Nasuni vs. NetApp CVO: 9 Ways to Evaluate Hybrid Cloud Storage

NetApp is one of the most recognized names in storage, with decades of experience and thousands of customers. But in the era of hybrid cloud and global collaboration, legacy size doesn’t always translate to cloud-scale performance.

The Nasuni File Data Platform and NetApp’s primary hybrid cloud storage option, Cloud Volumes ONTAP (CVO), are designed around fundamentally different architectures. These technical differences not only shape what organizations can do today but what they will be able to do in the years ahead. So, choosing the right hybrid cloud storage provider is of critical importance.

Here are 9 ways to evaluate Nasuni and NetApp CVO, and determine which platform is best aligned with your storage strategy.

1. Architecture

Let’s start with the technical basics. NetApp CVO is a virtualized instance of the NetApp ONTAP operating system and its classic WAFL (Write Anywhere File Layout) file system. Although WAFL has been adapted for hybrid cloud, it does retain some architectural constraints. WAFL was built for the era of local infrastructure, so if you have only a few sites located near your new cloud backend, and you really don’t want to leave NetApp, then CVO may work just fine.

Nasuni’s hybrid cloud architecture is centered on our cloud-native file system – which was designed with object storage in mind – and lightweight edge VMs that cache files locally. This provides a combination of high-performance read/write access and limitless capacity at the lowest cost. But unlike WAFL, it’s also architected for this new era of infrastructure. Nasuni’s platform isn’t a mix of new and previously existing technologies. Everything is built around a file system designed for the cloud.

2. Scale

Although both NetApp CVO and Nasuni leverage cloud storage, the underlying differences in their architectures significantly impact scalability and cost efficiency. NetApp CVO is built on a block-based storage architecture that runs NetApp ONTAP in the cloud. CVO stores active data on expensive cloud block storage (SSD or HDD) and tiers inactive data to object storage using FabricPool.

This tiering process introduces additional costs and requires (expensive) compute resources to manage data movement between storage tiers. The high cost of compute instances often makes tiering infeasible. Ultimately, the scalability of the system is severely constrained by costs.

With Nasuni, all data scales in cost-effective object storage. Our customers have efficiently and cost-effectively scaled to multiple petabytes. There are no limits on maximum account volume or file share capacity, and because data scales in object storage, costs rise predictably with the size of the file system.

3. Performance

CVO’s performance is dependent on compute selection, storage tiering, and instance type, all of which add complexity. Yet if you have one or two sites, CVO may make sense.

Nasuni delivers high-performance read/write access to files through our caching edge appliances. This speed also scales efficiently and can extend to any number of global sites. Additionally, the platform’s hybrid architecture allows for many, many other capabilities, including a new kind of performance that more large organizations are looking for in a hybrid cloud solution.

4. Multi-Site Collaboration

Our customers aren’t satisfied with merely providing fast access to local files. They want to be able to give their end users fast access to all files no matter where they’re working. With Nasuni, all changes are continuously synchronized through the cloud and pushed out to key groups or users through our accelerated data propagation technology. This allows for intelligent multi-site caching, global collaborative workflows, global file locking to avoid version conflicts, hybrid work support, and external file and folder sharing.

NetApp has recognized that global file sharing is now a priority for large organizations, and the company is in the process of moving away from NetApp GFC (Global File Cache), which required Windows servers at the edge. Instead, NetApp is pushing users toward NetApp FlexCache. Although FlexCache is included with ONTAP licensing, customers need to have a heavy infrastructure footprint at each office location. Meanwhile, Nasuni can provide global file sharing and synchronization through virtual edge VMs, with no added infrastructure needed.

5. Cost

Figuring out the total cost of a NetApp CVO deployment is going to be a complex calculation that depends on your compute instance type, storage split for tiering, throughput, snapshot retention policies, and DR, among other variables.

Nasuni offers customers an annual subscription with 3-year commitment discounts. Pricing varies based on object storage type, capacity, and optional add-on services. But features such as multi-site file synchronization, Continuous File Versioning, rapid DR, and more are all bundled into the platform, whereas NetApp requires additional costs for backup, security, and tiering. The value of Nasuni truly shows at scale, as our customers can eliminate multiple third-party solutions in favor of one powerful, versatile platform.

Typically, moving to Nasuni saves organizations 50% on average relative to other traditional and hybrid infrastructure solutions. Each customer is different, of course, but in one recent example, Nasuni stands to save a leading energy provider $1M over the next three years compared to providing the same functionality with NetApp CVO.

6. Data Security & Disaster Recovery

NetApp CVO has a limit of 1,023 snapshots, but the practical ceiling is much lower since these are stored in expensive cloud block storage. Plus, customers typically must install NetApp Cloud Backup or a 3rd party solution. Nasuni, on the other hand, has no snapshot limits. All files are continuously versioned to low-cost object storage, ensuring healthy recovery times (RTOs) and recovery points (RPOs).

After a disaster, malware attack, or data loss incident, NetApp CVO requires a manual and time-consuming recovery process. Data needs to be moved from backup storage to NetApp CVO. Nasuni, on the other hand, provides rapid recovery from snapshots. Since Nasuni’s file system is effectively a series of pointers, petabytes of capacity and millions of files can be restored in seconds after any data loss event.

This difference in downtime has a profound effect on business operations. Your average mean time to recovery will be much longer with NetApp CVO. With Nasuni, you’ll be able to resume normal business operations quickly, limiting the impact of the incident.

7. Durability

NetApp CVO relies on block storage durability within a single cloud region, meaning data protection is dependent on the resilience of the cloud provider’s block storage infrastructure. To enhance durability, NetApp customers must deploy a second CVO instance in another region and use SnapMirror replication to synchronize data between instances. While this setup improves redundancy, it doubles storage costs and incurs cross-region replication fees.

Nasuni takes a different approach by leveraging the built-in durability of cloud object storage, which provides 11 nines (99.999999999%) of durability across multiple availability zones. Since Nasuni’s UniFS file system resides directly in object storage, there is no need for additional replication instances or cross-region sync costs.

For example, Microsoft Azure customers using Nasuni can automatically benefit from ZRS (Zone Redundant Storage) or GRS (Geo-Redundant Storage), which provides up to six air-gapped copies across different cloud regions. This built-in redundancy ensures that data remains highly available even in the event of a cloud region failure.

Unlike NetApp, Nasuni eliminates the need for manual replication, secondary storage instances, or third-party backup solutions, reducing operational overhead and long-term storage costs while delivering enterprise-grade durability.

8. Data Intelligence & AI

Both Nasuni and NetApp CVO offer data intelligence and AI readiness services. NetApp Data Infrastructure Insights (DII) offers monitoring, security event tracking, and cost analysis across your NetApp storage environments, but it is not natively integrated with your CVO deployments. So, you have to deploy and configure this solution separately.

Nasuni File IQ integrates with the Nasuni global file system. The solution pulls event data from each Nasuni edge appliance across the entire estate, providing our customers with a unified global view.

Admittedly, this space is evolving quickly, so the specifics of each of our offerings may change by the time you read this piece. I’d advise IT leaders to evaluate the data intelligence and AI-readiness tools from both vendors for overall capabilities, total cost, complexity (how the service integrates with your hybrid infrastructure), data curation, and long-term adaptability.

9. Migration and Deployment

Moving your file infrastructure to NetApp CVO involves some combination of NetApp SnapMirror, Robocopy, Datadobi, and the NetApp Professional Services team. Nasuni’s migration tools and services include Nasuni Edge VMs, select file migration tools, the Nasuni Professional Services team, and Nasuni Now, our specially architected tool that allows customers to start using Nasuni without waiting for the entire data migration process to finish.

As companies, Nasuni and NetApp have extensive experience working with the largest organizations in the world. For example, Dow, the global materials science leader, migrated to Nasuni after spending years as a NetApp customer. Dow IT Director Tony Rubenacker specifically cited migration and deployment as factors in his decision to choose Nasuni: “What really won us over was when we piloted some file migrations. We found that we could take a legacy NetApp file system, migrate it to a Nasuni appliance with zero impact to users. Meaning, all of the links inside the files, the file structures, everything. We were able to migrate those seamlessly.”

Built for the Cloud Era

Choosing between Nasuni and NetApp CVO isn’t just about comparing features – it’s about selecting a platform that aligns with where your business is headed.

I could go into more detail on disaster recovery, data security, data intelligence, or ease of use. There are a number of other important distinctions between the two solutions with regards to ransomware, multi-cloud deployments, and support for different operating systems.

But we do have a granular comparison available for interested IT professionals, so if you are deciding between Nasuni vs. NetApp CVO, reach out to us for more details.