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HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE Synergy comparison

Why PeerSpot?
The compared HPE Apollo Systems and HPE Synergy solutions aren't in the same category. HPE Apollo Systems is ranked #2 in DOS , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 20.9% mindshare in the category. HPE Synergy is ranked #5 in Blade Servers , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 8.5% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of HPE Apollo Systems users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of HPE Synergy users who would recommend it.
HPE Apollo Systems
Read 25 HPE Apollo Systems reviews
  • 3,575 Views
  • 644 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
HPE Synergy
Read 91 HPE Synergy reviews
  • 6,159 Views
  • 4,311 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between HPE Apollo Systems and HPE Synergy based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco and others in Density Optimized Servers.

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To learn more, read our detailed Density Optimized Servers Report (Updated: October 2026).
Buyer's Guide
Density Optimized Servers
October 2026
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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

HPE Apollo Systems
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Rack Servers (9th), Density Optimized Servers (2nd)
HPE Synergy
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Blade Servers (5th), Composable Infrastructure (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are IT Hardware and Infrastructure solutions, they serve different purposes. HPE Apollo Systems is designed for Density Optimized Servers and holds a mindshare of 20.9%, up 19.2% compared to last year.
HPE Synergy, on the other hand, focuses on Blade Servers, holds 8.5% mindshare, down 18.9% since last year.
Density Optimized Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE Apollo Systems20.9%
Dell PowerEdge C- Series19.4%
HPE Moonshot17.3%
Other42.400000000000006%
Density Optimized Servers
Blade Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE Synergy8.5%
Dell PowerEdge MX- Series8.2%
HPE BladeSystem8.0%
Other75.3%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Gökhan DURMAZ - PeerSpot reviewer
Gökhan DURMAZ
Account Manager at TD SYNNEX
High-quality integration and strong support have optimized our rack server operations
HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity. When I speak about integrity, I speak about GPU integration or other integrations such as GPU integration, backup software integration, and hypervisor integration. Regarding the integration of high-speed interconnectors in HPE Apollo Systems, they impact computational tasks because the high-speed interconnect affects performance. I don't remember the specifics. Regarding the cooling technologies, they help to reduce operational costs. The positive impact I see from HPE Apollo Systems is that support is good and quality is good. In general, HPE Apollo Systems appears to be for rack servers with some optimization capabilities.
Read full review
MS
Msheroz S
Works at Saudi Telecom Company
Manage servers efficiently with an integrated view while reducing downtime
My use case is to serve the complete IT environment of the telecom, including all cloud applications. I use HPE Synergy servers for my private cloud and for network management systems. 70% of my workload is running on HPE servers The integrated view, such as managing complete servers and…
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I find HPE Apollo Systems to be scalable and efficient for AI initiatives, and the environmental efficiency has a significant impact on operational costs."
"It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage."
"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance on that."
"It's very reliable, I haven't had a single failure at all in the year and a half; not the slightest problem with it, and it's been a pretty good product so far."
"The solution is well documented in a data sheet."
"It's allowed us to compete with cloud storage providers like AWS to put together a scalable on-premises solution of more than 20PB at a similar pricepoint."
"Taking into consideration the cost, HPE gave us the ability to actually do what we wanted to do."
"We previously used the DL380s; compared to those, Apollo has roughly four times the amount of space per server, which means we can really do a lot."
More HPE Apollo Systems pros
"If you can get it set up right and get a little bit of expertise in it, it's a wonderful platform."
"They're easy to swap and move around the datacenter, for sure. They don't occupy too much space for what they offer."
"The scalability is very good. The ability to link chassis or frames together makes it simplistic, especially with the use of OneView."
"Synergy is first in class for composable infrastructure; it has the scalability that meets our future needs and the automation that builds into something that we are really looking forward to using."
"We have seen a huge ROI: instead of having to buy 50 workstations - and we didn't have room for them, where we would need another classroom or another area - we didn't have to invest in any of that."
"It's very scalable. We like the idea that we can put four chassis in one of our racks, and we can connect up to 25 chassis, so the scalability to us, and being able to sync all those into one management portal, is unheard of. You can't really sync that many blades and chassis together in any other platform."
"This is a robust, stable, scalable solution."
"As we purchase and install more Synergy chassis, then we will be able to manage them together as one entity, as opposed to multiple separate cabinets."
More HPE Synergy pros
 

Cons

"We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there."
"One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it. It was a very long wait-time. So, if I were to give any advice in regards to improving this product, I would say make more of the 8TB disks available quicker."
"The licensing could be greatly improved, I think."
"What's coming out in Gen 10 is very strong in terms of additional security."
"We could, perhaps, use more GPUs in the future, go from eight to 16 GPUs per instance. That could run head-to-head against the DGX-1, the DGX-2 that NVIDIA has developed in their own chassis. That would be interesting to see."
"If there's anything that hasn't been that stable, then it is the Lustre file system."
"The solution's deployment, security, and scalability need improvement."
"If the workload is not purely sequential, then performance in the IO is less than optimal because it's optimized for streaming processing."
More HPE Apollo Systems cons
"The installation and initial setup process is complex and needs to be improved."
"Sometimes there are firmware or software difficulties when connecting between networks or with storage."
"When templates are created, there are some steps where you need to reboot the machines. Being in production, this is not a good idea. For example, if you reconfigure the network, you should not have to reboot the machine. You should just apply the new template and that's it."
"The performance could be better. At times, it could also be more stable."
"We haven't seen any ROI, and it hasn't reduced our cost of operations."
"I think the main issue with Synergy is a topology that HPE defines to connecting and creating a cluster."
"​Because we're using 2012, we're having issues making templates."
"The cost is quite high."
More HPE Synergy cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."
"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"We bought everything outright to start with. We don't do much consumption-based stuff."
"VMware is part of the cost. We bought the chassis, we bought the solution. The blades are roughly running us $60,000 a pop right now."
"We don't have to pay for Synergy because it's part of our plan."
"In our whole environment, the cost is in the millions. On this particular chassis, the annual cost is 12 blades times approximately $40,000."
"The hardware licensing cost is reasonable."
"There is a perpetual license given when you purchase HPE Synergy."
"We outright purchased Synergy."
"The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."
More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise56
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?
It is too early to say what improvements HPE Apollo Systems could implement because the report still needs to come out and the customer needs to properly evaluate the solution.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?
My main use case for HPE Apollo Systems is replacing many of the servers and storage boxes at one of the customer's sites to achieve workload optimization and optimized solutions. Additionally, whe...
See all answers
What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?
My advice for someone considering HPE Apollo Systems is that if they are looking for consolidation and their workload involves high availability requirements, or if they want to utilize GPUs, then ...
See all answers
How would you choose between HPE's Bladesystem and Synergy?
For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and stable. It turns out Bladesystem was the winner. Bladesystem is excellent because...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?
As far as the prices are concerned, rack mount solutions are less expensive than HPE Synergy prices; however, HPE Synergy prices are higher but justify themselves as the solution accommodates all t...
See all answers
What needs improvement with HPE Synergy?
In my opinion, for future improvements in HPE Synergy, there should be better management of power consumption complexity as well as an increase in the number of servers that can fit in a single Syn...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems Logo
Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems
Compared 11% of the time
HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems Logo
HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems
Compared 11% of the time
HPE Moonshot vs HPE Apollo Systems Logo
HPE Moonshot vs HPE Apollo Systems
Compared 8% of the time
IBM Power Systems vs HPE Apollo Systems Logo
IBM Power Systems vs HPE Apollo Systems
Compared 8% of the time
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems Logo
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems
Compared 4% of the time
More HPE Apollo Systems Competitors
HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy Logo
HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy
Compared 10% of the time
Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs HPE Synergy Logo
Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs HPE Synergy
Compared 9% of the time
HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy Logo
HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy
Compared 9% of the time
Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series vs HPE Synergy Logo
Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series vs HPE Synergy
Compared 8% of the time
Supermicro SuperBlade vs HPE Synergy Logo
Supermicro SuperBlade vs HPE Synergy
Compared 3% of the time
More HPE Synergy Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
HPE Apollo Systems
September 2026
HPE Apollo Systems reportDownload HPE Apollo Systems product report
Buyer's Guide
HPE Synergy
September 2026
HPE Synergy reportDownload HPE Synergy product report
 

Also Known As

HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
No data available
 

Overview

HPE Apollo Systems deliver high compute and storage density, scalability, and environmental efficiency with exceptional performance for AI initiatives and data capturing across diverse applications.

HPE Apollo Systems are characterized by their dense compute and storage capabilities, offering flexibility in configurations to meet the demands of AI, deep learning, and high-performance computing. Their management software simplifies deployment, ensuring effective performance across tasks that require significant storage. While Apollo Systems are designed for efficiency and scalability, improvements can be made in security, tech support, and integration with hypervisors and backup solutions. Enhancing cooling and licensing processes, connectivity, and faster drive writing capabilities are also areas for growth.

What are the key features of HPE Apollo Systems?
  • High Compute Density: Supports intense processing needs efficiently.
  • Scalability: Easily adaptable to growing data demands.
  • Environmental Efficiency: Minimizes energy consumption, enhancing sustainability.
  • Flexible Configurations: Caters to a range of applications from AI to data storage.
  • Reliable Performance: Consistently delivers under various workloads.
What benefits or ROI should users look for?
  • Cost Effectiveness: Reduces expenditure with its efficient design.
  • Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly fits into diverse IT environments.
  • Performance Enhancement: Boosts operational efficiency and output.
  • Easy Deployment: Streamlines the setup process for quick operation.

HPE Apollo Systems find extensive use in sectors such as telecom, supporting high-performance computing and AI workloads. They optimize Linux servers, replace legacy systems, and serve as storage solutions across industries. Their applications span from big data management in Splunk clusters to backup solutions in medical faculties, enhancing compute power and storage within compact racks.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

HPE Synergy offers a composable infrastructure enabling hardware reuse and automation, appreciated for manageability through OneView, which simplifies configuration and deployment.

HPE Synergy's strengths include flexibility, scalability, and a modular design that integrates with existing IT infrastructure for improved performance and manageability. It excels in high-density virtualization tasks and is especially suited to VMware and Hyper-V environments, SQL and Oracle databases, and large-scale data centers. Though users note challenges such as complex management interfaces and integration issues with non-HPE systems, its ability to replace aging systems like C7000 and facilitate hybrid cloud transformation is significant. Requirements for streamlined firmware updates, better storage integration, faster deployment, enhanced support, and documentation are acknowledged.

What are the most important features of HPE Synergy?
  • Composable Infrastructure: Enables hardware re-utilization and automation.
  • OneView: Simplifies configuration and reduces deployment time.
  • Image Streamer: Enhances flexibility and ease of use in configuration management.
  • Converged Network Management: Streamlines network operations.
  • Modular Design: Ensures compatibility and scalability.
What benefits and ROI should be evaluated?
  • Ease of Administration: Centralized management reduces complexity.
  • Diverse Workload Handling: Efficiently manages virtualization, databases, and cloud environments.
  • Performance Enhancement: Integrates effectively with existing infrastructure.
  • Reduced Power Consumption: Users seek more efficiency in energy use.
  • Comprehensive Integration: Desirable improvements in OneView integration benefit operations.

HPE Synergy is widely implemented across industries focusing on virtualization and cloud transformation, providing enhanced compute power and flexibility to companies transitioning from older systems. It supports hybrid cloud infrastructure management and handles the demands of large-scale data centers efficiently.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise
 

Sample Customers

Weta Digital
HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United
Buyer's Guide
Density Optimized Servers
October 2026
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