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Azure Blob Storage vs Azure NetApp Files comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Blob Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
15th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Azure NetApp Files
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (9th), Cloud Storage (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

Pramod-Talekar - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud storage has simplified team data access and provides reliable, globally available redundancy
The first thing I find really useful about Azure Blob Storage is that it is a cloud service running on the cloud. Using cloud storage, all the things are actually running on the cloud and they are managed by the cloud vendor. Microsoft is managing the backend things. I am just monitoring and managing the things, and I do not need to think about the physical things, upgrades, and all those things. That is managed by the OEM, which is a good thing. Additionally, it is globally available anywhere, so there are advantages in communications with the clients and all those things from that side. The main benefit that Azure Blob Storage provides for me is redundancy. They have multiple types of redundancy from the storage perspective, such as local redundant storage and zone redundant storage. Data will be available anytime, and that kind of assurance they are giving us is actually the main reason I can say for the Azure perspective. Access is one area where Azure Blob Storage can improve, as they have multiple types of storage. In Blob Storage, they also have file shares and queue storage. I have not seen any issues with Azure Blob Storage right now, and the access features allow us to grant the minimum level of access to the users, so users can only read the data. I can say those are also good features from an Azure Blob Storage perspective, and I have not seen anything negative there.
Rajat Wadhwa - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at IBM
Cross-region replication has delivered seamless disaster recovery for enterprise storage needs
In terms of improvement, I would say cost reservation; the cost is a bit high. If we compare Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files, I know that customers are using less of Azure NetApp due to the cost. If they bring the cost a little bit closer to what Azure Files offers, it can be a great product in the market and bring a lot of business to NetApp. Backup is quite critical. As of now, Azure NetApp Files requires you to use Azure NetApp Backup solution, which is in public preview at the moment. I would definitely expect NetApp to come up with that solution so that customers can start using it because they do not have confidence in backup as it is still in preview. They are still doing some testing and research on that product, which is not officially released for use by multiple customers.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The main benefit that Azure Blob Storage provides for me is redundancy."
"Azure Blob Storage is globally available anywhere, allowing for good communication with clients and taking advantage from that side."
"Using Azure NetApp Files got us out of a really difficult situation quickly, effectively, and at a reasonable cost."
"The most valuable feature is that the sixty-terabyte database snapshot can be done in less than two to three minutes."
"We recommend this solution to our customers because of its ease of use, availability, and security, but they don't usually go for it because of its price."
"One aspect of Azure NetApp Files that I truly appreciate is its remarkable performance capabilities."
"I like the SnapMirror feature in Azure NetApp Files. It helps me create backups with snapshots and makes data recovery and compression."
"The availability is good, meaning downtime or network issues rarely occur. The system also offers flexibility, allowing for increases in data volume, IOPS, and other capabilities without requiring downtime, which is a strong point. Based on the money spent, we can get performance improvements and high availability."
"Azure NetApp Files has been stable."
"This solution is intuitive, easy to learn, and easy to use."
 

Cons

"A proper monitoring dashboard would help, allowing us to see the usage and IO utilization."
"The initial setup for Azure Blob Storage is right now simple, but they could improve the implementation in the future, particularly around configuration, access-related management, and related things."
"The main hurdle in promoting this solution is the price. Its price definitely requires an improvement. It is more expensive than other options, so customers go for a cheaper option."
"The initial setup was not straightforward. We had help from the NetApp team."
"Features are being added to this product at a very slow pace, and they should be speeding that up and being a little more aggressive."
"In terms of improvement, I would say cost reservation; the cost is a bit high. If we compare Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files, I know that customers are using less of Azure NetApp due to the cost."
"I don’t like the solution’s configuration and support."
"The pricing definitely needs to be improved."
"This solution is very expensive compared to the alternatives."
"Reserved Instances for Azure NetApp Files would improve more use cases, making them more valuable in Azure as the cost would be reduced."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"In the cloud, pricing depends on how you manage it. It's not necessarily cheap, but it's all about optimizing charges and showing the cost back. So, it's more about managing the expenses rather than being inherently expensive or cheap."
"NetApp is a premium offering, so it's not a cheap product, but it is well-priced. It combines a couple of properties which customers like us are willing to pay. Could it be cheaper? Yes, but if you combine fully supported, fully managed, easily provisioned, scalable, and quick all in one product, it's a good selling point. You can ask a lot of money for all these. If you have a use case like we do, it's a perfect match. It's like the Porsche of storage solutions in the cloud. It is totally worth the cost."
"The price of Azure NetApp Files could be better."
"The licensing fees for this solution vary, ranging from a single shelf to a full suite."
"Our pricing has not been determined because we are still waiting on additional features."
"We are currently on a pay-as-you-go model with the storage that we use."
"The solution’s combination of the ease of use, simplicity, and reduction in IT management versus the cost has helped a lot. It is very fast to deploy. It's very easy to maintain. You don't have to do a lot in the cloud to maintain this thing, so it gives good performance. It's fast to deploy, easy to maintain, and it gives a better performance. These are the most basic three criteria for any application. This saves cost because the manpower you need to deploy is going down. You're getting better performance and not buying new resources. You have resources available in the cloud. It's just a couple of clicks, then you're good to go."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Azure Blob Storage?
A proper monitoring dashboard would help, allowing us to see the usage and IO utilization. If there is any monitoring application, it could help us get more information about how many users are con...
What is your primary use case for Azure Blob Storage?
We have moved multiple things not only from the physical perspective but also to the cloud, and I can say that we have moved to Azure. Currently, I have started working on Azure cloud, and I am usi...
What advice do you have for others considering Azure Blob Storage?
Azure VMware Solution, which is abbreviated as AVS, is a VMware solution that I am using. I am not using any other Azure solutions beyond Azure Blob Storage, and most of the storage is Azure Blob S...
How does Azure NetApp Files compare to NetApp ONTAP?
Azure NetApp Files is a Microsoft Azure file storage service built on NetApp technology. The platform combines the file capabilities of Azure and NetApp to move critical file-based applications to ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure NetApp Files?
On pricing, I would rate it around eight. It's highly priced, and there's no cost reservation option available compared to Azure Files. If NetApp could bring that kind of model for customers to sav...
What needs improvement with Azure NetApp Files?
In terms of improvement, I would say cost reservation; the cost is a bit high. If we compare Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files, I know that customers are using less of Azure NetApp due to the cost...
 

Also Known As

No data available
NetApp ANF, ANF
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
SAP, Restaurant Magic
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Blob Storage vs. Azure NetApp Files and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.