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HPE MSA vs VNX [EOL] comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
26
Ranking in other categories
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (3rd)
VNX [EOL]
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

JT
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.
AZ
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We've been very happy with the product, and have had good luck with them as far as not having any issues."
"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."
"The integration with Veeamware, with VAM for backup, is improved with the new version."
"The most valuable feature for customers is the autonomic tiering, which enhances their storage scalability as easily as possible."
"This is a good product and everything I needed it to do, it did and still does."
"The solution is very easy to use, it is not really complex for any user, such as non-technical individuals."
"The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility."
"In one cabinet, we have many environments: VMware, Oracle, Adabas, NAS (CIFS and NFS resources), and mix disks on tier configurations Tier configuration with different disks (SAS, SATA, Flash) The software for management is very user-friendly Snapshots for backup and refresh development on test environments"
"Technical support is good."
"The VNX 5700 provides a large number of features including the ability to work for both file and block as a unified array."
"If you have a banking and finance domain, then go for EMC products as they offer better performance and scalability."
"Since implementing VNX, we achieved a 10 times increase in the performance for its end users."
"I really value deduplication and compression to save space."
"VNX 5200 works well with a medium VMware cluster, has good performance, and enables hardware disk replication."
"EMC storage has the best performance and functions."
 

Cons

"We had a few issues with some of the firmware codes, probably about five years ago."
"The support contract is expensive, although they are very responsive."
"However, we did have some issues at first but we worked through them and currently we have no issues."
"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."
"The solution could improve by adding configuration tools."
"HPE should reintroduce customizable ports as they were in Gen 5, allowing customers to use both iSCSI or SC on a single controller."
"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."
"GUI can be improved Firmware updates need improvement Hardware could use a little refinement. (The fiber ports on one controller pushed through the case causing us to replace that controller under warranty."
"Over time, VNX has become pricier than its competitors, and we have turned enthusiastically to Unity."
"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."
"The migration process was very complex."
"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."
"EMC VNX needs to support bigger SSD and the Next Generation EMC Unity does this."
"It is not the easiest product to implement and manage, especially on the NAS side, but that is now fixed in its successor product from Dell EMC called Unity."
"EMC products are costly when compared to other vendors such HP, Hitachi, Dell, and NetApp."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution involves a one-time CapEx payment, followed by warranty extensions."
"This solution is quite expensive; they should lower the cost."
"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."
"The solution can be a bit 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."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable. Yearly EMC is more expensive."
"Pricing is somewhat higher, especially in Zambia, perhaps due to the low sales volume."
"Over time, VNX has become pricier than its competitors, and we have turned enthusiastically to Unity."
"​Reducing dependency on JavaServer Pages​ (JSP) could improve the administrative overhead.​"
"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable, the yearly EMC is more expensive"
"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."
"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
Manufacturing Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
16%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise23
 

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.
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...
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.
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Comparisons

 

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA
VNX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Samsonite, Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Kindred Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.