Azure Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

Microsoft and NetApp are both solutions in the Cloud Storage category. Microsoft is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.0, while NetApp is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.5. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Azure Files

Read 2 Azure Files reviews

592 Views
474 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Read 64 NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP reviews

9,473 Views
3,316 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Azure Files

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure Files and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Files vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Files vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

August 2026

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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

Azure Files

Ranking in Cloud Storage

17th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File and Object Storage (24th)

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Ranking in Cloud Storage

9th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (3rd), Cloud Backup (27th), Public Cloud Storage Services (11th), Cloud Software Defined Storage (2nd)

Featured Reviews

Yogesh Autade

Senior Security Engineer at Softcell Technologies Limited

Centralized file sharing has improved security and compliance but still needs better analytics

From our experience, Azure Files could be improved with more granular performance visibility, simpler troubleshooting tools, and enhanced reporting around file shares, uses, and access patterns. We would also prefer more streamlined management for large-scale development deployments, better monitoring of SMB and NFS performance issues, and deeper integration of storage analytics to help identify bottlenecks and optimize cost efficiency. Another area where Azure Files could improve is the administrative experience for hybrid environments. More intuitive troubleshooting for authentication, SMB connectivity, and synchronization-related issues would help reduce operational efforts. Enhanced reporting, proactive recommendations, and clearer root cause analysis and diagnostics would also be valuable for storage and infrastructure teams managing large deployments.

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reviewer5948293

Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Offers performance control and cloud integration while supporting data management with granular flexibility

The scalability of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is interesting. We have thought about it, but we haven't used it. I think the scalability is something you scale up rather than respond to peak demand. It wouldn't help with outages either; the scaling is manual, and there are no processes we've used to automate that for unexpected scenarios. We like the scalability; it's enough for what we're planning to use, but we haven't used any advanced features. The standard platform is NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, which is their cloud service. In fact, that's probably the most experience I have with NetApp. I've experienced it on-premise, but kind of secondhand.

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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

"If we need to migrate data, Azure Files allows a seamless data migration."

"We see a clear return on investment with Azure Files, primarily through reduced infrastructure management effort and improved operational efficiency."

"The main benefit we get from this product is the ability to deploy it anywhere we want, whether that's on-prem, a remote physical location, or in the cloud. It doesn't matter from an operational perspective where it is. The command line and operating system are the same."

"The most valuable features are the ease of management, the deduplication, storage optimization, SnapMirror, it has flexible in testing for different scenarios, rapid deployment of the test environments, and rapid recovery."

"It is a good system; it is very stable as far as what I've been using with it, and I find that support from it is really good as well."

"For the price, the quality of the hardware, the quality of the support, the features it offers, I'm thrilled with NetApp."

"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."

"Los resultados son sorprendentes en términos de funcionalidad y defensa contra terceros."

"ONTAP is great for helping you migrate on-premise workflows to cloud environments."

"I highly recommend that customers using native cloud storage from hyperscalers transition to NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP as it offers numerous features and functionalities such as inline deduplication, compression, compaction, autonomous ransomware protection, snapshot technology, and flex cache that are unavailable with other hyperscalers."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pros

Cons

"From our experience, Azure Files could be improved with more granular performance visibility, simpler troubleshooting tools, and enhanced reporting around file shares, uses, and access patterns."

"I think if Azure Files could integrate migration using Storage Mover, that would be an improvement."

"We are getting a warning alert about not being able to connect to Cloud Manager when we log into it. The support has provided links, but this particular issue is not fixed yet."

"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."

"One difficulty is that it has no SAP HANA certification. The asset performance restrictions create challenges with the infrastructure underneath: The disks and stuff like that often have lower latencies than SAP HANA itself has to have."

"NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP should improve its support."

"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."

"The integration wizard requires a bit of streamlining. There are small things that misconfigure or repeat the deployment that will create errors, specifically in Azure."

"I would like NetApp to come up with an easier setup for the solution."

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

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The pricing could be improved. It is a good product, but it is very expensive for me."

"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."

"It is not a cheap solution because we need to pay for the license and pay for Azure resources as well."

"For NetApp it's about $20,000 for a single node and $30,000 for the HA."

"We find the pricing to be favorable due to the educational sector we belong to."

"It is expensive. There are no costs in addition to their standard licensing fees."

"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."

"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace was good, but it was a test system, not a real purchase."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

12%

Construction Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	53

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Azure Files?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Azure Files?

Our primary use case for Azure Files is centralized file sharing, application data storage, and replacing traditional on-premises file servers with cloud-based SMB and NFS shares. From an infrastru...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Azure Files?

I would recommend this product without hesitation. I would also recommend starting with a pilot workload to validate SMB, NFS performance, and user access patterns. I recommend using Active Directo...

See all answers

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

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is actually quite reasonable in price compared to other native cloud storage options. For example, a customer using 100 TB of AWS storage would not benefit from deduplica...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

It would be nice to see technology supporting the Elastic Fabric Adapter on Amazon AWS, therefore getting RDMA technology for more low-latency connections.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

I use NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP mostly in customer companies.

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Workspace vs Azure Files

Compared 38% of the time

Everpure Evergreen One vs Azure Files

Compared 32% of the time

Box vs Azure Files

Compared 9% of the time

Dropbox Business - Enterprise vs Azure Files

Compared 8% of the time

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Azure Files

Compared 5% of the time

More Azure Files Competitors

Amazon S3 vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 7% of the time

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

Compared 5% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 4% of the time

Amazon FSx vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 4% of the time

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 3% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Storage

August 2026

Download Azure Files product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

July 2026

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP product report

Also Known As

No data available

ONTAP Cloud, CVO, NetApp CVO

Overview

Azure Files offers scalable, fully-managed cloud file shares accessible over SMB and NFS protocols. Ideal for sharing files and resources in the cloud, it simplifies data access across various applications and services, enhancing collaboration.

Azure Files provides a seamless solution for organizations requiring cloud-based file storage that integrates easily with on-premises environments. Its ability to support both SMB and NFS protocols makes it versatile for a wide range of applications. Integration with Azure services ensures enhanced security and efficient management, while its scalability supports growing data demands without complexity.

What are the key features of Azure Files?

SMB and NFS Protocol Support: Ensures compatibility with existing file-serving workloads.
On-Premises Integration: Facilitates hybrid cloud deployments with sync capabilities.
Secure Access Control: Uses Azure Active Directory for managing permissions.
Scalability and Redundancy: Supports rapid data growth with high availability through geo-redundant storage.
Backup and Recovery: Provides built-in integration with Azure Backup for data protection.

What benefits should users expect from Azure Files?

Cost Efficiency: Reduce costs with pay-as-you-go pricing and minimized on-premises infrastructure.
Enhanced Collaboration: Improved productivity with easy file sharing across teams.
Seamless Integration: Streamlined operations with integration into existing IT environments.
Data Security: Safeguard data with encryption and compliance features.

In industries like healthcare and finance, Azure Files is implemented for reliable data storage and compliance requirements. Retail sectors leverage it for seamless collaboration and data sharing, driving enhanced operational efficiencies. By supporting multiple protocols, it is versatile for companies managing a high volume of data across platforms.

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

Information Not Available

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

Azure Files vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

August 2026

Free Report: Azure Files vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

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