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 8.3, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell Technologies holds a 4.3% mindshare in MS, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 13.8% mindshare. Additionally, 80% 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 20 Dell EqualLogic PS series reviews

676 Views
669 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

HPE MSA

Read 26 HPE MSA reviews

1,667 Views
1,650 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Dell EqualLogic PS series

HPE MSA

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

March 2026

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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

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

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 March 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 4.3%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE MSA is 13.8%, down from 19.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
HPE MSA	13.8%
Dell EqualLogic PS series	4.3%
Other	81.9%

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

Khuram Ayyaz

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.

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JobyThomas

Manager, Information Technology at a construction company with 201-500 employees

Ensures quick data handling but needs advanced security features

The speed and performance of HPE MSA are admirable. I found that its scalability benefited my organization, especially in larger settings. While the price is not reasonable, its performance makes up for it. Additionally, the licensing costs are consistent with most brands. Compared to Huawei, however, I found that Huawei's processing power, performance, and cost were more advantageous.

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

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

"The solution can scale."

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

"It has contributed to the implementation of virtualization and all its benefits."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series is a highly stable solution."

"It is extremely reliable."

"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 stable and scalable."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pros

"It has notably provided scalability benefits."

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

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

"We use the MSA outside of our data center, and it's a nice robust platform that we can use without buying a whole enterprise SAN, so it gives us the flexibility we need."

"Was purchased as a DR solution but became our production SAN, very fast and easy to use, a great SAN for SMB's with enterprise features."

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

"The most valuable features are data deduplication and snapshot replication."

"We've been very happy with the product, and have had good luck with them as far as not having any issues."

More HPE MSA pros

Cons

"Three of the four devices have been rock solid, and one of them had a string of issues that we eventually resolved."

"Do not go for EQL. It will be out of production in a few years."

"The performance isn't as good as, for example, Nimble."

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

"When they deployed our cluster, they did not provide any documentation or low-level or high-level diagrams. They simply came, mounted the servers, and started installation without documentation, which is a negative point on the vendor side."

"The performance was never very good, and its latency was higher than expected."

"Synchronous replication uses space inefficiently."

"I can't buy any more solutions provided by EqualLogic...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."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series cons

"P2000 has become legacy and we can't find spare parts for it anymore. The life cycle is very low."

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

"Synchronized replication is very important for MSA; however, HPE StorageWorks MSA doesn't provide synchronized replication."

"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."

"Data security features are more important to me than anything else, and I think HPE MSA lacks in this area."

"However, we did have some issues at first but we worked through them and currently we have no issues."

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

"The support contract is expensive, although they are very responsive."

More HPE MSA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Licensing is pretty straightforward."

"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."

"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."

"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."

"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."

"It is a fair price."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pricing and cost advice

"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 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."

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

"The solution can be a bit expensive."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
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?

I do not have anything in mind regarding new capabilities for Dell products at this time.

See all answers

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...

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

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 13% of the time

IBM XIV vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 29% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE MSA

Compared 23% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs HPE MSA

Compared 16% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs HPE MSA

Compared 12% of the time

More HPE MSA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series

March 2026

Download Dell EqualLogic PS series product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA

March 2026

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

March 2026

Free Report: Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

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