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Azure NetApp Files (ANF) is a powerful, fully managed file storage solution that offers high performance and scalability. It delivers enterprise-grade performance and reliability, but like any powerful tool, it’s important to use it efficiently to avoid unnecessary costs. Whether you’re running production workloads or development environments, optimizing your ANF usage can lead to significant savings.

In this post, we’ll explore practical strategies to reduce costs while maintaining performance and availability.

1. Right-Size Your Volumes

ANF performance scales with volume size, so over-provisioning can lead to higher costs.

💡Strategy:

• Start with the minimum required size and scale up as needed.


• Use performance metrics to guide adjustments.


• Automate resizing based on usage patterns.

2. Choose the Appropriate Service Level

ANF offers three service levels:

• Standard (cost-effective for general-purpose workloads)


• Premium (balanced performance and cost)


• Ultra (high-performance, higher cost)

💡Strategy:

• Use Standard for dev/test or file shares.


• Use Premium for databases and production apps.


• Use Ultra only when absolutely necessary (e.g., SAP HANA, AI/ML).

You can change service levels of volumes on the fly – leverage this flexibility to optimize costs during off-peak hours. This can significantly reduce costs during periods of lower performance demand.

3. Use Capacity Pools Effectively

Capacity pools allow you to manage multiple volumes under a shared performance and capacity budget.

💡Strategy:

• Consolidate volumes with similar performance needs.


• Avoid underutilized pools – monitor usage and rebalance as needed.


• Use tags to track cost centres and optimize pool allocation.

4. Leverage Snapshots and Clones

Snapshots are space-efficient and don’t consume additional capacity unless data changes.

💡Strategy:

• Use snapshots for backups and versioning.


• Use writable clones for test environments instead of duplicating data.

5. Reserved Capacity

Reserved Capacity allows you to pre-purchase storage in 100 TiB or 1 PiB units for a fixed term (1 or 3 years). In return, you get a discounted rate compared to pay-as-you-go pricing. 

• It applies to capacity pools in a specific region and service level.


• It’s not currently available for the Flexible service level.


• It covers only ‘hot’ tier usage if using cool access tier.


• Scope options include are single resource group, single subscription, shared billing scope and management group.

💡Strategy:

1. Use Azure Monitor or Cost Management to identify workloads with consistent storage needs.


2. Apply reservations at the management group or shared billing scope level to cover multiple subscriptions and maximize coverage.


3. Align with Long-Term Projects which is ideal for workloads like SAP HANA, Oracle databases, or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that have predictable storage demands.


4. Use cool access tier for infrequently accessed data and snapshots for backups to further reduce costs.

6. Cool Access Storage

Store infrequently accessed data in cool access tiers, which are cheaper than hot access tiers. Cool Access allows inactive data blocks including those in snapshots to be automatically moved from the hot tier (high-performance) to a cool tier (lower-cost Azure storage). This helps reduce storage costs without sacrificing data availability.

💡Strategy:

1. Use Azure Monitor and NetApp metrics to track access patterns and identify volumes with low activity.


2. Use snapshots for backup and retention, and let Cool Access automatically reduce their storage cost over time.


3. Use Azure Cost Management to track how much data is moved to the cool tier and estimate monthly savings.


4. Customize the inactivity threshold (2 -183 days) based on your workload’s lifecycle. For example, set a shorter period for dev/test environments and longer for compliance archives.

7. Optimize Dev/Test Environments

Development and testing environments often don’t need high performance 24/7.

💡Strategy:

• Use Standard tier for dev/test.


• Schedule automatic shutdowns or downgrades during off-hours.


• Use snapshots instead of full clones to save space.

8. Monitor and Automate with Azure Tools

Use Azure Monitor, Cost Management, and NetApp Metrics to track usage and spending.

💡Strategy:

• Set up alerts for capacity thresholds and cost spikes.


• Use automation to scale volumes or change service levels based on usage.


• Analyze historical data to forecast and budget more accurately.

Conclusion

Cost optimization with Azure NetApp Files is about smart configuration, continuous monitoring, and automation. By aligning your storage strategy with workload needs, you can unlock the full value of ANF while keeping your cloud bill in check.

Gaining more insights on the cost model for Azure NetApp Files will helps you manage your expenses from the service.

Hope this blog helps! 🙂