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Dell EqualLogic PS series vs HPE MSA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

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
7.4
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE MSA
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 1.9%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE MSA is 19.6%, up from 16.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

Abdul Rehman Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful auto tiering, excellent support, and highly reliable
The initial setup of the Dell EqualLogic PS series is simple. The physical connectivity and rack mounting time depend on the size of the deployment. For example, if we have five of the Dell EqualLogic PS series we can mount and do the cabling within two hours. The initial configuration can be done within an hour. The estimated time to deploy from start to finish in this scenario is four to five hours maximum. One person can do most of the deployment, such as configuration, but a helper is needed to do the mounting of the cables.
Pragnesh Sachania - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution can scale."
"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."
"You can always trust it. It is stable."
"The technical support is very good."
"Technical support, when we had access to it, was very good."
"If you have one datacenter fail, the VMs will start to run inside the other data center."
"It is stable and scalable."
"It is extremely reliable."
"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 speed and performance of HPE MSA are admirable."
"The solution is scalable and easy to manage."
"The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility."
"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 cost to performance for HPE StorageWorks MSA is good."
"The simple configuration feature is great. It is very simple, allowing you to set up MSA very easily."
"It has notably provided scalability benefits."
 

Cons

"The product is reaching the end-of-lifecycle."
"There is no inline deduplication capability."
"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 replication efficiency needs to be improved."
"Individual file recovery would be a nice additional feature."
"It is at the end of support and no longer supported. We have to move our VMware to another storage platform, and we have decided to use Dell PowerStore. We like Dell's products, and it is a new platform with a lot of features."
"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."
"Synchronous replication uses space inefficiently."
"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."
"This product is getting a little bit older, so new features like deduplication are not included."
"The solution's license should be integrated and not separate."
"The platform’s monitoring capabilities could be enhanced."
"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."
"Synchronized replication is very important for MSA; however, HPE StorageWorks MSA doesn't provide synchronized replication."
"Some clients have suggested room for improvement in expanding storage capacity beyond the base traces."
"The support contract is expensive, although they are very responsive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"All features are out of the box. The license will be in the virtual, OS, or application layer."
"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."
"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."
"There are annual maintenance costs beyond the original licensing period."
"It seemed expensive at first, but the durability lowered the cost of ownership dramatically over time."
"​It is a fair price."
"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."
"Licensing is pretty straightforward."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"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."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA's licensing is perpetual and not integrated."
"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"This solution is quite expensive; they should lower the cost."
"When we bought this solution it was very reasonably priced and they were willing to deal."
"This solution involves a one-time CapEx payment, followed by warranty extensions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Government
7%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EqualLogic PS series?
The technical support for the solution was really good.
What needs improvement with Dell EqualLogic PS series?
The main issue was that when there were new storage solutions technologies available on the market, Dell EqualLogic PS Series was not compatible with the latest products. Right now, we have a stora...
What is your primary use case for Dell EqualLogic PS series?
I used the solution in my company since we had a virtual infrastructure, which served as our storage array with ESXi connections, which are also integrated with VMware solutions.
What do you like most about HPE StorageWorks MSA?
The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility.
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.
What needs improvement with HPE StorageWorks MSA?
Data security features are more important to me than anything else, and I think HPE MSA lacks in this area. The hard disk failures are a major concern as they are risky, causing potential loss of r...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

EqualLogic PS series
HP StorageWorks MSA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FAW Foundry, AW Engineering, Unimat, eLongNet Information Technology, BDO Brasil, Odyssey Space Research
Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. HPE MSA and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.