Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Dell Technologies is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. Dell Technologies holds a 19.0% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 21.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge M

Read 24 Dell PowerEdge M reviews

2,646 Views
1,803 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Read 89 HPE Synergy reviews

3,054 Views
2,216 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge M

HPE Synergy

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Dell PowerEdge M and HPE Synergy compete in the enterprise server market. Dell PowerEdge M is favored for its cost-effectiveness and strong server consolidation capabilities, while HPE Synergy's advanced composability and integration give it a competitive edge.

Features: Dell PowerEdge M is known for its dense, scalable architecture, superior server consolidation with multiple chassis management via a single interface, and the iDRAC feature which simplifies server management. HPE Synergy offers composable infrastructure allowing dynamic resource allocation, seamless integration with OneView for simplified management, and enhanced flexibility without permanent dependencies.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerEdge M users report issues with chip creep, complex VLAN configurations, and the need for centralized iDRAC access management and better training resources. HPE Synergy users seek faster connectivity, streamlined firmware updates, and better cross-frame storage support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerEdge M and HPE Synergy are mainly deployed on-premises. Dell faces criticism for inconsistent technical support and longer response times. HPE Synergy, while receiving high praises for its support, struggles with system updates but generally provides a satisfactory deployment experience.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerEdge M is considered cost-effective with users achieving ROI swiftly due to its reliability and performance, offering value with negotiation savings. HPE Synergy, though more expensive, is justified by its composable infrastructure and lifetime licensing, aligning cost with performance returns.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge M vs. HPE Synergy Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge M vs. HPE Synergy

January 2025

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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

Dell PowerEdge M

Ranking in Blade Servers

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

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

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Composable Infrastructure (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge M is 19.0%, up from 17.4% 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

JohnDeavers

Senior Solutions Architect at ePlus Technology

Average pricing and good feature sets but is complex to set up

We use the solution for hyper-converged infrastructures with VMware and physical/virtual SQL solutions. Both Dell and Cisco would be data center modernization. We're modernizing from a three-tier to a single infrastructure. The enterprise manager feature sets are great. It's great for managing…

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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

"I have compared Dell EMC to other solutions and have found it to be good. The SAN and LAN traffic, manageability, and upgradability are all good."

"The networking features for administration and working with the server are valuable."

"The biggest advantage of PowerEdge is that it is cost-effective, and its performance and infrastructure are much better than other competitors like Lenovo and HP."

"It allows us to consolidate our infrastructure very efficiently, enabling us to deploy eight servers in a seven-unit density."

"The tool's most valuable features are high availability and scalability. Its integration is easy."

"The solution is made with high-quality hardware."

"The server is more common for the mass market and although it is nothing special, what stands out is the good after-sales service provided."

"The solution's most valuable features are centralized monitoring and management and the ease of upgrading firmware."

More Dell PowerEdge M pros

"Everything is in one place. We have one place to with OneView. It provides one console with one place to get to everything. The one interface makes it easier. We have one guy who does almost everything in it."

"In terms of managing our IT landscape, it helps by reducing complexity... We've taken one of our virtualization guys and turned him into a Synergy guy, and he's been able to understand the networking, he's been able to understand the OneView, he's been able to understand the Synergy. He manages all of those rather than our having to have multiple teams associated with it."

"The stability of the solution is very reliable."

"It has had a positive effect on the efficiency of our IT infrastructure team. The manageability of it is so easy, we're able to install it quickly, and replacement parts are easy to get in and out quickly."

"It's very scalable. We like the idea that we can put four chassis in one of our racks, and we can connect up to 25 chassis, so the scalability to us, and being able to sync all those into one management portal, is unheard of. You can't really sync that many blades and chassis together in any other platform."

"The benefit is that it's going to be maintained, contrary to what we had last year, when the maintenance went off for the last generation of the servers that we had there."

"Being able to connect my 3PAR arrays to the Synergy platform is the most valuable aspect to me."

"We have more control over the firmware and how we are managing our physical servers."

More HPE Synergy pros

Cons

"One area for improvement is the connectivity, specifically the backplate and switch connections."

"The costing could be improved as it is somewhat expensive."

"The last year, we experienced problems with support, as Dell decreased staff in Latin America, impacting support quality."

"Dell support should be faster."

"Dell PowerEdge M lacks GPU nodes and doesn't have a direct solution for GPUs."

"One area for improvement is VLAN configuration."

"We have had some issues with the vendor's support that we have received. When you open up a support case with Dell they send a partner to assist you and in our experience, they are lacking knowledge about the solution. There are times when you need professional support from the vendor that knows the solution well."

"There is no specific feedback on improvements directly from our usage."

More Dell PowerEdge M cons

"After delivering the contract, they became a little less active. So, it needs some pushing from my side sometimes."

"We had an issue during the initial setup with the 40 Gigabyte cards. They weren’t working, so we had to work really closely with HPE support to get them to work."

"The pricing can be improved as it is a costly solution due to sanctions in Iran."

"When templates are created, there are some steps where you need to reboot the machines. Being in production, this is not a good idea. For example, if you reconfigure the network, you should not have to reboot the machine. You should just apply the new template and that's it."

"We have flaky things, like a lot of bad fans."

"The solution should support Cisco or other vendor interconnect models."

"ICMs could be better in this model. When you look at its competitors, the most critical point is the throughput. HPE is the best with the ICM module, which is an interconnect module that connects the servers of the frames to the LAN and SAN. HPE Synergy should also support the latest processors provided by Intel."

"Synergy could probably do some code enhancements to simplify the deployment a bit more."

More HPE Synergy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of PowerEdge Next is higher than it was before."

"The product is budget-friendly. The initial cost for each server was around 10,000 euros. It's a standard price, not too high or too low."

"I know we get three years basic, and the on-site licensing model for business seems fine. I wouldn't pay for a support plus or anything."

"The product is neither expensive nor cheap. It is manageable for medium enterprises as well."

"The solution's pricing is slightly higher."

"If we would not have gone with the vendor we might have been charged unnecessarily for packages we did not need."

"The cost varies significantly depending on the server's configuration and can range from $10,000 to $60,000 for the same server line family."

"Dell PowerEdge M price is comparable to other solutions but cheaper than IBM. However, the IBM solution is a higher grade solution whereas Dell PowerEdge M is a medium-level solution."

More Dell PowerEdge M pricing and cost advice

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

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

"The cost is high and that is a drawback for some customers."

"The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."

"We outright purchased Synergy."

"The hardware licensing cost is reasonable."

"Nutanix was really hard to implement, and it was very pricey compared to what we get from Synergy."

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

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell PowerEdge M?

The solution's most valuable features are centralized monitoring and management and the ease of upgrading firmware.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge M?

The cost of Dell is reasonable. Dell is not expensive compared to HP. It is a little cheaper, but customers still prefer HP.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge M?

I do not know if I can comment about the tool itself since I do not have much experience with Dell. I work mostly with HP and only sometimes with Dell. I cannot say where improvement is needed. Del...

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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...

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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

HPE Superdome X vs Dell PowerEdge M

Compared 24% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs Dell PowerEdge M

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs Dell PowerEdge M

Compared 10% of the time

Supermicro SuperBlade vs Dell PowerEdge M

Compared 6% of the time

Fujitsu Primergy BX900 Series vs Dell PowerEdge M

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell PowerEdge M Competitors

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy

Compared 29% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 22% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 9% of the time

HPE Superdome X vs HPE Synergy

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE Synergy

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge M

February 2025

Download Dell PowerEdge M product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

February 2025

Download HPE Synergy product report

Overview

The Dell PowerEdge M-Series blade servers address the challenges of an evolving IT environment by delivering leading enterprise classfeatures and functionality. The M-Series delivers a unique array of options configured to meet the needs of your IT environment both now and in the future.

Multiple blade form-factor choices.
Long life cycle providing better life cycle management and improved TCO.

Modular I/O switches for future scalability.
Breakthrough fan technologies for reduction in power consumption.

Configuration management via chassis management controller.

Persistent MAC/WWN/iSCSI addresses in a switch-agnostic environment.

Dell Technologies

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

Newport City Homes, Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC), Georgian College, AgreeYa Solutions, IIHT Cloud Solutions, Arizona State University, AudienceScience, University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Holy Cross School

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge M vs. HPE Synergy

January 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerEdge M vs. HPE Synergy

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