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HPE MSA vs VNX [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

HPE MSA
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (5th)
VNX [EOL]
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
RS
​The VNX 5700 provides a large number of features including the ability to work for both file and block as a unified array.
Once you establish a replication job, when the file system is synchronizing its data to the target file system, it tends to create a balloon effect where it creates a file system that grows as the new data is synchronizing. It would be very helpful if the replication job could incorporate a self-cleaning job after the synchronization job completes to reduce the size of the file system in the target automatically. Very often, we have to run a script called “SavVolReclaim” to clean up space consumed while the replication is in progress. If the replication job hits its maximum capacity of 16TB while synchronizing, it stops the replication job. By adding this reclaim process natively, it would eliminate additional unnecessary work for the storage administrators. 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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The simple configuration feature is great. It is very simple, allowing you to set up MSA very easily."
"The most valuable features are data deduplication and snapshot replication."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA is an entry-level, cost-effective solution for SMB customers."
"The solution is scalable and easy to manage."
"The solution is very easy to use, it is not really complex for any user, such as non-technical individuals."
"The most valuable feature for customers is the autonomic tiering, which enhances their storage scalability as easily as possible."
"The cost to performance for HPE StorageWorks MSA is good."
"The product is very easy to deploy."
"Multi-tiering, positively affects the efficiency of the storage space."
"High availability including non-disruptive updates: We cannot afford downtime windows."
"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."
"From my point of view, the configuration that I can sell is restricted to the EMC best practices. It is hard to make a mistake in a solution. It means the configuration has good performance and scalability options."
"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."
"The replication feature provides another functionality to protect your data."
"I really value deduplication and compression to save space."
"It is very stable even during multiple power failures."
 

Cons

"The solution requires hardware."
"The platform’s monitoring capabilities could be enhanced."
"The solution's license should be integrated and not separate."
"This product is getting a little bit older, so new features like deduplication are not included."
"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."
"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."
"The solution could improve by adding configuration tools."
"The management software used for the VNX is Unicenter. While it is an improvement over Navicenter, used in older EMC SANs, it still feels outdated in comparison to other SAN management software."
"EMC VNX needs to support bigger SSDs. Next generation EMC Unity will do this."
"There is an easy replication process between distinct data centers via VPLEX and/or RPA. But I hope in the future that EMC/Dell could replicate this with other types of storage."
"If the VNX had embedded encryption, that would be great."
"Poor connection to FC."
"Intel Xeon processors with under 2 GHz processing speeds could be replaced with more recent ones."
"EMC VNX needs to support bigger SSD and the Next Generation EMC Unity does this."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"When we bought this solution it was very reasonably priced and they were willing to deal."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"This solution involves a one-time CapEx payment, followed by warranty extensions."
"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."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA's licensing is perpetual and not integrated."
"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."
"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."
"Pricing is somewhat higher, especially in Zambia, perhaps due to the low sales volume."
"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.​"
"The initial pricing and licensing are reasonable, the yearly EMC is more expensive"
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 needs improvement with HPE StorageWorks MSA?
We faced a lot of challenges with our custom configuration during installation. At the time of deployment, there was some communication gap between my partner and HPE.
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Comparisons

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Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA
VNX
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Samsonite, Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Kindred Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: December 2024.
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