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HPE MSA vs Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance 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)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appl...
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of HPE MSA is 19.7%, up from 16.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance is 4.4%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
RM
A stable unified storage system that enables quick access to data
The main thing Oracle can improve is the cost. It would be better if Oracle opened up the system to enable integration with other vendors. Whether it's the database, application server, or storage appliance, they should make it easy to integrate them. They need to open up more to ensure that it can work in any environment and IT ecosystem.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The cost to performance for HPE StorageWorks MSA is good."
"The most valuable features are the storage levels and snapshot features."
"The simple configuration feature is great. It is very simple, allowing you to set up MSA very easily."
"The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility."
"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."
"HPE MSA is a very flexible array because we can add more enclosures and extend the capacity dynamically."
"The most valuable features are data deduplication and snapshot replication."
"The speed and performance of HPE MSA are admirable."
"I like its storage capacity, quick access to the data, speed, and overall storage management."
 

Cons

"The support contract is expensive, although they are very responsive."
"The solution requires hardware."
"The solution's license should be integrated and not separate."
"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 could improve by adding configuration tools."
"P2000 has become legacy and we can't find spare parts for it anymore. The life cycle is very low."
"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."
"Synchronized replication is very important for MSA; however, HPE StorageWorks MSA doesn't provide synchronized replication."
"The main thing Oracle can improve is the cost. It would be better if Oracle opened up the system to enable integration with other vendors. Whether it's the database, application server, or storage appliance, they should make it easy to integrate them. They need to open up more to ensure that it can work in any environment and IT ecosystem."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"HPE StorageWorks MSA's licensing is perpetual and not integrated."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"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."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"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."
"The price could be better. We have many competing products now like Huawei and Dell EMC, and these are slightly cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Construction Company
7%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Real Estate/Law Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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?
If it could be a hybrid with SSDs and hard disks, then it would be more economical and efficient.
Ask a question
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Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA
Sun ZFS Storage Appliance
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Translational Genomics Research Institute, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, CyberSolutions Inc., Y-Telecom, First Alliance Bank Zambia Limited, AZ Sint-Jan Brugge-Oostende, Mutlinet Pakistan, TDC A/S, Digi-Key Corporation, Thurgau Cantonal Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE MSA vs. Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.