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Cisco MDS Series vs HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 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

Cisco MDS Series
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
4th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
3rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Public Cloud Storage Services (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 10.6%, up from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is 4.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE Alletra Storage MP B100004.4%
Cisco MDS Series10.6%
Other85.0%
Enterprise SAN
 

Featured Reviews

VK
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Reliable storage networking has ensured seamless multi-protocol access and continuous redundancy
Currently, I do not have any major suggestions for improvement as everything is working well without issues. If additional functions could be introduced to simplify usage, I would suggest that AI functionality or better integration capabilities would be advantageous for Cisco MDS Series. Any new AI-related features or functionality added to Cisco MDS Series would represent a positive advancement.
reviewer1309695 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure And Systems Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
High‑availability block storage has protected critical research workloads and boosted VMware IOPS
It is difficult to provide specific areas for improvement at this time. We may realize approximately 20% gains in the future, but the previous SAN we used was not very time-consuming, so the improvement is not very significant. We anticipate gains of approximately 10 to 20%. The management interface could be simplified. The cloud console contains two main sections: one for hardware and one for logical volumes on the LUNs being managed. This split is understandable because the hardware console contains HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 for block storage and HPE Alletra for backup, both accessible in the same console. The separation of the SAN hardware console and the backup console is logical and understandable. We have four compute nodes, and the system was not designed to shut down gracefully with only two compute nodes remaining. Running with just one compute node functions properly, and the system continues to operate at reduced capacity. However, when we experienced a crash involving half of the system, HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 failed completely. This behavior is documented as normal in the documentation, but we hoped the block storage could manage to run with half the power. This capability will be available in a future release but is not included in the current version. Our testing before moving to production was not entirely successful, but this aligns with the documented specifications. When we perform failover and data center crash tests, the system performs very well. We have deliberately crashed all four compute nodes, and the secondary storage site manages the workload without any virtual machines malfunctioning. This level of reliability is excellent, and it demonstrates why we selected HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000. Improvements in this area would make the solution even stronger.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution is required for any type of IT infrastructure for Storage Networking and provides high availability for storage service."
"The features I found most valuable are the ease of deployment, it's easy to upgrade, easy to configure and easy to administer. There is no need for vendor professional services which saves project cost. The usage of WebUI for all primary features like hostname, IP address, SNMP traps, zone sets, addition and deletion of zone members or zone sets, backup of switch DB is very simple."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"The product is very stable and performs well."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"Cisco MDS 9148 SAN switch model is the best product, highly reliable and low cost, easy to deploy, easy to upgrade, easy to configure, easy to administer, and it gives effective performance when used for SAN switch connectivity between hosts and storage boxes."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"SAN switches in Cisco MDS Series are a valuable feature of the solution for our company."
"HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is basically a high throughput, high bandwidth solution that provides millions of IOPS, very low latency, and a guarantee of 100% data availability, allowing me to run multiple VMs on that particular storage without any downtime."
"Today I get a better deduplication level compared to the previous generations. That means the price per gigabyte or terabyte is lower for me."
"The features of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 that I appreciate the most are availability for the company."
"The features of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 that I prefer most include its performance, which has benefited my organization by meeting our capacity requirements and enhancing operational efficiency as our data and capacity grow."
"An example of how the features of HPE GreenLake for File Storage have been benefiting my organization is through the reliability and stability we experience, as the engineering team that takes care of it, plus my team that reports up to me, are very comfortable with the technology, which has been reliable, and HPE's support has been fantastic."
"HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 enables a line of business or DB admins to self-provision storage."
"My customer is very happy about the throughput and IOPS provided by HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000."
"The feature I like is that I can create a template and apply it to multiple switches. I don't have to do the same task on every switch, and the same goes for access points. It's central management, with the features that come with central management."
 

Cons

"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having SAN Manager with life cycle management features and Integration with 3rd party storage monitoring tools."
"Data Center Network Manager is good but it is not free and requires purchasing a separate license."
"The product is very expensive."
"The solution's management interface and GUI need improvement."
"I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"Webui needs Data Center Network Management tool licensed copy for accessing Cisco Switches instead a web-based GUI should be made easily available the way Brocade san switch is managed."
"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."
"Managing and monitoring my global block storage environment from HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000's single cloud console is somewhat complex."
"The administration UI is only in English, not Spanish."
"When the system first came out, it had some problems with the Data Center Cloud Console, which made implementation difficult."
"Managing and monitoring my global block storage environment from the solution's single cloud console is very easy to monitor, but managing it is not straightforward because you must have knowledge about storage and this type of storage specifically."
"The debugging of devices could use improvement. Connection problems on devices as well."
"There are areas for improvement in support, and they still have potential to be better."
"I see some areas that could still be improved."
"HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is highly complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing cannot be considered an advantageous trait of the solution since it is expensive. I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."
"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Media Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco MDS Series?
The pricing could be improved as the solution is very expensive. I am on a yearly payment basis.
What needs improvement with Cisco MDS Series?
Currently, I do not have any major suggestions for improvement as everything is working well without issues. If additional functions could be introduced to simplify usage, I would suggest that AI f...
What is your primary use case for Cisco MDS Series?
Cisco MDS Series is primarily used for connecting storage arrays. The multi-protocol feature supports all protocols and functionality working seamlessly. Virtual SANs operate without any issues. Pe...
What needs improvement with HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
Until now, I have not faced any negative issues or disadvantages. I am happy to work with HPE storages. In our environment, we are using many different vendors, but for storage, we are only using H...
What is your primary use case for HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
I am using HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 mostly for SAP systems. The latency and response time are very good, and the performance of the storage is excellent. I am very satisfied with the performan...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
An integrator is recommended for implementation. I am not sure whether the storage admin is using certain features or not, as I am not a storage administrator. My overall review rating for HPE Alle...
 

Also Known As

Cisco MDS 9100, Cisco MDS 9222i, Cisco MDS 9700
HPE GreenLake for Block Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Rugby League
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.