Microsoft Azure File Storage Reviews

Azure files offers several architectural scenarios so you can check and implement different use cases depending on your needs. In brief you can use the Azure Files with a serverless approach or to integrate it with your on premise file servers through Azure File Sync.

We have IT colleagues spread all over the world, so we are trying to define governance rules. We need to manage things at the infrastructure level, and so the Azure File could be a technology to replace or to integrate with our file servers on-premise solution.

We are testing and looking at the pros and cons, and we will decide based on features and the cost that will be present to the infrastructure manager. I think we will start to use Azure Files technology in production in the next year.

Azure Files does not require management of hardware or operating systems.

What we have found good for our company is the part related to the Azure File Sync that could be useful in a disaster recovery environment. If we have to restore all the shared data on-premise, it takes a lot of hours or days. We installed the Azure File Sync on a test on-premise server, and it was quick to synchronize back from Azure to the on-premise server. This is a really nice feature.

To get the best features on tiering, performance and security we must use W2016 and W10 in fact for example Azure File Sync does not support Data Deduplication and cloud tiering on Windows Server 2012 R2.

All data are encrypted in transit and at rest on Azure Files, Defender for Azure Storage is also available at additional cost.

Azure File offers Local and Geo-redundancy, your data can be stored in multiple Azure data centers improving availability and data proximity.

Azure backup is a fully managed service so you don't need to manage an on-premise solution, it is easy to use even though we expected better performance on the restore part, using standard storage we spend from 89 to 96 minutes to restore 341GB.

Keep attention and do not share the storage account key since it can be a security issue. With the storage account key, you can do everything you want on the storage account and on the file shares. It can be useful because this is the only way to work at home with an unmanaged PC from my company, but at the same time, if you share this key to external users, it could be a security issue.

It's a bit tricky to manage the permissions, because you have to set RBAC rights then mount the Azure File Share on your PC/server and then start to manage NTFS permissions locally.

The ability to check the open files would be a nice additional feature. On-premise you can check which files are open. On Azure, I haven't found this part.

Management and Troubleshooting often need Powershell commands.

We have been testing the solution since June 2021, but not in a real production environment. We are only testing macros, permissions, accessibility, backup and so on.

Good

I'm from Italy, but I belong to a server team hosted mainly in France and Germany. We need to manage things at the infrastructure level, and Azure File could be a technology to replace or to integrate with our on-premise solution.

The service can scale to fit almost any need, Azure Files offers four different tiers of storage allowing us to tailor our shares to the performance but obviously the cost will increase.

We have an enterprise agreement with microsoft so I tried to open a couple of requests directly at Microsoft, asking more information about the cost. Their reply was, "We don't have precise information for you, use the Azure Calculator; just start to use the service then check after some time".

Implement the service is quite easy, managing permissions can be tricky when starting from zero on this topic.

For one terabyte of data, we are spending about 150 Euro every month; but we are using the solution at a basic level with standard storage (HDDs and not SDDs).

It has been difficult to understand the real cost besides the solution, In my oppinion costs are not fully transparent.

I generally help customers use Microsoft Azure File Storage primarily for a lot of purposes, including the storage of files and enhancing storage security. There are private endpoints and private DNS resolver, which is basically a private endpoint resolver that resolves the IP address of the private endpoints internally. It is then further mapped within the application. It also has short file storage which accesses the storage according to the minimum privilege and rights assigned to that storage. It has networking facilities and firewall options to safeguard public data. It also has a SaaS token that can be generated around the storage and shared storage which enables customers to share their files through Azure File Storage. 

Flexible stroage in the cloud is very use and can be cheap and programmaticlay deployed

There are now various new features around Azure File storage that meets best practices with Managed identity support within your workloads. Also vaulted backup for ssd file shares, and File sync agent for Azure file shares for2026

There are various features attached to the solution, including firewall options to safeguard it. The profile management option is another valuable feature that allows us to manage the profiles and secure them. It allows the user to understand what configuration has been made to the  Azure virtual desktop. Blob Table Container Tables Queues Elastic San & Azure NetApp Files are also lots of other features that can be explored.

There is always going to be room for improvement. Certain use cases will evolve where file storage is used with visual ID and group mapping. As long as the dynamic mapping is working seamlessly, there aren’t any changes needed in Microsoft Azure File Storage. As of now, I've got no such recommendations.

Importing and exporting data needs to have a bit more documentation. Recently, Microsoft has actually stepped up and provided some training about securing data but they need to have a solution in case the data needs to be migrated. They need to include a service to securely transfer the data through Microsoft and encrypt it.

I have been working with Microsoft Azure File Storage for a couple of years.

It is very rare to get an outage in Azure. If there are any issues, the data is replicated into the DR region, allowing you to access it depending on the skew that is actually applied. 

Microsoft Azure File Storage can scale well because of its dynamic nature. It's quite scalable because of a file agent that is set on-premise and helps to scale out pretty much really. Azure can create large storage accounts and manage that, replicating the data securely.

Medium to large enterprises can mostly use file storage because they have a lot of data and Microsoft's features are evolving every day, making it a fit match.

I have direct experience with customer service at Microsoft. Usually, it involved raising a ticket. However, we as consultants are expected to fix the client’s problems first, and if there is a bug, then we raise the ticket. My experience with customer support is pretty good. They've always responded very quickly, and I never had to follow up with them. 

Net App

The setup is easy and easily doable. As long as the steps recommended by Microsoft are applied, it is not very complex. 

Usually, it is our customers who implement the solution. In most cases, they don’t require assistance if they follow the guidelines laid by Microsoft. However, in case there is any kind of assistance required, we help them to set it up. Usually, it is deployed on the cloud, but there are multiple ways to mimic the deployment and in some cases, they require it.

The pricing is usually dependent on your storage requirements. Overall, I believe Microsoft Azure File Storage's price is reasonable. 

On Premises San Storage

As long as one knows how to implement and secure it, Microsoft Azure File Storage can be used efficiently. There aren’t any particular recommendations, because a lot of it is already in place.

Microsoft has been implementing these scenarios but they can work a bit more around the SaaS token scenario. If they can simplify that, it can be great as not enough people use the SaaS tokens. I think this needs to be explained on an engineering level. If they include it, customers can use and choose this facility.

Overall, I would rate Microsoft Azure File Storage an eight out of ten.

The solution is user-friendly and integrates easily with web apps. 

Microsoft Azure File Storage should improve its pricing. 

Microsoft Azure File Storage is stable. 

The tool is scalable, and my company has more than 200 users. 

Microsoft Azure File Storage's deployment is straightforward and takes only five minutes to complete. 

We have seen ROI with the tool's use. 

We have Microsoft Azure File Storage's enterprise license. 

I rate the product an eight out of ten. The solution is easy to use. However, you need to be careful with the tool's pricing. 

The primary use case for us is storing attachments and images in our projects. It allows us to access the application and retrieve the files whenever needed, without the need for additional servers. We use the endpoint to access the application and view the images in any reports.

The most valuable aspect of Azure File Storage is that all the features are available in one place.

Otherwise, we would have to rely on other uncertain solutions. But with Azure File Storage, everything is consolidated, making it easy to configure and use.

If it is not for an application, then SharePoint or Office 365 could actually solve our problem for file storage and internal communications. But if you want to access files within an application, using Azure would be preferable.

However, the solution could use some additional tools for sharing files. It would be great to have everything in one place for a more streamlined experience.

Another area of improvement is pricing. Maybe Microsoft can make it more economical because it is a costly affair. So if they can optimize their pricing for broader customer use, including small and medium-sized companies.

I have been using Azure File Storage for about two years.

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability of the solution an eight out of ten. It is pretty scalable. Especially on the cloud version, the biggest advantage of the solution is its scalability. 

Two to three people are required for the maintenance. 

I didn't benefit much from Microsoft tech support. It's because they have specific departments. So when you raise a ticket, it takes time for them to assign it to the right team. Then someone picks it up and might realize it's not their area, so they transfer it to person XYZ. Then I have to explain the issue again. This process goes on, and the issue keeps transferring from one department to another. That's why; nowadays, we prefer handling things internally rather than reaching out to the support team.

Neutral

We are only using Microsoft. We are highly dependent on Microsoft for all our file storage needs, including SharePoint, Teams, and other storage solutions.

I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price.

The solution is only for enterprise-level businesses. 

For my deployments, I am utilizing both Azure File Storage and Block Storage. Additionally, I am using servers, specifically SQL Server and application servers. The application server is also a part of my setup.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Microsoft Azure File Storage has multiple functionalities, and you can use it as a source, but you may face some problems when contributing something in Azure. This is hard to do. The configuration in Azure doesn't help. This is okay, and it's not a big problem since I am not too aware of Azure resources. That's why I might have faced problems at first.

The solution is not user-friendly.

I have been using Microsoft Azure File Storage for a year.

It's a stable product.

The solution can be expanded because one can manage and install huge amounts of data in Azure. Those using the solution in my organization are using it for DevOps. We have around 20 users using the solution in my company.

I never faced any issues that prompted me to contact technical support.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

To those looking into using the solution, I recommend getting Azure documentation. This will help you to configure the solution with other tools.

Owing to the fact that some features might get added in the future after sending my notes to Azure, I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

The solution is easy to use.

They should make the solution more user-friendly.

We have been using the solution for almost three years.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. There are around 100 solution users in our company.

The solution is easy to set up. It requires three to four executives to deploy and takes 15-20 minutes to complete.

I recommend the solution to others and rate it a nine.

We use it to easily access data from the user side into our network. Like, we have some remote sites, and we have the user on the remote site who can easily access all the data as per the permissions and our requirements.

First of all, the solution is very secure. Secondly, the solution is very fast. It is reliable and available all the time. In the backup, it allows us to create the rate servers to save our data and use our data in multiples.

Firewall rules should be introduced to secure the access date from any virus attacks. Anti-virus should be introduced in the work filtering and document filtering.

I have been using Microsoft Azure File Storage for three years.

It is a stable solution because we don't need to care about hardware or electricity. We need a strong internet connection to access our data everywhere, logging in with our password.

It is a scalable solution. The number of users depends on our requirements. Sometimes it can be ten, sometimes hundred or fifty. I rate it eight out of ten.

The technical team is good and responsive.

The initial setup was easy from the user's side. They could quickly get access to the data. The deployment takes some time. First, we need to buy the storage and implement the policies per our network design. Whether it will take one week, two weeks, or one month depends on the network design. If we are on-premises, we must buy hardware according to our requirements. For the deployment, we had a technical team consisting of an assistant manager for network, system, or micro administrators. Also, there is a network engineer or system engineer. The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises.

We pay for both yearly and monthly licenses. The yearly one is cheaper than the monthly one.

I recommend the solution to those planning to use it. I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

This solution is mainly used for banking processes. 

The solution is easy to use, it's very user-friendly and intuitive. 

Licensing costs are expensive and I'd like to see the price come down.

We've been using this solution for four years. 

We haven't had any issues with stability. 

The scalability is good. 

We've used the technical support and it's good. 

Positive

The deployment of this solution is not carried out by my team but I believe the implementation required five people. 

Licensing costs are quite expensive, although I believe the more users you have, the less expensive it becomes. 

This is becoming a very widely used platform throughout the world. I think the sooner people get on to it, the better it will be for their organization. I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

We use the solution in our organization for its archival functionality. We are essentially archiving data with Microsoft Azure File Storage. Even though we have the applications and the storage, we are replicating our data into different data storages.

Feature-wise, it is an easily accessible solution since Microsoft is integrating everything into its products nowadays.

The solution is expensive. Considering the enterprise licensing required for the solution, the cost of the solution is an area where the product needs improvement.

I have been working on Microsoft Azure File Storage for around five to ten years. Presently, I am working on the latest version of the solution. I am an end user of the solution. I also work as an integrator for the solution.

We don't face any stability issues with the solution in our organization. I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten.

It is a very scalable solution. I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten. Around ten to fifteen of our customers are using the solution.

In my experience with the solution's technical support team, I would say it was okay since I faced no difficulties. I rate the solution's technical support team an eight out of ten.

Positive

We use Commvault and Veeam in our organization. The reason to use Microsoft Azure File Storage is that it is a cloud solution. Though the other ones are also cloud solutions, Microsoft offers better pricing compared to them.

The solution's initial setup process was straightforward.

Around two weeks were needed for the solution's deployment process. Also, the deployment process is something which one can do by themselves.

Only one technical person is required to deploy and maintain the solution.

We need a consultant with knowledge of integration and EDI-related processes to implement the solution.

I am unsure if I have seen an ROI using the solution since I don't look into the commercial part.

One needs to pay according to the storage they plan to use in the solution. The payments are to be made yearly. It is usually monthly, but we opted for yearly subscriptions in our company. In general, all cloud solutions are expensive. Ultimately the solution of the cost depends upon how one plans to use it, which includes features like data usage backup and other such data-related stuff. So the cost can differ from customer to customer.

I recommend the solution to those planning to use it, especially if they require a cheap cloud solution. We haven't seen any issues with the solution in our organization since it works fine. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We used the product in a POC that was related to a file transfer from another cloud to our private environment.

This is a risk management tool, and these files were related to the risk management tool and related to reports.

We're a worldwide company, and some of the countries don't have access to the internet. It was very good to distribute the files inside of our network as this is very important to us. In the end, with this solution, it was very easy to perform this goal.

The interface, configuration, and integration were all good features. It is very easy to use. The integration in particular is very good.

We could assess the files from our laptops. We assessed the files through the portal. We have the files wherever we want and that was the goal of this POC.

Technical support was great. 

The customization capabilities are excellent. 

It is very good at file storage.

The product is easy to set up.

It's a scalable solution.

The solution offered everything we needed. It was not lacking features. 

The pricing could be better. 

The security could always be modernized. 

We've used the solution over the last year. We used it for a POC. It was for about three months. 

While in our last project, there was no need to scale. That said, in previous projects, it could scale. We had 200 to 300 people on the solution across several countries. Just regular agents would use the solution. 

Support has been great. We are very pleased with their level of responsiveness. Microsoft really cares about its products.

Positive

We did not previously use any other product.

It was always very easy to implement. The self-storage was connected to a logic app and the part of the logic app was tricky to configure. However, in the end, after the learning path was completed, it was very easy. 

The file storage was always very easy to connect to the old tools that we needed to complete the POC.

The deployment itself was very quick.

In terms of an implementation strategy, the goal of the POC was to transfer files from a third-party company to our internal network. We implemented several file storage items for each country and we distributed the files that came from the third-party company to all of them.

We have a team of five that can handle maintenance, however, only one engineer is really needed. 

We handled the deployment and POC in-house. 

We have seen an ROI. It's helped us with sharing files across countries and made it very easy. 

I don't have any visibility on the price of the product. Someone else handled that aspect. However, my understanding is it could be lower. 

We did evaluate other options. We only use Microsoft products. 

We're a partner.

I'm no longer using the solution as I have finished the POC process.

The solution works very well. I would recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.