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 7.5, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.8. Dell Technologies holds a 2.7% mindshare in MS, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 18.3% mindshare. Additionally, 78% 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 19 Dell EqualLogic PS series reviews

359 Views
359 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

HPE MSA

Read 26 HPE MSA reviews

1,433 Views
1,419 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: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

September 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

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE MSA

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 2.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE MSA is 18.3%, up from 18.1% 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	18.3%
Dell EqualLogic PS series	2.7%
Other	79.0%

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

HansThilen

System technician at Lidingö stad

A highly scalable and astoundingly stable solution offering its users an extremely good technical support

Regarding an area to improve, I would say that from Dell EqualLogic family, I can't buy Dell EqualLogic PS series. I can't buy any more solutions provided by EqualLogic, so the solution will have to make certain improvements in the future. Since we can't buy anything from EqualLogic in our company, we plan to move to another solution. Since I can't buy it anymore, I don't receive any updates on the solution. Also, this is the last year in which one can buy support for the solution.

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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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can always trust it. It is stable."

"The most valuable feature of Dell EqualLogic PS series auto tiering by using this feature, the customer can get higher performance on a valuable budget."

"It is extremely reliable."

"The solution can scale."

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

"If you have one datacenter fail, the VMs will start to run inside the other data center."

"It is stable and scalable."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series is a highly stable solution."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pros

"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."

"The most valuable features are data deduplication and snapshot replication."

"HPE StorageWorks MSA is an entry-level, cost-effective solution for SMB customers."

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

"The cost to performance for HPE StorageWorks MSA is good."

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

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

More HPE MSA pros

Cons

"If I need to have more space or more capacity, I need to replace the product. It would be ideal if we could scale without replacing the box itself."

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

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

"Why is it not possible for both controllers to be simultaneously active (load balancing)?"

"Synchronous replication uses space inefficiently."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve the performance because in our hybrid configuration the read speed is faster than the write speed."

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

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

More Dell EqualLogic PS series cons

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

"The solution could improve by adding configuration tools."

"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."

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

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

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

"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."

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

More HPE MSA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Licensing is pretty straightforward."

"It is a fair price."

"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pricing and cost advice

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

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

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

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

"The solution can be a bit expensive."

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	1
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?

An improvement that could be made is to have a storage solution with all SSD hard disks, as we currently have a Dell EqualLogic PS series with traditional hard disks. It's not simple to replace a h...

See all answers

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

Dell EqualLogic PS series is the storage of our server, which serves our use case. The deployment of Dell EqualLogic PS series takes about five days.

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE StorageWorks MSA?

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

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

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series

September 2025

Download Dell EqualLogic PS series product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA

September 2025

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

September 2025

Free Report: Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA

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