Item: Azure NetApp Files
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our organization implemented our NetApp infrastructure a few years ago. We just recently started to convert our computing to the Azure environment. We have been pleasantly surprised with the seemless integration and speed boost Azure NetApp Files has provided to our organization. Although storage is cheap nowadays, accessing that storage has become the bottleneck and Azure NetApp Files has mostly solved that problem.

Pros and Cons

We have found that it scales very well. In some cases we had a large existing storage infrastructure and were able to migrate it while other times we started from scratch with low storage demands and Azure NetApp Files fit the bill each time.
We have been impressed with the replication capabailities.
The read and write speed when interacting with files is a major asset.

We haven't done too much yet, but it seems auto-backup needs some improvement. It seems like it is backing up corrupted files, overwriting the previous uncorrupted file.
This is somewhat related to the previous con but versioning of files would be helpful If there is a corrupted file or a file that has been deleted by a user, quick retrieval of the individual file would be handy.

Return on Investment

Our on-phone employees have been able to retrieve documents faster while on the phone, translating into better sales and retention rates.
We don't have to maintain as many of our own file storage devices, allowing our IT team to focus on other mission-critical pieces.

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)

We briefly looked at Amazon Elastic File System. From the small amount of research we did, Amazon EFS was comparable, but in the end we already had a NetApp infrastructure and were a Microsoft shop, so melding them together using Azure NetApp Files made sense.

Key Insights

Do you think Azure NetApp Files delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Azure NetApp Files's feature set?

Yes

Did Azure NetApp Files live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Azure NetApp Files go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Azure NetApp Files again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Azure DevOps Services (formerly VSTS), Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365)

Likelihood to Recommend

Azure NetApp Files is extremely flexible and adapts to the file storage needs of the business. It is well suited to migrate existing file storage structure with hundreds of thousand of files as well as starting from scratch with no files. In either scenario it has performed well and met our business' needs as our sales and service teams need to access files quickly while they are on the phone with prospects and customers. Quickly providing answers to prospects is paramount for our sales team because for every second a prospect waits on the phone, the chance of them leaving the conversation grows exponentially.

File access speed improvements have increased our customer aquisition and retention

Overall Satisfaction with Azure NetApp Files