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 8.5, and holds a 20.5% mindshare in the category. HPE Synergy is ranked #1 in Blade Servers , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 21.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of HPE ProLiant DL Servers users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of HPE Synergy users who would recommend it.

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Read 156 HPE ProLiant DL Servers reviews

12,422 Views
10,256 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Read 88 HPE Synergy reviews

3,569 Views
2,572 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

HPE Synergy

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 15, 2024

HPE ProLiant DL Servers and HPE Synergy compete in the server market, focusing on different strengths. HPE Synergy is favored for its advanced features and scalability, whereas HPE ProLiant DL Servers are notable for their cost-effectiveness and strong support.

Features: HPE ProLiant DL Servers are known for their reliability, performance, and extensive configuration options. HPE Synergy provides superior scalability, composability, and integration within hybrid IT environments.

Room for Improvement: HPE ProLiant DL Servers could benefit from better management tools and improved firmware updates. HPE Synergy's steep learning curve and complex initial setup are areas that need attention.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE ProLiant DL Servers feature a straightforward deployment process and strong customer service. HPE Synergy's deployment can be complex, but it offers high configurability and flexibility. Synergy's customer service is also rated positively but considered more specialized.

Pricing and ROI: HPE ProLiant DL Servers are recognized for reasonable setup costs and favorable ROI, making them attractive for budget-conscious buyers. HPE Synergy, with higher initial costs, is valued for long-term ROI due to its scalability and innovative approach.

To learn more, read our detailed Rack Servers Report (Updated: November 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Rack Servers

November 2024

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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

7.2

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 20.5%, down 22.2% compared to last year.
HPE Synergy, on the other hand, focuses on Blade Servers, holds 21.3% mindshare, down 22.5% since last year.

Rack Servers

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

Ricardo Elorza

Expert IT Solution Architect at Nestle

Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable

I give the solution an eight out of ten. We have been having issues with HPE's road maps, which tend to be very aggressive. For example, if we have a server and then HPE announces and releases the NexGen, the previous server only has one more gear before the end of use. This can be problematic for clusters that are configured to only have the same model, as after a year we would have to do diagnostics or buy a new cluster. This is something we do not like about HPE, although other vendors may also be aggressive, HPE is really bad. It is important for new users to keep this in mind.

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Petr Student

Senior Technical Architect at Tietoevry

The composable infrastructure allows you to build and stack shared capacity

The hardware is fine but OneView needs additional event management and filtering options. Documentation could better describe the solution's configuration possibilities. Sometimes there are firmware or software difficulties when connecting between networks or with storage. The solution is a hardware that is defined by its software so management issues can occur on servers or within the software running the hardware. For example, an electric car depends on its software. If the software is bad, then you can expect issues and problems that might not allow you to start the car. A technician might have uploaded the wrong code into firmware or a software developer might have make code mistakes and these things cause issues. The solution can only be as reliable as the software used to run it.

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

"We have had our system working for between two and three years with no downtime."

"ProLiant is highly stable. We've had very few problems with the servers. We only once had an issue with the hard disk in an HPE server."

"The product is scalable and stable."

"I am impressed with the tool’s stability."

"What I like most about HPE ProLiant DL Servers is that it gives the support and hardware availability that my company requires."

"HPE ProLiant DL Servers have good performance and they support different types of applications."

"The solution is stable."

"Support is the most valuable feature of the solution."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pros

"It is helping us sort of bridge a gap that we are having moving off of old legacy systems, like HP-UX systems and trying to move over to x86. So, it is helping fill a hardware gap that a lot of our platforms have needed in the past."

"Everything is combined in one chassis, you have storage, compute, networking. So you save a lot of space in the datacenter."

"We have been able to give the deployment team what they request more quickly. We are able to quickly deploy what is being asked of us. If the development team needs a platform of 20 servers to run a particular platform, we can give that to them within a day or two."

"Give us the ability to seamlessly migrate from one operating environment to another within minutes, which is invaluable."

"The wireless mounting system is excellent. We can use the monitor over the Internet and perform troubleshooting remotely with the connection to SQL. It includes a comprehensive monitoring tool. It offers many features, allowing us to update, manage, maintain, and troubleshoot the system efficiently."

"Great data storage and very good for software defined solutions."

"The solution's greatest strengths lie in its ability to maintain a high availability and combine networking with hyper channel connectivity into a single component."

"Valuable features include its dependability, reliability, and the ease of managing the system."

More HPE Synergy pros

Cons

"The solution could improve by providing more best practices from an architectural point of view. What are some recommended configurations for use, such as in a VM environment? HP provides some best practices but they are based on VMware, not on Red Hat. It would benefit for others to see the different use cases. How the HPE ProLiant DL Servers were used in the context of Red hat virtualization, and some configurations as an example to allow us to identify some points that we can improve in our platform. We could make our system more reliable and scalable."

"Its management console could be better."

"The implementation should be simplified, it is not straightforward."

"Sometimes, there are connectivity issues and the server is not able to connect to our SAN."

"We have had issues with ProLiant's intelligent provisioning. Sometimes, the drivers do not come up, so we have to install them manually."

"The cost of the solution is high and has room for improvement."

"On the software side, I would like for the management of the server overall (including reviewing its health) to be a bit easier. Right now, we have something that sits on the server to make sure all hardware drivers and other thing are up to date. This is a pain to set up."

"They can increase the controller cache. Currently, it has a controller cache of up to 4 GB. The RAID controller card comes with a maximum of 4 GB cache in HPE servers, whereas it comes with a maximum of 8 GB cache in Dell servers. They can also improve the port size. HP provides a 25 GB port on the server, whereas both Dell and Cisco provide a 100 GB port."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers cons

"I would like the ability to have my storage components accessed from any other frame across the backplane. If we have a storage module and we run out of space in that frame, it'd be nice to be able to share it across the frames. You can do it with hyperconverged. Why can't you do it with Synergy?"

"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."

"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."

"There is always room for improvement. Based on our use cases, I don't believe there are any additional features required."

"It has been in the external integrations to other platforms that we have, which aren't HPE, where some of our challenges have been. I would like to see some integrations with non-HPE platforms."

"The performance could be better. The converged network cards initially didn't work. However, later on in the newer version, they came up with 50 GB network cards to replace the 20 GB ones, and it's perfectly fine now. At times, it could also be more stable."

"A big thing for me is moving InfoSight for ProLiant into OneView, or at least connecting it. Today we have to use the iLO Amplifier Pack and that would require us to reconfigure iLO on every single one of the servers, independently, to get that data into InfoSight. We're really looking for a single control and management plane."

"I would like to see more nodes in a single chassis so we wouldn't have to purchase additional chassis."

More HPE Synergy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"HPE ProLiant DL Servers are one of the best-selling solutions in this industry. There is not a license required for this solution."

"The solution is expensive."

"This was a one-time purchase for us because it's hardware that we purchased from HPE. There aren't any licensing costs."

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"An investment in DL380 is worth it."

"The iLO (integrated lights out) license is very expensive, but the functionality you receive is worth it."

"The price of HPE ProLiant DL Servers is reasonable, but because of covid and other factors, the price could be reduced. The license is paid annually."

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

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pricing and cost advice

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

"We bought everything outright to start with. We don't do much consumption-based stuff."

"The cost is high and that is a drawback for some customers."

"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."

"There is a perpetual license given when you purchase HPE Synergy."

"For me, the scalability is how much money that I need to spend on switches for how many frames, which ultimately means servers. To get the best bandwidth before the most recent product announcement, I have buy new switches every three frames. The competition is shipping a product right now where I only need switches every ten frames."

"There was at least about a 20 percent savings in cost over our purchase based on the purchase price of the compute modules themselves versus what we've had to pay before. It was significantly less."

"We have already paid once. It is just the price for the permit and its use. It seems you don't have to keep paying for it, but I am not sure."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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...

See all answers

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?

Synergy is more expensive than Cisco.

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 24% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 7% of the time

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

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers Competitors

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 24% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy

Compared 22% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 9% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE Synergy

Compared 6% of the time

HPE Superdome X vs HPE Synergy

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

November 2024

Download HPE ProLiant DL Servers product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

November 2024

Download HPE Synergy product report

Also Known As

HP ProLiant DL series, HP ProLiant DL

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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.

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.

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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