We performed a comparison between HPE 3par Storeserv and HPE Primera based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, the two solutions are very similar. However, HPE Primera seems to be more reliable and flexible than HPE 3par Storeserv, and less expensive as well.
"One of the features that my customers are really interested in is immutable snapshots. There are immutable snapshots to which your applications can be reverted back if you are hit by some kind of ransomware threat or malicious attack. That's kind of a key deal, and it is one of the selling points I use to point out to my customers the value and the features that Pure Storage brings to the table."
"It gives us capacity planning."
"The support team is available all the time and they seem to know what they are doing."
"The performance of the storage is just unbelievable."
"Scalability is one of the best features. You can quickly add more. You can swap out the drives with larger sizes, you can add more shelves. All of that is perfect - the whole concept of keeping it modular..."
"It's very fast and very easy to use. It performs well and is both flexible and compatible. We like it because it's easy to use."
"Pure gives us better compression, it's easier to manage, a lot less hands-on."
"It has improved my organization because now have lower latency, we get fewer complaints from customers, and we see a constant response time."
"We choose 3PAR for its speed. It's so fast and reliable."
"The solution fetches quick responses in milliseconds which can be within 40-50 milliseconds."
"I have a lot of applications that need higher IOPS, and 3PAR achieves this operation normally without any issues for the management."
"HPE 3PAR StoreServ is an enterprise storage that is mainly deployed in enterprise scenarios like banking and insurance."
"We're able to move things around with more agility. I can take it off one server and slap it on another in a couple of minutes... And the speed is outstanding."
"You can scale it out almost indefinitely."
"It was the easiest SAN that I have ever set up."
"Remote-copy provides high availability and disaster recovery for the connected clients."
"HPE Primera has good integration. All the users are using HP servers and some systems, such as Synergy, which integrate well into the solution."
"The product has better replication features than the previous products."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the artificial intelligence for the storage inside of the software and firmware because customers do not like functionalities which require manual interruption."
"It is stable and reliable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Primera's main advantage is its support for NVM drives and normal flash drives. It has some sort of AI analysis that automatically tells us how to optimize the performance."
"It is a stable and scalable solution with quick and efficient storage capability."
"We sold Primera to a public university, and they're happy with it. They have been using it for about four months with no significant problems."
"There was some complexity in the initial setup."
"Going forward, don't complicate things for the customers."
"I would like to migrate to the cloud in the future and know how that would actually work with this product."
"The initial setup of the product is complex."
"It's not so scalable. It's got moderate scaling capabilities right now. The clustering technology needs a bit of work, they need to improve that."
"I would like to see them lower the costs."
"Its price needs improvement. Its price is almost double than any other flash storage solution."
"Most of our upgrades have not been as smooth as they should have been."
"HPE 3PAR StoreServ's pricing could be cheaper."
"I would like to see NVMe support, not only on the disk side, but also in the NVMe over Fibre Channel."
"if it were easier for us to manage the product ourselves without having to get HPE to connect, because it sometimes it does take a bit to get the scheduling worked out with the HPE support. If it were simpler, then it might be easier for us to handle it ourselves."
"I would like to have support for On-The-fly reallocation Data when using VVoL."
"As long as they can keep the solution stable, it will be good. Stability is very important to us."
"I would like to see more virtualization: storage virtualization, data virtualization would be very nice."
"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."
"Sometimes the required upgrades have been a little bit involved: "You have to do this before you do this," and I want them to explain to me why. It's more work than it should be."
"The initial setup is not straightforward."
"This solution would be expensive for small business and it could be priced more competitively for that market."
"There are certain features that require engineering-level access, which should be accessible to storage admins as well."
"Like most storage, we want to see flash become more and more stable. Like any flash that uses MLC or TLC techniques, over time, the more writes you have, the less usable the storage becomes. They try to plan for this and have a lot of extra space in the arrays, but over time, their performance does degrade. This is true for any flash storage."
"We've encountered issues in the past where maintaining a read-only state is essential to prevent data encryption when VPN access is impacted."
"On the controller side, I would like to see NAS capabilities."
"The solution could improve by having seamless migration from other storage systems. The process should be made easier."
"One of the drawbacks of the model we purchased is that it is not running NVMe drives. Even though they say that it is NVMe-ready, it is still on the SSD drives. The model that we purchased has only eight hard drives, and only the ones on the top could work on NVMe. The rest of them are still on the SSD. Its competitors, such as EMC and Pure Storage, are moving or have already moved to NVMe. HPE should improve this solution for NVMe. HPE should also improve IOs in this solution. IOs in HPE are weaker than Hitachi and Pure Storage."
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is ranked 10th in All-Flash Storage with 12 reviews while HPE Primera is ranked 7th in All-Flash Storage with 19 reviews. HPE 3PAR StoreServ is rated 8.6, while HPE Primera is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of HPE 3PAR StoreServ writes "Reliable with a good user interface and helpful support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HPE Primera writes "A tool that offers quality, stability, scalability, and features that are good for storage purposes". HPE 3PAR StoreServ is most compared with Dell Unity XT, HPE Nimble Storage, NetApp AFF, HPE StorageWorks MSA and HPE StoreOnce, whereas HPE Primera is most compared with HPE Nimble Storage, Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, IBM FlashSystem and Dell Unity XT. See our HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs. HPE Primera report.
See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.
We monitor all All-Flash Storage reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
@Janet Staver great summary, couldn't have said it better.
However, please note that HPE 3PAR has file support while Primera doesn't.
So, weigh that with your use case and requirements.
HPE Primera has many great features but one of the best is that it is very easy to deploy. From an overall perspective, it is reliable, easy to set up, stable, and offers quality block storage. All of the capabilities of the hardware (including snapshot, replication, and other specific features) come with it, so there is no need for an additional license. In addition, the AI advantages and analytics with InfoSight are definitely powerful. With HPE Primera you are guaranteed great performance with excellent low latency. The AI driven interface is for hybrid cloud, and it also provides insights into any virtualized infrastructure such as proactive recommendations, performance issues, etc. Whatsmore, the dashboards are also great and user-friendly. And the customization capabilities HPE Primera gives you are excellent. From my experience using HPE Primera, there isn’t any real aspect of the solution that needs to be improved other than its high price point.
HPE 3par Storeserv is also easy to use and set up. The solution is robust and makes data performance much faster. The data replication feature of HPE 3par does a good job of replicating data cleanly over to a second site. HPE 3par Storeserv also makes it easy to make changes without it affecting your environment. In addition, it comes with a lot of screens with adjustable settings, which makes management easier. Moreover, it is easy to scale, it is very stable, has a very good interface, is reliable, and also allows you to have tiered storage. However, HPE 3par has limitations when it comes to the number of IOPS the system can do and has limited flexibility in regards to building replication solutions.
Conclusion: Ultimately, I chose HPE Primera because 3par Storeserv does not have integration with cloud services, which is something I need.