Dell PowerEdge M Reviews

We primarily use Dell PowerEdge M for server purposes in solar power plants. The server is utilized as a simple data logger and for SCADA. Our use cases are primarily focused on solar power service for the solar power plant, which involves simple data logging and does not require heavy or complex calculations.

Our company operates in the energy sector and the Dell PowerEdge M serves our needs effectively. The equipment allows us to support SCADA and servers required by our customers. We do not delve much into the intricate configuration and parts specification. We ensure the equipment meets the operational requirements set by our clients.

The server is more common for the mass market and although it is nothing special, what stands out is the good after-sales service provided.

We work primarily with power plants such as thermal, solar, and wind power plants. There is no specific feedback on improvements directly from our usage. If areas need improvement, we would address them with our integrator. 

I have been dealing with Dell PowerEdge for five years.

I cannot say specifically about the stability as it is not my area of concern.

I don't know about the scalability.

I rate their customer service at nine out of ten since our requests have been attended to in a timely manner.

Positive

My customers prefer Dell, and for us, Dell has provided all the support we need. I cannot say about switching from another solution as Dell remains our preferred choice.

We have not specifically gotten into the initial setup details. It might be straightforward for the end-users, however, I do not directly deal with it.

We contact the integrator to handle the parts related to the implementation and maintenance.

I do not have any specific return on investment information regarding Dell's impact on our company.

The pricing is okay for us. For us, the confidence in Dell's equipment is higher than HP. HP is cheaper, however, our preference for Dell comes from its reliability and support.

I recommend Dell PowerEdge M. Over the past five to six years that I have worked with PowerEdge, I have had no complaints from my customers.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We use Dell PowerEdge M for data center consolidation. If a customer requests, we position the blade server to save the cabling or electricity.

The solution's most valuable features are centralized monitoring and management and the ease of upgrading firmware. Dell PowerEdge M has enhanced our virtualization and containerization.

Cisco UCS X-series provides a GPU node and compute node in a single chassis. Dell PowerEdge M lacks GPU nodes and doesn't have a direct solution for GPUs.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge M for three years.

Dell PowerEdge M is a stable solution. Once it's installed, the solution operates without any maintenance.

Our clients for Dell PowerEdge M are medium and enterprise businesses.

The solution provides very good technical support.

Positive

Cisco is better than Dell PowerEdge M.

The initial setup of the solution is not straightforward but a little complex. By default, if the switching comes with 100G or 40G, then we need to split it to 10G or 25G as per the requirement. All these configurations are complex in Dell PowerEdge M as compared to Cisco.

In Cisco, we have a GUI or something called Intersight, which allows us to graphically select the ports and deploy them to the corresponding speed. We lack those interfaces in Dell and need to do it in the command line.

One architect and an engineer can install and configure the solution in two to three days.

The solution's pricing is slightly higher. However, we don't require an additional license for it. The solution's pricing depends on the customer's connectivity requirements, whether 10G, 25G, or 100 G.

The solution is scalable, and you can add multiple chassis. You don't need to worry about the physical cabling or the number of switchboards. It can be easily scaled based on the requirement. When we calculate other factors like power and cooling, we'll get savings by the end of the third or fourth year. One person can easily maintain the solution. We faced no challenges integrating Dell PowerEdge M into our existing infrastructure.

Dell PowerEdge M should have GPU addition or future scalability. Cisco claims a ten-year life cycle, wherein its product will support new technology like GPU and water cooling for ten years. However, Dell PowerEdge M lacks that part regarding future enhancements and adaptation to new technologies like water cooling.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for web services.

Dell PowerEdge M has a centralized administration for networks; instead of working with standalone servers, you have a centralized administration console. So you can administrate all servers from one location.

The networking features for administration and working with the server are valuable.

There is currently a new generation of Dell Blade Systems, so it requires time to transition to the new generation. However, the current version of the solution we are working with meets our requirements.

We have been using the solution for approximately twelve years and are currently using series 620.

The solution is stable and works on customized sites and virtual classes.

The solution is scalable, and you can scale the resources up and down, which was very important for us in the COVID-19 situation. The servers work to verify, and the resources are raised up and handle all the web applications that are working and installed on it.

Our first contact is our partner Dell, who provides us with customer support directly.

We previously used HPE standalone and Lenovo standalone servers, either rack or tower servers. However, we prefer Dell servers because the pre-installation and preparation process is easy, and the user interface is more friendly for the administrators.

The initial setup was straightforward for our team because we have years of experience and complete documentation in case we face any issues during deployment.

We implemented the solution in-house.

We have seen a return on investment.

The price of the solution is reasonable.

I rate the solution as ten out of ten. The solution is good, and I recommend it to users considering implementing it depending on their business needs, as some businesses require standalone servers and some require central servers.

We are using PowerEdge primarily in our infrastructure. We have an on-premises private cloud and a virtualization layer. We use PowerEdge for automation on the firmware, which provides alerting capabilities whenever there is an issue.

PowerEdge has high functionality, especially for automation on the firmware, which allows us to receive alerts for issues. 

The service and support from Dell have been excellent, typically providing resolution within four hours. Security features were initially a significant attraction, as Dell offered a lot of in-built security. The hardware is stable, which is essential due to the low outage rates.

The caching is a bit weak, which can make the hardware non-responsive, especially on hypervisor layers like ESXi or Hyper-V. Caching is vital for virtualization platforms, which is an area where PowerEdge is a little weaker.

We have been using it for more than five years.

The hardware is very stable. Outages are very rare with Dell products.

Scaling in is good, however, scaling out is where we faced some issues. PowerEdge servers are slightly challenging to scale out.

The support is good. That said, the account management needs to be strengthened.

Positive

I have used Lenovo, Cisco, IBM, and Dell previously. I initially chose Dell for their excellent service and support, many in-built security features, and stable hardware.

The initial setup is very simple and straightforward.

It's priced medium, however, recently the global pricing has increased by twelve percent. It would be beneficial for us if the pricing could be reduced by about eight percent.

We are currently using Dell, however, we need to have more discussions with Lenovo for more insights beyond what online searches offer.

Based on my experience, PowerEdge is suitable for all sizes of companies, especially beneficial for BFSI and enterprise-class companies. 

I rate PowerEdge ten out of ten.

The tool aims to serve as a hypervisor service for hosting virtual machines.

The tool's most valuable features are high availability and scalability. Its integration is easy. 

Dell PowerEdge M is stable. 

As we need to grow our infrastructure, we can add extra host servers, expand the memory, and increase components as necessary.

I haven't contacted the tool's support yet. 

The tool's deployment is easy and takes around two days to complete. 

The return on investment for us comes from its reliability and stability. The tool has been a good investment because they haven't experienced any downtime, and they keep everything running. 

The product is budget-friendly. The initial cost for each server was around 10,000 euros. It's a standard price, not too high or too low.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten. 

There is no significant difference between HPE and Dell Technologies in terms of their use cases. Customers can choose solutions from HPE and Dell that are suitable for their environment. There is not a big difference in use cases for these brands.

Dell offers reliable solutions. When a customer deploys Dell in their environment, they don't usually experience major support requirements or part failures within two to three years, so they don't need much support.

The iDRAC feature is most useful for server management in Dell, comparable to HP iLO. Both Dell and HPE are continuously enhancing their feature sets in new generations. Dell is a reliable solution, and if a customer sets it up in their environment, they will find it dependable without significant support needs.

I do not know if I can comment about the tool itself since I do not have much experience with Dell. I work mostly with HP and only sometimes with Dell. I cannot say where improvement is needed. Dell support should be faster. Dell's technical support sometimes takes time, and there's a support gap issue. HP support is better than Dell's technical support.

I have been working with Dell Technologies for two years.

The stability of Dell PowerEdge is rated at eight. It offers easy setup and is generally considered stable.

Dell's technical support could be improved. HP support is seemingly more reliable and always available for customers.

Neutral

There is more trust in HP solutions as HP's market is bigger in Pakistan compared to that of Dell. HP is perceived as more reliable.

The initial setup is easy. I would rate it 7.5 out of ten.

Customers get a good return on their value of money with Dell PowerEdge. Dell is a reliable solution that does not usually require major support or experience part failures within two to three years.

The cost of Dell is reasonable. Dell is not expensive compared to HP. It is a little cheaper, but customers still prefer HP.

Dell PowerEdge and HP are broadly equivalent in performance. I would recommend choosing Dell PowerEdge if there are cost savings or budget issues, as it is a little cheaper than HP solutions. I rate Dell PowerEdge eight out of ten.

Our primary use cases are mostly for compute and consolidation. If our customer needs to consolidate their existing infrastructure, they are using many applications, software, and databases, and they need a significant number of virtual machines. 

For instance, they might need fifty virtual machines, and they try to consolidate all of this on one chassis, great chassis, and maybe four or five blades to reach good compute and memory performance. This setup allows them to start and explore fifty or sixty machines on the same platform.

We are able to consolidate the infrastructure, which allows us to deploy a large number of virtual machines on a single chassis to enhance performance.

The most valuable aspect of Dell PowerEdge M is the time of consolidation. It allows us to consolidate our infrastructure very efficiently, enabling us to deploy eight servers in a seven-unit density. This setup provides us a unified interface for management, allowing us to manage several rack servers from the same interface. The consolidation provides good compute and memory performance across the board.

One area for improvement is the connectivity, specifically the backplate and switch connections. Currently, for direct-attached connections to storage arrays, we need to install two switches to connect. A more intuitive setup interface could enhance user experience as well.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge M with the first generation and series for about 12 to 13 years.

I rate the stability of the solution very highly, around nine out of ten.

Scalability is straightforward within the same generation or class, yet becomes difficult if the server exceeds three years in age due to software version compatibility issues.

Customer service and support in Tunisia are quite good, and I would rate them nine out of ten.

Positive

We have used other solutions. For example, Lenovo does not have strong support in Tunisia, whereas Health Packard Enterprise provides good technical support but is more expensive.

The initial setup is somewhat complex. A more intuitive and unified setup interface would significantly enhance the initial experience.

Pricing is relatively high. I would rate it as a six. It is somewhat expensive but manageable.

Besides Dell, Health Packard Enterprise and Lenovo are possible evaluations. They each have their own limitations.

Overall, I have a positive experience, and my customers have had good experiences as well. Some of my customers have been using Dell PowerEdge M solutions for fifteen years. 

I would rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

The initial set up was fairly easy. It wasn't difficult compared to other packages. We did the initial set up for Synergy's fibre channel switches before we started but afterwards, we did not have to worry about using the virtualized fibre or anything with them, the storage automatically came with it.

Their features and product overall are comparable to others on the market, nothing stands out. The company should have either been more clear with the packaging, or a little bit more forthcoming with what you needed, what is in the package, and what came with it.

I have been using the solution for a couple of years.

The solution is pretty stable.

The solution integrated well. We were able to still use Synergy, which is our main platform, and usually, as long as you can still use your main platform for upgrades then it is easy to scale. However, if you were to start changing the main hardware out it then becomes more difficult to be able to scale.

The customer service was pretty good.

My career started with using HP servers. The problem aroused when the HP servers became very hot and resource-intensive. We then started using Cisco products, and they were about the same as HP with the issues we were having. Once we moved to Dell products, it all came together, we could use all three. All three had their own separate purpose.

The set up is complex. However, once everything is up and running, it was pretty straightforward. We had a vendor assisting with the initial set up but once we were through those initial problems, finding out the order of how it is supposed to be set up, and finding out the packages needed, you are good to go to use them.

We had to contact a vendor to give us some help with some of the areas of the install.

There are many packages available, it was a benefit using a vendor to help us get a package we needed. If we would not have gone with the vendor we might have been charged unnecessarily for packages we did not need. 

I would recommend using engineers to help make the design for the setup of the solution. This will allow for a clear view of what is needed for your environment, they can identify issues and know exactly what packages are needed before purchasing. 

I rate Dell PowerEdge M a seven out of ten.