Dell EqualLogic PS series vs HPE MSA comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.3, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell Technologies holds a 3.4% mindshare in MS, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 15.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Dell EqualLogic PS series

Read 20 Dell EqualLogic PS series reviews

474 Views
469 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

HPE MSA

Read 26 HPE MSA reviews

1,465 Views
1,450 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Dell EqualLogic PS series

HPE MSA

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

Dell EqualLogic PS series and HPE MSA are competing storage solutions targeting enterprise environments. HPE MSA emerges as more advanced due to its extensive features, justifying the investment despite the higher cost.

Features: Dell EqualLogic PS series offers seamless scalability, an easy-to-manage environment, and automated data management. HPE MSA stands out with its mixed protocol support, superior performance, and customizable options tailored for demanding enterprise needs.

Room for Improvement: Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve in providing more advanced protocol support and performance features. HPE MSA may enhance its cost efficiency, ease of use for initial setups, and integration options for non-tech users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE MSA offers straightforward deployment with robust customer service assisting smooth integration. Dell EqualLogic PS series provides more flexible deployment, focusing on ease of setup through high-level support and advisory services.

Pricing and ROI: Dell EqualLogic PS series is cost-efficient with lower setup costs, offering good ROI through scalability and support. HPE MSA, with a higher initial cost, promises excellent ROI with advanced features and performance, making it a valuable investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

December 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

Dell EqualLogic PS series

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE MSA

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 3.4%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE MSA is 15.4%, down from 18.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HPE MSA	15.4%
Dell EqualLogic PS series	3.4%
Other	81.2%

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

Khuram Ayyaz

Network Executive at Virtual University

Has enabled uninterrupted access to educational platforms and simplified storage management

Dell EqualLogic PS series is easily scalable, and we can add extra boxes and storage. It was easy to deploy during COVID. Deploying Dell EqualLogic PS series is straightforward, with no complexity involved. Dell EqualLogic PS series is a good product. We did not experience any failures in the last six to seven years, and it is still running as our storage for offline data. There are snapshot capabilities in data protection available, but we did not use that feature because it consumes much space. We have only 150 terabytes of space and simply use it to create volumes without utilizing it for snapshots. We use thin provisioning in Dell EqualLogic PS series, but I did not explore that feature further.

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JobyThomas

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is stable and scalable."

"Dell's technical support is very good."

"It is extremely reliable."

"Technical support, when we had access to it, was very good."

"We were attracted by the flexibility of being able to put in a new shelf whenever we needed to, to expand."

"Technical support is great; we have four-hour support from Dell for storage."

"The technical support for EqualLogic has been universally outstanding."

"Its high availability. It has a lot of redundancy and good management software as well as good alerting."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pros

"It has notably provided scalability benefits."

"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."

"The most valuable features were the dual controllers and being able to expand it."

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

"MSA performs exceptionally well, particularly in regions with frequent power outages."

"The simple configuration feature is great. It is very simple, allowing you to set up MSA very easily."

"The solution is scalable and easy to manage."

"The most valuable feature for customers is the autonomic tiering, which enhances their storage scalability as easily as possible."

More HPE MSA pros

Cons

"The searchable online documentation is missing."

"The solution is out of date and the new version has a lot of advanced features."

"There is no option for mixing RAID types in one device."

"The performance isn't as good as, for example, Nimble."

"The product is reaching the end-of-lifecycle."

"There is no inline deduplication capability."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve by providing fiber channel connectivity. Fiber channel connectivity is not supported, which is a requirement of advanced applications, such as SAP HANA. SAP HANA recommends fiber channel connectivity, but the Dell EqualLogic PS series is only an ISCSI data storage."

"Individual file recovery would be a nice additional feature."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series cons

"The solution requires hardware."

"The platform’s monitoring capabilities could be enhanced."

"The support contract is expensive, although they are very responsive."

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

"There is room for improvement in terms of scalability. There are times when we need to upgrade the device and the firmware. Sometimes, that can be a struggle."

"This product is getting a little bit older, so new features like deduplication are not included."

"It should show more options for cloud backup support."

"The solution's license should be integrated and not separate."

More HPE MSA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dell EqualLogic PS series can improve its scale-out feature. Sometimes the customer has a limited budget for storage expansion. When they want to expand their capacity, they need to buy a complete controller plus storage capacity, which sometimes is out of their budget. If Dell EqualLogic PS series support could scale up the environment in which only hard drive extension controllers should be supported, then customers can expand within a lower budget."

"All features are out of the box. The license will be in the virtual, OS, or application layer."

"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."

"I don't think I would say that the product is less expensive...The product's price is not an issue for our company, considering the relationship we have with Dell and the customer support we receive."

"It seemed expensive at first, but the durability lowered the cost of ownership dramatically over time."

"It is a fair price."

"I didn't buy it. It was another person seven years ago. So, I don't really know, but all storage platforms cost a lot of money. It is probably in the mid-range, but you get what you pay for."

"Price-wise, the solution is cheap. I rate it a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

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

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

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EqualLogic PS series?

The technical support for the solution was really good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EqualLogic PS series?

I do not have anything in mind regarding new capabilities for Dell products at this time.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell EqualLogic PS series?

We are essentially a university, and we have deployed Dell EqualLogic PS series in our data centers to run our production sites, student portals, websites, our on-premises portal, and campus manage...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 16% of the time

NEC D8 series vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 16% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 15% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 14% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 13% of the time

More Dell EqualLogic PS series Competitors

NetApp FAS Series vs HPE MSA

Compared 33% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE MSA

Compared 21% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs HPE MSA

Compared 17% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs HPE MSA

Compared 14% of the time

NEC D4 series vs HPE MSA

Compared 3% of the time

More HPE MSA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series

January 2026

Download Dell EqualLogic PS series product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA

January 2026

Download HPE MSA product report

Also Known As

EqualLogic PS series

HP StorageWorks MSA

Overview

EqualLogic PS Series arrays bring a new level of performance to service more of your most demanding applications and virtualization requirements, while delivering the simplicity of the EqualLogic management experience. Featuring six array configurations, including 2U/2.5" drive options with All Flash and Hybrid Arrays, it is ideal for companies and organizations with growing data and performance needs.

Dell Technologies

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

Sample Customers

FAW Foundry, AW Engineering, Unimat, eLongNet Information Technology, BDO Brasil, Odyssey Space Research

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

December 2025

Free Report: Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

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