The solution is used for NAS, which includes CIFs and NFS.
Engineer at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud-based network storage solution with an auto-extension feature
Pros and Cons
- "The good thing about NetApp is the features that are available on the cloud are also available on-premises."
- "I rate the scalability a five out of ten."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
The solution works the same on the cloud as on on-premises, so we sometimes access the on-premises features even though we use the cloud version. There is hardly any difference. However, the performance depends on the disc type used and the network.
What is most valuable?
The auto-extension feature is good as it requires no manual intervention and once that is enabled, the auto-action option is receivable.
What needs improvement?
Some monitoring issues require improvement.
The auto alerting and monitoring should be better in the next release.
Buyer's Guide
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. I rate it seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the scalability a five out of ten. And in terms of storage, we have different types of storage like SSD, standard, SSD, premium, and SSD, which can expand the pool or aggregate. Also, the availability part and any payload are seamless. Plus, I have the same technology on-premises, so there is replication and SnapMirror.
In our company, around 3000-4000 users are using the solution at present.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support team is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The solution is very easy but not too complex as well. I give it a six out of ten. Two people are required for the maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the pricing as an eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is recommended if someone is looking for NAS on the cloud.
The good thing about NetApp is the features that are available on the cloud are also available on-premises. I rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Infrastructure Architect at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Simple with seamless migration capabilities and meets hybrid/multi-cloud requirements
Pros and Cons
- "The ability to do a straight SnapMirror from our on-prem to the cloud with no other data transitions is excellent."
- "We've just been dealing with general pre-requisite infrastructure configuration challenges. Once those are out of the way, it is easy."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is for a transition off of our on-premises ONTAP and secondarily to add functionality as we migrate.
What is most valuable?
The ability to do a straight SnapMirror from our on-prem to the cloud with no other data transitions is excellent.
The simplicity of cloud.netapp.com has been helpful. The fact that you're managing your on-prem and cloud and Snapshots all through one UI makes it very easy.
We currently run ONTAP across multiple physical data centers, and our file services are critical for our firm. The ability to migrate and keep the status quo of protection of data and ease of management are the biggest benefits.
This meets our hybrid or multi-cloud business needs since it fits right in. We decided to go with hybrid cloud and multi-cloud. We wanted to continue working with the same vendors that we did in our physical data center. We've invested time, energy, and staff training to build those relationships. Carrying them to the cloud with little friction is critical.
What needs improvement?
We've been dealing with general pre-requisite infrastructure configuration challenges. Once those are out of the way, it is easy.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been reviewing and testing the solution for three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
So far, the product is as stable as anything else in the cloud. It's up to us to make sure if we need a high availability to put it in. Other than that, standard nodes allow for faster and easier deployments for lower critical environments. Stability-wise, the product has been fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our global footprint is, with reduction, about 300 terabytes.
I haven't attempted any scaling yet.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is as good as any other enterprise support. Luckily, we haven't had a call yet, so I can't really evaluate it properly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. Once you understand the prerequisites, the deployment from your cloud.netapp account is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We work closely with our local SE that is assigned to our account. He brings in his cloud support team as needed for any questions and evaluations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I haven't gotten deep into pricing. I can't speak to costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were looking at a few solutions, including AWS FSx for Windows. FSx for Windows, at the end of the day, was a step back from the abilities for file shares for us. We would be stepping back to a Windows-based file server versus NetApp Snapshot, SnapMirror, and global replication of functions. The other option was a complete platform shift, which would've been more of a migration platform than we were willing to commit to.
We're evaluating FSx for ONTAP as well. If that looks attractive, we will transition some workloads to that as well. Potentially, in the future, we could use Cloud Insights as the other NetApp product.
What other advice do I have?
We haven't done any migration yet; we're in production. That said, the whole point is to have the ability to just extend our existing NetApp and valve structure straight to the cloud.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It serves all of our needs. I have not known the product over a long enough period of time to just rate it at a perfect ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Analista de Storage at Columbia Storage
Its scalability is very good
Pros and Cons
- "Its scalability is very good."
- "I would like to see more information about Cloud Volumes ONTAP using Google Cloud Platform on NetApp's website."
What is our primary use case?
My employer is a partner here in Brazil. We have clients using many different versions of the solution. Some clients are using private clouds and hybrid clouds.
Our clients use the solution as a Direct Access Recovery (DAR).
What is most valuable?
The volume is an amazing feature.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more information about Cloud Volumes ONTAP using Google Cloud Platform on NetApp's website.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product. I haven't had an issue with the stability of this product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is very good.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had any trouble with their technical support. I would rate them as 10 out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy.
What about the implementation team?
We need two engineers for the deployment of this solution: one for deployment and another for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing could be improved. It is a good product, but it is very expensive for me.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this product as 10 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Assistant VP at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Set it up and it works, requiring little maintenance
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are that it's reliable, simple, and performs well."
- "The support is good in general but the initial, front-line support could be improved. Because I have already been using the product for so long, when I call support I would rather talk to somebody who is a little bit more advanced or senior, rather than talking to the first-level support. Usually, it takes some time to reach out to their senior support."
What is our primary use case?
We use it to store all kinds of data, both structured and unstructured.
How has it helped my organization?
The way that it has helped our organization is that it requires less time to manage. It's almost like a set-it-and-forget-it type of solution. We don't have to do too much maintenance. Compared to other products, it doesn't need so much babysitting. It's easy to set up and it works. It does the things it is expected to do.
In addition, it provides unified storage no matter what kind of data you have. It has multi-protocol support. It does shares and it does block, so it's a one-stop solution that can fit all of your needs. You don't need multiple solutions for your different types of data.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are that it's
- reliable
- simple
- performs well.
It also helps to keep control of storage costs.
What needs improvement?
The only issue I can think of is metrics, but I think they have improved that in the newer versions already. There should be an easy place to see all your metrics.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for more than 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. We haven't had any issues since setting it up. It all depends upon the disk. The faster it is, the better the performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a very scalable solution. We are looking at how we can grow in the cloud and it can definitely scale in the cloud.
How are customer service and support?
The support is good in general but the initial, frontline support could be improved. Because I have already been using the product for so long, when I call support I would rather talk to somebody who is a little bit more advanced or senior, rather than talking to the first-level support. Usually, it takes some time to reach out to their senior support. The advanced support is good. The frontline support can still be improved.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We've used Dell EMC in the past. We switched because NetApp definitely provides us with multi-protocol support and it is a one-stop solution.
How was the initial setup?
It's fairly easy to set up. For a new SAN it takes a couple of hours to get the setup done. The additional configurations take another three or four hours. You can get the whole thing, a new system, set up within a day so that it is ready to go to testing.
Our implementation strategy is that we use CIFS shares and NFS shares in our environment. We also have block storage for SQL and Oracle. That has been our general plan all along. We separate these protocols by virtual servers. Once the necessary cabling is done, it's a matter of setting up the network interfaces for each, provisioning some storage, and testing things out. Overall, it's fairly straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
I strongly recommend the solution. The biggest advantage is that it works as expected. There's less maintenance so you don't need too many people to support it and you save money in the long run.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Principal Enterprise Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real-time dashboard is excellent for providing support and helps with decision-making at business level
Pros and Cons
- "In terms of administration, the portal which provides the dashboard view is an excellent tool for operations. It gives you volume divisions, usage rates, which division is using how much data, and more. The operations portal is fantastic for the support team."
- "The only area for improvement would be some guidance in terms of the future products that NetApp is planning on releasing. I would like to see communication around that or advice such as, "Hey, the world is moving towards this particular trend, and NetApp can help you do that." I do get promotional emails from NetApp, but customer-specific advice would be helpful, based on our use cases."
What is our primary use case?
We store our user documentation repository in NetApp. We are serving multiple divisions, and there are use cases grouped by divisions, by user access rights, et cetera. We also have specific requirements for the backups and restores.
How has it helped my organization?
The main use case for us in going with Cloud Volumes ONTAP was to ensure the IOPS or performance. There are other solutions available that are probably more cost-effective than NetApp, but given the criticality of our application, the performance expectations, and the availability, those were the factors that helped us to zero in on the NetApp solution.
What is most valuable?
In terms of administration, the portal which provides the dashboard view is an excellent tool for operations. It gives you volume divisions, usage rates, which division is using how much data, and more. The operations portal is fantastic for the support team.
Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides unified storage, no matter what kind of data you have. In terms of our data, it's mainly Word and PDF files, but we have a specific use case where applications are using XML files for document management.
What needs improvement?
The only area for improvement would be some guidance in terms of the future products that NetApp is planning on releasing. I would like to see communication around that or advice such as, "Hey, the world is moving towards this particular trend, and NetApp can help you do that." I do get promotional emails from NetApp, but customer-specific advice would be helpful, based on our use cases.
For how long have I used the solution?
We started using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP in production in April of this year. But we had been working with the NetApp team before that, from October of 2020, to get the configuration right in the test environment. Overall, we have been using it for about one year and two months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There has been just one incident since we started using it, in which a node refresh needed to be done. The stability is pretty good with only one incident in 14 months. We're pretty happy with that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have been pretty impressed with the scalability because when we started, we had to immediately onboard two more divisions and it was pretty straightforward, once we had the base setup going. We were able to scale it up pretty quickly and we were able to do it on our own.
We are using Cloud Volumes ONTAP daily. Our departments are copying the files on it and sharing them. It's a part of their daily work.
At the project level, we are not looking to expand our usage of NetApp, but at the organizational level, there are plans. They are looking at additional use cases that can be onboarded to NetApp.
How are customer service and support?
After we deployed we had a couple of queries in terms of optimizing uses. We raised a support ticket and the help was available within a couple of hours. They had people on a call supporting us.
We're pretty happy with the support we're getting and with our account manager. Everyone is prompt in responding, so we're quite happy.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used a typical Windows file share. Then, when we moved to the cloud, we worked with Azure Files. But in terms of performance and stability, we found that NetApp was way ahead of the other solutions.
How was the initial setup?
Overall, the setup process was excellent. It was pretty straightforward but we also had NetApp engineers available and dedicated to us on a call when we were setting it up. To help us get going, there was tremendous support available, which was good.
The setup time was about six hours and there were about two hours during which we had conference calls with the NetApp team.
What about the implementation team?
The NetApp team was very helpful. The engineers worked with us to understand our use cases and advised us on the configurations. They weren't just checking what we were doing but were contributing to the overall setup. That was a good experience.
What was our ROI?
It's too early to comment on ROI because we're just a little more than one year into a five-year business case. We'll probably see a return in the third or fourth year.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of this solution is definitely higher than what the typical Azure Files and AWS solutions charge, but given the features and the stability NetApp has provided, we are okay with it. We are not complaining about the pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at Azure Files and the Amazon EFS file system.
The pros for NetApp were definitely the stability, performance, and availability, out-of-the-box. Even Cloud Volumes ONTAP can be set up in HA. With Azure as well as AWS, you have to have your own custom solutions on top of them. Another advantage with NetApp is the admin portal which has a very good dashboard. Because it gives a good view of usage in real time, decisions become easier for the business.
The only challenging part that we faced with NetApp was that it would have been good to have a sandbox available for a PoC scenario. Without it, what we had to do was get a trial license and set it up. With Azure and AWS, you go directly to the console and just provision it. With NetApp, we had that initial period where we had to set it up on a trial license for a month, and when that was getting close to expiring, we had to extend it.
What other advice do I have?
First and foremost, test the use cases where you need availability and performance as the key drivers for a solution. In those scenarios, NetApp is way ahead compared to what the competitors offer. But given the cost of the other solutions, there has to be a three- to five-year view if you are going to go with NetApp. You will not see a return on your investment after six months or one year.
I'm happy with the way it is handling our use cases and meeting our performance requirements.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Senior Systems Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud Manager is a nice tool for managing the environment, and we can easily pair on-prem with the cloud and the cloud backup feature
Pros and Cons
- "I like how you can easily pair on-prem with the cloud and the cloud backup feature. I like the whole integration with on-prem and the cloud for SnapMirror relationships."
- "They definitely need to stay more on top of security vulnerabilities. Our security team is constantly finding Java vulnerabilities and SQL vulnerabilities. Our security team always wants the latest security update, and it takes a while for NetApp to stay up to speed with that. That would be my biggest complaint."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in AWS. I believe we're using the latest version.
How has it helped my organization?
We were able to move our VDI environment into AWS. It has been a big performance boost. It has helped our customers all around the globe access virtual desktop.
Upgrades are much easier in terms of upgrading ONTAP. It is so much easier with CVO.
It provides unified storage and gives us better access to our data. We're able to manage it. I don't really see that any different than the on-prem solution, but it does give us the ability to manage access and permissions.
CVO enables us to manage our native cloud storage better than if we used management options provided by AWS. That's because we're more familiar with ONTAP. So, it is not like we had to change how we manage storage. That was the big thing, and it has an easier user interface. Managing AWS storage is also pretty easy, but to me, the easiest thing was the fact that we're familiar with ONTAP.
What is most valuable?
I do like the cloud manager. It is a nice way of managing our environment. It definitely is a nice tool to do basic ONTAP tasks such as setting up backups, creating volumes, and managing permissions.
I like how you can easily pair on-prem with the cloud and the cloud backup feature. I like the whole integration with on-prem and the cloud for SnapMirror relationships.
I like the backup feature because it is all SaaS, and it is easy to set up. My data is encrypted in transit.
The compliance feature is also good, but we haven't used it yet. From what I've seen in the demos, it is really a nice feature. I like the fact that we can analyze our data. We can do data analysis with artificial intelligence and categorize data.
What needs improvement?
They definitely need to stay more on top of security vulnerabilities. Our security team is constantly finding Java vulnerabilities and SQL vulnerabilities. Our security team always wants the latest security update, and it takes a while for NetApp to stay up to speed with that. That would be my biggest complaint.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't had a problem yet.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not had a scalability issue, so it scales easily. We are using about 20 terabytes. We have about 200 people who are using it on a day-to-day basis. They are mostly from the finance team.
We have plans to increase its usage. We are investigating it. It is all based on the business.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've had many support cases. Sometimes, it takes a while for them to give me a solution that works. Sometimes, they give me a solution that works, but it depends on the problem. I would rate their support a seven out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using NetApp, so we were using NetApp arrays. The main reason for switching was that we wanted to move our VDI environment into AWS. So, the main reason was to use the NetApp in AWS. One of the reasons why we went with Cloud Volumes ONTAP was that it was easy to migrate our on-prem solution into AWS because of SnapMirror.
We worked with Amazon FSx for a little bit, but it wasn't really ready yet. It was just released, so we decided to stick with CVO.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward, but we were mandated to use Terraform. So, I had to create a Terraform code, but it was easy to set it up. It takes a couple of hours to just set it up if you know what you're doing, but planning, designing the application, and everything else took about three months.
We had an on-prem solution running on arrays, and we wanted to move our VDI infrastructure into AWS. In terms of the implementation strategy, first of all, we wanted to figure out the kind of array and what can we do in terms of ONTAP to make it work. We had to set up a PoC and get some test users and a VPC in place. We had to get security rules and security in place. So, there was a lot of stuff just besides ONTAP. Obviously, we needed to get the whole cloud infrastructure in place to support the VDI users, and CVO was just one part of this project.
What about the implementation team?
I did it myself.
What was our ROI?
Our users are happy, so I guess that's a good return on our investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is expensive. There are no costs in addition to their standard licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be to go for it. It is a great product. It is a great piece of software. NetApp is cutting edge when it comes to software in the cloud. I don't really have any warnings.
I don't know if we're saving more money by putting in more data. It does have tiers, and I guess there is data reduction that does help us save more money. We're using cloud on CVO, and we take advantage of reduction capabilities that do help us.
I would rate this solution a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Senior Analyst at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
All our data shares and volumes are on one platform making adjustment of share permissions easier than with Azure native
Pros and Cons
- "We're able to use the SnapMirror function and SnapMirror data from our on-prem environment into Azure. That is super-helpful. SnapMirror allows you to take data that exists on one NetApp, on a physical NetApp storage platform, and copy it over to another NetApp storage platform. It's a solid, proven technology, so we don't worry about whether data is getting lost or corrupted during the SnapMirror."
- "When Azure does their maintenance, they do maintenance on one node at a time. With the two nodes of the CVO, it can automatically fail over from one node to the node that is staying up. And when the first node comes back online, it will fail back to the first node. We have had issues with everything failing back 100 percent correctly."
What is our primary use case?
It is managing services in our production environment that are in Azure. It provides file shares, both NFS and CIFS, that are used by other applications that are also in Azure.
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is part of the production environment of our company so the entire company, over 5,000 employees globally, is touching it somehow. It's a part of an application that has data that resides on it and they may consume that application.
How has it helped my organization?
Cloud Volumes ONTAP is great because of the storage efficiencies that it provides. When you look at the cost of running Azure native storage versus the cost of Cloud Volumes ONTAP, you end up saving money with Cloud Volumes ONTAP. That's a big win because cost is a huge factor when putting workloads in the cloud. We had a cost estimate survey done, a comparison between the two, and I believe that Cloud Volumes ONTAP saves us close to 30 percent compared to the Azure native costs.
Azure pricing is done in a type of a tier. Once you exceed a certain amount of storage, your cost goes down. So the more data you store, the more you're going to end up saving.
The storage efficiencies from the NetApp platform allow you to do inline deduplication and compaction of data. All of this adds up to using less of the disk in Azure, which adds up to savings.
We have two nodes of the NetApp in Azure, which means we have some fault tolerance. That is helpful because Azure just updates stuff when they want to and you're not always able to stop them or schedule it at a later time. Having two CVO nodes is helpful to keep the business up when Azure is doing their maintenance.
The solution provides unified storage no matter what kind of data you have. We were already using the NetApp platform on our on-premise environments, so it's something we're already familiar with in terms of how to manage permissions on different types of volumes, whether it's an NFS export or a CIFS share. We're able to utilize iSCSI data stores if we need to attach a volume directly to a VM. It allows us to continue to do what we're already familiar with in the NetApp environment. Now we can do them in Azure as well.
It enables us to manage our native cloud storage better than if we used the management options provided by the native cloud service. With CVO, all of your data shares and volumes are on the one NetApp platform. Whether you are adjusting share permissions on an NFS export or a CIFS share, you can do it all from within the NetApp management interface. That's much easier than the Azure native, where you may have to go to two or three different screens to do the same stuff.
What is most valuable?
The storage efficiencies are something that you don't get on native.
Also, because of the NetApp product, we're able to use the SnapMirror function and SnapMirror data from our on-prem environment into Azure. That is super-helpful. SnapMirror allows you to take data that exists on one NetApp, on a physical NetApp storage platform, and copy it over to another NetApp storage platform. It's a solid, proven technology, so we don't worry about whether data is getting lost or corrupted during the SnapMirror. We are also able to throttle back the speed of the SnapMirror to help our network team that is paying for a data circuit. We're still able to copy data into Azure, but we can manage the transfer cost because we can throttle back the SnapMirror. It's just very solid and reliable. It works.
And all of us IT nerds are already familiar with the NetApp platform so there was not a major learning curve to start using it in Azure.
NetApp also has something called Active IQ Unified Manager, and it gives us performance monitoring of the CVO from an external source. There are several people on my team that utilize the CVO and we each have a personal preference for how we look at data. The Active IQ Unified Manager is a product you can get from NetApp because, once you license your CVO, you are entitled to other tools. CVO does have resource performance monitoring built in, but we primarily utilize the Active IQ Unified Manager.
Beyond that, it provides all the great stuff that the NetApp platform can do, but it's just in the cloud.
What needs improvement?
I think this is more of a limitation of how it operates in Azure, but the solution is affected by this limitation. There's something about how the different availability zones, the different regions, operate in Azure. It's very difficult to set up complete fault tolerance using multiple CVO nodes and have one node in one region and one node in another region. This is not something that I have dug into myself. I am hearing about this from other IT nerds.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We had issues with Azure when they did maintenance on the nodes. They just do their maintenance and it's up to us, the customer, to make sure that our applications are up and data is flowing. When Azure does their maintenance, they do maintenance on one node at a time. With the two nodes of the CVO, it can automatically fail over from one node to the node that is staying up. And when the first node comes back online, it will fail back to the first node. We have had issues with everything failing back 100 percent correctly.
We have had tickets open with NetApp to have them look into it and try and resolve it. They've made improvements in some ways, but it's still not 100 percent automated for everything to return back. That's an ongoing thing we have to keep an eye on.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is definitely scalable. You can add more disk to grow your capacity and you have the ability to add more nodes. There's a limit to how many nodes you can add, but you can definitely scale up.
How are customer service and technical support?
Tech support is good. A lot of it depends on the technician that you get, but if you're not happy with one technician, you can request that it be escalated or you can request that it just be handled by another technician. They're very eager to help and resolve issues.
How was the initial setup?
We had some issues with permissions and with getting the networking correct. But we had a lot of support from NetApp as well as from Azure. As a result, I would not say the setup was straightforward, but we got the help and the support we needed and you can't ask for more than that.
I've always found NetApp support to be accurate and good with their communications. Rolling out this product in Azure, and working with the IT nerds in our company and with Azure nerds, occasionally it does add another layer of who has to be communicated with and who has to do stuff. But my experience with NetApp is that they are responsive and very determined to get situations resolved.
It took us about a week to get everything ironed out and get both nodes functional.
We had done a PoC with a smaller instance of the CVO and the PoC was pretty straightforward. Once we rolled out the production CVO that has two nodes, that's when it was more complicated. We had a plan for getting it deployed and to decide at what point we would say, "Okay, now it's ready for prime time. Now it's ready to be put into production."
For admin of the solution we have less than 10 people, and they're all storage administrator analysts like me.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our licensing is based on a yearly subscription. That is an additional cost, but because of the storage efficiencies that the NetApp gives, even with the additional cost of the NetApp license, you still end up saving money versus straight Azure native for storage. It's definitely worth it.
What other advice do I have?
Make sure that you can stay operational when Azure is doing their maintenance. Make sure you fully understand how the failover and the give-back process works, so that you can deal with your maintenance.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Technical Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Tiering saves us significant costs, and Unified Manager helps resolve issues before they have an impact
Pros and Cons
- "The storage tiering is definitely the most valuable feature... With respect to tiering, the inactive data is pushed to a lower tier where the storage cost is cheap, but the access cost is high."
- "It definitely needs improvement with respect to clustering and with respect to more collaborative integrations with Azure. Right now, we have very limited functionalities with Azure, except for storage. If CVO could be integrated with Azure that would help. When there is any sort of maintenance happening in the cloud, it disrupts the service in Cloud Volumes ONTAP."
What is our primary use case?
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is where we host our NAS storage on which we keep our files, et cetera. We have three clusters of CVO, each serving close to 300 terabytes of data. We have our SQL backup workloads and the application data residing in it. We are using the tiering policy, which pushes the inactive data down to cold storage to help save on costs.
Cloud Volumes ONTAP is all cloud-based and we have our workloads on Azure.
How has it helped my organization?
At one point we were paying close to $80,000 a month for cloud resources, and now it's down to $25,000 to $30,000 after using the tiering.
Also, using Unified Manager we are able to resolve issues before they have an impact. For example, there were conditions where bulk operations were happening against a particular volume, and our business was also writing the data. We caught it using Unified Manager. The IOPS were low and there was a high latency, close to 1,500 milliseconds. We had a look at exactly what operations were happening and, before the user even reported it, we reached out to the team that was doing the bulk operations to stop whatever process they were running. That's just one example. We have had a lot of occasions where the tool has been really handy when it comes to proactive monitoring.
And it's not only for proactive monitoring. The same tool is also used for a lot of root cause analysis.
What is most valuable?
The storage tiering is definitely the most valuable feature. With the pay-as-you-go plan, we can choose between standard and premium storage, but we use only premium for high performance. High IOPS and low latencies are the main features of the premium storage. With respect to tiering, the inactive data is pushed to a lower tier where the storage cost is cheap, but the access cost is high.
NetApp also has something called SnapMirror replications and that's how we replicate our data from production to the DR site, for our BCP. It has pretty solid solutioning for the replications so the SnapMirrors are pretty handy when it comes to BCPs.
In terms of cloud resource monitoring, we use Unified Manager and it's pretty cool. It has both Excel-based metrics as well as graphical representations, which give us a clear idea of which particular file systems have performance problems. We can go over the statistical information and it comes in very handy. At the same time, it has an alerting mechanism where any sort of conditions can be configured and alerts are then sent to your mailbox or your mobile SMS.
What needs improvement?
It definitely needs improvement with respect to clustering and with respect to more collaborative integrations with Azure. Right now, we have very limited functionalities with Azure, except for storage. If CVO could be integrated with Azure that would help. When there is any sort of maintenance happening in the cloud, it disrupts the service in Cloud Volumes ONTAP.
If those could be rectified, that would be really good news because it would reduce the administrative overhead my team and I are facing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for close to two years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable, at least with respect to Azure, which is what we use.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
NetApp is scalable. When we initially started with Cloud Volumes ONTAP, it had a hard limit of 378 terabytes as its maximum capacity per cluster. Beyond that you couldn't expand. So we had to spin up another cluster. When that was almost full we had to get a third cluster. But I believe that in the recent build of CVO they have introduced the ability to stack one license on top of another cluster, so you can have infinite data per cluster. So there were challenges, particularly with vertical scalability before, but that has now been fixed in the recent release.
In terms of increasing our usage in the future, we definitely will if required. It gives us the flexibility to perform automations and it has its own encryption tools. Right now, we are using it for one particular region in Europe, but we do have plans to get it out to other regions as well, but that's not going to happen immediately.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have used their technical support on a lot of occasions and they have been pretty helpful. I'm completely satisfied with the resolutions they have come up with. We have created more than a hundred tickets in the last two years. Those were all submitted initially, when we had an older version of CVO, but now we hardly create tickets with support because our team has the ability to administer it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had ONTAP before CVO. We also used Dell Isilon and SoftNAS before we migrated to CVO. We switched because we found that SoftNAS was not stable enough to handle the workloads. We often had problems with the applications.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Cloud Volumes ONTAP is pretty straightforward. We didn't have any sort of difficulties getting it spun up. It was also pretty quick. We had everything needed in Azure. It hardly took us three to four hours to have the entire environment set up and ready.
We did some architectural planning for setting this up and we got all the approvals and licenses well in advance, before we actually configured it.
When it comes to maintenance, it depends on what kind of coverage an organization wants. We are a team of four who administer NetApp clusters alongside the cloud resources. We have roughly 2,000 users.
What about the implementation team?
We worked only with NetApp. We had one architect and one contractor from Professional Services.
What was our ROI?
Now that we have started using tiering, we could still actually save more costs, but we haven't gone to that specific area. We know it is definitely going to affect the performance if we keep all the data in the cloud tier. That's why we haven't. But Cloud Volumes ONTAP has the flexibility to dump all the data to the cloud tier to save every penny possible.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have an annual license renewal for all the clusters. The license comes with annual training and with some Professional Services time. We have used all of those. I'm not sure if that's standard or it's an agreement between our organization and NetApp, but that's what we get as a part of our licensing.
The money you can save with CVO depends on what type of configuration an organization needs. They can also push all the data down to the cold tier. The pricing model for the Azure Cool Blob offering is pretty low compared to the premium or the standard. The cost of cold storage would probably be 10 cents per GB.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Very few of the cloud service solution providers have that tiering option. Tiering results in a lot of savings.
What other advice do I have?
NetApp, on the whole, is a whole different tool for me. Two years back, when I started, when I had my hands on it for the first time, I found it pretty interesting. I would note its simplicity. It's simple and, at the same, time very powerful and able to handle any sort of storage workloads.
NetApp is really cool. If your organization is looking for cost savings, NetApp is the way to go.
Overall, I would rate CVO a nine out of 10. We had a lot of problems with NetApp, but those were in the very early stages. And NetApp always promises to upgrade their products and they actually listen to the customer's problems. We have raised a couple of defects with NetApp, and they have always been supportive, getting these resolved as soon as possible.
The NetApp organization, on the whole, is pretty good. They're coming up with go-to-market products like Azure NetApp Files, etc., which is actually the beta version of Azure Sites.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Product Categories
Cloud Software Defined Storage Cloud Migration Cloud Storage Cloud Backup Public Cloud Storage ServicesPopular Comparisons
Veeam Data Platform
Commvault Cloud
HPE Zerto Software
Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)
N-able Cove Data Protection
Google Cloud Storage
Portworx Enterprise
Azure NetApp Files
Buyer's Guide
Download our free NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links