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Dell EqualLogic PS series vs HPE MSA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

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

Dell EqualLogic PS series
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE MSA
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 5.0%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE MSA is 9.4%, down from 19.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE MSA9.4%
Dell EqualLogic PS series5.0%
Other85.6%
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

Khuram Ayyaz - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Executive at Virtual University
Has enabled uninterrupted access to educational platforms and simplified storage management
Dell EqualLogic PS series is easily scalable, and we can add extra boxes and storage. It was easy to deploy during COVID. Deploying Dell EqualLogic PS series is straightforward, with no complexity involved. Dell EqualLogic PS series is a good product. We did not experience any failures in the last six to seven years, and it is still running as our storage for offline data. There are snapshot capabilities in data protection available, but we did not use that feature because it consumes much space. We have only 150 terabytes of space and simply use it to create volumes without utilizing it for snapshots. We use thin provisioning in Dell EqualLogic PS series, but I did not explore that feature further.
JP
Administrative Assistant at EUIPO - European Union Intellectual Property Office
Ease of management and seamless storage optimization empower effective data handling
The user web interface is a bit slow, but it is really easy to use, although you still have to wait a bit when you send an operation. We have had some drive failures, but with the redundancy, we had no data loss. We just had to replace the disk, and it goes automatically well. The main difficulty is the firmware upgrade of disks, as it means stopping all the servers to make the upgrade. It would be beneficial to have it done in the background, stopping a disk and upgrading it while keeping the system running. Regarding responsiveness of the web interface, the same issue exists with iLO on the servers, where the interface is also a bit slow. However, with the new servers, it is always faster. The small CPU dedicated to that task does not have a lot of power since it is not the main task of the machine, making it less of a real problem and just a question of responsiveness.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has been working well overall."
"Technical support is great; we have four-hour support from Dell for storage."
"Before deploying it, we used public clouds for our services, facing latency and other issues with other vendors; after deploying this cluster, we were very satisfied and relieved."
"If you have one datacenter fail, the VMs will start to run inside the other data center."
"The technical support is very good."
"I am satisfied with it; it works very fine for our purpose, and its performance is enough for our needs."
"The most valuable feature of Dell EqualLogic PS series auto tiering by using this feature, the customer can get higher performance on a valuable budget."
"The solution has been extremely consistent over the years, we've had absolutely no issues with the product at all, and it's lasted a long time without causing any problems."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA is an entry-level, cost-effective solution for SMB customers."
"The solution is scalable and easy to manage."
"The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility."
"Easy to manage, it’s reliable for us, and fits our environment."
"So far, our experience with this product has been great."
"HPE MSA is a very flexible array because we can add more enclosures and extend the capacity dynamically."
"Generally, HPE MSA has improved my storage management and has notably provided scalability benefits."
"For those who want to use HPE MSA, the biggest benefits are data deduplication and snapshot replication."
 

Cons

"It's kind of expensive when you buy the EqualLogic solution because, as you grow, you have to keep buying another controller. It can be more expensive with time."
"6510 and 6610 have two iSCSI connections in each controller. Why do 6110xxx members have only one, and why do the same members have the possibility of having an active iSCSI interface in the passive controller? It could make a lot of noise with a failover."
"There is no option for mixing RAID types in one device."
"One problem with this solution is that synchronous replication requires lots of duplicated space."
"Do not go for EQL. It will be out of production in a few years."
"There is no inline deduplication capability."
"The searchable online documentation is missing.​"
"Individual file recovery would be a nice additional feature."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA could maybe include a pay-top of texture feature or something like job replication."
"The support contract is expensive, although they are very responsive."
"It would be beneficial to have an add-on feature to improve analytics or insight capabilities inside the app."
"GUI can be improved Firmware updates need improvement Hardware could use a little refinement. (The fiber ports on one controller pushed through the case causing us to replace that controller under warranty."
"This product is getting a little bit older, so new features like deduplication are not included."
"It's a fairly simple product to set up as well, but it's a little bit more entry level; for those customers that can't afford something larger or whatnot, but would still like to get that shared storage or that SAN functionality."
"The solution's license should be integrated and not separate."
"There is room for improvement in terms of scalability. There are times when we need to upgrade the device and the firmware. Sometimes, that can be a struggle."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It seemed expensive at first, but the durability lowered the cost of ownership dramatically over time."
"Dell EqualLogic PS series can improve its scale-out feature. Sometimes the customer has a limited budget for storage expansion. When they want to expand their capacity, they need to buy a complete controller plus storage capacity, which sometimes is out of their budget. If Dell EqualLogic PS series support could scale up the environment in which only hard drive extension controllers should be supported, then customers can expand within a lower budget."
"There are annual maintenance costs beyond the original licensing period."
"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."
"Licensing is pretty straightforward."
"​It is a fair price."
"I didn't buy it. It was another person seven years ago. So, I don't really know, but all storage platforms cost a lot of money. It is probably in the mid-range, but you get what you pay for."
"Price-wise, the solution is cheap. I rate it a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive."
"When we bought this solution it was very reasonably priced and they were willing to deal."
"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The price of the solution is a little high and they should provide more competitive pricing. If you want to increases the storage size there are additional fees."
"This solution is quite expensive; they should lower the cost."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA's licensing is perpetual and not integrated."
"This solution involves a one-time CapEx payment, followed by warranty extensions."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Performing Arts
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell EqualLogic PS series?
I do not have anything in mind regarding new capabilities for Dell products at this time.
What is your primary use case for Dell EqualLogic PS series?
We are essentially a university, and we have deployed Dell EqualLogic PS series in our data centers to run our production sites, student portals, websites, our on-premises portal, and campus manage...
What advice do you have for others considering Dell EqualLogic PS series?
I work with Dell EqualLogic PS series. I am an end user and a customer for Dell. I have experience only with Dell PowerEdge, and I do not work with other products like PowerScale or PowerStore. Reg...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE StorageWorks MSA?
I did not compare the cost of HPE MSA with others because we buy with a framework contract, and HP is the only brand available on that contract, so we have no comparison.
What needs improvement with HPE StorageWorks MSA?
The user web interface is a bit slow, but it is really easy to use, although you still have to wait a bit when you send an operation. We have had some drive failures, but with the redundancy, we ha...
What is your primary use case for HPE StorageWorks MSA?
We use HPE MSA as storage for the VMware servers, and we will try to use Proxmox server later on, but currently, we use VMware.
 

Also Known As

EqualLogic PS series
HP StorageWorks MSA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FAW Foundry, AW Engineering, Unimat, eLongNet Information Technology, BDO Brasil, Odyssey Space Research
Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.