Azure Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

Why PeerSpot?

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 #8 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

766 Views
567 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Read 64 NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP reviews

10,457 Views
3,660 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: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Files vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

September 2026

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Helped 913,683 peers since 2012

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 (23rd)

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Ranking in Cloud Storage

8th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (3rd), Cloud Backup (28th), 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

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

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

"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."

"Even compared to just standard Azure or other solutions available, this solution has allowed for probably 50 percent, or in some cases, higher storage savings."

"It offers ease of use and a comprehensive suite of applications, including features like SnapMirror, SnapVault, and unified snapshot management, all bundled into a single product."

"ONTAP made us less reliant on in-house hardware."

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

"The most valuable features of this solution are SnapShot, FlexClone, and deduplication."

"Cloud Volumes ONTAP is great because of the storage efficiencies that it provides."

"We calculated that we are saving $1,000,000 across three years."

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 have used technical support. As long as they don't call me at four o'clock in the morning to tell me that a drive failed and they are sending me another one, I like it. They have a tendency to do that."

"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."

"The dashboard is a little bit clunky. I like to see it a little bit more on the simplistic side. I would like to be able to create my own widgets and customize what I want to see a little bit more versus what is currently there. That would be helpful so that when I log in, I go straight to my widget or my board without going to multiple places to get to what I need to find or build."

"I would want more visibility and data analytics where we can see anomalies within the shares within the GUI."

"It would be fantastic if NetApp could offer a solution that's as user-friendly as Google Drive for seamless cloud storage integration."

"There is room for improvement with the capacity. There's a very hard limit to how many disks you can have and how much space you can have. That is something they should work to fix, because it's limiting. Right now, the limit is about 360 terabytes or 36 disks."

"I would like this solution to be brought to all the three major players. Right now it's supported only on AWS and Azure. They should bring it to Google as well, because we would like to have flexibility in choosing the underlying cloud storage provider."

"In terms of improvement, I would like to see the Azure NetApp Files have the capability of doing SnapMirrors."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"In addition to the standard licensing fees, there are fees for Azure, the VMs themselves and for data transfer."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"If a customer is only using, say, less than 10 terabytes, I don't think CVO would be a good option. A customer using at least 100 or 200 terabytes should get a reasonable price from NetApp."

"The cost is quite high."

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

"Overall, the pricing of NetApp is aggressive and the pricing becomes more aggressive as the amount of data increases. The cost for a given volume of data that you are storing becomes lower. The greater the volume of data, the cheaper the license."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

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 34% of the time

Everpure Evergreen One vs Azure Files

Compared 27% of the time

Box - Intelligent Content Management vs Azure Files

Compared 10% of the time

Dropbox Business - Enterprise vs Azure Files

Compared 7% of the time

Azure Data Lake Storage vs Azure Files

Compared 6% of the time

More Azure Files Competitors

Amazon S3 vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 6% 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 3% of the time

CTERA Intelligent Data Platform vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 3% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Storage

September 2026

Download Azure Files product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

September 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

September 2026

Free Report: Azure Files vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

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