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HPE MSA vs IBM System Storage DS5000 Series 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

HPE MSA
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM System Storage DS5000 S...
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of HPE MSA is 8.9%, down from 20.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM System Storage DS5000 Series is 2.9%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE MSA8.9%
IBM System Storage DS5000 Series2.9%
Other88.2%
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

JT
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.
Gustavo Rosello - PeerSpot reviewer
Technological Infrastructure Manager at Mercado Argentino de Valores S.A.
Provides solid hardware and ROI to users
Companies or groups of business units are growing fast. We have perhaps between four and five more people than what it was two years ago, so the systems are increasing, and now we are working with RPA in some of our processes for automation, especially wherever it is mandatory in the financial branch, like a common investment fund and the investment in action or where there are other products. Our market is directly related to small business. We are working with companies where data translation is needed or where invoices, specifically credit invoices, the negotiation of cheques, or a doc that shows receipt of money, which you can sell at a future date. We have a sub-warehouse that has a back office in the cloud to use all operations related to creditors so that the company can increase its share in the markets. I think that we may need something on-premises in the future. The trends indicate that users are returning to on-premises systems because of the high cost of public clouds. We are looking for a better data center. In Argentina, hardware costs are high, but now, it is a great investment. We are slowly planning to expand the tool. In the USA, when it comes to object-first devices, there is a cost of 48,000 USD for 128 TB, but in Argentina, the cost is 64,000 USD for 84 TB. In Argentina, we have a lot of taxes, and the government is in the process of reducing these taxes, but now we have a situation associated with our economy. Out of 100 companies, only two are seeking employees. We are waiting for the recovery of the economy, but everything here is expensive apart from the salaries.

Quotes from Members

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

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 product is very easy to deploy."
"The solution is very easy to use, it is not really complex for any user, such as non-technical individuals."
"For those who want to use HPE MSA, the biggest benefits are data deduplication and snapshot replication."
"Generally, HPE MSA has improved my storage management and has notably provided scalability benefits."
"MSA performs exceptionally well, particularly in regions with frequent power outages."
"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 solution is scalable and easy to manage."
"The solution is reliable."
"IBM System Storage DS5000 series is highly reliable, which is evident by clients' systems still operating effectively after seven or eight years."
"I like that it's stable, and I am satisfied with it. We have had some issues, but that is normal in IT. IBM System Storage DS5000 works fine most of the time."
"It's very competitive in terms of price."
"This product is priced well, the ratio between cost and productivity is very high and we're happy with it."
"We have had a good experience with customer service and support."
"The solution offers an excellent price-performance ratio, including SSDs and compression capabilities. This results in faster performance and potential space savings due to compression."
"The security and velocity for fetching data are valuable."
 

Cons

"Synchronized replication is very important for MSA; however, HPE StorageWorks MSA doesn't provide synchronized replication."
"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."
"We had a few issues with some of the firmware codes, probably about five years ago."
"GUI can be improved Firmware updates need improvement Hardware could use a little refinement. (The fiber ports on one controller pushed through the case causing us to replace that controller under warranty."
"The main difficulty is the firmware upgrade of disks, as it means stopping all the servers to make the upgrade."
"This product is getting a little bit older, so new features like deduplication are not included."
"P2000 has become legacy and we can't find spare parts for it anymore. The life cycle is very low."
"Data security features are more important to me than anything else, and I think HPE MSA lacks in this area."
"IBM talks about integration when we talk about Safeguarded Copy. It integrates with QRadar, but it seems as though IBM still is too separate, that is, the way IBM is measured on software and hardware."
"IBM is not always as agile as other competitors when it is about cloud integration and user interfaces."
"The product should improve its support."
"IBM is not always as agile as other competitors when it is about cloud integration and user interfaces. They're not renewing themselves very often. They have been slow to evolve from the old GUI. The user interface should be improved, especially regarding performance analysis, which has always been a little bit weak as compared to other solutions. As a global solution, it lacks the feature for containing integration object storage. Even though they have now started to offer this feature, it is quite young and not as developed as some other vendors. There are also no mass possibilities at all. They have a lot of competition in the mid-range segment. They need to have a NAS gateway or something like that. It doesn't specifically need to be integrated into the controllers that are keys to the gateway."
"The product is very costly. Very few can afford it."
"Improving software installation and licensing retrieval would make using IBM System Storage DS5000 series easier for customers."
"If you decide to expand the IBM System Storage DS5000 Series by adding an extension frame to the controller, you won't have the ability to incorporate flash storage models directly. Instead, you'll need to work with SSD which may be slightly slower."
"I find the solution isn't so easy to understand. A user must be quite knowledgeable in the product. It isn't like HPE 3PAR, which you can use quite easily without too much storage experience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"This solution involves a one-time CapEx payment, followed by warranty extensions."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"When we bought this solution it was very reasonably priced and they were willing to deal."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"This solution is quite expensive; they should lower the cost."
"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"We mounted all the virtualization with less than 1,50,000 USD. We are negotiating to get the tool for 800,000,000 Argentine Pesos. The tool is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"Compared to other vendors, I think it's expensive."
"It's an expensive solution."
"The basic functionalities of the product are provided within the normal license, but users can opt for some optional features from IBM's licensing model."
"Its price is fair. IBM is quite fair in price when you compare it with others. We also use Hitachi internally, and Hitachi is always a little bit more expensive. NetApp is also a bit more expensive. So, IBM has good positioning in terms of price."
"This product is priced well. The ratio between cost and productivity is very high and we're happy with it."
"It is a competitively priced solution. The cost can vary depending on whether it is purchased from the hardware or the software departments."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
32%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Renewables & Environment Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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...
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
The price fits well with the proposal of this equipment. Although IBM is not cheap, the cost fits well with the propose.
What needs improvement with IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
There are some functions that can only be used in prompt mode. If these functions could be shown in the graphical interface, it could be better.
What is your primary use case for IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
We use the DS5000 for mainframe purposes. We have IBM z System and have installed SAP HANA SaaS for IBM equipment. This equipment storage holds very large data of SAP HANA.
 

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA
System Storage DS5000 series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Engine Informštica
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE MSA vs. IBM System Storage DS5000 Series and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.