Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco UCS B-Series vs PowerEdge C comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS B-Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
PowerEdge C
Ranking in Blade Servers
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 8.3%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PowerEdge C is 0.4%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Prasanth Kailasam - PeerSpot reviewer
Supports multiple hypervisors but needs to improve in the area of configuration
Speaking about how the tool can improve computing efficiency in data centers, I feel that, ultimately, there are other kinds of hardware or servers that Cisco provides. From a management perspective, certain aspects can be incorporated to help users understand their current standing. It would be good if certain larger configurations could also be made suitable for the tool to suit the needs of multiple customer bases. For virtualization needs, the product works well. I have dealt with certain virtualization environments using - Cisco UCS B-Series. As of now, the tool is fine. Cisco UCS B-Series recently got registered with Nutanix, one of the market's HCI platforms. Nutanix can run on Cisco. Cisco UCS B-Series' direction is right. I don't think any further improvement is required in the tool right now. The integration capabilities of the product are okay. I haven't seen any challenges when installing the tool in an environment. I think that the tool supports multiple hypervisors. Speaking about the feature that has improved our company's data center operation, I would say that the Cisco brand name provides our organization with the benefits we need from the product. I believe that manageability is one crucial aspect of the tool, considering that it is pretty easy to manage. Performance-wise, some improvements have been introduced in Cisco UCS B-Series. Whenever somebody evaluates and goes ahead with some traditional setup in their environment, along with HP and Dell, they can also consider Cisco as a part of it because it has become more cost-effective and competitive presently. Networking-wise, the tool is pretty strong, and it operates as a brand that actually helps with the support offered to customers. The support offered by Cisco adds a lot of confidence for the clients. I feel that Cisco is doing a lot of innovation in order to offer scalability and flexibility to adopt future technologies. I believe Cisco users might see a lot more solutions that get introduced in the market that might become more and more compatible with many products in the future. In the future, I think that users will see AI and other related aspects run pretty well in a Cisco environment. I would say that the benefits and value of the use of the product stem from the brand name attached to Cisco products. Cisco's support when you use Cisco UCS B-Series is good. In the networking space, Cisco has been a leader for a very long time, and the same kind of credibility is what you can expect when you consider Cisco UCS B-Series. Considering the availability of the products from competitors, I rate the tool a seven out of ten.
Niraj  Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
Good return on investment, round the clock technical support, and easy to install
PowerEdge C is used in both corporate and industrial settings One of the main features that attract customers to buy their products is the great management tool and almost zero failure rate, making it easy to use. As far as I'm concerned, the current product works perfectly fine and I don't see…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Some of the features I like from this solution are it has a fast configuration, it is not complex, and has high availability."
"The GUI makes is simple to use and deploy."
"If we could get more reference architecture available on the portal, it would be helpful in making decisions"
"The most valuable feature is the ability to replace a server with another one, simply by applying the profile"
"The most beneficial feature is UCS Manager. It's the best way to manage hardware, creating group policies, like scrub policies and maintenance policies."
"It is less time-consuming to deploy the software."
"The solution is stable...The solution is scalable."
"The platform has valuable features for management and good monitoring tools. It provides efficient insights."
"The most significant benefits, in my experience, are the configuration, reliability of the equipment, and the support of Dell."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The hybrid solution is much more stable than other products."
"Technical support has been helpful."
"Every new version is better than the previous one."
"The product has high performance and no downtime."
"The management platform is great."
"It was not complex to deploy."
 

Cons

"Cisco UCS B-Series competitors have similar features as they do, Cisco needs to make some changes to make their offering better."
"There are patches that cannot be implemented without any downtime or reboot required."
"Next generation support for VMware needs to be introduced as it does not support eighth-generation VMware."
"The initial setup process is complex."
"The initial setup and service profile deployment can be tricky and should be improved for ease of use."
"Despite the benefits gained from the product implementation, the cost could be more appealing if the overall cost of ownership were reduced."
"The cost is expensive and has room for improvement."
"Dell should address the issue of direct support and spare parts availability in our region."
"Customer service and support have been generally helpful but can be slow due to the need to navigate different specialists."
"It should be improved in terms of future expansion. We should be able to have additional free slots for future extensions in terms of memory."
"There has been an increase in quality issues."
"The product’s pricing could be a little cheaper."
"An area where the product lacks and needs to consider improvement is by allowing it to integrate with some AI tool for monitoring."
"HP is a little bit lower in terms of price."
"The current memory could be improved."
"The pricing of PowerEdge solutions is very high nowadays."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From a business point of view, the price is on the higher end."
"Cisco UCS B-Series is not a cheap solution."
"It makes much more sense for individual licenses for distributed environments"
"UCS is expensive, and we will be migrating to the cheaper HP servers."
"It is highly-priced."
"It is not a yearly subscription but a yearly support renewal that you need to do for Cisco UCS B-Series."
"Cisco UCS B-Series is an expensive solution."
"Make sure you work with a vendor partner than can get you a substantial discount off of list pricing."
"We buy licenses for the solution's advanced features."
"The cost depends on the configuration."
"There is a need to pay towards the annual subscription-based licensing model offered by the solution. The product is moderately priced. Price is a critical issue, and it is always good to have moderately priced solutions."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"When we talk about pricing it is the cheapest on the market that I have found."
"I don't handle the financial aspects, so I don't know the exact costs, but in terms of the value it brings, it's worth it."
"I would rate the pricing 4 out of 10, in terms of its cost expense."
"Despite the slightly higher price, we prefer Dell due to the high quality of their products."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Blade Servers solutions are best for your needs.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS B-Series?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is easily scalable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS B-Series?
The pricing is competitive. While the UCS price was high before, it is more competitive now.
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS B-Series?
If we could get more reference architecture available on the portal, it would be helpful in making decisions. Also, the content should be more extensive, especially technical content.
What do you like most about PowerEdge C?
The solution provides good support and service.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PowerEdge C?
PowerEdge is quite a costly solution, and I would rate the pricing around seven or eight on a scale from one to ten with ten being the most expensive.
What needs improvement with PowerEdge C?
Cost is an important factor needing improvement. The pricing of PowerEdge solutions is very high nowadays. Additionally, technical support requires improvement as there can be delays and challenges...
 

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
No data available
 

Learn More

Video not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Anonymous Banking Group, Artoni Transporti, Bellevue, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Hertz, Houston Methodist, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co.KG, Outscale, Sony Corporation, Talbots
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.