HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy comparison

The compared HPE ProLiant DL Servers and HPE Synergy solutions aren't in the same category. HPE ProLiant DL Servers is ranked #2 in Rack Servers , with an average rating of 9.3, and holds a 21.5% mindshare in the category. HPE Synergy is ranked #1 in Blade Servers , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 22.5% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of HPE ProLiant DL Servers users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of HPE Synergy users who would recommend it.

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Read 156 HPE ProLiant DL Servers reviews

10,569 Views
8,632 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Read 90 HPE Synergy reviews

2,798 Views
1,995 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

HPE Synergy

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 23, 2025

HPE ProLiant DL Servers and HPE Synergy compete in the server and infrastructure management space. HPE Synergy has the upper hand due to its advanced composability and flexibility, allowing it to adapt dynamically to changing workloads.

Features:HPE ProLiant DL Servers are renowned for reliability, scalability, and performance, featuring Hyper-V, SmartArray, and iLO for management and redundancy. They are recognized for cost efficiency and competitive pricing. HPE Synergy's noteworthy feature is its composability, allowing resource reallocation as needed. It offers centralized management via HPE OneView, simplifying infrastructure management for evolving environments.

Room for Improvement:HPE ProLiant DL Servers could improve in faster boot times, streamlined configurations, and better iLO integration. Users seek enhancements in global support, power efficiency, and licensing processes. HPE Synergy needs better third-party integration, simplified networking configurations, and efficient storage options. Enhancements in manageability and firmware updates are also desired.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:HPE ProLiant DL Servers are praised for straightforward deployment and reliable support, although response times can vary. HPE Synergy emphasizes modularity with management tools like OneView for seamless integration, offering proactive support similar to ProLiant but with room for localized service improvement.

Pricing and ROI:HPE ProLiant DL Servers offer competitive pricing, despite not being the cheapest, with worthwhile value in terms of reliability and low total cost of ownership. HPE Synergy presents higher upfront costs due to its comprehensive features but often justifies this investment through reduced complexity and operational costs in larger environments, delivering good ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Rack Servers Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rack Servers

March 2025

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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 ProLiant DL Servers

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

156

Ranking in other categories

Rack Servers (2nd)

HPE Synergy

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Blade Servers (1st), Composable Infrastructure (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are IT Hardware and Infrastructure solutions, they serve different purposes. HPE ProLiant DL Servers is designed for Rack Servers and holds a mindshare of 21.5%, down 21.9% compared to last year.
HPE Synergy, on the other hand, focuses on Blade Servers, holds 22.5% mindshare, up 22.0% since last year.

Rack Servers

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

SHIVAKUMAR A P

Country Manager - Emerging Business at Orbit Techsol

With an easy setup phase in place, it is suitable for small and large-sized businesses

When you speak of any enhancements in the product, you need to shift to the tool's commercial mode. You get more features in the solution if you pour in more money. If a customer needs some features in the solution, they will have to buy it since certain features are not loaded by default in the server. With entry-level licenses, servers are shipped to customers free of cost. Customers need to pay if they want more and more features in the solution. Every OEM solution in the market, including HPE ProLiant DL, operates similarly. The overall cost of the product needs to be lower, as it is one of the areas of concern in the product.

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CarlosArdila

Project Manager, Information Technology at Telelago

Helps grow horizontally or vertically within one box or chassis

The initial setup is very easy. We deployed this in two days, including installation, system setup, firmware upgrades, configuration, and network connection. By the next day, we were already deploying virtual machines. We initially began with the Blade system. As the migration to SAP HANA approached, it seemed prudent to upgrade our hardware. Consequently, we facilitated their transition from the Blade system to Synergy. Subsequently, we collaborated closely with the SAP consultancy company to oversee the migration process, ensuring seamless integration of all workloads and sub-environments. We have four people working on the deployment, including a project manager, two specialists, and one tech support.

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

"It is a stable solution."

"One of the most valuable features is iLO, which is very good. Another thing is the HPE support is very good."

"iLO, in particular, helps us manage the servers better, especially as a lot of them are remote from where the IT staff are. We have some locations where we just have not got IT presence at those locations, so iLO really helps with that."

"The hardware is reliable."

"HP ProLiant servers provide redundant solutions for almost everything. You can set up multiple power supplies, with a primary power source and a secondary power supply connected on UPS. If the power goes out in the building, the UPS will supply power to the host at all times. The solution can run on batteries for many hours, depending on your battery and UPS capacity."

"The solution is stable."

"The most valuable features are the value and the scalability."

"Our monitoring tool has a database, so we need a server with a fast IO."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pros

"It has had a positive effect on the efficiency of our IT infrastructure team. The manageability of it is so easy, we're able to install it quickly, and replacement parts are easy to get in and out quickly."

"The most valuable features are the evolution of our existing HPE portfolio, the integration with our existing tool sets, and the enhanced capabilities that OneView bring."

"Technical support is excellent. They are very helpful."

"It gives us ease of use. It's nice because we don't have to mess with networking once it's set up. Once it's done, we just put another blade in and go from there. We don't have to go back in, run more cables, deal with more data center stuff. We stick a blade in, use the server profile template, build out a server profile from that, and it just goes."

"For me, this is the best frame server technology available in the market. We can compare it to Cisco UCS. It is robust and stable, and it is also easy to deploy and scale. Their support is the best."

"We bought it with the intent to replace the c7000 workstation blades. It is bigger than the workstation blades in core count, memory, and graphical capabilities. So, it has broadened us in that regard, and we have more capabilities."

"The initial setup is fine."

"Orchestrating automations is great because you can connect to other tools with the REST API and automate components."

More HPE Synergy pros

Cons

"Not all of the hardware is completely up-to-date."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive to be more competitive."

"I would like to replace a hard drive that might be saved on the fly, on the server that I'm using currently, but I can't do that. I'm forced to power off my virtual machine, turn off the server, disconnect it from the power, replace the drive, rebuild the storage, and power it on again."

"The scalability of Gen8 models should be improved. They can also improve its price."

"They should continue to maintain the stability that is there."

"We found that the extensions could be improved and the price could be a little lower."

"HPE ProLiant DL Servers are customizable, but when you first deploy them, you basically have to rebuild configurations on them. This is true for large orders. But for small orders, you will be tied up with previous configurations of some other brand like Dell."

"The support lifecycle for the product for the Telco application should be better."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers cons

"We had an issue during the initial setup with the 40 Gigabyte cards. They weren’t working, so we had to work really closely with HPE support to get them to work."

"Technical support was time consuming and unsatisfactory. The initial product setup was complex, lasing around three weeks to a month."

"The pricing can be improved as it is a costly solution due to sanctions in Iran."

"I would like more storage with this solution, because we still need 3PAR or other storage outside the box for the amount of data that we have."

"In the past, I have had issues with configurations."

"One of the issues that we that we have been having is with the firmware baselining. So, we need to just making sure that we get that working. However, we are in the early stages. It may well be that we just tweak a few things."

"One of the features I want to see, which I will see with OneView 5.0, is to have all the OneView consoles in a single pane of glass. That will make it easy to see everything in one place and not have to log in to multiple consoles."

"One of the things that I would like to see, and could be in their road map, is getting virtual connect to 100 Gig throughput."

More HPE Synergy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I give the price a five out of ten."

"I give the cost a ten out of ten."

"The hardware should be cheaper."

"It is expensive. Its price should be better."

"This product is within our budget."

"The pricing of these servers is fair. It is in the mid-range."

"Proliant DL Servers have a reasonable cost. They are not as expensive as the Cisco servers. Everything is included when you purchase a server. You just have to install and configure it."

"The price of HPE ProLiant DL Servers is reasonable compared to other solutions."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pricing and cost advice

"The hardware licensing cost is reasonable."

"When we made the purchase of the hardware, we added Professional Services to it."

"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."

"The platform that we run Synergy on is all virtualized. Our primary cost is likely VMware."

"Synergy has lowered our total cost of ownership significantly. I would say ballpark around 25 percent, maybe more."

"The solution can be expensive because it requires both hardware and software purchases."

"We do a biannual renewal. I know how much that renewal is, but I don't know how much it breaks down to be just Synergy, since we have our VMware, all of our physical equipment, etc. all rolled up into one renewal, which is a little over $300,000 every two years. However, only a subset of that is the Synergy product."

"We pay about £500 for the solution."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How do Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers compare with HPE ProLiant DL servers?

Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers offer flexibility and efficiency in order to meet mission-critical demands. I like that Lenovo blends outstanding performance, reliability, and manageability. The bi...

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What do you like most about HPE ProLiant DL Servers?

The most valuable feature of the solution is HPE Integrated Lights-Out (iLO)...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE ProLiant DL Servers?

The product is expensive. I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price. On the needs of the customers, the product offers a lot of suppor...

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...

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What do you like most about HPE Synergy?

It is a good product for hypervisors.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?

Pricing in the blade server market is very competitive, with HPE offering a competitive price. Competitor products include Dell's MX series and Cisco's UCS X series.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 47% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 22% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers Competitors

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 22% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Superdome X vs HPE Synergy

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE Synergy

Compared 4% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

April 2025

Download HPE ProLiant DL Servers product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

April 2025

Download HPE Synergy product report

Also Known As

HP ProLiant DL series, HP ProLiant DL

No data available

Overview

HPE ProLiant DL Servers are utilized by organizations for tasks like virtualization, database hosting, and application hosting, deployed both on-premises and in private clouds for diverse needs.

Organizations depend on HPE ProLiant DL Servers for stability, performance, and reliability. They are essential for running active directories, enterprise applications, and handling high-performance computing. These servers are known for their easy setup, scalability, and extensive management capabilities like iLO. Offering compatibility with many components and energy efficiency, they provide reliable hardware and good performance under demanding conditions. However, there is a need for improved price, stability, scalability, airflow, and power consumption. Enhancements in controller cache, port sizes, SAN connectivity, support availability, and management interface are also required. Faster technical support, better documentation, simplified configurations, and enhanced monitoring features and security integration would benefit users.

What are the key features?

Easy Setup: Quick and straightforward deployment.
Scalability: Adaptable to growing business needs.
Extensive Management: Features like iLO for advanced control.
Energy Efficiency: Optimized for lower power consumption.
Compatibility: Works well with various components.
Reliable Hardware: Robust and dependable technology.
Redundancy: Ensures high availability and minimal downtime.

What are the benefits and ROI?

High Performance: Excellent for demanding computing tasks.
User-Friendly: Easy to maintain and operate.
Flexibility: Versatile for different applications.
Good Technical Support: Access to professional assistance.

HPE ProLiant DL Servers are implemented across industries like finance for active directories and payment solutions, education for virtual desktops, healthcare for database synchronization, and IT firms for high-performance computing and application hosting.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

HPE Synergy, the first platform built from the ground up for Composable Infrastructure, offers an experience that empowers IT to create and deliver new value instantly and continuously. It is a single infrastructure that reduces operational complexity for traditional workloads and increases operational velocity for the new breed of applications and services. Through a single interface, HPE Synergy composes physical and virtual compute, storage, and fabric pools into any configuration for any application. As an extensible platform, it easily enables a broad range of applications and operational models such as virtualization, hybrid cloud, and DevOps. With HPE Synergy, IT can become not just the internal service provider but the business partner to rapidly launch new applications that become the business.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

AmeriPride Services, iSource, Bolagsverket, BlueShore Financial, British Columbia Assessment Authority, National Stock Exchange, Cardlytics

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

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