Azure NetApp Files

Azure's enterprise-grade managed file service powered by NetApp's ONTAP storage technology, delivering sub-millisecond latency for NFS and SMB workloads that demand performance far beyond what Azure Files can provide. While Azure Files is a general-purpose cloud file share suitable for lift-and-shift migrations and configuration sharing, Azure NetApp Files targets demanding enterprise workloads — SAP HANA, Oracle databases, high-performance computing (HPC) simulations, and virtual desktop infrastructure — where storage latency directly affects application throughput. It offers multiple service tiers (Standard, Premium, Ultra) with guaranteed IOPS and throughput, and brings ONTAP enterprise features such as instant volume snapshots, cross-region replication, SnapMirror data protection, and cloning to Azure. Azure NetApp Files is SAP-certified for HANA production deployments, a distinction that Azure Files does not hold. It runs on bare-metal NetApp hardware inside Azure datacenters, keeping storage on the same local network as your VMs and avoiding the latency overhead of network hops. The closest equivalents on other clouds are AWS FSx for NetApp ONTAP, which provides the same ONTAP feature set on AWS, and GCP NetApp Volumes. OCI has no native ONTAP-based offering. Use Azure NetApp Files when your workload requires single-digit millisecond latency, ONTAP data management features, or SAP HANA certification; use Azure Files when you need a simple, cost-effective SMB/NFS share without those constraints.

A pharmaceutical company runs SAP HANA on Azure VMs for their ERP system. Because HANA requires sub-millisecond storage latency and specific throughput guarantees, they provision an Azure NetApp Files Ultra-tier volume as the HANA data and log volume. They use ONTAP snapshots to take application-consistent backups every hour and SnapMirror to replicate data to a secondary Azure region for disaster recovery — all without leaving the Azure portal.