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Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 22, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.4
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers boost productivity and cost-effectiveness through reliability, ease of management, energy efficiency, and robust performance.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
3.0
Cisco UCS C-Series support is generally positive but inconsistent, with varying satisfaction and some preference for partner assistance.
Sentiment score
8.5
Most Dell PowerEdge customers are satisfied with responsive support, though some note delays and initial communication issues.
Dell's customer support is very good, especially since we have premium support for next-day hardware service.
The extended warranty and next-day support are fantastic.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
Cisco UCS C-Series scalability is mixed, suitable for small businesses but may need more hardware for larger needs.
Sentiment score
7.8
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer scalability, efficient management, and adaptability, effectively meeting diverse enterprise needs with flexible configurations.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
9.3
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers are stable and reliable, with minimal hardware issues and require low management due to infrequent problems.
Sentiment score
7.8
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are praised for exceptional stability, reliability, and support, with excellent uptime and resilience under load.
Over four years, we've had less than 1 percent downtime.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers need improvements in support, manageability, integration, cloud features, scalability, AI, configuration, and pricing.
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers need improvements in performance, stability, management, support, and integration, while reducing size and enhancing security.
PowerEdge could have more configuration options, such as the ability to combine different CPUs, memory volumes, data storage, and memory.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers incur high costs, especially without bundles, but offer reliability and support, with optional discounts.
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer competitive pricing, high ROI, and performance, often undercutting cloud alternatives in long-term costs.
The cost of ownership is differentiated by the absence of operational expenses typical with cloud services.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers provide reliability, scalability, easy management, and integration, supporting virtualization, customization, and strong technical support.
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer scalable, reliable performance with remote management, energy efficiency, and enhanced security, supporting high-performance workloads.
Its approach to user security measures is valuable.
The iDRAC helps us monitor and manage our systems.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Ser...
Ranking in Rack Servers
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (3rd)
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
160
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is 4.7%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 28.1%, up from 27.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Ehsan Emad - PeerSpot reviewer
The VIC card is the most important feature.
I rate Cisco USC C-Series Rack Servers 10 out 10. If you plan to buy a C-Series, you should be clear about why you want to use it because the uses vary. different. Whether you're using Cisco, HPE, Dell or any other brand, it's essential to define your use case. For example, are you using it for a simulation graphics, calculations, etc.? Depending on the use case, you might want to go with a small server with more CPU. Sometimes you need a light CPU with a powerful GPU. For example, if we have a C-Series with four CPUs at the same time, or we have a server that's handled two CPUs at the same time—the purpose is crucial. C-Series is good enough compared to other competitors like HPE and the other ones. The HPE C20 is one unit and has a lot of RAM support, but the C-series is number one, in my opinion.
Hassen Trabelsi - PeerSpot reviewer
We get centralization, remote management, and good customer service with these servers
By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we wanted centralization, security, and meeting the needs of the job. The performance of these servers is similar to the servers from another brand, but Dell’s after-sales customer service is better than other brands. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers can be configured depending on our needs. They are adaptable. In terms of energy consumption, we do not have any way to supervise the energy consumption of our servers. However, I know that there is a possibility to have several power supplies as a backup on the servers. It meets our needs, but I do not know if they consume more energy than the servers from other brands. With regard to durability, we keep our servers for ten years or so. After that, we call upon a company that recycles them. We have never had any problem with the RSE for these servers. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers can help to reduce unplanned production downtime, but it all depends on the chosen configuration. A simple PowerEdge server with just RAID 5, for example, would function, but if we have a problem with the power supply or two disks, it would not work. It depends on the configuration. We put several of them which helps us to have less production downtime. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have affected the overall flexibility of our operations. As a general rule, we put Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in racks, or we have them in tower mode for certain production systems. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are a standard in our company. They are needed. We have to have them. We will soon move. Our server room has been designed with tables that can have PCs in tower mode. In our new buildings, we have reduced the space or rather the surface area for our server room. All that has a great impact on the costs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
PowerEdge could have more configuration options, such as the ability to combine different CPUs, memory volumes, data storage, and memory. The new Intel-based ones are a bit power-hungry. You want t...
 

Also Known As

Unified Computing System C-Series, Cisco UCS C-Series
PowerEdge R
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Artoni Transporti, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, City of Mississauga, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Kind en Gezin, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Nationwide, Quest, Talbots, University of St. Gallen
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,145 professionals have used our research since 2012.