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HPE MSA vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
HPE MSA delivers cost-effective storage, optimizing affordability and ROI by managing multiple servers and meeting entry-level needs efficiently.
Sentiment score
7.0
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers fast ROI with cost savings on hardware, maintenance, energy, and improved operational efficiency.
It certainly shows a return on investment with HPE MSA, but we have framework contracts with special prices for the HP hardware, so I am not sure that our return on investment calculation corresponds to what other people should have.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
HPE MSA's customer service is effective and responsive, though experiences vary due to regional differences and service level options.
Sentiment score
8.1
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's customer service is praised for responsive, expert support, offering swift solutions and 24/7 availability.
I would rate technical support a three out of five due to the lack of effectiveness in preventing recurring problems.
The technical support from Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is excellent, deserving a nine out of ten rating.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
HPE MSA is scalable for SMEs with expandable storage but may not suffice for larger companies' needs.
Sentiment score
7.9
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is scalable, user-friendly, and flexible, though some note limited storage per node.
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 scalability of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) deserves an eight out of ten rating, as there is no solution that is 100% efficient and there is always room for improvement.
 

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
8.2
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers high stability and reliability, enabling seamless scalability and maintenance with minimal downtime.
I faced issues with hard disk reliability, as they frequently fail and risk losing redundancy.
Compared to VM, we find it most stable.
Regarding stability, I would rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) a seven out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

HPE MSA needs improvements in features, integration, hardware flexibility, and affordability to match enterprise-level expectations.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure needs improvements in cost, performance, integration, backup solutions, and simplifying licensing, installation, and GUI.
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.
We hope Nutanix can integrate inside our current license module.
I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.
 

Setup Cost

HPE MSA pricing is competitive yet costly, with no ongoing license fees but notable support and expansion costs.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers competitive pricing with favorable total cost of ownership, valued for its integrated solutions and features.
The pricing of HPE MSA is not deemed reasonable.
It costs more compared to VMware due to different licensing areas.
The pricing is renewed every year, at almost $100,000 per year.
 

Valuable Features

HPE MSA offers easy management, excellent support, cost-effectiveness, reliability, scalability, dual controllers, and seamless integration with operating systems.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure provides high-performance storage, easy management, flexibility, scalability, automation, and robust disaster recovery with redundancy.
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.
The most useful feature of HPE MSA is VAAI, which are the functions embedded in the system, allowing operations on the server or storage without using server CPU, making it easier.
When technology development or devops teams request server provisioning, the setup time has been reduced from hours to less than 20 minutes.
The replication method between Nutanix clusters is a valuable feature.
 

Categories and Ranking

HPE MSA
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (5th)
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
198
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (5th), HCI (3rd), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Solutions solutions, they serve different purposes. HPE MSA is designed for Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) and holds a mindshare of 19.7%, up 16.9% compared to last year.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), on the other hand, focuses on HCI, holds 9.1% mindshare, up 8.3% since last year.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
HCI
 

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.
Andrea Beccia - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers satisfying data protection and workload movement features with exceptional stability
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure can be used up to 100% of its capacity, but our company is presently using 80% of the solution's resources. Our company manufactures iron casting products in the metal industry, and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is also used. For virtualization purposes, Nutanix Acropolis is used as a full-stack solution. For the Windows virtual machines in our company's server, Nutanix Acropolis is utilized instead of solutions like VMware Hypervisor. One of the main reasons our company adopted Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure was its data protection features. The solution is also used in disaster recovery through the automatic snapshots feature on the local site. Next year, our organization will try to join clusters in the network using the solution. Network clustering will help our organization's team move workloads into the geographical cluster automatically. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is considered an ideal solution for disaster recovery where data protection remains embedded. The solution is capable of even capturing auto snapshots for remote sites. Next year, our company plans to test new features of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure that will assist in automated workload movements on two sides at a distance of 60 kilometers. I would recommend others use the solution for its exceptional stability, performance, hardware compatibility, and overall flexibility. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure allows the use of varying hardware for the same cluster. I would rate the solution a nine out of ten overall.
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 30, 2015
Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Construction Company
7%
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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?
If it could be a hybrid with SSDs and hard disks, then it would be more economical and efficient.
What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We fou...
How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...
Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We fou...
 

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA
Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: July 2025.
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