Choosing Between Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files: A Complete Technical Guide

When designing scalable and high-performance file storage in Microsoft Azure, two key services often come into consideration: Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files. Both offer managed file shares in the cloud, but they serve different performance, protocol, and enterprise requirements.

In this blog, let’s explore the core differences between the two, provide real-world use cases, and guide you on when to choose Azure Files and when to choose Azure NetApp Files.

Azure Files:

Azure Files is a fully managed file share service in the cloud. It uses the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol version 2.1 and version 3.0 and Network File System (NFS) protocol version 4.1. It can be mounted concurrently by cloud or on-premises deployments.

Azure Files can be accessible from Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems. It can be integrated with Microsoft Entra ID and on-prem AD DS. It can be deployed as standard or premium performance tiers. It supports private endpoints and encryption.

Azure NetApp Files:

Azure NetApp Files is a high-performance, enterprise-grade file storage solution powered by NetApp, natively integrated into Azure. It uses the SMB protocol version 3.0, NFS protocol version 3 and version 4.1 and Dual Protocol.

Here Dual Protocol means the ability to serve the same data using both SMB and NFS protocols simultaneously. This allows clients using different protocols to access the same datasets while maintaining appropriate access permissions. Essentially, it provides a unified storage solution accessible by both Windows (SMB) and Linux/Unix (NFS) based clients.

Azure NetApp Files delivers ultra-low latency and high throughput performance suitable for enterprise apps like SAP HANA, Oracle, HPC, and VDI workloads. It has dedicated performance tiers like Standard, Premium and Ultra. It supports volume snapshots, cross-region replication, and point-in-time restores for disaster recovery scenarios.

When to Choose What?

Choose Azure Files when:

• You need moderate performance for shared storage.
• Applications rely on SMB shares, such as legacy Windows apps.
• You are lifting and shifting file server-based workloads.
• Cost sensitivity is important.
• You require simple file sharing across Virtual Machines or containers.
• You are looking for serverless file share provisioning with Azure Backup and Azure File Sync integration.

Use Cases:

1. Let’s say you are deploying a fleet of containerized applications in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and needs shared storage for logs and configuration. Then you can use Azure Files with an SMB share, mount it as a persistent volume in AKS, and enable geo-redundant storage.
2. Say, you are migrating an on-prem Windows file server to the cloud. Use Azure Files with premium tier with SMB managed file shares that can replace file servers with file-level backup with Azure Backup.
3. If developers need a shared file location for test data, configuration, and logs for their Dev/Test environment, then they can use Azure Files with NFS or SMB

Choose Azure NetApp Files when:

• You need high throughput, ultra-low latency, enterprise grade file storage.
• Applications require NFS 3/4.1 or SMB 3 with dual protocol.
• You are migrating SAP HANA, Oracle DB, HPC or VDI environments.
• You need snapshot-based backup, cross region replication, or volume level QoS.
• You want seamless lift and shift of on-prem Network Attached Storage (NAS) workloads to the cloud.
• You need compliance and performance guarantees for mission critical apps.

Use Cases:

1. Let’s say an enterprise is migrating its on-premises SAP HANA database to Azure and needs sub millisecond latency with NFS Then you can suggest them to use Azure NetApp Files with Ultra performance tier for persistent storage. Azure NetApp Files is SAP certified, provides 99.99% SLA, and supports necessary throughput for in-memory operations.
2. Often media companies need fast access to video-audio assets during editing and rendering. They can use Azure NetApp Files to store large media files accessible from remote render farms. High throughput of Azure NetApp Files supports large file transfers and real-time access.
3. For enterprises deploying large-scale VDI environments with high IOPS user profiles can use Azure NetApp Files for FS Logix containers or user data. Azure NetApp Files can handle thousands of users with sub-second latency and multi-protocol access.

Conclusion

Both Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files are powerful, but they serve different needs. Think of Azure Files if you need standard shared file storage and simple cloud file servers. On the other hand, Azure NetApp Files is best when performance, scale, and enterprise capabilities are non-negotiable.

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