HPE MSA vs Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Oracle are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.8, while Oracle is ranked #9. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 19.7% mindshare in MS, compared to Oracle’s 4.4% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

HPE MSA

Read 26 HPE MSA reviews

1,413 Views
1,385 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appl...

Read 2 Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance reviews

410 Views
336 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

HPE MSA

Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appl...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance and HPE MSA compete in the enterprise storage space. Oracle appears to have the upper hand with its management flexibility and support, despite HPE MSA's appealing pricing and features.

Features: Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance offers advanced analytics, hybrid storage capabilities, and robust data protection. It provides snapshot functionalities that enhance data management. In contrast, HPE MSA delivers strong performance with tiered storage and is suitable for small to medium-sized businesses with its simplicity and scalability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance is known for its straightforward deployment and extensive support that aids integration into architectures. HPE MSA focuses on user-friendly setup and streamlined deployment, suitable for businesses with limited IT resources.

Pricing and ROI: Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance involves higher initial costs but offers a strong ROI with its advanced capabilities, making it a strategic choice for enterprises with a focus on analytics. HPE MSA provides a more affordable option, delivering lower upfront costs and reasonable ROI for essential storage needs.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE MSA vs. Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA vs. Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

July 2025

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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

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appl...

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

9th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of HPE MSA is 19.7%, up from 16.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance is 4.4%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

Pragnesh Sachania

Deputy Manager IT at La Gajjar

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.

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RobertMakale

IT Consultant at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

A stable unified storage system that enables quick access to data

The main thing Oracle can improve is the cost. It would be better if Oracle opened up the system to enable integration with other vendors. Whether it's the database, application server, or storage appliance, they should make it easy to integrate them. They need to open up more to ensure that it can work in any environment and IT ecosystem.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very easy to use, it is not really complex for any user, such as non-technical individuals."

"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."

"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."

"It has notably provided scalability benefits."

"The most valuable features are the storage levels and snapshot features."

"The solution is scalable and easy to manage."

"The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility."

"The speed and performance of HPE MSA are admirable."

More HPE MSA pros

"I like its storage capacity, quick access to the data, speed, and overall storage management."

Cons

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

"We faced a lot of challenges with our custom configuration during installation."

"It would be beneficial to have an add-on feature to improve analytics or insight capabilities inside the app."

"The solution requires hardware."

"HPE should reintroduce customizable ports as they were in Gen 5, allowing customers to use both iSCSI or SC on a single controller."

"I rate HPE support four out of 10. I'm not happy with them. We purchased mission-critical support, and we're supposed to get a response in four hours. Instead, I'm waiting days for them to replace the drive. They asked me to send back the failed one, and I don't know the address. After I sent it back, they told me they haven't received it. It's a nightmare."

"Some clients have suggested room for improvement in expanding storage capacity beyond the base traces."

"Data security features are more important to me than anything else, and I think HPE MSA lacks in this area."

More HPE MSA cons

"The main thing Oracle can improve is the cost. It would be better if Oracle opened up the system to enable integration with other vendors. Whether it's the database, application server, or storage appliance, they should make it easy to integrate them. They need to open up more to ensure that it can work in any environment and IT ecosystem."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

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

"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."

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

"The price could be better. We have many competing products now like Huawei and Dell EMC, and these are slightly cheaper."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HPE StorageWorks MSA?

The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility.

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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.

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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.

See all answers

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Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs HPE MSA

Compared 43% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs HPE MSA

Compared 27% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE MSA

Compared 20% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs HPE MSA

Compared 7% of the time

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs HPE MSA

Compared 3% of the time

More HPE MSA Competitors

NetApp FAS Series vs Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

Compared 51% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

Compared 23% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

Compared 15% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

Compared 12% of the time

More Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA

July 2025

Download HPE MSA product report

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

July 2025

Download Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product report

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA

Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

Overview

Whether you need best-in-class performance or are looking to get the most capacity for your investment, MSA has a fast, affordable solution for you. And every MSA comes with an intuitive setup and management interface anyone can master.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance integrates the cloud into its core architecture, making cloud storage available to all users and access protocols while eliminating on-premises cloud access licensing charges and the need for external gateways. Built using a powerful SMP design, multi-threaded OS, massive DRAM caches, and all flash storage, Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance powers the most demanding applications, from fast query responses and, rapid transaction processing to virtualization and cloud workloads. With these performance levels, you can easily achieve 4:1 consolidation of your current NAS filers and gain a higher return on your storage investment.

Oracle

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank

Translational Genomics Research Institute, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, CyberSolutions Inc., Y-Telecom, First Alliance Bank Zambia Limited, AZ Sint-Jan Brugge-Oostende, Mutlinet Pakistan, TDC A/S, Digi-Key Corporation, Thurgau Cantonal Bank

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA vs. Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

July 2025

Free Report: HPE MSA vs. Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE MSA vs. Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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