HPE MSA vs. IBM Storage FlashSystem

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
IBM Storage FlashSystem
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
IBM's FlashSystem is a flash array storage option.N/A
Pricing
HPE MSAIBM Storage FlashSystem
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HPE MSAIBM Storage FlashSystem
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
HPE MSAIBM Storage FlashSystem
Enterprise Flash Array Storage
Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of Product A and Product B
HPE MSA
-
Ratings
IBM Storage FlashSystem
8.6
111 Ratings
6% below category average
Flash Array Performance00 Ratings8.9108 Ratings
Flash Array Integration00 Ratings8.3109 Ratings
Data Compression00 Ratings8.3107 Ratings
Non-Intrusive Upgrades00 Ratings8.3103 Ratings
Simplicity00 Ratings8.9110 Ratings
Power Savings00 Ratings8.8106 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HPE MSAIBM Storage FlashSystem
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage FlashArray
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Dell VMAX
Dell VMAX
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HPE MSAIBM Storage FlashSystem
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.9
(122 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.3
(5 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
HPE MSAIBM Storage FlashSystem
Likelihood to Recommend
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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IBM
For environments where high IO and read writes are performed the flash storage is very well suited . We also use this for another customer as a back end storage for high performance backups where we run multi stream data writes to it via 100G interface.
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Pros
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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IBM
  • Cyber resilience with the new functionality of immutable copies called sfaguarded copies
  • With the IBM FlashCore modules it allows us to have good levels of online compression of the information, besides that it is a hardware compression that would not affect the performance of the equipment
  • the virtualization of other storages that can be IBM or other brands
  • binary replication works great
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Cons
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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IBM
  • Drive firmware updates are a bit clunky, the update files have to be sourced manually
  • IBM has separate storage monitoring you need to set up to get good historical statistics.
  • If you need 8 16Gb ports you will not be able to expand with a SAS connector.
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Likelihood to Renew
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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IBM
As flash technology evolves rapidly, vendors should [adapt] to the changes and onboard them in their products. IBM is a bit slow in adopting advanced technology in [its] portfolio. Even though the current product is good, my decision is purely based on how the transformation of the product [is] being produced and supplied to [the] end-user.
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Usability
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
No answers on this topic
IBM
The low latency for best performance and improve productivity. This is very much suitable for all the usecases where data intensive processing need to be performed. The administration is very easy and logical. It helps to run the infrastructure at optimial cost and optimal performance. It offers great deal of virtualisation featurs and they are indeed very much powerful.
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Performance
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
No answers on this topic
IBM
Even though the model is suited towards smaller or medium sized businesses, the speeds and performances seen via our benchmarks exceeded any requirements we initially had. The setup was quite simple and the additional features such as allowing for better hyrbid storage and containerization has improved the backend performance of our company immensely.
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Support Rating
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
No answers on this topic
IBM
IBM support ecosystem is robust and well organized, due to the advent of Watson based case management system IBM offers a decent support system for the customers and the users of its products.
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Implementation Rating
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
No answers on this topic
IBM
I was amazed by the way IBM Flash storage provides a huge amount of storage within the limited footprint, it helped us to replace big fat storage arrays, which aided in the process of moving towards lower hardware, carbon, and energy consumption footprint. We can comfortably say that Flash helped us to host applications fast with a blazing speed and user transactions are quite quick.
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Alternatives Considered
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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IBM
For the past six months, we have been utilizing this technology in our projects to manage a massive workload and produce swift business outcomes on a crucial production database. The IBM FlashSystem 7200, which offers high performance and compression, has so far been a great experience for us. The results and functionality of this product have delighted our consumers.
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Return on Investment
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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IBM
  • Flash System 5000 Built on a software foundation that delivers a 359% ROI.
  • IBM Flash System 5000 Gain the highest levels of availability to support mission-critical applications.
  • IBM Flash System 5000 benefits from [the] integration of modern data protection and rich cyber resiliency features.
  • IBM Flash System 5000 Enhance storage efficiency.
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ScreenShots

IBM Storage FlashSystem Screenshots

Screenshot of IBM-FS-900Screenshot of FlashSystem V9000Screenshot of IBM FlashSystemScreenshot of FlashSystem A9000