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HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs IBM System Storage DS5000 Series 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

HPE 3PAR StoreServ
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
304
Ranking in other categories
NAS (8th), All-Flash Storage (11th)
IBM System Storage DS5000 S...
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
18
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 HPE 3PAR StoreServ is 12.4%, up from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM System Storage DS5000 Series is 2.9%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE 3PAR StoreServ12.4%
IBM System Storage DS5000 Series2.9%
Other84.7%
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Saqib - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at Hybrid Tech
Uninterrupted upgrades accelerate performance with good support
I would rate the solution eight out of ten. It should be noted that in Pakistan, some parts are not readily available, and we need to import them from Singapore or other countries. We encountered an issue with a customer where the midplane failed and was not available. We had to wait for several days for a replacement, even in a 24/7 support case. Additionally, we faced motherboard failures in the customer's environment, encountering two motherboard failures simultaneously. We obtained one motherboard immediately, yet had to wait ten days for another. These issues should have been resolved promptly given the 24/7 support level.
Gustavo Rosello - PeerSpot reviewer
Technological Infrastructure Manager at Mercado Argentino de Valores S.A.
Provides solid hardware and ROI to users
Companies or groups of business units are growing fast. We have perhaps between four and five more people than what it was two years ago, so the systems are increasing, and now we are working with RPA in some of our processes for automation, especially wherever it is mandatory in the financial branch, like a common investment fund and the investment in action or where there are other products. Our market is directly related to small business. We are working with companies where data translation is needed or where invoices, specifically credit invoices, the negotiation of cheques, or a doc that shows receipt of money, which you can sell at a future date. We have a sub-warehouse that has a back office in the cloud to use all operations related to creditors so that the company can increase its share in the markets. I think that we may need something on-premises in the future. The trends indicate that users are returning to on-premises systems because of the high cost of public clouds. We are looking for a better data center. In Argentina, hardware costs are high, but now, it is a great investment. We are slowly planning to expand the tool. In the USA, when it comes to object-first devices, there is a cost of 48,000 USD for 128 TB, but in Argentina, the cost is 64,000 USD for 84 TB. In Argentina, we have a lot of taxes, and the government is in the process of reducing these taxes, but now we have a situation associated with our economy. Out of 100 companies, only two are seeking employees. We are waiting for the recovery of the economy, but everything here is expensive apart from the salaries.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Any action we want to do with a Dell EMC product needs a license. But with 3PAR's converged solution, at least there is no need to purchase more licenses to get the all the features that we need. We can get basic and mid-range features without licenses."
"The solution has increased our performance by about 40 percent."
"Their support is the most valuable. The support that we are getting from HP Turkey is very good. This product is better than some of the other products in terms of reliability. It is very reliable."
"The scalability has always been great because of one idea from HPE: no need for us to pay from the beginning for the full machine."
"Easy tiering (with a small % of cache) did a good job in a large scale environment of 1000 VMs on 350TB."
"The all-flash positions our organization for growth. If somebody comes to us who needs an application with performance, we have that already formulated."
"For me, the most valuable feature is its flexibility."
"Just being a holistic solution that you can rely on as a cornerstone to the foundation for your underlying infrastructure."
"It is very strong in block storage for the database environment."
"The solution is reliable."
"We use it for applications, databases, media, files, etc."
"The stability and performance of the drive are the most valuable."
"The tool is very stable...The solution's scalability is very good."
"The most valuable feature is compression."
"The stability is excellent."
"The solution is stable. I rate its stability a nine out of ten."
 

Cons

"HPE 3PAR StoreServ could have better integration into the cloud and converged infrastructure."
"We would like to see dedupe and compression allowed on all drive types."
"Their installation and design engineers leave something to be desired."
"We thought it would be easy, but in the end it was quite complex."
"The solution’s customer support could be improved."
"I would like to see more openness with other platforms."
"HPE 3PAR StoreServ has limited flexibility in building replication solutions. There are limitations to the number of IOPS the system can do."
"At this stage I would rate it somewhere around eight out of 10, because there were some initial challenges in finalizing the design, etc."
"I don't like the storage now, as it is in the same data center. I want to separate the data center from the backup to another floor of the building or outside the building in a data center of another provider."
"The product is very costly; very few can afford IBM System Storage DS5000 Series, and the renewal or maintenance of the solution is also expensive."
"Regarding improvements, there's a common perception, primarily during pre-sales, that IBM storage solutions are expensive, though studies often prove otherwise. As for additional functionality, supporting two to three sites for applications might be a potential enhancement."
"It would be nice if duplication was possible at the hardware level. As it is now, duplication is a software feature, whereas compression is a hardware feature."
"The initial setup is hard."
"IBM is not always as agile as other competitors when it is about cloud integration and user interfaces. They're not renewing themselves very often. They have been slow to evolve from the old GUI. The user interface should be improved, especially regarding performance analysis, which has always been a little bit weak as compared to other solutions. As a global solution, it lacks the feature for containing integration object storage. Even though they have now started to offer this feature, it is quite young and not as developed as some other vendors. There are also no mass possibilities at all. They have a lot of competition in the mid-range segment. They need to have a NAS gateway or something like that. It doesn't specifically need to be integrated into the controllers that are keys to the gateway."
"The amount of storage could be increased."
"IBM is not always as agile as other competitors when it is about cloud integration and user interfaces."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From a comparison of bang-for-the-buck, what you get for the money, I'd have to say they are one of the market leaders. Are there solutions that do it faster? Sure, but you're going to pay for it. 3PAR isn't the cheapest, it isn't the most expensive, but in my opinion, it's the best."
"The price of the license depends. Some people expect more from the hardware. Some expect more from the licensing, and that is because you can receive several licenses nowadays, such as the terabyte license. You buy the storage, and you pay extra for the terabyte license for the software. There is a one-time purchase for the license and you pay annually for the maintenance."
"It is fairly inexpensive to scale."
"We don't pay for any licensing fees."
"This is not an expensive product but every time you add capacity to it, you need to pay for re-balancing."
"The total cost of ownership really is worth every penny."
"It has greatly reduced my management overhead time."
"This solution is expensive. We pay every year for support. It's a lump sum because we pay for data center support services, and everything is included in one."
"We mounted all the virtualization with less than 1,50,000 USD. We are negotiating to get the tool for 800,000,000 Argentine Pesos. The tool is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"The basic functionalities of the product are provided within the normal license, but users can opt for some optional features from IBM's licensing model."
"This product is priced well. The ratio between cost and productivity is very high and we're happy with it."
"It's an expensive solution."
"It is a competitively priced solution. The cost can vary depending on whether it is purchased from the hardware or the software departments."
"Compared to other vendors, I think it's expensive."
"Its price is fair. IBM is quite fair in price when you compare it with others. We also use Hitachi internally, and Hitachi is always a little bit more expensive. NetApp is also a bit more expensive. So, IBM has good positioning in terms of price."
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Comparison Review

it_user182013 - PeerSpot reviewer
Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
May 1, 2015
Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR
Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
36%
Construction Company
11%
Renewables & Environment Company
8%
Performing Arts
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business73
Midsize Enterprise74
Large Enterprise170
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between HPE 3PAR StoreServ and HPE Primera?
HPE Primera has many great features but one of the best is that it is very easy to deploy. From an overall perspective, it is reliable, easy to set up, stable, and offers quality block storage. All...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE 3PAR StoreServ?
As a customer, I always prefer to have a lower price. Any customer will always ask for the cheaper price.
What needs improvement with HPE 3PAR StoreServ?
I have no specific ideas for improvement at present. We just need to verify whether our current virtual server setup is acceptable to the RBI, as they had raised questions about the VSO, ISO config...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
The price fits well with the proposal of this equipment. Although IBM is not cheap, the cost fits well with the propose.
What needs improvement with IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
There are some functions that can only be used in prompt mode. If these functions could be shown in the graphical interface, it could be better.
What is your primary use case for IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
We use the DS5000 for mainframe purposes. We have IBM z System and have installed SAP HANA SaaS for IBM equipment. This equipment storage holds very large data of SAP HANA.
 

Also Known As

HPE 3PAR Flash Storage, InServ, Storeserv, 3PAR Flash Storage, HP Enterprise Storage, 3PAR Flash Array, HP 3PAR Flash Storage
System Storage DS5000 series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Just Energy, Latisys, team AG, DreamWorks, BlueShore Financial, Erasmus MC
Engine Informštica
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs. IBM System Storage DS5000 Series and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.