HPE StoreVirtual vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and StarWind are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #19, while StarWind is ranked #24. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 2.4% mindshare in SDS, compared to StarWind’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of StarWind users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

HPE StoreVirtual and StarWind Virtual Tape Library compete in the storage and data protection market. HPE StoreVirtual offers superior pricing and support, while StarWind Virtual Tape Library is noted for its advanced features.

Features: HPE StoreVirtual provides impressive scalability, robust data protection across clustered environments, and seamless integration with existing IT infrastructures. StarWind Virtual Tape Library delivers high-speed data backups, seamless cloud provider compatibility, and advanced tape library management features.

Room for Improvement: HPE StoreVirtual could enhance its ease of use for entry-level users, expand its advanced configuration options, and offer better support for heterogeneous storage environments. StarWind Virtual Tape Library might improve its user interface, simplify complex setup processes, and broaden its integration with more diverse IT systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE StoreVirtual is known for easy deployment and reliable customer service, allowing for a quicker startup. StarWind Virtual Tape Library offers a competitive deployment model, yet requires careful handling of its complex features, supported by its robust customer service.

Pricing and ROI: HPE StoreVirtual is cost-effective for smaller setups, providing an attractive option for organizations with tighter budgets. StarWind Virtual Tape Library involves higher upfront costs but compensates with significant long-term ROI through its comprehensive feature set and increased operational efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE StoreVirtual vs. StarWind Virtual Tape Library Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual vs. StarWind Virtual Tape Library

January 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

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

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 3.4%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE StoreVirtual is 2.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual Tape Library is 2.2%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Pure Storage FlashBlade	3.4%
HPE StoreVirtual	2.4%
StarWind Virtual Tape Library	2.2%
Other	92.0%

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

MikaelHellström

IT Manager at Regin Dalarna

Has handled backup storage needs reliably and supports seamless upgrades

In environments requiring high throughput and low latency, Pure Storage FlashBlade provides high throughput and normal latency, but we do not have any application that requires low latency right now, so the latency of three to five milliseconds is considered kind of high. Pure Storage FlashBlade's ability to integrate with enterprise applications is not important for us, as we only want to present an S3 bucket for our backup, which we have done, and it works very fast. We use the Purity software's data reduction techniques; we have a backup software that compresses everything before sending it to the S3 bucket, achieving a data reduction of 1.1 to one. I would recommend Pure Storage FlashBlade to other companies because it's a very fast and scalable solution for anyone who needs it. On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution an 8.

Read full review

Vebjorn Nergaard

Senior IT Engineer at Guard Automation AS

Reliable with helpful support and good replication

The setup is okay, however, it comes with a moderate amount of difficulty. If you are new to the product, it is difficult. You do get used to the process over time and it gets easier. A company just needs one person to maintain the solution as it just runs. You don't need any support staff. It's very, very hands-off except when you do updates. The product is living its own life.

Read full review

reviewer1414572

DevOps Director at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics

Flexible and reliable with helpful support

I am not sure if this is a limitation of my physical hardware or if it is the software itself. However, I would like the throughput to be faster. Who would not like things to be faster? It would be nice if StarWind could come up with a best practice document for configuration. I had to do some playing around in my environment with test runs to get the configuration that really allowed for the maximum amount of throughput that I was going to get with the software. Once I had figured out what worked best, the solution was rather fast for backing up 30+ TB of data

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

"The most valuable feature is Safe Mode."

"What I like best about Pure Storage FlashBlade is its object storage functionality, plus it has fast underlying hardware. Pure Storage FlashBlade is also very stable. I find its stability one of its valuable features."

"The solution is able to handle workloads and is easy to use. It allows us to actually manage the boxes in less time."

"Approximately 40% to 50% of my time is saved using Pure Storage FlashBlade compared to different products."

"Speed and ease of use are the two most valuable features."

"We have integrated it with VMware. The integration process is pretty good. Especially with VMware, it helps with the capacity of it."

"The most valuable features are the Metro clustering, and disaster recovery."

"We have seen a reduction in the total cost of ownership by around 20%."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"Simplicity of not having to buy FC or FCoE SAN. Instead, we buy servers with their own storage."

"he interface and the installation makes it easy as it's all in one piece of hardware and it doesn't need to be connected to anything else."

"A company can scale it easily."

"It's very stable and it's easy to use."

"The seamlessness behind the scenes of block management."

"Data is stored in two different places, leveraging more security and availability. Therefore, network problems are having less affect on iSCSI."

"The solution's most valuable aspect is that it is hardware independent."

"The solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues with glitches or bugs."

More HPE StoreVirtual pros

"I like the fact that we can simultaneously upload the virtual tapes to different cloud providers, and the settings can be adjusted to speed up the upload times even further."

"The most valuable feature of the StarWind Virtual Tape Library is the archiving to the AWS cloud."

"The solution made our backups way more reliable."

"StarWind VTL allowed us to back up to virtual tape that was created within Veeam and upload the tape to the cloud."

"It is a stable solution."

Cons

"It usually comes down to just what you hit and the value you're getting when you spend the money and license the products. I would always go, "If you want to make things better, lower your price and make your licensing simpler." There's always an opportunity around that."

"It would be beneficial if the layer could support the S3 protocol and be container ready in the next release."

"The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top."

"I would like to have Snapshots and Snapmail in the next release. People who came from a NetApp background, especially expect these features."

"In my opinion, one way Pure Storage FlashBlade can be improved is by having more compatibility between the FlashArray and FlashBlade, allowing for synchronized data between both platforms."

"On our dedupe during our initial buy, we were expecting a number a little higher like 4x. However, we are getting about 3.6. While it is close enough, it doesn't quite hit the numbers. So, this has been a challenge."

"An area for improvement in Pure Storage FlashBlade is its price. It could be reduced. The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade also needs improvement. It used to be good, with more experienced engineers. Nowadays, it isn't, and it takes longer for support to solve problems."

"In terms of scalability, it doesn't expand out quite as robustly as some of the others, but it covers 90% of the market in what it does."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"Configuration of application integrated snapshots for VMware is convoluted and it did not work immediately."

"In our country, Qatar, most of the industry isn't using too much HP. StoreVirtual doesn't move fast. It's not a popular product."

"it would nice to have deduplication or compression, things that you have in some of the higher end products."

"I would like to have this solution easily integrate with VMware."

"The product is coming to end-of-life in the next three years."

"It would be nice if there were more parts available in Brazil and HPE could swap out faulty equipment quicker."

"Product looks like it is in the end of development."

"The GUI is a bit old-fashioned. It should be updated."

More HPE StoreVirtual cons

"The main thing that I felt could be improved was having an estimated time of completion for the virtual tape uploads to the cloud."

"The solution's training process and online documentation could be more thorough."

"I am not sure if this is a limitation of my physical hardware or if it is the software itself. However, I would like the throughput to be faster."

"The initial installation can be complex and should be simplified."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid yearly."

"Our licensing is renewed annually."

"We used a reseller for the purchase."

"I rate the tool's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."

"Pure Storage FlashBlade is a hardware appliance, and it's very expensive if you compare its price with other solutions. You can get the same features and benefits from its competitor, VAST Data, but for half the price of Pure Storage FlashBlade."

"In my opinion, we have paid the right price for the product. I don't think that it is too much or too little."

"The price of this solution could be made more affordable."

"It is within reason for what you get. From what we have found comparing it to other vendors, it is in the same range as others. Given the choice, we would definitely redeploy it based on the cost."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"The prices are OK, so we don't have much difficulty selling HPE in Brazil."

"One of the key features about it is that when you buy either a VSA license or a StoreVirtual appliance, all your software's included."

"It costs less than $10,000 for one machine. If it costs more than 15% higher than this, then the customer may change to another solution."

"If you buy a five-year license, not only does the technical support expire after five years, but you also lose the ability to change and expand the VSA, and the systems won't go down."

"Licensing is not exactly straightforward, but not the worst I have ever seen."

"For our organization, I believe the cost is 16,000 Euros for a three-year license. It costs a bit more to do the maintenance on our servers as well. It's also on an HP ProLiant server and an organization will need to do the maintenance there also. I believe the price for that is around 2000 Euros a year."

"The initial setup and deployment are also covered in the purchase at no additional cost."

"The solution is cost-effective."

"The pricing of the solution could be more flexible to meet the needs of smaller to mid-market size companies."

"If you currently have Veeam there is no other solution that is as easy and affordable as StarWind."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Marketing Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Media Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	19

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?

Regarding pricing, it is okay; we needed exactly this in size, and the price was a lot lower than competitors, making...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

In my opinion, one way Pure Storage FlashBlade can be improved is by having more compatibility between the FlashArray...

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 18% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 9% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 8% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 7% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 6% of the time

More Pure Storage FlashBlade Competitors

DataCore SANsymphony vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 15% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 13% of the time

StarWind Virtual SAN vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 12% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 11% of the time

IBM Spectrum Virtualize vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 8% of the time

More HPE StoreVirtual Competitors

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library

Compared 13% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library

Compared 10% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library

Compared 8% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library

Compared 8% of the time

Nexenta vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library

Compared 5% of the time

More StarWind Virtual Tape Library Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

January 2026

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual

January 2026

Download HPE StoreVirtual product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

January 2026

Download StarWind Virtual Tape Library product report

Also Known As

No data available

HPE StoreVirtual, HPE VSA

No data available

Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

HPE StoreVirtual storage ensures that organisations can optimise the benefits of server virtualisation with cost-effective high availability and disaster recovery. The iSCSI-based, scale-out storage platform is easy to manage and change – meeting ongoing business demands without creating IT bottlenecks or application downtime. Overcoming the cost and management limitations of traditional storage area networks (SANs), HPE StoreVirtual nodes use storage clustering to form a single pool of resources that enable organisations to buy only what they need today, scaling non-disruptively to meet requirements in the future.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

For SMB and Enterprises, who either look to get rid of backup tapes completely, or are willing to accelerate backup process and add an extra level of protection, our solution is StarWind Virtual Tape Library (VTL). It is an appliance that eliminates the need in physical tape and “pretends” to be a supported tape drive or autoloader, keeping all data on inexpensive, fast and high-capacity spinning disks.

Even with explosive data growth, StarWind VTL fits the backup into backup window by accelerating it, so the process does not overlap with production time. Optionally, it creates additional copy of backup data for better safety. It is also available in a software-only form, as part of StarWind VSAN functionality.

StarWind VTL targets those, who need to replace existing tape backup infrastructure or accelerate it if regulatory requirements prohibit replacement. In case the goal is just virtualizing tape backup or creating a stretched backup infrastructure, StarWind Tape Redirector will come in handy.

StarWind

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

NBrIX, WIND Telecom, Netrics

Volvo, Sony, Samsung, Hitachi

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual vs. StarWind Virtual Tape Library

January 2026

Free Report: HPE StoreVirtual vs. StarWind Virtual Tape Library

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE StoreVirtual vs. StarWind Virtual Tape Library and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our HPE StoreVirtual vs. StarWind Virtual Tape Library report.

See our list of best Software Defined Storage (SDS) vendors.

We monitor all Software Defined Storage (SDS) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.