Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs IBM Power Systems comparison

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. IBM Power Systems

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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 Rack Servers

1st

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

171

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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 27.8%, down from 28.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 9.1%, up from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rack Servers

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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Omobolaji Olaloku

Senior Enterprise System Engineer at Zenith-bank

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.

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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

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are easy to manage and install, and it gives us a lot of time to do other things."

"We like the iDRAC card which gives us remote access to the server out of band. That's fantastic because if a box is misbehaving, I'm able to get into the bare metal and repair the operating system without needing to go out to the branch office, which could be anywhere in the UK."

"The Xeon CPU makes the system work very well and fast. I like this type of CPU. It has helped to improve the performance of targeted workloads by 70%."

"PowerEdge is flexible and adaptable. You can you can build whatever you want from it."

"The enduring stability and longevity offered by Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers stand out as their most invaluable features."

"Technical support is very good."

"PowerEdge's management interface is easy to use. It's also a platform that we can trust."

"The use of OpenManage Console reduces the time it takes to manage PowerEdge Rack Servers in terms of updates and maintenance."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pros

"The uptime feature is great."

"Power Systems' best features include its user-friendliness and self-checking/self-healing abilities."

"On the security side, we get regular security patch updates and system hardening. There are free tools available to harden the system."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that the hardware is really good and reliable."

"The best features of the solution are its robustness and service level."

"The solution does not require any maintenance."

"The availability of a solution depends on the requirement of the customer. The most valuable feature is the virtualization. You can have this one system or you can use it for many. They were using almost 120 servers within that specific service."

"The performance is the solution's most valuable asset. It has one of the highest levels of performance I have ever seen. It's quite remarkable, in that sense."

More IBM Power Systems pros

Cons

"The price distance increases with the higher-end, more complex servers, and there is room for improvement."

"The flexibility of card use could be improved."

"Currently, the solution does not have the in-process memory encryption technology."

"We have storage and would like to manage more backups without adding extra storage devices. Maybe it's already there. I need to look at it more."

"This solution helped us reduce our rack footprint. It reduced our power consumption including size and weight."

"There are issues, of course, but not major issues. On a scale of one to 10, the stability is a nine."

"Access to specific card models can be limited, and sometimes we require smaller cards than those offered by Dell."

"It's more from the pandemic, however, the logistics part of it could be better."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers cons

"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"

"IBM should provide a platform where users can learn about the storage and security of IBM Power Systems."

"The solution is quite expensive."

"It would be ideal if the solution was more simple to work with."

"The solution could improve the memory database for better integration with SAP HANA."

"The number of times IBM refreshes its operating system appears to be very slow."

"Software testing and the compatibility of software products that are available in the market should be addressed."

"I think the cost should be cheaper."

More IBM Power Systems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is very good."

"The pricing could always be better."

"When you compare public cloud solutions to PowerEdge in terms of cost, initially the cost of Dell servers or Dell technology was really high. However, right now it's on par or, maybe, even cheaper when we use Dell hardware. If we don't swap it out in three years and if we stretch it to four or five years, then we can get even more of an ROI versus cloud cost."

"It is expensive. The price needs to be more competitive. Additional licenses are required to enable some of the features for scalability."

"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."

"The solution's analytics helped to decrease production downtime by at least 30%."

"The pricing is good compared to other products."

"Dell is somewhat more expensive than HPE."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution depends upon the configuration part of it. Based on what configuration you want to go for it, there is a range like IBM Power Systems POWER9 and IBM Power Systems Power10."

"It's more about the value you get for the price. Considering its stability and performance, the pricing is good."

"Price-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten."

"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."

"There is a yearly licensing cost, and it's an expensive solution."

"The solution's pricing is very, very high compared to other platforms."

"It is designed for a large workload, as opposed to a small workload. For our circumstances, and even as an independent, I can't buy a Power system to experiment on. It can't happen. You cannot buy them."

"The licensing costs are okay. With IBM Power Systems, it's inclusive, so you can differentiate the price of the hardware from the software itself."

More IBM Power Systems pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Leonel Simões

Owner at Euritex

Jan 16, 2022

Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers vs IBM Power Systems: which product to choose and why?

2 out of 3 answers

Md. Shohel Rawshan Sarker

Manager at Mutural Trust Bank

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.

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Nicolae

System and Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

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.

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See all 3 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

University

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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 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.

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.

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Comparisons

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

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Huawei FusionServer RH Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

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HPE Apollo Systems vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

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Intel Server System vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 45% of the time

Oracle SPARC Servers vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 17% of the time

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 14% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM Power Systems Competitors

Product Reports

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Download Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers product report

IBM Power Systems

Download IBM Power Systems product report

Also Known As

PowerEdge R

IBM OpenPOWER LC

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

IBM Power Systems are built to crush the most advanced data applications - from the mission-critical workloads you run today to the next generation of AI.

IBM

Sample Customers

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

Cipher

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. IBM Power Systems