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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
29
Ranking in other categories
Public Cloud Storage Services (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 10.0%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is 4.2%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE Alletra Storage MP B100004.2%
Cisco MDS Series10.0%
Other85.8%
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

"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"It enables us to integrate and load balance between multiple layer one fiber vendor links, which is very useful."
"The product is easy to use."
"MDS's reliability is at a high level, the issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."
"The stability has been commendable with no major performance issues and the system consistently provides users the ability to access the network without any problems."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"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 ability to scale capacity and performance independently has positively impacted my operations regarding performance and capacity."
"The features of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 that I appreciate the most are availability for the company."
"HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 saves time for storage management because it offers AI-driven provisioning, monitoring, and optimization solutions."
"The features of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 that I appreciate the most include the high RAM, which allows us to extract the data quickly, and the GUI, which is much more intuitive than the competitors."
"The features of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 that I prefer the most are the snapshotting and ease of administration."
"HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 saves time on storage management, making it very simple to manage and monitor the global block storage environment with a single cloud console, and HPE has made it easy for the end user to manage the HPE ecosystem, even providing an on-premises experience almost like that in the cloud."
"After we migrated all the workloads to HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000, everything became very fast, as all those smaller machines which used to take twenty to thirty minutes were taking five minutes to back up and fifteen minutes to restore the VM."
"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."
 

Cons

"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."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"I find it difficult to operate and troubleshoot."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having SAN Manager with life cycle management features and Integration with 3rd party storage monitoring tools."
"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."
"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."
"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having API functionality for automation and programming."
"With support, occasionally, we have a little trouble escalating things."
"There are areas for improvement in support, and they still have potential to be better."
"In my opinion, the technical support by HPE is working, but unfortunately, they are quite focused on a break and fix level."
"Managing and monitoring my global block storage environment from HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000's single cloud console is somewhat complex."
"We are facing issues related to your services and support with HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000."
"Support management is not straightforward. With Dell, we had direct access to phone support, but with HPE, access is not as simple and support is not always available in French."
"The administration UI is only in English, not Spanish."
"If the customer's requirement is pure NAS, in that environment, I cannot suggest HP solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."
"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
University
9%
Media Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing 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 Business11
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise15
 

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?
HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is highly complex. Some of the advanced features like replication are not very easy to set up. If we could do some minor management changes in that area, reporting cou...
What is your primary use case for HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
I deployed HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 for three or four companies, which included deploying it on iSCSI targets. One customer was using it for Fiber Channel. We also used replication, real-time ...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE GreenLake for Block Storage?
My review rating for HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is nine point five out of ten.
 

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: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.