Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs FlexPod XCS comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Dell Technologies is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.9, while NetApp is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.4. Dell Technologies holds a 1.8% mindshare in CI, compared to NetApp’s 9.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Read 171 Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers reviews

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18 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

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228 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

FlexPod XCS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

FlexPod XCS and Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers compete in the data center solutions category. FlexPod XCS seems to have the upper hand with its unified support model that simplifies deployment and ongoing management.

Features: FlexPod XCS distinguishes itself with pre-designed architecture, ensuring compatibility and flexibility through seamless integration of components, backed by joint Cisco and NetApp support for easier issue resolution. Key features include powerful scalability, FlexClone, and mirroring capabilities that expand storage and deployment options. Meanwhile, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer robust performance and reliability through iDRAC's remote management, along with OpenManage Essentials for easy hardware management. High resilience and support for virtualization and fault tolerance are noteworthy, accommodating diverse high-demand workloads.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS users call for quicker certification of Cisco and NetApp updates and improved, unified support services to reduce vendor switching. A cohesive interface for component management is desired for smoother integration and better task automation. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could benefit from reduced configuration complexity, more efficient firmware updates, and broader monitoring capabilities. Simplifying the OpenManage Console and ensuring a cohesive upgrade path for hardware iterations are also suggested.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS's verified architecture and single-vendor support streamline deployment, simplifying data center operations despite occasional cross-vendor support inconsistencies. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers provide strong customer service aided by iDRAC's remote management tools, although managing separate components remains complex.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS is considered expensive, yet its scalability and management efficiencies justify the cost by reducing operating expenses and enhancing ROI over time. Licensing complexities for Cisco, NetApp, and VMware require careful cost evaluation. Meanwhile, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are competitively priced, offering good ROI through consistent reliability and lower operational expenses. The ability to customize configurations appealingly suits various business needs, although a more extensive pricing strategy could enhance reach.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. FlexPod XCS Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. FlexPod XCS

March 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 Rack Servers

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

3rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

171

Ranking in other categories

Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (5th), Rack Servers (1st)

FlexPod XCS

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

6th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 1.8%. The mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 9.4%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Converged Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood

Country manager at Asta Innosys

Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently

We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload. For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time. We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.

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Chris Haight

Sr. Solutions Architect at CDW Canada Inc.

Integrates everything so you are using fewer tools

The traditional UCS Blades do not take much storage internally. You would be challenged to create an HCI (Hype converged Infrastructure) solution on FlexPod / UCS or any other solution that pools internal storage. Now, with UCS X-Series, you can carve off an HCI solution, software defined pooled solution if you want. This was one area of improvement that I wanted to see and can now realize with the refresh of the Cisco UCS infrastructure. With modern modular infrastructure, RESTful API has been added, there are more integrations, ServiceNow and vCenter along with tighter plug-ins. There is cross-user interface launching, for example with Windows Admin Center. The solutions are using Ansible and Terraform for deploying infrastructure as code. All the improvements that I wanted from the last gen are here or coming. With modern workloads and GPU use on the rise, adding GPUs to modern modular infrastructure will have some pros and cons. Typically, you can add one or two GPU's to a blade with no or little trade off. With the UCS X-Series, if you are doing a GPU farm, then you may have to sacrifice compute blades in the front slots to put in a GPU tray / module. A chassis holds eight compute blades, but if you are adding a ton of GPUs, a single GPU tray or more will reduce your blade count by as many GPU trays you add. This is not just a Cisco UCS X-Series problem. It is an industry problem with modular infrastructure and one that I would like to see get solved! I am looking into one such solution, VMware BITFUSION where you can send CUDA requests over the network to a BITFUSION server with the results sent back to the requestor, early stages here and only scratched the surface thus far. With Cisco UCS X-Series, I would like to see the fabric interconnects built into the chassis instead of being external. With the fabric interconnects, the real footprint of UCS X-Series is 9U, where some of the competing solutions are 7U and have collapsed the network fabric into the chassis. This is another thing that I would like to see from Cisco, though, not really on the NetApp side of the fence, NetApp is solid storage.

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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

"It is quite flexible when you use it."

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is a user-friendly solution that provides performance stability."

"The standout feature is the remote control accessibility, which allows our team to access and manage the servers locally or remotely."

"The speed of delivery is something super valuable. Reliability and performance are also valuable."

"The solutions accelerated GPUs helped to support demanding workloads and to reduce data processing time in our organization."

"The fact that they came pre-installed was quite good. We didn't have to worry too much about that process... Also, the maintenance part makes it very easy to raise queries and get repairs done."

"The solution is very strong and reliable."

"It works perfectly, especially in terms of availability and reliability, without any type of issue, which is why we are very happy with it."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pros

"The most valuable feature is the one support. Anytime that a customer buys a solution for a server, storage, or network, once they have trouble in their environment, everyone wants to find out who was wrong. With FlexPod, everyone is wrong and there is unified support. The best way to solve the problem is have it be everyone's problem, not just one person's problem. For FlexPod, you can call NetApp or Cisco, and I think it's the best way to solve the problem that the customer has."

"The real benefit of this solution is that it is pre-architected with the ability to scale-up and scale-out."

"We have had great support, and this is when we have called for any problems, which have been very minimal to start with."

"The Cisco Validated Designs are the most valuable feature along with the Industry-leading technology, put together; and the fact that it just works."

"You can add more boxes and you can have more IOPS available if you want. It's very easy to add new hardware to the cluster."

"The best thing about this solution is the tight integration with VMware, Cisco, and NetApp from both a hardware and software perspective."

"It has simplified our support."

"Integration is most valuable. This is a reference architecture. So, we don't have to design something from scratch and figure out how it is going to work."

More FlexPod XCS pros

Cons

"Dell could increase the training. My ability to use the product improved vastly once I became more knowledgeable about it. The sales desk and presales service could also improve."

"Dell can optimize the size of its rack servers, offering a minimized physical footprint without compromising performance or security."

"The price could possibly use improvement. Dell servers are not the most affordable, and pricing is always a consideration. Otherwise, I don't see any specific areas for improvement."

"The equipment is very good, but the price is a bit too high. In addition, their support for parts can be better."

"The analytics reports could be more useful."

"There might be room for improvement, especially in the software aspect, such as firmware updates."

"The solution should give us an option to add on the new hardware features."

"I'd like to take the complexities out of all the different tools that surround it, like OpenManage."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers cons

"Sometimes, it can take awhile for support cases to get to the right people, especially if it's not a P1 case."

"I'd like them to bring back the GUI for NetApp ONTAP. They changed the interface in version 9.8, and it's not great. In 9.9 they've tried to bring it back a little bit, but it's still not great."

"Parts of the initial setup were complex, especially on the networking side."

"For the next release, because I know that we are using Pure Storage, what I want to see is the GUI interfaces on this UCS monitor."

"We would like to see a new design that comes with more productivity or graphics. Currently, the vendors, like HPE and Dell EMC along with NetApp, all have very similar products. We want more diversification."

"This is an expensive solution."

"The graphical interface could be made easier to use and more intuitive."

"FlexPod XCS' pricing could be cheaper. You need to find the right person for support."

More FlexPod XCS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't see any issues with respect to licensing. It's power-efficient, so it's beneficial to the customers price-wise. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fee."

"The pricing is very good because there are a lot of types of PowerEdge Rack Servers. You have the R540, R640, and R740. The prices are very scalable through the specific server, e.g., small businesses can take the R640 while large businesses can take the R740 or R840. Thus, Dell technologies touch on every organization."

"The solution is expensive."

"We have a strong agreement in place with our parent company, that typically ensures favorable pricing terms for us, although occasionally we may need to negotiate with Dell representatives for further discounts to provide competitive pricing to our customers."

"There is room for improvement in making it more cost-effective."

"The pricing for this solution is competitive compared to others on the market."

"The cost structure associated with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers aligns closely with the prevailing norms established within the information technology hardware sector."

"I am satisfied with the pricing of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and would rate the cost as seven out of ten, with ten being the best."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

"It is expensive. My company is small. When you look at the price point, this is a big thing for us to invest in."

"In terms of the cost, the last bill I saw was about $3.5 million, from the latest contract. That might have been for a five-year contract."

"Because the solution is now stable, we are saving about $100 million USD a year."

"We fear high availability so we can't buy from different providers."

"The solution has saved our customers' organization in terms of CapEx. E.g., with the cloud availability, it's turned into sort of a hybrid CapEx/OpEx model."

"It created lower total cost of ownership. Previously, we had disparate storage and servers, and there were bits of kits everywhere. Now, we have two data centers with almost identical setups in both."

"The main return on investment would be that instead of having to refresh all of our desktop hardware we have been able to go reimage existing machines and use those as thin clients, then also purchase new thin clients rather than buying actual hardware. It also reduces the overhead of having our technicians deploy those systems and maintain them."

"The product is kind of expensive even from an entry-level standpoint. I would say FlexPod would be the way to go if you are a larger business or one with large data volume."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user244362

Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees

Aug 30, 2015

Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod

Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

University

Manufacturing Company

21%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Educational Organization

10%

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....

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?

It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?

The price of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is competitive. There's always room for support improvements, and the AI features could continue to be enhanced as the relationship with Nvidia grows.

See all answers

What do you like most about FlexPod?

The system is designed for easy scaling. Because we define everything clearly. So when we plug the system in, we apply the profile, and it scales easily.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FlexPod?

The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers. Following XCS rules ensures a stable environment, which is crucial. For me, C...

See all answers

What needs improvement with FlexPod?

FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities. More automation would be helpful. Currently, we cont...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 42% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 31% of the time

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

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 5% of the time

Huawei FusionServer RH Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 5% of the time

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Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 26% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

March 2025

Download Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers product report

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

March 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Also Known As

PowerEdge R

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Overview

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are designed to optimize performance and efficiency in a data center environment, supporting various applications. Dell stands as the leading vendor in accelerated servers for AI, commanding a 33.8% revenue share. Based on user reviews, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers supporting tasks from basic web hosting to more demanding applications like data analytics and virtualization. They are engineered to offer high performance, reliability, and scalability. With a focus on automation and integrated security, these servers simplify operations and protect against threats, making them a smart choice for businesses of all sizes.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are a robust, secure, and scalable solution that can meet the diverse needs of businesses, backed by comprehensive support. Benefits to look for in reviews include performance, reliability, scalability, and customer support.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers key features include:

Scalability: These servers can easily scale to meet growing business needs, supporting more workloads and processing power.
Integrated Security: From hardware to firmware to the operating system, Dell PowerEdge servers are designed with security in mind, offering layers of protection.
Energy Efficiency: Advanced thermal design and energy-smart technology help reduce operational costs and environmental impact.
Automation: With Dell EMC OpenManage, the management of servers is streamlined, allowing for automated deployment, monitoring, and updates.

In terms of implementation, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are used across various industries, from small businesses to large enterprises. They serve as the foundation for IT infrastructure, powering critical applications in healthcare, finance, education, and more. The adaptability of these servers means they can be tailored to specific industry needs, from handling large datasets in research institutions to supporting high-transaction databases in financial services.

Dell Technologies

FlexPod XCS is the secure platform your applications need from edge to cloud. Easily manage your suite of cloud-native, edge, and enterprise apps. Integrate advanced cloud services without compromising performance, security, reliability, or scale.

NetApp

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. FlexPod XCS

March 2025

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