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

"The solution delivers what it promises. You look at the specs and it delivers them."

"From a technical perspective, the iDRAC system's most valuable feature is its performance, while from the customer's perspective, it is the other features."

"Our overall experience with their product and support has been consistently excellent."

"The calculation potential with modern CPUs is valuable. We have the capacity to increase the number of CPUs per machine, and there are also energy savings."

"I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten."

"I like how I can stack many servers on top of each other, and they work like a cloud."

"Using PowerEdge helped to reduce unplanned production downtime by 20% to 25%."

"The hardware itself is pleasant to work with. The management ability, particularly the out-of-band management, seems quite nice. The ecosystem tooling is also pleasant to work with. Additionally, Dell offers good support, and the servers are reliable."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pros

"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."

"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."

"The backups work great, data recovery works great."

"The most valuable feature of our machines is their ability to replace faulty parts without causing any downtime."

"Power runs our resilient data systems, our high-end databases, stuff that can't go down."

"The SMT that they've improved has really helped open up boundaries for other applications that can use it."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Power Systems is its performance."

"We found working with IBM Power Systems that LPM is the most valuable feature."

More IBM Power Systems pros

Cons

"When integrating the PowerEdge rack, we needed help from all the different companies to combine it with the servers. Each company has a system, and things must align with the server."

"The rate controller interface is difficult to get to without installing additional software. It would be helpful if they had preinstalled software to make that easily accessible."

"The price is the only thing that can be improved."

"I don't know much about the new Intel CPUs, but they need to put more than two CPUs in the servers. It may be an Intel limitation, but I'm not sure."

"While I wouldn't call it a problem, physically mounting the servers into the rails that come with the servers can be a challenge. They could be engineered to be a little bit easier to use. It's not that significant, we can manage it, but you need at least two people to do it together because they're a bit heavy."

"The way we can manage the environment through the solution's GUI could be improved."

"The price is acceptable but could be improved."

"There are new FPGA cards available on the market but they are not in the portfolio."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers cons

"I would like to see the scaling model improved so it's not just either tiny or huge."

"If you asked me what I'd like added, I'd say that it'd be nice if they ran GPUs, however, I know that's not the direction they're going. That said, I would appreciate it if they offered GPU support."

"One of the features that we would like, and I think they are also adapting to the latest trends in the market, is to make it more open, more flexible... With VMware, anybody can create a virtual machine without any knowledge of the server side. But with AIX it's a bit difficult."

"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"

"Better manage heterogeneous footprints of all the different operating systems that are out there across one common interface."

"Power Systems' price could always be lower."

"In the next release, I would like to see additional graphical dashboards to help the administrators access information more easily."

"Sometimes, the availability of additional services can be a challenge. Certain IBM software takes time to deliver to the client. It can be slow."

More IBM Power Systems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dell is pretty good. good. I had a conversation with Dell a while ago due to a vendor. We got much better pricing from a competitor. When I looked at another company, Dell called me and asked why am I looking at someone else when they have a distributor. I told them that their pricing was not good, so Dell went back to the distributor, and we got much better pricing"

"The pricing could always be better."

"They are fairly priced."

"The pricing is fair enough."

"PowerEdge pricing is equivalent to that of all the others in the market."

"The high cost of Dell PowerEdge Rack Server licenses is attributed to the pre-installed Windows Server operating system from Microsoft."

"I wouldn't say the solution's pricing is the best, but it's very competitive."

"The cost structure associated with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers presents itself as a potential point of contention for budget-conscious consumers, as it could be more strategically positioned to compete within the broader marketplace."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

"Power Systems is very cheap and provides good value for money."

"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 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."

"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 additional software costs are high."

"The price of IBM Power Systems is expensive and could improve."

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

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

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?

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have pretty much progressed a lot if we look at what features are on them now. I don't know what more could be asked for, perhaps just faster performance. Every ( /produ...

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

Compared 10% of the time

Huawei FusionServer RH Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 3% of the time

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Intel Server System vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 43% 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