No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco MDS Series vs HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco MDS Series
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
4th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Public Cloud Storage Services (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 9.7%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is 3.7%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE Alletra Storage MP B100003.7%
Cisco MDS Series9.7%
Other86.6%
Enterprise SAN
 

Featured Reviews

VK
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Reliable storage networking has ensured seamless multi-protocol access and continuous redundancy
Currently, I do not have any major suggestions for improvement as everything is working well without issues. If additional functions could be introduced to simplify usage, I would suggest that AI functionality or better integration capabilities would be advantageous for Cisco MDS Series. Any new AI-related features or functionality added to Cisco MDS Series would represent a positive advancement.
reviewer1309695 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure And Systems Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
High‑availability block storage has protected critical research workloads and boosted VMware IOPS
It is difficult to provide specific areas for improvement at this time. We may realize approximately 20% gains in the future, but the previous SAN we used was not very time-consuming, so the improvement is not very significant. We anticipate gains of approximately 10 to 20%. The management interface could be simplified. The cloud console contains two main sections: one for hardware and one for logical volumes on the LUNs being managed. This split is understandable because the hardware console contains HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 for block storage and HPE Alletra for backup, both accessible in the same console. The separation of the SAN hardware console and the backup console is logical and understandable. We have four compute nodes, and the system was not designed to shut down gracefully with only two compute nodes remaining. Running with just one compute node functions properly, and the system continues to operate at reduced capacity. However, when we experienced a crash involving half of the system, HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 failed completely. This behavior is documented as normal in the documentation, but we hoped the block storage could manage to run with half the power. This capability will be available in a future release but is not included in the current version. Our testing before moving to production was not entirely successful, but this aligns with the documented specifications. When we perform failover and data center crash tests, the system performs very well. We have deliberately crashed all four compute nodes, and the secondary storage site manages the workload without any virtual machines malfunctioning. This level of reliability is excellent, and it demonstrates why we selected HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000. Improvements in this area would make the solution even stronger.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Cisco MDS 9148 SAN switch model is the best product, highly reliable and low cost, easy to deploy, easy to upgrade, easy to configure, easy to administer, and it gives effective performance when used for SAN switch connectivity between hosts and storage boxes."
"The stability has been commendable with no major performance issues and the system consistently provides users the ability to access the network without any problems."
"The product is easy to use."
"It enables us to integrate and load balance between multiple layer one fiber vendor links, which is very useful."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"MDS's reliability is at a high level, the issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"The performance of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 with high-performance workloads is very good; the new controllers with the system and the software are very fast, and we have no performance issues when we change to it from other hardware."
"If your production has 100% uptime, this is a very significant achievement for any company because there is no downtime."
"Today I get a better deduplication level compared to the previous generations. That means the price per gigabyte or terabyte is lower for me."
"Moving to a consumption model is highly desirable from the client side. everyone seems to be moving in that direction."
"The features of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 that I prefer the most are the snapshotting and ease of administration."
"HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 takes advantage of Nimble DNA, which is a super feature and provides the best experience in the world."
"The most valuable feature of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is that it is very easy to understand compared to other storage solutions, and the commands are also straightforward."
"The unified management experience has been great. That's a huge advantage."
 

Cons

"Data Center Network Manager is good but it is not free and requires purchasing a separate license."
"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"Webui needs Data Center Network Management tool licensed copy for accessing Cisco Switches instead a web-based GUI should be made easily available the way Brocade san switch is managed."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having SAN Manager with life cycle management features and Integration with 3rd party storage monitoring tools."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having API functionality for automation and programming."
"We are facing issues related to your services and support with HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000."
"They need to put back in the feature in which you can export volumes by set instead of individually. I mentioned this in a meeting I recently had with them."
"The marketplace should improve. There should be a more robust variety of vendors."
"There are areas for improvement in support, and they still have potential to be better."
"Support management is not straightforward. With Dell, we had direct access to phone support, but with HPE, access is not as simple and support is not always available in French."
"In file protocols regard, an area for improvement exists."
"With support, occasionally, we have a little trouble escalating things."
"The administration UI is only in English, not Spanish."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing cannot be considered an advantageous trait of the solution since it is expensive. I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise SAN solutions are best for your needs.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Media Company
10%
University
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco MDS Series?
The pricing could be improved as the solution is very expensive. I am on a yearly payment basis.
What needs improvement with Cisco MDS Series?
I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling.
What is your primary use case for Cisco MDS Series?
I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections.
What needs improvement with HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
In file protocols regard, an area for improvement exists.
What is your primary use case for HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
We are the partner of HPE as a Gold Partner of HPE storage solutions. We potentially use it for critical applications. The major use case is for critical applications and 100% data availability gua...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 model supports both block and file protocols, but there are certain conditions in terms of using the file protocols. They are not coming up with 100% file protocol sol...
 

Also Known As

Cisco MDS 9100, Cisco MDS 9222i, Cisco MDS 9700
HPE GreenLake for Block Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Rugby League
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.