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Azure Files vs Azure NetApp Files: Which One Should You Choose? Performance tiers, protocol support, dual-protocol capability, pricing models, SAP/Oracle/HPC suitability, data management features, and the decision framework that maps each workload type to the right service — with setup procedures for both. By Francis Avorgbedor | Azure Engineer  ·  July 15, 2026  ·  20 min read  ·  Azure Files · Azure NetApp Files · Architecture FA Francis Avorgbedor Azure Engineer  ·  SEVENAI  ·  Azure Field Notes 4 Azure Files tiers: Premium SSD, Standard Hot, Cool, Tx Optimized 3 ANF performance tiers: Standard, Premium, Ultra — all SSD-backed 4TiB ANF minimum provisioning — significant cost floor for small workloads Dual ANF serves the same data via SMB and NFS simultaneously — AF cannot Microsoft offers two fully managed, enterprise-grade file storage services in Azure. They share a surface area — both serve file shares over standard protocols, both...