Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs HPE Synergy comparison

The compared Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #5 in Rack Servers , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 4.7% mindshare in the category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #2 in Blade Servers , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 21.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Ser...

Read 29 Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers reviews

3,931 Views
2,185 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Read 89 HPE Synergy reviews

3,366 Views
2,439 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Ser...

HPE Synergy

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers and HPE Synergy based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and others in Rack Servers.

To learn more, read our detailed Rack Servers Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Rack Servers

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Ser...

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Rack Servers (5th), Density Optimized Servers (3rd)

HPE Synergy

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Blade Servers (2nd), Composable Infrastructure (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are IT Hardware and Infrastructure solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is designed for Rack Servers and holds a mindshare of 4.7%, down 4.9% compared to last year.
HPE Synergy, on the other hand, focuses on Blade Servers, holds 21.8% mindshare, down 22.2% since last year.

Rack Servers

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

Ehsan Emad

Head of IT at Synnapex

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.

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CarlosArdila

Project Manager, Information Technology at Telelago

Helps grow horizontally or vertically within one box or chassis

The initial setup is very easy. We deployed this in two days, including installation, system setup, firmware upgrades, configuration, and network connection. By the next day, we were already deploying virtual machines. We initially began with the Blade system. As the migration to SAP HANA approached, it seemed prudent to upgrade our hardware. Consequently, we facilitated their transition from the Blade system to Synergy. Subsequently, we collaborated closely with the SAP consultancy company to oversee the migration process, ensuring seamless integration of all workloads and sub-environments. We have four people working on the deployment, including a project manager, two specialists, and one tech support.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is easily scalable."

"The product doesn't take up too much space on the rack and I like that."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is server management."

"The product's stability is good. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten."

"The server can be configured easily."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack is the use of databases, such as MySQL."

"We have many people in my organization using Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers in the administration."

"The technical support from Cisco is fine."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers pros

"It's a fully integrated solution with OneView."

"The most valuable feature is its composable infrastructure. Everything I need is in the box. Manageability is through OneView, so I can get all the information about the box itself at any time I want."

"The stability of the solution is very reliable."

"It is a good product for hypervisors."

"Ability to easily re-utilize parts of the hardware for different purposes."

"The composable infrastructure allows us to build our own server profiles, then build up the infrastructure that we need from compute modules."

"We like that the solution can be arranged for an all-in-one single pane of glass, something our customers find important."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the ease of management and the integration with OneView."

More HPE Synergy pros

Cons

"The solution can be improved by adjusting the cost."

"There is very little scalability for the cluster. If you need a higher availability, there is a user limitation. So that is the low side."

"Definitely the support area needs improving. Especially the time response in case of hardware failure."

"The product must add customer-friendly monitoring features."

"There is room for better integration with other brands."

"The scalability of the product is an area of concern where Cisco needs to focus on making some improvements."

"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers could improve by adding a wider portfolio because they only have two main categories, the C-220 and 240. There is no wide range of options as other solutions have, such as Dell. Additionally, if it was more flexible with the configuration it would be good."

"Technical support could be more responsive."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers cons

"It has affected the productivity of our development team in a bad way. When we first stood the hardware up 18 months ago, the image streaming capacity and capability were not very good at all. We had hoped that it would allow us to be more composable and be able to switch over from one version of an operating system to another version of an operating system. However, it wasn't ready for prime time yet. Therefore, we had to go back to a deployment of bare metal install. We are still waiting and trying to figure out how we can do the composable infrastructure."

"I would like more storage with this solution, because we still need 3PAR or other storage outside the box for the amount of data that we have."

"You can always improve some things."

"The deployment time of a system through OneView is pretty slow, but apparently that's being addressed in an upcoming update."

"I think we were promised a little more than we were given. It's true, they are working very hard to try to help remedy that."

"Having a seamless DR implementation would help significantly."

"The speed in OneView and how it updates the entire configuration needs improvement. If they can do that, and it could be a little more clear on what impact different actions will have for certain things, that would be good."

"I would be more comfortable if Ansible actually rolled back the data used for automating platforms. If it could be communicated to the upstream Ansible, I wouldn't need to go back and forth and validate the libraries as we upgrade the Ansible version."

More HPE Synergy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution could be more cost-effective."

"Cisco is expensive, but we didn't look at the cost of the product. We were looking at reliability and support."

"My company has an agreement with Cisco to get discounted rates. It is one of the reasons why we chose the product."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis, which is only $2,000 or $3,000."

"This solution is a little expensive."

"The price of the solution could be better when compared to other solutions. However, when we purchased the solution we received Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers in a bundle with other hardware, such as IP phones and networking switches."

"If they plan to expand their infrastructure in periods, then simply Cisco is not a good choice."

"The price of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is high."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

"For me, the scalability is how much money that I need to spend on switches for how many frames, which ultimately means servers. To get the best bandwidth before the most recent product announcement, I have buy new switches every three frames. The competition is shipping a product right now where I only need switches every ten frames."

"The solution has reduced our IT infrastructure costs because we have had to buy less services than we used to."

"We pay about £500 for the solution."

"The solution has reduced our IT infrastructure costs by 50 percent."

"There was at least about a 20 percent savings in cost over our purchase based on the purchase price of the compute modules themselves versus what we've had to pay before. It was significantly less."

"In our whole environment, the cost is in the millions. On this particular chassis, the annual cost is 12 blades times approximately $40,000."

"There is a perpetual license given when you purchase HPE Synergy."

"For temporal use, when you throw on the fact that you're essentially doubling your capacity, right there you could claim a 50 percent TCO reduction."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

University

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The C-series is the most valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The solution is moderately priced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The improvement should be done as per customer requirements.

See all answers

How would you choose between HPE's Bladesystem and Synergy?

For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and stable. It turns out Bladesystem was the winner. Bladesystem is excellent because...

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE Synergy?

It is a good product for hypervisors.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?

Synergy is more expensive than Cisco.

See all answers

Comparisons

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

Compared 55% of the time

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Compared 26% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Compared 7% of the time

Dell XR2 Rugged Server vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Compared 3% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers Competitors

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy

Compared 24% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 24% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy

Compared 22% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 9% of the time

Super Micro SuperBlade vs HPE Synergy

Compared 2% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

December 2024

Download Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

December 2024

Download HPE Synergy product report

Also Known As

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

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Cisco

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Overview

UCS C-Series Rack Servers deliver unified computing in an industry-standard form factor to reduce TCO and increase agility. Each server addresses varying workload challenges through a balance of processing, memory, I/O, and internal storage resources.

HPE Synergy, the first platform built from the ground up for Composable Infrastructure, offers an experience that empowers IT to create and deliver new value instantly and continuously. It is a single infrastructure that reduces operational complexity for traditional workloads and increases operational velocity for the new breed of applications and services. Through a single interface, HPE Synergy composes physical and virtual compute, storage, and fabric pools into any configuration for any application. As an extensible platform, it easily enables a broad range of applications and operational models such as virtualization, hybrid cloud, and DevOps. With HPE Synergy, IT can become not just the internal service provider but the business partner to rapidly launch new applications that become the business.

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

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and others in Rack Servers. Updated: December 2024.

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