 USD) last year."

"We have a separate package and pay extra for additional technical support."

More Microsoft Azure Object Storage pricing and cost advice

"The standard pricing is online. Pricing depends. If you're using the PayGo model, then it's just the normal costs on the Microsoft page. If you're using Bring Your Own License, which is what we're doing, then you get with your sales contact at NetApp and start figuring out what price is the best, in the end, for your company."

"Some flexibility around the licensing model would help. The product is licensed based on capacity. Basically, the largest capacity license that you can buy is 368 terabytes. At this point, NetApp is addressing some people's concerns around this."

"Cloud is cloud. It's still expensive. Any good solution comes with a price tag. That's where we are looking to see how well we can manage our data in the cloud by trying to optimize the costs."

"We purchased the product directly from NetApp."

"They give us a good price for CVO licenses. It is one of the reasons that we went with the product."

"Make sure you investigate what your requirements are going to cost you using the native cloud solutions versus what NetApp is going to cost you, to make sure you have a business case to go with NetApp."

"They allow a special price if you are working closely with them. Since we have a lot of NetApp systems, we got some kind of discount. That's something they do for other customers, not just for us. The price was fair. In addition to the licensing fees, you're paying Amazon for your usage..."

"If we wanted to use the AWS solution, we would have to manage two or three different platforms and pay more money than what we should have to pay, as some of the features don't even exist. If we wanted to, we could use AWS cloning, but it is useless because it uses more space, is more expensive, and takes more time."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

25%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

11%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

37%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Object Storage?

The layout of Microsoft is professional.

See all answers

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

I can't share a lot about the costs. I am focused on the technical aspect. It's a pay-per-use solution and a good idea for proof of concept and value. If I want to test a product before deploying i...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Object Storage?

In terms of compliance and security, everything is fine. I do not know of any immediate needs for improvement. However, one potential area for improvement is the replication process. Some clients c...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

So a lot of these licenses are at the rate that is required for capacity. So they're they're able to reduce the license consumption and also the consumption of the underlying cloud storage.

See all answers

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

The solution's pricing is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

NetApp's support could improve.

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle Cloud Object Storage vs Microsoft Azure Object Storage

Compared 47% of the time

Amazon S3 vs Microsoft Azure Object Storage

Compared 29% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Microsoft Azure Object Storage

Compared 13% of the time

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs Microsoft Azure Object Storage

Compared 12% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Object Storage Competitors

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 17% of the time

Amazon S3 vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 11% of the time

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 9% of the time

Portworx Enterprise vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 6% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Object Storage

May 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Object Storage product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

May 2025

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP product report

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, Azure Object Storage, MS Azure Object Storage

ONTAP Cloud, CVO, NetApp CVO

Overview

REST-based object storage for unstructured data in the cloud

Store infrequently accessed data in a low-cost cool storage tier
Store frequently accessed application data in a hot storage tier
Stream video, audio, and other media to web, mobile, or desktop applications
Power big data analytics
Access your data more securely, both over the wire and at rest

Microsoft

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is an efficient storage management solution for managing and storing data in the cloud. It offers seamless integration with cloud providers, advanced data replication capabilities, and high data protection. With reliable performance, it is ideal for industries like healthcare and finance.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Umbraco, Xbox, Radioshack, 343 Industries, McKesson

1. Accenture 2. Acer 3. Adidas 4. Aetna 5. AIG 6. Apple 7. Bank of America 8. Barclays 9. Bayer 10. Berkshire Hathaway 11. BNP Paribas 12. Cisco 13. Coca-Cola 14. Comcast 15.ConocoPhillips 16. CVS Health 17. Dell 18. Deutsche Bank 19. eBay 20. Eli Lilly 21. FedEx 22. Ford 23. Freescale Semiconductor 24. General Electric 25. Google 26. Honeywell 27. IBM 28. Intel 29. Intuit 30. JPMorgan Chase 31. Kellogg's 32. KeyCorp 33. Liberty Mutual 34. L'Oréal 35. Mastercard

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

June 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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