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HPE MSA vs NetApp FAS 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
HPE MSA delivers cost-effective storage, optimizing affordability and ROI by managing multiple servers and meeting entry-level needs efficiently.
Sentiment score
6.2
NetApp FAS Series offers efficient storage, cost savings, and satisfaction, especially in VMware environments, despite high expansion costs.
If you have the configuration well maintained and configured, you should have good efficiency and compression for the clients and for yourself.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
HPE MSA's customer service is effective and responsive, though experiences vary due to regional differences and service level options.
Sentiment score
7.3
NetApp FAS Series customer service is responsive and knowledgeable, though regional availability and resolution streamlining can improve.
I would rate technical support a three out of five due to the lack of effectiveness in preventing recurring problems.
Sometimes, the support was inadequate because the initial architecture was poorly defined.
They often provide basic solutions, such as suggesting a failover or a power cycle, which are not the sophisticated solutions we expect from a vendor.
We are also using it ourselves for the SAN and CIFS protocol.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
HPE MSA is scalable for SMEs with expandable storage but may not suffice for larger companies' needs.
Sentiment score
7.4
NetApp FAS Series offers seamless scalability, integrating old and new components for medium to large enterprises despite potential cost issues.
It is more profitable to use HPE MSA because if you run out of space, you can expand the capacity of the array using expansion enclosures, making it more flexible and profitable.
HPE MSA's scalability benefits are notable as its speed and performance are good.
The NetApp FAS Series is scalable and offers numerous solutions, but only if customers are willing to invest in the shelves.
NetApp FAS Series is scalable, and it is possible, but you need to pay.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
HPE MSA is praised for its stability and reliability, with users rating it highly despite minor disk concerns.
Sentiment score
8.0
The NetApp FAS Series is praised for stability and reliability, with users noting minimal issues and high performance.
I faced issues with hard disk reliability, as they frequently fail and risk losing redundancy.
When panic occurs on the node, it reboots itself, and we have experienced numerous hardware-related issues.
 

Room For Improvement

HPE MSA needs improvements in features, integration, hardware flexibility, and affordability to match enterprise-level expectations.
NetApp FAS Series needs enhancements in flexibility, pricing, integration, performance, documentation, support, virtualization, and scalability to address user concerns.
Data security features are more important to me than anything else, and I think HPE MSA lacks in this area.
If it could be a hybrid with SSDs and hard disks, then it would be more economical and efficient.
For AI, they can provide storage support, but they lack computation solutions.
It was not possible to have a custom user inside ONTAP without the delete permission to delete the volume.
There is an opportunity there for NetApp with Cloud Volumes ONTAP.
 

Setup Cost

HPE MSA pricing is competitive yet costly, with no ongoing license fees but notable support and expansion costs.
NetApp FAS Series is pricey but offers good ROI and savings through bundled licensing, with support impacting overall costs.
The pricing of HPE MSA is not deemed reasonable.
The pricing of NetApp FAS Series is not cheap, but in comparison to other vendors, NetApp FAS Series is affordable.
 

Valuable Features

HPE MSA offers easy management, excellent support, cost-effectiveness, reliability, scalability, dual controllers, and seamless integration with operating systems.
NetApp FAS Series excels in high availability, integration, and efficient storage solutions, featuring robust disaster recovery and unified storage.
Compared to Huawei, however, I found that Huawei's processing power, performance, and cost were more advantageous.
In terms of disaster recovery, we can define global spares in HPE MSA. When one disk fails, a global spare is automatically allocated to that particular disk, which saves the data.
While NVMe disks are expensive and require three disks for parity calculations, hard drives in NetApp FAS Series are inexpensive, making it more cost-efficient per GB, even with RAID tech implementation.
One important feature for customers is its ease of use and continuity, enabling seamless usage across on-premise and cloud environments.
At this moment, autonomous ransomware protection is the key feature.
 

Categories and Ranking

HPE MSA
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp FAS Series
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (3rd), NAS (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of HPE MSA is 19.5%, up from 16.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 17.8%, up from 16.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

Pragnesh Sachania - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Paweł Jabłoński - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for VMs with replication a feature, but need upgraded SSDs
We use this solution. I configured and updated it. Of course, I was also a user of applications that store data on that storage. We already have an SSD solution. So, rather than planning to go with an SSD solution, we are focusing on expanding it. If a company wants to deploy something new, it should choose a product with SSD, and NVMe disks. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Construction Company
7%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
40%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HPE StorageWorks MSA?
The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE StorageWorks MSA?
The pricing of HPE MSA is not deemed reasonable, though their licensing costs compare similarly to other brands. The initial cost is where differences are more apparent.
What needs improvement with HPE StorageWorks MSA?
Data security features are more important to me than anything else, and I think HPE MSA lacks in this area. The hard disk failures are a major concern as they are risky, causing potential loss of r...
Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?
Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?
The pricing of NetApp FAS Series is not cheap, but in comparison to other vendors, NetApp FAS Series is affordable because they also have deduplication, compression, and inline compression. They fo...
 

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE MSA vs. NetApp FAS Series and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.