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HPE MSA vs NetApp FAS 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)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp FAS Series
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (4th), NAS (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of HPE MSA is 19.9%, up from 17.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 19.2%, up from 16.4% 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.
Paweł Jabłoński - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for VMs with replication a feature, but need upgraded SSDs
We use this solution. I configured and updated it. Of course, I was also a user of applications that store data on that storage. We already have an SSD solution. So, rather than planning to go with an SSD solution, we are focusing on expanding it. If a company wants to deploy something new, it should choose a product with SSD, and NVMe disks. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

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 features are data deduplication and snapshot replication."
"The simple configuration feature is great. It is very simple, allowing you to set up MSA very easily."
"The most valuable feature for customers is the autonomic tiering, which enhances their storage scalability as easily as possible."
"The product is very easy to deploy."
"The speed and performance of HPE MSA are admirable."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA is an entry-level, cost-effective solution for SMB customers."
"MSA performs exceptionally well, particularly in regions with frequent power outages."
"The most valuable feature of HPE StorageWorks MSA is its flexibility."
"Adaptive balancing is a valuable feature."
"It's an easy product to use that is stable and has good performance."
"NetApp's cloud-based PaaS has been a massive help for unstructured data."
"It is very flexible. It integrates well with the public cloud and other components, so everything can be API driven. Therefore, it is very easy to automate it."
"One of the most valuable features offered is double-parity RAID, which guarantees that your data will stay intact. We're also able to provision storage and monitor which ones are really consuming storage."
"The biggest advantage that makes NetApp FAS Series better is that we can use RAID technology on the storage."
"The file sharing feature is most valuable."
"It's enabled us to allow admins across the IT organization to more easily manage their own subset of data within our organization."
 

Cons

"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."
"It should show more options for cloud backup support."
"Synchronized replication is very important for MSA; however, HPE StorageWorks MSA doesn't provide synchronized replication."
"HPE should reintroduce customizable ports as they were in Gen 5, allowing customers to use both iSCSI or SC on a single controller."
"We faced a lot of challenges with our custom configuration during installation."
"The solution requires hardware."
"It's hard to find in-person training that fits our schedule in our area. They offer a lot of online training, but we need somewhere to go because we can't really get away from the office."
"It was not possible to have a custom user inside ONTAP without the delete permission to delete the volume. We wanted others to be able to create a SnapMirror and volume, but have no volume deletion permission. In the newest version, it seems to already be in place, but there was a bug enabling this one in older versions 9.11, 9.10, or earlier."
"Its operating system is very cumbersome. However, after you set it up, it runs pretty smoothly. Its file system is not very dynamic. It is very static."
"One area that needs improvement is the hyper-converged solution. Although NetApp has a solution, compared to Nutanix, it falls short."
"Regarding the stability of NetApp FAS Series, I would rate it seven or seven point five because there are frequent panic messages."
"It lacks automatic tiering, When you use data, some of it goes cold. It is not hot data, so the system should automatically move that data to the SATA, while the hot data is kept on tier-one, the SaaS or SSD drives."
"The solution's configuration is not flexible."
"NetApp needs to put its OS on a microchip rather than on disks."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution is quite expensive; they should lower the cost."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA's licensing is perpetual and not integrated."
"I would rate the pricing as nine out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"When we bought this solution it was very reasonably priced and they were willing to deal."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"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."
"I've sold arrays for as little $20,000 USD and as high as $300,000 USD."
"It's not cheap, but at the same time, it's also inexpensive. It's somewhere in between."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being expensive. We pay a one-time purchase price."
"Cost effective storage for all performance levels (including all-flash)."
"Most storage vendors also have software, or licensing bundles, which may offer the required licenses considerably cheaper, but do also maybe offer licenses, which are not needed."
"The licensing cost is on yearly basis."
"There are products available in market with comparatively lower costs."
"The pricing of NetApp FAS Series is reasonable for its performance."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Government
8%
Construction Company
7%
Educational Organization
56%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

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?
It needs more details on how to integrate with the cloud for backup scenarios. It should show more options for cloud backup support.
Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?
Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?
Cost is a big factor in our decision-making process. When we're buying storage, the first thing we look at is how much we're paying per gigabyte. Cost has been the driving factor when choosing this...
 

Also Known As

HP StorageWorks MSA
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Femsa CSC, TTX, Rabobank
Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE MSA vs. NetApp FAS Series and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.