We find the adaptive optimization and dynamic optimization to be the most valuable features.
Network Administrator with 1,001-5,000 employees
It has had multiple drive failures, including one that completely crippled our business until it was resolved.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
This has not improved my organization at all. It has had a direct effect on how we see our storage solution and how critical it really is and how availability is a priority. This product ran great for 6 months until we had our 1st drive failure. After that, it started falling apart and we have had nothing but issues ever since.
We did oversubscribe our drives in regards to IOPS capacity with no alerts of such. This caused us to lose another drive a couple months later, which brought a HUGE performance hit to our business until the drive was rebuilt. Shortly after it was replaced and rebuilt, another drive failed, which completely crippled our business until it was resolved. We were down most of a day because of this.
Since then, I have had too many tickets open to count. I still currently have a ticket open with them that they do not have a resolution. They know the issue. It is 3rd-party firmware on the HBA card in the controllers, which is going to be released in some unknown future release.
We have just received another unit as a PoC to set up Peer Motion so that we can try and update our current production array for a completely different reason, which we have been waiting several months for. We have no confidence in HPE technical support or engineering to update our current production array without any type of outage.
We have replaced FC drives, NL drives, SSD drives, HBAs in controller nodes, and SFP connectors. The onsite CE’s that came out to service the unit have been great, but I find it ridiculous that I can’t run for 1 year without an issue.
What needs improvement?
Only room for improvement would be to just abandon this product line and start with another.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this product for 1 year.
Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,690 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Suprisingly, we had no issues with initial deployment.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not had problems with scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
They will dedicate resources to help resolve issues. That part was impressive, although to actually get a resolution at times we had to really push.
Technical Support:Technical support is hard to understand at times and we always had to escalate to level 2 or 3 or engineering. I have even had escalations to Lab still with no real resolution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used Dell EqualLogic and switched because of some minor instability issues that we had, which, looking back now, were pretty petty. We actually pulled them from storage and powered them up to resolve stability issues with the 3PAR array.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was fairly straightforward, once given the proper documentation and we had knowledgeable people onsite. Our initial HPE people that we had out to help show us best practices and usage were ridiculous. The HPE person we had out that did the physical installation, unboxing, racking, and initialization of the array was good.
What was our ROI?
We have experienced absolutely no ROI. We have lost money due to these arrays.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
STAY AWAY. They will give you a book for an invoicing quote.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated several other products and we were over sold on these arrays. At the time, we looked at EMC, Dell Compellent, Nimble, and IBM. At the time, HPE sales sold us what appeared to be a superior product, but that was really not the case and was a mistake.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

CIO at Bruggs Cable
Allows us to have an active-active scenario. They are fast, easy to manage, and easy to extend.
What is most valuable?
It's quite fast, easy to manage, and easy to extend. Adding new shelves or new platforms is easy.
How has it helped my organization?
In our case, 3PARs were easier to implement into our existing environment. Also, we had problem with storage space so it was the easiest way to expand.
What needs improvement?
I'm happy for the moment. But I would like to see them implement the new types of RAM; the NVRAM that is being used in the server environment. This would make storage quite a bit faster. It's not slow, but it could always be faster. Maybe this can also be available partially in a storage environment.
For example, if you have a DSQL server or something similar. Most companies have the lock database on the local server. In our case, we have everything on the 3PAR and it would make sense to have faster storage. We would like to see some innovation. There's room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using 3PARs for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have never had any stability problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is always a matter of price of course, but you can put in new disks with no problem at all.
How are customer service and technical support?
We used technical support to do updates. They're good and very fast. They were very helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used EMC before but it was quite old, about 7 years, and it was time to change. There wasn't a good solution from them at that time. The ability to scale to size was important to us when choosing a vendor, as well as the speed. We want our solution to be future-proof to an extent.
How was the initial setup?
I was partially involved in the initial setup. It was complex because of our environment. We have 10 or 15 different systems in the background so it wasn't easy. We thought it would be easy, but in the end it was quite complex.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There isn’t only one solution on the market. We already had the EMC systems. We were not limited to flash providers, so we also looked at Nimble and Hitachi and others.
At the end of the day, 3PAR was the most valuable. It was the most valuable solution. It was quite fast and it wasn't too expensive. Additionally, we could have an active-active scenario. That was for us the most important thing.
What other advice do I have?
I would say go for it. You should at least give it a chance.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,690 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Security Officer at Videocon Intelligent Security Private Limited
Reliable with a good user interface and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "It's a very popular product for enterprise storage."
- "This solution is now at end-of-life."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is mostly used for storage.
What is most valuable?
The user interface is very good. It's impressive. I find it very easy to understand.
It offers good scalability.
The stability is very reliable.
There is the possibility of using it in a hybrid way.
It's a very popular product for enterprise storage. It's good for medium to enterprise-level companies.
It's easy to set up the product.
Technical support has been helpful.
What needs improvement?
This solution is now at end-of-life.
We have found the solution to be expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using with the solution for the last six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable and extremely reliable. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable and easily expands.
We have various customers on the solution. They might have thousands of users overall, however, we have four to five clients using the product in general.
How are customer service and support?
We have been satisfied with the level of technical support we get. They are helpful and responsive.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use Primera and PowerStore.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward and simple. We also use Primera and PowerStore and the setup is pretty much the same for all of those.
How long it takes will be determined by the capacity and the formats. It can take anywhere from six or seven hours up to 24.
We might need two to three staff members to handle deployment and maintenance It depends on the SLA and the organizational structure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a one-time cost once you purchase the solution. There is no perpetual licensing.
It is an expensive product.
What other advice do I have?
I'm an end-user and handle storage only.
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the product as it is at end-of-life. However, I would rate it ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Head of IT Department at Sonepar
Good performance, proactive monitoring and support , and quick to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "We never had a blackout and we have never been offline."
- "The price of this solution should be lower."
What is our primary use case?
The StorServ is the main storage for our infrastructure. Our ERP system runs on it, as well as 15 other servers including Active Directory, synchronization servers, and more.
What is most valuable?
The performance is very good. This is a full-flash storage device and it is very quick.
HPE monitors each storage device and if there are any problems, such as an issue with a hard drive, the technical support will quickly and proactively contact us to change the part.
What needs improvement?
The price of this solution should be lower.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using our current HPE 3PAR for the past year and a half. For the previous six years, we had an older version of 3PAR storage.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
3PAR is a stable product. We have used the current device and an older version for more than seven years and although we had accidents with nodes and hard drives, it is high-availability storage. We never had a blackout and we have never been offline.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
With respect to the capacity, it is easy to add to. We just have to get more boxes with hard drives. We have quite a small environment so, in terms of scalability, it's okay for us. We have never needed to expand.
There are four of us who administer the 3PAR. I am an IT manager and I have three colleagues in my team.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is tremendous.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with other storage products from Dell, although that was more than ten years ago. The reason that we switched to HPE was the comparison between performance and price.
The 3PAR is high-level storage and at the time, it was cheaper than the competitors.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation was done by our partner and it took less than a day to complete. It was deployed within approximately five hours.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was completed by a gold HPE partner. They delivered the storage devices in addition to the ESXi servers that we ordered.
Any maintenance that needs to be done, such as updating the firmware on the devices, is the responsibility of our external partner. We don't have experience in this field.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is quite expensive and in addition, we subscribe to 24/7 support with a four-hour response time.
What other advice do I have?
HPE is a vendor that I recommend in general, and especially for storage solutions.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
HP-UX System Admin at L3 Technologies Inc
The snapshotting capability allows us to do a database replication very quickly
Pros and Cons
- "Its snapshot capability is the most valuable feature, because replicate our databases from production to nonproduction for development. This allows us to do it very quickly."
- "The deduplication is pretty impressive because it will shrink. We also do some clones in addition to the snapshots, where we can have multiple clones. These reduce the actual written storage by as much as 50 percent."
- "The first array that they sent us was in some type of a factory mode. We didn't find that out until we loaded a bunch of data onto it, then we had to back it all off. We had to replace the array, which was sort of painful."
- "3PAR did not increase our performance, and it has increased our latency by at least double."
What is our primary use case?
It is storage for our SAP environment. SAP is the mission-critical application that we run on the solution.
How has it helped my organization?
The snapshotting capability allows us to do a database replication very quickly. As a result, we have some applications which need a fresh copy of the production database everyday, and we are able to give that to them by eight o'clock in the morning.
What is most valuable?
Its snapshot capability is the most valuable feature, because replicate our databases from production to nonproduction for development. This allows us to do it very quickly.
The deduplication is pretty impressive because it will shrink. We also do some clones in addition to the snapshots, where we can have multiple clones. These reduce the actual written storage by as much as 50 percent.
What needs improvement?
It has latency issues.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It seems pretty stable. Once we got over the birthing pains, it has been pretty reliable.
As long as the array is not full, it is available. We filled it up.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. We can grow it up to the size that it will contain. Then, we have to move to another array, a bigger one, if we have to. However, my understanding is that is a pretty seamless process.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We moved to 3PAR from a different array, which was a smaller array with fewer controller cards in it. So, 3PAR did not increase our performance, and it has increased our latency by at least double.
We went with 3PAR because we have HP-UX systems. Since we already knew HP-UX, they offered us a significantly cheaper solution than the one that we had for storage.
How was the initial setup?
The first array that they sent us was in some type of a factory mode. We didn't find that out until we loaded a bunch of data onto it, then we had to back it all off. We had to replace the array, which was sort of painful.
What about the implementation team?
We are actually a federal customer, so we get the HPE Federal direct team helping us. Our experience was good, except for that one problem with the first array.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Dell EMC, HPE, and some other competitors. We went with HPE because of the price point.
What other advice do I have?
The biggest lesson that I learned from using 3PAR is the snapshot capability.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head Of IT Data Center at a consumer goods company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Overall performance is great, and support tells us of problems before we are aware of them
Pros and Cons
- "Extending is not a problem, scalability is okay. But once you buy additional box of disks, you have to wait for HPE to contact you with their plan for implementation, for connecting, and it can take several weeks. So, you have the box and you have to wait for several weeks to actually implement it."
What is our primary use case?
It's our primary storage and we are using it within two of our datacenters with replication between them. Actually, that part is currently being implemented.
Overall, performance is great. Personally, I'm fully satisfied, even when we had some problems, failed disks or some bug in a software version, HPE would always be fully proactive. They would actually tell us of the problem, even before we were aware of it.
How has it helped my organization?
For me, personally, I think the most important value is really the way HPE is treating us as a customer.
What is most valuable?
I would say that now that we even have flash storage on the 8200 models, it would be the deduplication. We were hoping to use the automated tiering much more, but it's not a good fit for us. Although the technology works great, due to our workload, it's really not an option for us. So, I would definitely say the deduplication on flash drives.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Downtime, never. I have heard of other customers having some serious issues. I personally am not the type of person that would say, "they are now the bad guys," because it can happen. It's technology.
Overall, in my experience, maybe one of the worst was when we suddenly got a lot of different alerts. It caused some stress within our team, but later on it proved to be a bug in the firmware version. I think in two-weeks' time we received an update that resolved the issue. So, I really think it's stable. It's a good choice for the price.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I can say it is scalable because initially, when we bought our first 3PAR, we extended it up to its maximum over the years. That is the part, maybe, where I see room for improving for HPE. Extending is not a problem, scalability is okay. But once you buy additional box of disks, you have to wait for HPE to contact you with their plan for implementation, for connecting, and it can take several weeks. So, you have the box and you have to wait for several weeks to actually implement it.
How are customer service and technical support?
In terms of reaching the right person, actually, the way it goes is that they call us.
Of course they contact us via the partner, but they contact us, and the response is great. Everything is within SLA.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had different storage. For instance, we used IBM storage. When the time for replacement came due to age of the old storage, we actually performed a tender. So, we didn't start with, "Okay. We are buying 3PAR." But, through the entire tendering process, we reached the place where it proved to be a good decision to buy HPE 3PAR.
How was the initial setup?
I think storage implementation is never so straightforward, but I would say it's among the simplest to implement.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
IBM. We went with HPE because the decision was, in the end, based on price.
We had a list of required specifications, invited several vendors, they offered what they could. But in the end, when you get all of this matched, then the price decides.
For me, when we last did a purchase, last year or so, at that time flash drives and the deduplication were really important. Actually all of the vendors have it, offer it, but then we had some discussions looking at overall performance, resistance to disk failures and the like. I would say that HPE is the leader here.
What other advice do I have?
In terms of the most important criteria when selecting a vendor - I'm saying with a small disclaimer, I'm saying this personally, so it's not the company - for me, the most important is always vendor support. We have, of course, contracts with partners that implemented the solutions, but I think that vendor support is mandatory in the way they are supporting you through the lifecycle of the product. It can overcome any problem the technology may deal with.
I give it an eight out of 10 overall. Whenever I rate something, I'm immediately going subtract one because I'm really reluctant to give a maximum grade, so say, "Okay, now it's nine." Well, there is room for improvement, and the way that the implementation of extensions goes is one of the examples. But, overall, I would say we are fully satisfied.
I actually do recommend HPE 3PAR because, for me, it proved to make my life easier.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Operations Department Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Thin provisioning allows us to satisfy customer requests yet maintain space for others
Pros and Cons
- "Previously, we were using EVA from HPE. When we moved to 3PAR, we noticed a reduction in footprint, reduced by more than 30%. We use the Adaptive Optimization, giving us a reduction in cost and with better performance."
- "I would like to see more virtualization: storage virtualization, data virtualization would be very nice."
What is our primary use case?
We use the 3PAR as a centralized storage system where all of our data for production, mission critical data, are consolidated on that storage.
How has it helped my organization?
Previously, we were using EVA from HPE. When we moved to 3PAR, we noticed a reduction in footprint, reduced by more than 30%. We use the Adaptive Optimization giving us a reduction in cost and with better performance. So, we are achieving the goal of performance with less cost.
It increases our availability and service provision. We provide service to many customers at the same time. Sharing of the resources is a good target we have achieved using 3PAR.
What is most valuable?
With the thin provisioning we have been able to satisfy a lot of the requests which before we could not. Our customers are requesting more space just to make sure they have it. So, with the thin provisioning, we gave them what they need, but we maintain some spare for the others.
We have used the Remote Copy from datacenter to datacenter, as well. It is efficient, and working as expected.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more virtualization: storage virtualization, data virtualization would be very nice.
Also, the features that we are seeing in Simplivity, if integrated with the 3PAR, would be much better.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable, above average. There were some obstacles, but support managed, in the end, to fix it. It wasn't the product itself, it was a configuration issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easy and efficient. It should meet our future needs when we need to scale.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've used technical support, and the architecture support was efficient for us as well.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The importance of having thin provisioning was a key factor. And when we found out that 3PAR had been acquired by HPE, since we have good relations with HPE, it was a very efficient and easy decision to take. We have good support, and the functions that we are looking for come in one product.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward, comparatively easier than EVA. We had an HPE support person helping us throughout.
What other advice do I have?
Our most important criteria when selecting a vendor, or what we appreciate most about a vendor, are
- support
- easy to reach
- trust.
If you want a cost-effective solution, go for 3PAR. We did a PoC and found it effective.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head of Infrastructure and Security at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
It is proven and integrates well with HPE BladeSystem infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
- The most valuable feature to me is its reliability. After that, it is the architecture, and the rest of the HPE sort of products, like the blades and the storage.
- You've got the best of breed from a storage perspective, and a proven solution that integrates well with the HPE c7000 or the BladeSystem infrastructure. You have a solution that has been tried and tested by HPE as an overall solution.
- It enables us to use a virtualized layer. Until we deployed our 3PAR, we had pretty much everything as physical servers. With 3PAR, we are in the process of completing the virtualization of our services.
What needs improvement?
Small companies are interested in simplicity and a very granular licensing model is something that poses a number of challenges.
From the cost perspective, (usually this licensing model is geared towards revenue generating…) it makes it expensive but also from the admin point of view it ends up being cumbersome and difficult to manage. We had a number of issues when ordering an upgrade to existing array due to this licensing model.
Using a small number of bundles or just a single licensing model (like Nimble for example) will make the product more appealing and simplify the process of organizing an upgrade.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I think it's very good. Support-wise, I think it’s debatable based on some issues that we had with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think the scalability is one of the factors that caused us to select 3PAR.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support was average, and bad handling some incidents.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using direct attached storage. We moved to Sun; and then we decided to implement 3PAR.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex. I would say it was flawed because we had issues.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
For the storage, we looked at Talent, which is now Dell. We also looked at Nutanix and Tintri. The main reason we chose HPE was that we already had an HPE infrastructure; and it felt like it was the best solution for our needs. The product met our requirements at the time.
Reliability is very important in a vendor. We also look at the breadth of offerings because we like to keep things simple. Rather than choosing a varied mix from a multitude of vendors, we like to go with a small number. I have a small team and it's easier from a management perspective, as well as understanding and supporting the product in the best way possible.
What other advice do I have?
It all depends on what you need, and how you can justify the cost. It is not a cheap solution. It depends on what you have. If it's a brand new setup, then there are other paths you can take, and it's worth researching them. If you already have HPE deployments in-house on the server side, not the storage, I think 3PAR will definitely make a very great addition to your portfolio.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free HPE 3PAR StoreServ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Popular Comparisons
Dell PowerStore
Pure Storage FlashArray
NetApp AFF
Dell Unity XT
IBM FlashSystem
HPE Nimble Storage
HPE Primera
VAST Data
Dell PowerMax NVMe
Huawei OceanStor Dorado
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform
HPE Alletra Storage
Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series
Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series
Huawei OceanStor
Buyer's Guide
Download our free HPE 3PAR StoreServ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Comparison - NetApp AFF 8020 vs. HP 3PAR Storeserv 8200 2N FLD Int Base
- HPE 3PAR Remote Copy
- EMC VNX vs HPE 3PAR Flash Storage, which is better?
- HPE 3PAR Flash Storage vs INFINIDAT InfiniBox
- Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?
- What Were The Top 3 Differentiators That Most Influenced Your Company's Decision To Purchase HPE 3PAR?
- Any advice re Dell PowerMax? We are looking at Unity and PowerMax, and also HPE.
- What's the difference between HPE 3PAR StoreServ and HPE Primera?
- Dell EMC XtremIO Flash Storage OR Hitachi Virtual Storage F Series
- Pure Storage or NetApp for VDI?