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.
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."
- "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 and 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?
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.
Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
900,228 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Team Leader Presales at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Great for hosting virtual infrastructure with helpful technical support and good performance
Pros and Cons
- "We're hosting virtual infrastructure on the 3PAR storage and it's been very good for that."
- "The product is quite expensive."
- "I cannot recommend 3PAR."
What is our primary use case?
We've only used this solution for two instances. Most of the time we are using HP MSA fiber channel storage, the 1060 or 2060. We primarily use the solution for virtualization. We're hosting virtual machines on the 3PAR storage.
What is most valuable?
We're hosting virtual infrastructure on the 3PAR storage and it's been very good for that.
The product is stable.
What needs improvement?
The product is quite expensive. The costs involved are high.
We would like the product to make it more of a straightforward procedure when we need to configure storage. There were quite a lot of options and parameters that we don't have knowledge of. We used some external company to make the configuration for us, for the 3PAR storage.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for a few years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the product is good. They offer good performance. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't attempted to scale the solution yet. Therefore, I can't speak to how easy it would be to expand it.
That said, from what I've seen, it does appear to be simple to scale.
We have 100 users on the product right now.
At this point, we do not have plans to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
We've contacted technical support from HP for 3PAR in the past. We needed to upgrade the firmware of the storage. We needed some support from HP, which was excellent. We are satisfied so far. There have been no issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution.
We're aware of a few different storage options. 3PAR, Nimble, and Premier Storage are pretty expensive. This brings the cost up too high for some projects.
How was the initial setup?
I didn't handle the initial setup or the configuration. I can't speak to how the setup went, however, it was my understanding that it was a bit complex.
There was two or three technical personnel that were used to handle the initial setup. They were admins and engineers.
What about the implementation team?
It is my understanding that we had an external company configure the storage. It is not so straightforward, as far as I remember.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's a very expensive product. Companies need to be aware of that going in.
What other advice do I have?
I cannot recommend 3PAR. Most of the cases can be covered with entry-level storage, which is the HP MSA. 3PAR is needed for some quite big platforms or environments. Most of the time, the entry-level MSA storage is more than enough.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
900,228 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Easy to add more storage, reasonably-priced, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "It is reliable, and it seems like a solid product. It has been working well so far."
- "The speed of the hard disk could be better. The performance is the main issue for us. The performance of the VMs is not comparable to desktop machines, for instance, and we might need another solution to improve the performance. Other than that, we don't have any issues. We already have a great part of storage with SSDs, and the performance is not as good as I expected."
- "The speed of the hard disk could be better. The performance is the main issue for us."
What is our primary use case?
It is for shared storage for virtual machines running VMware.
What is most valuable?
It is reliable, and it seems like a solid product. It has been working well so far.
What needs improvement?
The speed of the hard disk could be better. The performance is the main issue for us. The performance of the VMs is not comparable to desktop machines, for instance, and we might need another solution to improve the performance. Other than that, we don't have any issues. We already have a great part of storage with SSDs, and the performance is not as good as I expected.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I didn't have any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. You can add storage quite easily.
We have only 10 users. It is a small system.
How are customer service and support?
I never contacted HPE support because I have a selling partner, but we didn't have many issues. So, we rarely needed any support.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup was done by our partner, who has previous experience. So, it was relatively easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is reasonable. As compared to other solutions, it doesn't seem to be much different.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I tried to look, but it was more about the products that our IT partner had available than me choosing. They had previous experience with HPE and 3PAR, and they recommended it to us, and we followed their advice.
What other advice do I have?
I can't compare it with other brands because we only have this system.
I would advise having some reference implementation that you can test and see if it's good for your needs. In my case, I would have liked to have the opportunity to test it first to see if it's good for our use case, but I couldn't.
I would rate it an eight out of 10. Performance is the only thing that I would like them to improve.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
GIDC India - Architecture Design and Engineering Leader at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Easy to set up with good auto-tiering, but needs to be more reliable
Pros and Cons
- "Very recently, we are able to do a lot of data center automation by being able to script some of the 3PAR actions for our private cloud."
- "StoreServ is good storage, which needs to get implemented alongside other products to allow it to be utilized in the way it's supposed to be - especially in a private cloud environment."
- "The solution lacks reliability."
- "Reliability is one area that needs improvement. I cannot afford to have a 4-node storage array suddenly having 2-nodes reboot for no reason."
What is most valuable?
It's very similar to most of the other arrays, which are available there.
The auto-tiering is something that we like. The provisioning is quite good.
Very recently, we are able to do a lot of data center automation by being able to script some of the 3PAR actions for our private cloud. That's the other important aspect of using 3PAR.
The initial setup is simple.
What needs improvement?
The solution should have a smaller footprint. It's large compared to, say, something like Pure Storage, which is a lot smaller.
3PAR is not as fast as Pure Storage. That's something that 3PAR needs to look at.
They need to look at the frequent breakdowns. It's not as lag-free as some of the other HPE Arrays, the enterprise flash arrays. That's something that HPE needs to look at.
The pricing could be lowered.
In the future, I'd like to see it being controlled more from the cloud itself.
The solution lacks reliability. This aspect has gone down in the last few years.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with the solution for many years now. It's been five or more at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Reliability is one area that needs improvement. I cannot afford to have a 4-node storage array suddenly having 2-nodes reboot for no reason. This has never happened on Pure or even on Dell EMC Storage Arrays. However, I've seen that happen on 3PAR on multiple accounts. That's something that HPE needs to work on. They need to work on their codes and make them more reliable. It was reliable to start with, however, somewhere down in the last three or four years, they just slipped.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has always been quite good. I have no complaints there. They're pretty good, very professional. I'm satisfied with the level of service.
How was the initial setup?
I've been using it for so many years that, for me, the implementation process is quite easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The costs can be lowered. They're a little more expensive, especially on the support side of it. Even with us being that kind of partner, and getting discounted prices, it's still a little expensive.
What other advice do I have?
We use it in our company as well as our customer's companies.
We've used all different versions of 3PAR from the smaller arrays to the newest one, which we have, even their 2400, 2800 versions as well.
StoreServ is good storage, which needs to get implemented alongside other products to allow it to be utilized in the way it's supposed to be - especially in a private cloud environment. Some of the other storage arrays, which came after StoreServ didn't really fully feature. For example, Nimble. We thought Nimble would do that, however, that's not the case. Still, StoreServ is quite well-rounded as storage, which we can still work with on multiple traditional environments plus with the new environments - with cloud and DevOps running the show.
I'd rate the solution at a six out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
IT Coordinator at HMY
It's fast and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "We choose 3PAR for its speed. It's so fast and reliable."
- "Setting up 3PAR is somewhat complicated, and it took about a week."
What is our primary use case?
We use 3PAR for data storage in a factory setting. We currently have about 200 users working with it across multiple departments, including production and finance.
What is most valuable?
We choose 3PAR for its speed. It's so fast and reliable. I don't know what else to say about it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using 3PAR for about six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
3PAR is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
3PAR is highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
One of 3PAR's advantages is that it's easy to find a qualified technician. It's such a common device. We are using it in Turkey. France, Spain, and other locations.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
3PAR is our first all-flash storage array. We had a different storage solution before, but it wasn't all-flash.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up 3PAR is somewhat complicated, and it took about a week. We need about two or three people for maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
HPE does the installation themselves. They were on time and fast.
What was our ROI?
We've seen a return on our investment, but it's hard to calculate it precisely. We plan to use it for the project for a minimum of five years, maybe more.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay a yearly license. It's affordable.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System Administrator at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Useful features and reliable performance
Pros and Cons
- "We use all the features, but some of the most valuable are the replication, priority optimization, provisioning, and deduplication. There are a lot of good features in this product."
- "This solution is stable and reliable, it has good performance and we have a team of three to monitor the 3PAR on a daily basis."
- "The GUI interface could be improved. I have been having trouble with one issue in particular. If you look at the DC and DR, if there is a communication break and the link went down—so the data is not replicating from DC to DR—there is no way to find out how much data is ready for transmission. Only the size of the data that needs to be transferred after the link comes up. If the firewall link is down, there is no way of seeing how much data is waiting to be transferred. This is a weak point of 3PAR."
- "The GUI interface could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of this solution is to store all share market data. It's a depository system and we store the share market data and transactions in the central repository. This solution is deployed on-premises.
What is most valuable?
We use all the features, but some of the most valuable are the replication, priority optimization, provisioning, and deduplication. There are a lot of good features in this product.
What needs improvement?
The GUI interface could be improved. I have been having trouble with one issue in particular. If you look at the DC and DR, if there is a communication break and the link went down—so the data is not replicating from DC to DR—there is no way to find out how much data is ready for transmission. Only the size of the data that needs to be transferred after the link comes up. If the firewall link is down, there is no way of seeing how much data is waiting to be transferred. This is a weak point of 3PAR.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using 3PAR for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable and reliable. It has good performance and we have a team of three to monitor the 3PAR on a daily basis. The required technology is smarter, so in terms of on-site utilization, it's very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable. If I need more storage, they can just plug in to add it. I haven't faced this issue yet, but it seems like an easy process. I believe 3PAR is most suitable for small or medium sized companies.
How are customer service and support?
HPE's technical support is very good, compared to other vendors. I appreciate their support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup process is simple and straightforward. The HPE team handled most of it, but we take care of the day-to-day monitoring. If I test an issue and communicate with their team, they provide online support. If we need physical hardware, they provide the physical hardware.
What about the implementation team?
The HPE partner team helped us with deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure on the pricing of this product because a different team handled that. I'm on the engineering team, so I handle the maintenance and those sorts of operations.
What other advice do I have?
I rate 3PAR a nine out of ten. Maybe there are better storage options, but from my experience 3PAR's performance is better than the other storage solutions I have used. The market has other big storage options, but I don't have experience in those. As of now, we are satisfied with this solution and I would recommend it to others.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director of Technology Services at a educational organization with 201-500 employees
Secure, stable, scalable, and has good support
Pros and Cons
- "We have had it for three years and we haven't had one hiccup."
- "The interface could be improved to match the system."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for our financial system.
What needs improvement?
The interface could be improved to match the system.
The initial setup could be simplified.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using HPE 3PAR StoreServ for three years.
We are using a 3PAR 8800.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is a stable solution. We haven't had it go down.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Our experience with technical support was good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use any other solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex.
I would suggest that you don't install it on your own, and you get help from an HPE solution provider or an architect to assist you with that.
What about the implementation team?
We had help from an HPE solution provider.
What was our ROI?
You are not spending that money to truly get ROI on the equipment. You are basically trusting that device to keep you safe.
We have had it for three years and we haven't had one hiccup. It was money well spent. The $60,000 was well spent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We purchased the total package for approximately $60,000. That was purchasing it outright.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are an HP shop. It was natural for us to go with HPE for the storage solution. When we were looking, there were other solutions out there such as Dell EMC but we opted not to go with them. We decided to stick with an HPE brand solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ and eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Technical Account Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Scalable, highly stable, and good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The technical support is very good."
- "HPE could improve by making an old flash system in order to compete with the current market. For the solution to be more competitive in the mid-range market they could increase the performance."
- "At this time I would not recommend this solution because it is at the end of its service life."
What is our primary use case?
The main use for this solution is for storing large data in the backend. It is used in many companies, such as financial institutions. Unfortunately, it has come to the end of service life, companies are going to other solutions because there are cheaper products, it cost too much to maintain the 3PAR.
What needs improvement?
HPE could improve by making an old flash system in order to compete with the current market. For the solution to be more competitive in the mid-range market they could increase the performance.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using HPE 3PAR StoreServ for approximately 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and we have approximately 10 customers using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The time it takes for the installation depends on the number of enclosures. However, the average time is approximately six hours. The most time-consuming part is doing the scaling.
What about the implementation team?
Most of the installation is done by the HPE because at the time of the installation there were not any engineers trained. We had approximately two engineers that were new to the product and we did the installation with the help of the HPE engineers remotely.
We have three engineers doing the maintenance of the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If HPE reduced the price of 3PAR StoreServ they would be more attractive to mid-range companies.
What other advice do I have?
At this time I would not recommend this solution because it is at the end of its service life.
I rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
General Manager at Bilgipark Görüntü ve İletişim San. Tic. A.S.
A stable enterprise storage solution
Pros and Cons
- "I like that it's stable. This is the reason why we're using these products. We work in the broadcast market, and stability is very important. HPE has global services, and that's also important. Dell and HPE are some big companies, and their solutions are robust and stable."
- "From an overall perspective, all the latest technologies can improve support and performance. This is very important for us."
What is our primary use case?
We use it on a project basis and based on the customer's requirements. We use the HPE systems in data centers with servers and virtual environments. This is the most common use case.
What is most valuable?
I like that it's stable. This is the reason why we're using these products. We work in the broadcast market, and stability is very important. HPE has global services, and that's also important. Dell and HPE are some big companies, and their solutions are robust and stable.
What needs improvement?
From an overall perspective, all the latest technologies can improve support and performance. This is very important for us.
For how long have I used the solution?
As a company, we have been selling HPE 3PAR StoreServ for more than 24 years. Personally, I've been dealing with it for more than 18 years.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale from one to ten, I would give HPE 3PAR StoreServ a nine.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
Infrastructure and Networks at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Flexible, stable, scalable, no licensing fees, and good support
Pros and Cons
- "We would recommend this solution to others, it works well and we don't have any issues with it."
- "I would like to see more storage, a better interface, and to move from mechanical disks."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for everything. We have server files and we have SQL's.
What is most valuable?
It's a flexible solution.
What needs improvement?
Currently, we are finishing the possible quotation to upgrade the 3PAR we have here in Portugal.
It's a case of obsolescence. Since we have had the machine for four years we must remove the old one to put in the new one.
I would like to see more storage, a better interface, and to move from mechanical disks.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four years.
We have had the solution for four years and the software has been updated.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable product. We have approximately 1,000 users in our organization.
We are considering the possibility of a move to Primera or PowerMax.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have contacted technical support and it's pretty good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We purchased VMAX three years ago.
We also used the NetApp Series but decided to go with 3PAR.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward with the help of the technicians from the company.
The deployment was completed in one week.
What about the implementation team?
We had help from a consulting integration company for the deployment.
We also have a production team of 34 admins and engineers to deploy and maintain this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We don't pay for any licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
We would recommend this solution to others.
It works well and we don't have any issues with it.
I would rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
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Updated: June 2026
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