HPE MSA vs VNX [EOL] comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. Additionally, 92% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

HPE MSA

Read 26 HPE MSA reviews

3,210 Views
3,114 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

VNX [EOL]

Read 36 VNX [EOL] reviews

87% willing to recommend

HPE MSA

VNX [EOL]

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HPE MSA and VNX [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network).

To learn more, read our detailed Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

August 2026

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Helped 913,924 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

HPE MSA

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (4th)

VNX [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

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.

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Alireza Zabihi

Works at AIT

The Nimble CS-Series has proven to be reliable with 100% uptime

When we started the process of looking for a SAN vendor I had four primary criteria: reliability, performance, cost, and simplicity. We were really looking for a unicorn and were fully expected to have to make compromises in one of those areas. The Nimble CS-Series was recommended by our solutions provider, and we were blown away. Not only was it the most affordable option, but it was the easiest to deploy, had the best performance, and has proven to be reliable with 100% uptime.

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 most valuable features are data deduplication and snapshot replication."

"Monitoring is a very big thing. Other great features include block storage; volume creation and the data reliability scalability, which makes the solution really good."

"The solution is pretty transparent and works well."

"It's a great product for the price."

"The simple configuration feature is great. It is very simple, allowing you to set up MSA very easily."

"This is a good product and everything I needed it to do, it did and still does."

"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."

"Generally, HPE MSA has improved my storage management and has notably provided scalability benefits."

More HPE MSA pros

"If you are looking for a stable, powerful and effective entry level SAN that you can provision on your own for a small environment or a small office/remote office situation - this is definitely the product for you."

"We moved from CX with FC/SATA to VNX with SSD, SAS, NL-SAS and using SSD as Fast Cache we have seen huge performance gains in certain operations."

"The VNX 5700 provides a large number of features including the ability to work for both file and block as a unified array."

"Customer Service: It's great. Technical Support: It's great."

"I really value deduplication and compression to save space."

"From my point of view, the configuration that I can sell is restricted to the EMC best practices. It is hard to make a mistake in a solution. It means the configuration has good performance and scalability options."

"Depending on how simple the customer needs it to be, might sway my recommendation one way or the other, but in terms of functionality, VNX is very very good."

"The most valuable feature is the auto-tiering, which helps in the speed of data access."

More VNX [EOL] pros

Cons

"It should show more options for cloud backup support."

"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 requires hardware."

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

"We had a few issues with some of the firmware codes, probably about five years ago."

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

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

"The solution could improve by adding configuration tools."

More HPE MSA cons

"Over time, VNX has become pricier than its competitors, and we have turned enthusiastically to Unity."

"HP EVA and once NetApp, but they both had slow performance and a lack of features so we switched."

"If the VNX had embedded encryption, that would be great."

"Based on our workloads, we see repeatedly in performance reports that the built-in controller (SP) cache of our VNX model is not sufficiently large, resulting in forced cache flushing."

"It only supports 10Gb copper, and cannot do 10Gb fiber."

"As an entry level array, this is just right, but adding support for FAST-VP would be beneficial although that feature is available on the higher end VNXe3200."

"I think one area where we would like to see improvement is better deduplication and compression."

"VNX can improve by offering flexible upgrade options. It's not possible to add a single HDD to a current array and there are fixed rules to make upgrades."

More VNX [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution can be a bit expensive."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"Over time, VNX has become pricier than its competitors, and we have turned enthusiastically to Unity."

"Pricing is somewhat higher, especially in Zambia, perhaps due to the low sales volume."

"While EMC tends to be on the expensive side, the stability and support of their products are top-notch and I feel are worth the cost."

"Reducing dependency on JavaServer Pages (JSP) could improve the administrative overhead."

"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable. Yearly EMC is more expensive."

"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable, the yearly EMC is more expensive"

"Make sure you understand how the licensing works and that you are getting the right set of licenses if you need array-to-array replication."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

17%

Outsourcing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	23

Questions from the Community

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.

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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

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Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs HPE MSA

Compared 25% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE MSA

Compared 17% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs HPE MSA

Compared 11% of the time

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs HPE MSA

Compared 10% of the time

NEC D4 series vs HPE MSA

Compared 9% of the time

More HPE MSA Competitors

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 23% of the time

Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 20% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 17% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 15% of the time

More VNX [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA

September 2026

Download HPE MSA product report

Buyer's Guide

VNX [EOL]

August 2026

Download VNX [EOL] product report

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA

VNX

Overview

HPE MSA is a reliable storage solution offering dual controllers and easy management, ideal for SMBs. Known for stability, scalability, and affordability, it is user-friendly with features like autonomic tiering and robust disaster recovery, serving virtualization environments and data centers.

With dual controllers and simplified setup, HPE MSA is tailored for ease of management and high reliability. Its design supports scalability and cost-effective operation, catering well to SMBs. Autonomic tiering, snapshots, and data deduplication enhance its performance, while strong integration and flexibility solidify its role in robust operations. Despite benefits, users note expensive support contracts and desires for improved features like synchronized replication and cloud connectivity. Improvements in data security and integration, along with better firmware updates and monitoring tools, are suggested. Its functionality spans NAS, SAN storage, managing VMware clusters, and hosting varied workloads, fitting well into infrastructures like hotels and hospitals.

What are the key features of HPE MSA?

Dual Controllers: Facilitates high availability by allowing seamless failover.
Simple Management: User-friendly interface for easy configuration and monitoring.
Autonomic Tiering: Automatically optimizes data placement for performance.
Snapshots and Data Deduplication: Enhance data protection and storage efficiency.
Transparent Operations: Ensures minimal disruption during operations.
Flexible Integration: Offers adaptability with power and network options.
Disaster Recovery: Reliable with global spare support.

What should users expect in terms of benefits and ROI?

Cost-Effectiveness: Affordable for SMBs, providing excellent ROI.
Scalability: Flexibility to grow with organizational needs.
Performance Stability: Consistent performance, even during power outages.
Easy Configuration: Simplifies setup and management to save time and resources.

HPE MSA finds applications in virtualization, data centers, and CCTV systems. Organizations leverage it for NAS and SAN storage, making it suitable for VMware clusters and workloads like file servers and databases. Its scalability makes it adaptable for hotels, hospitals, and government projects, integrating with server services for centralized management.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

With EMC VNX you'll have the right blend of flash, capacity, and application-aware software. Scale up storage for midrange workloads, optimized for virtual applications and cloud environments.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank

Samsonite, Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Kindred Healthcare

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

August 2026

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