Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
160
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 January 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 27.9%, up from 27.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 9.1%, up from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Javier Domingo - PeerSpot reviewer
A robust server that integrates well and consumes less energy
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped us improve in terms of ecology. Energy expenditure is an important part of our company's philosophy. We have changed to a more clean mindset, so now, we have to be eco-friendly, and it was one of the best things we chose to do. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have the PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture approach to security. I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten in terms of security. I never give a ten because there is always room for improvement, but Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have truly been very effective. They are very good in terms of energy consumption. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are agile for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. They are perfectly aligned with our sustainability goals. We were looking for the company's line to be all eco-friendly, and therefore, they aligned with our decisions and needs. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce everything. We had to make a change when we suffered a cyber attack, and after we changed the solution, it became 100% effective. In other words, we have not had any service outages at any time, and the truth is that we are very happy. We use the OpenManage console. We are happy, and we do feel that our company has improved, but our productivity has always been at a very high level. In terms of the effect of using PowerEdge Rack Servers on the overall flexibility of our operations or business, the thing is that we implemented it while our company was dealing with a change of mentality. It has affected us for the best because it has accompanied us in that change of mentality.
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

"When it comes to handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, the PowerEdge Rack Servers are fit for purpose. They do what they need to do."
"The active directory and file server are valuable features."
"We could install all the other accessories and cards the customer asked us to implement on Dell servers and integrate cards from different companies. Each requires a different OS. Dell helped us integrate all the systems."
"PowerEdge helped to reduce our customer’s data processing time."
"I find Dell PowerEdge Servers to handle diverse applications and evolving needs effectively, but we have to upgrade the hardware periodically."
"The most valuable features are remote management and iDRAC."
"It is quite stable. We didn't have a single downtime of failure. Nor have we ever experienced any downtime in electrical components or the hardware. In this way, the server is reliable."
"This solution keeps us up and running and reduces downtime. PowerEdge helped us to reduce data processing time. The PowerEdge systems management frameworks enabled us to progress towards full automation."
"The virtualization and the quality you get from it is one reason we like the solution."
"IBM Power Systems provides very good performance and stability compared to other brands or processors."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that the hardware is really good and reliable."
"Active Memory Expansion allows you to compress your memory on the run time to allow you to have less physical memory available, but provision more memory to your partitions, as everything will be compressed on the fly."
"Power Systems' best features are that it's reliable, stable, and easily available. It's also really scalable and can be virtualized without third-party software support."
"IBM Power Systems' best features are its reliability, resilience, and performance per rack unit."
"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 found working with IBM Power Systems that LPM is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"I would like to see the pricing improved."
"We are leaning away from this particular product because Dell's VxRail solution makes us buy four nodes at a time which is not scalable. Other solutions such as Cisco offer more innovation on this front."
"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."
"There is room for improvement in technical support."
"I do not have any qualms or problems with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. However, when it comes to the software, some of their competitors are already feeding a lot of performance and availability data to an online platform. We have not seen that with PowerEdge."
"The GUI could be improved. I primarily work with the command line, which enables you to do many things faster."
"The pricing structure could be improved."
"The quality of support for this solution varies. Sometimes you get agents who are amazing and other times you get agents who take a long time to resolve your query."
"It does not offer the ability to run any X86 or X64 Intel architecture-based application on Power Systems. There are a lot of applications, lots of business use cases that do not support this architecture as of now. If somehow application tasks can be ported on to IBM Power Systems, that would be a big improvement."
"The number of times IBM refreshes its operating system appears to be very slow."
"In Power6, latency was an issue, but nowadays, we are on Power8, which doesn't have any such problems. Sometimes, we have issues when we are moving to a new version, which is the case with almost every company. Some new issues or problems show up suddenly, and you do not have the time to research and find the solution. That's when we contact IBM technical support."
"I would like to see IBM Power Systems integrate with all cloud types."
"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 would like to see firmware available to all of the systems."
"IBM systems are old technologies. I couldn't renew and get to use IBM Power Systems, and it offers users very expensive support."
"IBM Power Systems could improve by having a cloud feature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is very good."
"The pricing is great; very competitive. That's the reason we bought hundreds of them."
"They are fairly priced."
"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 price is reasonable. You have to pay if you want quality. When we purchase something, we have to do some market analysis, and I haven't seen a significant difference compared to other solutions."
"This is an expensive solution."
"The pricing for PowerEdge servers is reasonable."
"The solution's prices are good, especially considering what you get to use...The licensing aspect of the solution is also fine."
"There is a yearly licensing cost, and it's an expensive solution."
"IBM Power is more expensive than other rack-mount servers, and you have to have a license for everything, including cores and memory."
"Why should I be charged for that use rather than a single CPU, a single socket?"
"Power Systems is a bit more costly than other products in the market, but in terms of ROI and the longevity, performance, and reliability that Power Systems provides, it's worth it in the long run."
"It's more about the value you get for the price. Considering its stability and performance, the pricing is good."
"Its price is too high."
"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."
"IBM Power Systems is very expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Rack Servers solutions are best for your needs.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
21%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
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?
PowerEdge could have more configuration options, such as the ability to combine different CPUs, memory volumes, data storage, and memory. The new Intel-based ones are a bit power-hungry. You want t...
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
 

Learn More

Video not available
 

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.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.