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Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs IBM Power Systems 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
166
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (5th)
IBM Power Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 27.8%, up from 28.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 9.1%, up from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Omobolaji Olaloku - PeerSpot reviewer
Extremely stable, good ROI, and scalable
The most valuable feature of our machines is their ability to replace faulty parts without causing any downtime. Our servers are equipped with advanced technology, making it possible to replace defective parts without having to bring down the servers. This is crucial, as any disruption to our services would result in inconvenience to our customers. Therefore, being able to service the machines and replace parts without causing any downtime is highly beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The speed of delivery is something super valuable. Reliability and performance are also valuable."
"The MX7000 gives us the most concentrated amount of compute in the smallest area possible."
"Nowadays, iDRAC is very important. It is one of the features that we use the most because we do not always have physical access to our machines. iDRAC is a tool that we use daily. If we did not have it, it would be very complicated to manage the machines. This is a great feature."
"We particularly appreciate the iDRAC feature, especially in its latest versions, for its capabilities in remote server management and comprehensive monitoring."
"The solution delivers what it promises. You look at the specs and it delivers them."
"The pricing of the solution is fair."
"It's very easy to get new systems in the data center and to get them ready for production."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are pretty good at handling diverse applications."
"The most valuable features of the solution are disaster recovery, replication, and the ability to migrate to another location."
"On the security side, we get regular security patch updates and system hardening. There are free tools available to harden the system."
"It scales a lot, you can just keep on adding frames, you can add on CPUs, you get capacity on demand, you can tune the machine very easily to handle different workloads."
"We have had a good experience with the technical support team at IBM."
"PowerVM."
"The most valuable feature of our machines is their ability to replace faulty parts without causing any downtime."
"The solution does not require any maintenance."
"Power Systems is like a dream solution for every IT person because it has redundancy, and it doesn't stop. It doesn't get affected easily. I don't see any weaknesses in this solution. At the moment, we have Power8. It is stable and runs smoothly. We have a big load, and it is working very well. It can be customized based on our needs. Flash copy is helping us amazingly. We have virtualization for vDisks, which is again very helpful. We are working on this virtualization technology, and we have a team that is working on redundancy and architecture."
 

Cons

"While we are generally satisfied with their service, we'd like more connections between meetings and proactive support. We had a session about two weeks ago, where we talked about areas they need to improve."
"Lately, we feel that we need an improvement in our servers. Surprisingly, we have seen some servers here that do meet these characteristics. They are slightly smaller servers."
"Its customer support should be improved."
"It would be nice if they could make the solution cheaper and faster."
"The iDRAC Telemetry that monitors PowerEdge system data and provides analytics could be a little bit more in-depth. Someone wanted more information on the RAM and the hard drives and we couldn't retrieve this information."
"Dell can optimize the size of its rack servers, offering a minimized physical footprint without compromising performance or security."
"The maintenance for this solution could be improved."
"There are certain aspects, features, and functionality on the motherboard that need improvement."
"I would like to see IBM Power Systems integrate with all cloud types."
"IBM should provide a platform where users can learn about the storage and security of IBM Power Systems."
"In my country, there are power supply interruptions. IBM could find ways to make the product stable through these interruptions."
"I know lab services does a lot of work but systems, if they could include some kind of lab services and bundling of services to get you to the greatest and latest feature at the already included cost"
"The price is a bit high and could be improved."
"IBM should be more flexible with marketing or offer marketing events themselves and invite the partners to attend. That might be far more productive."
"I think the cost should be cheaper."
"Its pricing could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is very competitive."
"It has generally been very competitive. It is not the best, but it is very competitive."
"The pricing for PowerEdge servers is reasonable."
"The pricing is good compared to other products."
"The overall pricing and licensing are fair according to the market."
"It is expensive. The price needs to be more competitive. Additional licenses are required to enable some of the features for scalability."
"The licensing comes with a warranty."
"We have not compared them with others. The price is okay, but they can always be a little bit cheaper."
"The cost model is great. There is so much built in to the technology, that if you know how to use it you can save yourself a lot of money."
"The price of the solution could be somewhat better and this is what lowers my rating of it to a seven or eight out of ten."
"The additional software costs are high."
"There is a yearly licensing cost, and it's an expensive solution."
"Price-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten."
"Its price is too high."
"The solution's pricing is very, very high compared to other platforms."
"Why should I be charged for that use rather than a single CPU, a single socket?"
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Answers from the Community

LS
Jan 16, 2022
Jan 16, 2022
IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Server IBM Power Systems is a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) system that contains 8 threads or over per core. This processor performs super-fast due to the RISC algorithm technology than any other Intel-based hardware (e.g., Dell, HPE, Cisco). In Intel, there are only 2 or 4 threads per core and it performs according to CISC (Complex Instructi...
2 out of 3 answers
SR
Aug 16, 2021
IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Server IBM Power Systems is a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) system that contains 8 threads or over per core. This processor performs super-fast due to the RISC algorithm technology than any other Intel-based hardware (e.g., Dell, HPE, Cisco).  In Intel, there are only 2 or 4 threads per core and it performs according to CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer). IBM Power system is a sustainable, reliable and obviously costly solution compared to any other Intel-based solution.  Generally, IBM Power system is used in mission-critical systems. 
Nicolae - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 3, 2022
IBM Power comes with virtualization integrated (PowerVM), highly optimized (practically with no performance impact) - no need for VMWare, HyperV etc.  For database it is the recomended platform - even is Hana, Oracle (best combination with AIX) or DB2 (DB2 for me is the most autonomous database that you can have).  The downside of IBM Power could be the lack of support for Windows and the initial cost. 
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
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?
The solution can be improved in terms of firmware backward supportability. With the sixteenth generation servers I am using, slightly older kernels and drivers are not supported. I have to use the ...
What do you like most about IBM Power Systems?
IBM Power Systems provides very good performance and stability compared to other brands or processors.
What needs improvement with IBM Power Systems?
IBM should provide a platform where users can learn about the storage and security of IBM Power Systems.
What is your primary use case for IBM Power Systems?
In my company, we use the system for the data center and our IBM Cloud Pak System.
 

Also Known As

PowerEdge R
IBM OpenPOWER LC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Cipher
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. IBM Power Systems and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.