Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs HPE Synergy comparison

Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Cisco is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 1.8% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 21.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Read 7 Cisco UCS E-Series Servers reviews

252 Views
113 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Read 89 HPE Synergy reviews

3,054 Views
2,216 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

HPE Synergy

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

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

Find out in this report how the two Blade Servers solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs. HPE Synergy Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs. HPE Synergy

January 2025

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Helped 832,138 peers since 2012

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 E-Series Servers

Ranking in Blade Servers

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE Synergy

Ranking in Blade Servers

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Composable Infrastructure (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS E-Series Servers is 1.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Synergy is 21.8%, down from 22.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

DavidMbugua

Group General Manager-ICT at SkyLink

Stable product with efficient security features

We use Cisco UCS E-Series Servers to host enterprise systems The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability. We rarely encounter downtime issues, and it has an expandable memory storage. Additionally, it blends well with Cisco's security tools. The platform's pricing…

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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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"They are really easy to maintain. I've added RAM to them. I've done a lot of other things with the virtualization."

"Cisco has better visibility and manageability for disaster recovery."

"The most valuable features are that they are efficient and easy to setup."

"The product is overall stable."

"The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability."

"The Cisco chassis is very easy to configure and any network engineer or expert can configure the solution and easily integrate it with the chassis."

"Stability-wise, it is a good product that remains stable."

"The stability of the solution is very reliable."

"The most valuable features are the converged network adapters."

"Valuable features include its dependability, reliability, and the ease of managing the system."

"We build out a whole stack at one time, so we don't have to worry about it until that stack is full, then that gives us time to get the next one ready."

"The i3S module can be configured to provision storage to all blade servers and boot to any operating system without needing local hard drives."

"It has improved our procurement and day zero provisioning. We are bringing in racks of Synergy which are not populated with the blades, then we are buying the blades and populating them, as our business needs. This has been pretty helpful to be able to sort of pre-package the data center with the Synergy platform, then deploy servers into it as we grow."

"The solution has decreased our deployment time by 10 to 20 percent."

"The most valuable features are the evolution of our existing HPE portfolio, the integration with our existing tool sets, and the enhanced capabilities that OneView bring."

More HPE Synergy pros

Cons

"It is not a solution that is cloud ready."

"The processing capacity could be improved."

"One thing that could be improved is the cost - it is very high for this Blade chassis as compared to other vendors. Especially in Asia. Asian customers mostly prefer a cost effective, cheaper solution."

"The product should also be available in a standard edition or a standard license since currently there is a need to pay for an extra license, which is very expensive, especially when considering the budgeting part of our company."

"The platform's pricing needs improvement. There could be more collaborative tools included."

"The tool must be made compatible with multi-vendor ecosystems."

"The biggest pain point for us is the matrix for the firmware upgrades. It is a pain. You look at that thing, you might as well be reading Greek. It would be a whole lot better if they could clean up their documentation on it."

"HPE Synergy could improve its remote support."

"I would like it to connect to the HPE Cloud Connect compute platform for simplicity of our infrastructure."

"They must improve the OneView tools."

"Having a seamless DR implementation would help significantly."

"They were not so deep into integration with VMware."

"I'd like to see the firmware updates, as well as the built-in OneView and imager in Composer, become a little more powerful and faster."

"The technical support was about the only negative experience that I had. It was a mixed bag when we were first standing it up. We had some requirements from our information security department, and technical support wasn't able to give me immediate answers. They had to engage engineering, which they did, then they got me the answers. However, it took a week of back and forth conversations and phone calls to get it all worked out."

"Its management needs some work. It is not the best in terms of management. It has decent management. Its user interface can also be better."

More HPE Synergy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."

"It's expensive, they are quite pricey."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable. From a commercial point of view, the prices are okay."

"The solution is expensive."

"There is a need to pay towards the licensing costs of the solution. The most expensive server from Cisco is Cisco UCS B-Series."

"The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."

"VMware is part of the cost. We bought the chassis, we bought the solution. The blades are roughly running us $60,000 a pop right now."

"Our IT infrastructure costs have gone up each year by 20 percent."

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

"We don't have to pay for Synergy because it's part of our plan."

"Synergy has lowered our total cost of ownership significantly. I would say ballpark around 25 percent, maybe more."

"The Nutanix platform came in a little more expensive than the Synergy."

"The platform that we run Synergy on is all virtualized. Our primary cost is likely VMware."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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

The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability.

See all answers

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

The product is expensive. I rate its pricing a five out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS E-Series Servers?

The platform's pricing needs improvement. There could be more collaborative tools included.

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?

The pricing is relatively high compared to Cisco servers. However, due to the volume of my purchases, I get good discounts.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco UCS B-Series vs Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Compared 51% of the time

Super Micro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Compared 49% of the time

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HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy

Compared 29% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 22% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy

Compared 21% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE Synergy

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

February 2025

Download Cisco UCS E-Series Servers product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

January 2025

Download HPE Synergy product report

Also Known As

UCS E-Series Servers

No data available

Overview

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers are next-generation, power-optimized, x86, Intel Xeon 64-bit blade servers designed to be deployed in Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) and the Cisco 4451-X ISR. These price-to-performance-optimized single-socket blade servers balance simplicity, performance, reliability, and power efficiency. They are well suited for applications and infrastructure services typically deployed in small offices and branch offices.

Cisco

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.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

Navaho, MiroNet AG, Columbia Sportswear

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs. HPE Synergy

January 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs. HPE Synergy

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs. HPE Synergy and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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