We performed a comparison between HPE StorageWorks MSA and IBM FlashSystem based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."I like StorageWorks' snapshots for our backup system. We had a pool of SSD and traditional drives. StorageWorks has a feature that transfers the hot data to high-performing drives."
"The solution is very easy to use, it is not really complex for any user, such as non-technical individuals."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA is an entry-level, cost-effective solution for SMB customers."
"The cost to performance for HPE StorageWorks MSA is good."
"The simple configuration feature is great. It is very simple, allowing you to set up MSA very easily."
"The most valuable features are the storage levels and snapshot features."
"The most valuable features were the dual controllers and being able to expand it."
"Monitoring is a very big thing. Other great features include block storage; volume creation and the data reliability scalability, which makes the solution really good."
"The valuable features are high availability, compression, and a failover mechanism. It's a very highly available storage solution."
"Virtualization of external storage, while adding cache and speed to the external storage."
"We've found the solution to be very stable so far."
"The most valuable features are deduplication and compression."
"The power systems are very reliable if you are running 24/7 operations. For ongoing mission-critical applications, it's the best solution."
"One of the most valuable features is that it's very easy to use and configure. It used to be more difficult, but now it's almost flawless."
"The most valuable feature is that is supports a high IOPS rate."
"The FlashSystem 900 consistently delivers performance below 1ms for read/write. This performance is essential for an effective SVC stretch-cluster configuration across two datacenters, and presenting active-active storage to the customer."
"The support contract is expensive, although they are very responsive."
"It would be ideal if there was a better management interface."
"Some clients have suggested room for improvement in expanding storage capacity beyond the base traces."
"The solution's license should be integrated and not separate."
"This product is getting a little bit older, so new features like deduplication are not included."
"The solution could improve by adding configuration tools."
"The solution requires hardware."
"HPE StorageWorks MSA could maybe include a pay-top of texture feature or something like job replication."
"The pricing needs to be more competitive."
"They can improve its initial configuration. The initial configuration is currently very difficult. There are multiple choices or alternative ways to configure based on the use case and what you are targeting out of the device, that is, more capacity or more performance. These multiple alternatives cause a lot of confusion. They should increase the processing part of the nodes. Currently, you can cluster up to eight nodes. From my experience and the workload that I am facing in my environment currently, I would like to see either a bigger or stronger node or a larger number of nodes that can be clustered together. We formally communicated to them that we need to see either this or that, and they are working on something."
"The support could improve by allowing you to speak to someone when you call rather than them calling you back. However, once we do have contact with one of their technicians they are excellent."
"I would like to see bigger modules."
"The solution is not easy to implement. It takes a lot of time to study the product and it's a little complicated in general."
"IBM could do more marketing and improve brand awareness. I had never heard of this product until a colleague told me about it. FlashSystem could add a few features, but it would probably increase the price. For example, Pure Storage offers instant snapshotting and partitioning. That would be nice to have, but I think the cost would go up."
"The only issue my team faced was transferring the data from the old system to IBM FlashSystem, which is an area for improvement in the solution."
"The ease of installation should be improved. We had issues with the configuration model."
HPE StorageWorks MSA is ranked 5th in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) with 18 reviews while IBM FlashSystem is ranked 2nd in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) with 106 reviews. HPE StorageWorks MSA is rated 8.4, while IBM FlashSystem is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of HPE StorageWorks MSA writes "An affordable solution for data storage but lacks cloud backup". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM FlashSystem writes "An easy GUI and simple provisioning but our model does not support compression". HPE StorageWorks MSA is most compared with NetApp FAS Series, HPE 3PAR StoreServ, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform, Dell EqualLogic PS series and HPE EVA, whereas IBM FlashSystem is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Pure Storage FlashArray, Dell Unity XT, NetApp AFF and Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series. See our HPE StorageWorks MSA vs. IBM FlashSystem report.
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