HPE MSA vs VNX [EOL] comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. Additionally, 92% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

HPE MSA

Read 26 HPE MSA reviews

3,531 Views
3,425 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

VNX [EOL]

Read 36 VNX [EOL] reviews

87% willing to recommend

HPE MSA

VNX [EOL]

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HPE MSA and VNX [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network).

To learn more, read our detailed Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

October 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 917,433 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

HPE MSA

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (4th)

VNX [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

JobyThomas

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.

Read full review

Alireza Zabihi

Works at AIT

The Nimble CS-Series has proven to be reliable with 100% uptime

When we started the process of looking for a SAN vendor I had four primary criteria: reliability, performance, cost, and simplicity. We were really looking for a unicorn and were fully expected to have to make compromises in one of those areas. The Nimble CS-Series was recommended by our solutions provider, and we were blown away. Not only was it the most affordable option, but it was the easiest to deploy, had the best performance, and has proven to be reliable with 100% uptime.

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 integration with Veeamware, with VAM for backup, is improved with the new version."

"The most valuable features are the storage levels and snapshot features."

"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."

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

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

"Easy to manage, it’s reliable for us, and fits our environment."

"Generally, HPE MSA has improved my storage management and has notably provided scalability benefits."

"So far, our experience with this product has been great."

More HPE MSA pros

"One of the best features of the VNX is the ability to combine drives of different types into a virtual Storage Pool. By combining small but fast flash drives, SAS drives, and high-capacity but slower NL-SAS drives, the VNX can intelligently move data to the different tiers of storage based on usage."

"I really value deduplication and compression to save space."

"VNX 5200 works well with a medium VMware cluster, has good performance, and enables hardware disk replication."

"The most valuable feature is the tight VMware integration, due to the migration from bare metal to virtualized environments and then on to the cloud."

"It is a good product with a simple setup and easy administration."

"In a banking environment, on which we required a very high throughput for our database, we have used this product and our desired response was received."

"It is a great product: scalable, reliable, and robust."

"Tiering, because it allows your data to dynamically move among different disk types based on demand in the last 24 hours."

More VNX [EOL] pros

Cons

"This product is getting a little bit older, so new features like deduplication are not included."

"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."

"I am not satisfied with the licensing model and pricing."

"The solution requires hardware."

"Synchronized replication is very important for MSA; however, HPE StorageWorks MSA doesn't provide synchronized replication."

"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."

"Data security features are more important to me than anything else, and I think HPE MSA lacks in this area."

"We faced a lot of challenges with our custom configuration during installation."

More HPE MSA cons

"As an entry level array, this is just right, but adding support for FAST-VP would be beneficial although that feature is available on the higher end VNXe3200."

"Over time, VNX has become pricier than its competitors, and we have turned enthusiastically to Unity."

"You need a lot of licenses in order to use this product, which makes the product expensive; the maintenance contract price also increases significantly every year."

"Based on our workloads, we see repeatedly in performance reports that the built-in controller (SP) cache of our VNX model is not sufficiently large, resulting in forced cache flushing."

"Intel Xeon processors with under 2 GHz processing speeds could be replaced with more recent ones."

"There is no easy way to defrag a RAID group. It would be nice to be able to reduce the size of a storage pool if the storage is not needed anymore."

"It would be very helpful to get an automated report that shows you the size of the checkpoints and get warnings when a checkpoint is reaching either maximum capacity per a file system or hitting the ceiling on the SavVol pool consumption."

"EMC VNX needs to support bigger SSDs. Next generation EMC Unity will do this."

More VNX [EOL] cons

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."

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

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"The solution can be a bit expensive."

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

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

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

"Make sure you understand how the licensing works and that you are getting the right set of licenses if you need array-to-array replication."

"While EMC tends to be on the expensive side, the stability and support of their products are top-notch and I feel are worth the cost."

"Pricing is somewhat higher, especially in Zambia, perhaps due to the low sales volume."

"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable, the yearly EMC is more expensive"

"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable. Yearly EMC is more expensive."

"Over time, VNX has become pricier than its competitors, and we have turned enthusiastically to Unity."

"Reducing dependency on JavaServer Pages (JSP) could improve the administrative overhead."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

17%

Outsourcing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	23

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.

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

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.

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs HPE MSA

Compared 24% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE MSA

Compared 17% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs HPE MSA

Compared 10% of the time

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs HPE MSA

Compared 10% of the time

NEC D4 series vs HPE MSA

Compared 9% of the time

More HPE MSA Competitors

Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 24% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 23% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 17% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs VNX [EOL]

Compared 14% of the time

More VNX [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE MSA

October 2026

Download HPE MSA product report

Buyer's Guide

VNX [EOL]

September 2026

Download VNX [EOL] product report

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA

VNX

Overview

HPE MSA is a reliable storage solution offering dual controllers and easy management, ideal for SMBs. Known for stability, scalability, and affordability, it is user-friendly with features like autonomic tiering and robust disaster recovery, serving virtualization environments and data centers.

With dual controllers and simplified setup, HPE MSA is tailored for ease of management and high reliability. Its design supports scalability and cost-effective operation, catering well to SMBs. Autonomic tiering, snapshots, and data deduplication enhance its performance, while strong integration and flexibility solidify its role in robust operations. Despite benefits, users note expensive support contracts and desires for improved features like synchronized replication and cloud connectivity. Improvements in data security and integration, along with better firmware updates and monitoring tools, are suggested. Its functionality spans NAS, SAN storage, managing VMware clusters, and hosting varied workloads, fitting well into infrastructures like hotels and hospitals.

What are the key features of HPE MSA?

Dual Controllers: Facilitates high availability by allowing seamless failover.
Simple Management: User-friendly interface for easy configuration and monitoring.
Autonomic Tiering: Automatically optimizes data placement for performance.
Snapshots and Data Deduplication: Enhance data protection and storage efficiency.
Transparent Operations: Ensures minimal disruption during operations.
Flexible Integration: Offers adaptability with power and network options.
Disaster Recovery: Reliable with global spare support.

What should users expect in terms of benefits and ROI?

Cost-Effectiveness: Affordable for SMBs, providing excellent ROI.
Scalability: Flexibility to grow with organizational needs.
Performance Stability: Consistent performance, even during power outages.
Easy Configuration: Simplifies setup and management to save time and resources.

HPE MSA finds applications in virtualization, data centers, and CCTV systems. Organizations leverage it for NAS and SAN storage, making it suitable for VMware clusters and workloads like file servers and databases. Its scalability makes it adaptable for hotels, hospitals, and government projects, integrating with server services for centralized management.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

With EMC VNX you'll have the right blend of flash, capacity, and application-aware software. Scale up storage for midrange workloads, optimized for virtual applications and cloud environments.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank

Samsonite, Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Kindred Healthcare

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

October 2026

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: October 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) vendors.

We monitor all Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) 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.