Dell EqualLogic PS series vs HPE MSA comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.5, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.8. Dell Technologies holds a 2.6% mindshare in MS, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 18.8% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Dell EqualLogic PS series

Read 19 Dell EqualLogic PS series reviews

362 Views
362 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

HPE MSA

Read 26 HPE MSA reviews

1,492 Views
1,462 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Dell EqualLogic PS series

HPE MSA

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

Dell EqualLogic PS series and HPE MSA are competing storage solutions targeting enterprise environments. HPE MSA emerges as more advanced due to its extensive features, justifying the investment despite the higher cost.

Features: Dell EqualLogic PS series offers seamless scalability, an easy-to-manage environment, and automated data management. HPE MSA stands out with its mixed protocol support, superior performance, and customizable options tailored for demanding enterprise needs.

Room for Improvement: Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve in providing more advanced protocol support and performance features. HPE MSA may enhance its cost efficiency, ease of use for initial setups, and integration options for non-tech users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE MSA offers straightforward deployment with robust customer service assisting smooth integration. Dell EqualLogic PS series provides more flexible deployment, focusing on ease of setup through high-level support and advisory services.

Pricing and ROI: Dell EqualLogic PS series is cost-efficient with lower setup costs, offering good ROI through scalability and support. HPE MSA, with a higher initial cost, promises excellent ROI with advanced features and performance, making it a valuable investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 867,349 peers since 2012

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)

7th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE MSA

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 2.6%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE MSA is 18.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HPE MSA	18.8%
Dell EqualLogic PS series	2.6%
Other	78.6%

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

HansThilen

System technician at Lidingö stad

A highly scalable and astoundingly stable solution offering its users an extremely good technical support

Regarding an area to improve, I would say that from Dell EqualLogic family, I can't buy Dell EqualLogic PS series. I can't buy any more solutions provided by EqualLogic, so the solution will have to make certain improvements in the future. Since we can't buy anything from EqualLogic in our company, we plan to move to another solution. Since I can't buy it anymore, I don't receive any updates on the solution. Also, this is the last year in which one can buy support for the solution.

Read full review

Pragnesh Sachania

Deputy Manager IT at La Gajjar

Scalable, easy to manage, and used for virtualization environments

We didn't face any issues with the technical functionality. However, we faced a lot of challenges with our custom configuration. The HPE support person who did the installation was very technical. He answered all the queries, and we resolved the entire setup. We set up the storage as per our requirements. We previously used a physical server instead of virtualization. With the help of an HPE engineer and partners, we prepared a strategy for migrating the entire physical servers to our virtualization infrastructure. It took two days to deploy the solution. Six people were involved in the solution's deployment, including two from HPE and four from our IT team.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support, when we had access to it, was very good."

"It is stable and scalable."

"The technical support for EqualLogic has been universally outstanding."

"The product is very stable."

"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."

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"If you have one datacenter fail, the VMs will start to run inside the other data center."

"Dell's technical support is very good."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pros

"The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility."

"The speed and performance of HPE MSA are admirable."

"HPE StorageWorks MSA is an entry-level, cost-effective solution for SMB customers."

"The most valuable features are the storage levels and snapshot features."

"I like StorageWorks' snapshots for our backup system. We had a pool of SSD and traditional drives. StorageWorks has a feature that transfers the hot data to high-performing drives."

"MSA performs exceptionally well, particularly in regions with frequent power outages."

"HPE MSA is a very flexible array because we can add more enclosures and extend the capacity dynamically."

"The integration with Veeamware, with VAM for backup, is improved with the new version."

More HPE MSA pros

Cons

"If I need to have more space or more capacity, I need to replace the product. It would be ideal if we could scale without replacing the box itself."

"The product is reaching the end-of-lifecycle."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve by providing fiber channel connectivity. Fiber channel connectivity is not supported, which is a requirement of advanced applications, such as SAP HANA. SAP HANA recommends fiber channel connectivity, but the Dell EqualLogic PS series is only an ISCSI data storage."

"There is no inline deduplication capability."

"The replication efficiency needs to be improved."

"Synchronous replication uses space inefficiently."

"The only challenging part in the tool was related to some site recovery area. In order to exploit the site recovery area, my company had to purchase additional VMware products."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve the performance because in our hybrid configuration the read speed is faster than the write speed."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series cons

"HPE StorageWorks MSA could maybe include a pay-top of texture feature or something like job replication."

"We faced a lot of challenges with our custom configuration during installation."

"Some clients have suggested room for improvement in expanding storage capacity beyond the base traces."

"The platform’s monitoring capabilities could be enhanced."

"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."

"HPE should reintroduce customizable ports as they were in Gen 5, allowing customers to use both iSCSI or SC on a single controller."

"The solution requires hardware."

"I rate HPE support four out of 10. I'm not happy with them. We purchased mission-critical support, and we're supposed to get a response in four hours. Instead, I'm waiting days for them to replace the drive. They asked me to send back the failed one, and I don't know the address. After I sent it back, they told me they haven't received it. It's a nightmare."

More HPE MSA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are annual maintenance costs beyond the original licensing period."

"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."

"It is a fair price."

"I don't think I would say that the product is less expensive...The product's price is not an issue for our company, considering the relationship we have with Dell and the customer support we receive."

"All features are out of the box. The license will be in the virtual, OS, or application layer."

"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."

"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."

"Licensing is pretty straightforward."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pricing and cost advice

"This solution is quite expensive; they should lower the cost."

"HPE StorageWorks MSA's licensing is perpetual and not integrated."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"This solution involves a one-time CapEx payment, followed by warranty extensions."

"The solution can be a bit expensive."

"When we bought this solution it was very reasonably priced and they were willing to deal."

"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."

"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EqualLogic PS series?

The technical support for the solution was really good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EqualLogic PS series?

An improvement that could be made is to have a storage solution with all SSD hard disks, as we currently have a Dell EqualLogic PS series with traditional hard disks. It's not simple to replace a h...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell EqualLogic PS series?

Dell EqualLogic PS series is the storage of our server, which serves our use case. The deployment of Dell EqualLogic PS series takes about five days.

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE StorageWorks MSA?

The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

NEC D8 series vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 54% of the time

More Dell EqualLogic PS series Competitors

NetApp FAS Series vs HPE MSA

Compared 37% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE MSA

Compared 22% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs HPE MSA

Compared 21% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs HPE MSA

Compared 13% of the time

More HPE MSA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series

September 2025

Download Dell EqualLogic PS series product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA

September 2025

Download HPE MSA product report

Also Known As

EqualLogic PS series

HP StorageWorks MSA

Overview

EqualLogic PS Series arrays bring a new level of performance to service more of your most demanding applications and virtualization requirements, while delivering the simplicity of the EqualLogic management experience. Featuring six array configurations, including 2U/2.5" drive options with All Flash and Hybrid Arrays, it is ideal for companies and organizations with growing data and performance needs.

Dell Technologies

Whether you need best-in-class performance or are looking to get the most capacity for your investment, MSA has a fast, affordable solution for you. And every MSA comes with an intuitive setup and management interface anyone can master.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

FAW Foundry, AW Engineering, Unimat, eLongNet Information Technology, BDO Brasil, Odyssey Space Research

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

September 2025

Free Report: Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA report.

See our list of best Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) vendors.

We monitor all Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.