Dell Unity XT Unified Storage vs. HPE MSA

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dell Unity XT Unified Storage
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Dell Unity XT hybrid flash arrays are storage systems for running general purpose workloads that do not require the low latencies and speed of all flash/NVMe architectures. Unity XT hybrid flash arrays balance performance, efficiency, features or outcomes.N/A
HPE MSA
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
HPE MSA (modular smart array), formerly HP StorageWorks MSA, is a series of storage appliances, from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, a product line built for a modest budget, available as the HPE MSA 2052 hybrid flash array, the HPE MSA 2500 SAN storage appliance, and the MSA 1050 SAN storage.N/A
Pricing
Dell Unity XT Unified StorageHPE MSA
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dell Unity XT Unified StorageHPE MSA
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
Dell Unity XT Unified StorageHPE MSA
Enterprise Flash Array Storage
Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of Product A and Product B
Dell Unity XT Unified Storage
9.3
15 Ratings
2% above category average
HPE MSA
-
Ratings
Flash Array Performance9.413 Ratings00 Ratings
Flash Array Integration9.413 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Compression9.712 Ratings00 Ratings
Non-Intrusive Upgrades8.715 Ratings00 Ratings
Simplicity9.015 Ratings00 Ratings
Power Savings9.514 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Dell Unity XT Unified StorageHPE MSA
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

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Medium-sized Companies
Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage FlashArray
Score 9.2 out of 10
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage FlashArray
Score 9.2 out of 10
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Dell Unity XT Unified StorageHPE MSA
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(20 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Dell Unity XT Unified StorageHPE MSA
Likelihood to Recommend
Dell Technologies
Dell EMC Unity is an easy system and very flexible component and very easy to navigate while providing effective services and management of multiple project information management and the data pulling from the supported third-party platform is easy and quick. Excellent reporting features and easy to use and the analytics tools are amazing.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
The HPE MSA is best suited for basic SAN requirements. Having dual controllers provides redundancy and allows for firmware upgrades without incurring downtime to the environment. It provides enough IOPS for most workloads be it VMWare or servers requiring storage. For applications such as MS SQL or Exchange, other SAN solutions would be better. Plus the lack of storage snapshot capabilities is also a detriment to the product line. Lack of any reporting capability is also an issue especially when determining workload capabilities.
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Pros
Dell Technologies
  • Enables you to create multiple copies of any database.
  • Data savings feature with compression.
  • Integrity with VMWare, RHEL, Oracle.
  • The best option is a midrange unified storage array in a customer environment.
  • Some models support NMMe.
  • Copy Data Management (iCDM), Data-At-Rest-Encryption (D@RE).
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • Functions well as a disaster recovery cluster repository
  • Since the space is a spinning disk, it is inexpensive
  • All of our VMs are stored in a mass storage repository on the system, but we could carve out specific LUNs if needed.
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Cons
Dell Technologies
  • Alerting: receiving an alert when an issue occurs. That is good to know. However, if the alert is cleared, or somehow no longer in alarm, no email is received. At times I will receive the email alert on weekends, not knowing if the issue is resolved or not until Monday when I can access the unit. I have learned in most instances, the alert is a false alarm, which could be a problem.
  • The alerting itself is sometimes not clear. For example, it tells me the link is down, we reset the connection, the link is still down, a tech was dispatched, he troubleshot, and finally the alarm cleared. This incident took almost a week. It went back into alarm after he left, then suddenly it cleared on its own.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • Firmware upgrades. We have had major issues on two occasions, causing extended downtime. HP was quick to help and resolve, but I am not sure why our simple implementation caused an issue that should have been picked up by testing prior to release. Once was bad, twice painful. The end result is that we purchased a unit solely to test firmware upgrades on, not really great for us!
  • Support life span. Units go end of life support after around 4 years, a little too short for us.
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Likelihood to Renew
Dell Technologies
No answers on this topic
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
It is a functioning Replication system for us and checks all the boxes that the auditors are looking for. Further, it is inexpensive and the storage we purchased was cheap. HP has a good reputation in the industry that plays into the decision also.
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Usability
Dell Technologies
Very cumbersome compared to other vendors in the same marketplace.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Dell Technologies
Not only support for Unity, but for any Dell product, whether for companies or for the end consumer. Support is agile, helpful, and always focused on solving the problem. To date, there has been no problem that Dell's support has failed to resolve and help us with.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Dell Technologies
I was instructed to buy these arrays, but I was not given the opportunity to evaluate other arrays. We evaluated other products in the market that competed with Unity and found that the younger array built from scratch had far better features, software, and ease of use. The Unity system has a unique way of storing the data when compared with other systems.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
The dual controller configuration of the HPE MSA trumps the Synology DiskStation's single controller configuration. For that alone, I would select the HPE MSA. Without that setup, any controller issue or firmware upgrade is disruptive to the systems the SAN is providing storage to. Furthermore, HPE's support is better than what Synology currently provides. The lack of phone support on Synology's part slows down the troubleshooting of issues compared to HPE. Furthermore, HPE's engineers are able to do a remote session and can work on the problems directly compared to Synology's support.
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Return on Investment
Dell Technologies
  • Less business downtime and reliability is a major business concern. DELL EMC UNITY addresses this concern well and provides robust storage.
  • Investing in UNITY system is less expensive than all-flash storage systems.
  • Managing and provisioning VMware disks became simpler from a single interface in the Vcenter
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • Increased up time. Better user experience.
  • Good value for money. ROI high.
  • Peace of mind. Just knowing that you rely on the solution to meet storage performance needs is great.
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