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HPE MSA vs VNX [EOL] comparison

 

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

"It's a great product for the price."
"The cost to performance for HPE StorageWorks MSA is good."
"The solution is scalable and easy to manage."
"We've been very happy with the product, and have had good luck with them as far as not having any issues."
"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."
"The solution's most valuable aspect, for our organization, is its stability."
"Generally, HPE MSA has improved my storage management and has notably provided scalability benefits."
"The benefits are definitely reliability and ease of use, because, since we are using the same products, we also know that we can contact HP for assistance if we need it."
"Integration with VMware"
"In a banking environment, on which we required a very high throughput for our database, we have used this product and our desired response was received."
"Multi-tiering, positively affects the efficiency of the storage space."
"Good performance for VM environments"
"I think it's a good solution; it has many benefits and features that are of interest for many customers."
"The most valuable feature is the auto-tiering, which helps in the speed of data access."
"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."
"The replicating of the entire storage unit to a different location was a very useful function."
 

Cons

"The platform’s monitoring capabilities could be enhanced."
"We had a few issues with some of the firmware codes, probably about five years ago."
"It should show more options for cloud backup support."
"P2000 has become legacy and we can't find spare parts for it anymore. The life cycle is very low."
"It would be beneficial to have an add-on feature to improve analytics or insight capabilities inside the app."
"HPE should reintroduce customizable ports as they were in Gen 5, allowing customers to use both iSCSI or SC on a single controller."
"We faced a lot of challenges with our custom configuration during installation."
"Some clients have suggested room for improvement in expanding storage capacity beyond the base traces."
"Make major changes to the file services, Celera, do something like a lite version."
"Poor connection to FC."
"EMC pricing is too expensive, like the Apple brand iPhone in the cellphone market."
"It only supports 10Gb copper, and cannot do 10Gb fiber."
"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."
"They may change the disks from NL-SAS to Flash, but it would be costlier for customers."
"Storage processor architect for real active/active HA ASIC based functions are needed"
"If the VNX had embedded encryption, that would be great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When we bought this solution it was very reasonably priced and they were willing to deal."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"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."
"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."
"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"This solution is quite expensive; they should lower the cost."
"​Reducing dependency on JavaServer Pages​ (JSP) could improve the administrative overhead.​"
"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."
"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable, the yearly EMC is more expensive"
"Over time, VNX has become pricier than its competitors, and we have turned enthusiastically to Unity."
"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable. 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."
"Pricing is somewhat higher, especially in Zambia, perhaps due to the low sales volume."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Outsourcing 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 NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: July 2026.
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