Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

We mainly use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for virtualization and for Windows-based file servers and domain controllers.

By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we mainly wanted to achieve good support from the manufacturer.

The department that maintains the data center has considerably fewer worries than before.

I cannot assess Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in terms of energy consumption because we have them hosted in a data center, and the consumption does not depend on us. Similarly, I cannot assess Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads because we do not have high-performance environments. Our environment is pretty basic.

In terms of the impact of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers on our organization’s sustainability goals, I am not aware of the company's sustainability goals, but I believe that Dell has a sustainable development policy. At a booth at this convention, they show how they handle the entire issue of recycled packaging and equipment.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have clearly reduced unplanned production downtime, but I cannot exactly say how much.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have not affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business but virtualization did.

The reliability of its hardware and the support they provide are valuable.

At the moment, I do not have an area for improvement. We have a cloud-first strategy, and hardware is starting to become more and more secondary, so we are not betting on it.

My expectations for it are that it will work while we migrate to the cloud, and it will remain as reliable as it is now so that in the future, we continue using it for the uploads that we need to have locally.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for more than ten years.

The stability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is extraordinary.

It depends on what you buy, but in principle, if you work with rack servers, the scaling is horizontal, so you just have to keep adding to it.

We do not have any difficulty in scaling. In the end, virtualization systems allow you to scale very easily. Above all, the software is the one that provides scalability here.

Their support is very good.

Positive

We have used HPE ProLiant and Cisco UCS. We do not only work with Dell. We also work with other manufacturers. The main difference between the server solutions would be the price.

I am a part of the decision-making core team and the approval core team, so I am ultimately the one who opts for one technology or another, one manufacturer or another, as long as the purchasing department finds the price fair.

The installation was very simple in the end. The strategy was to virtualize. Once you are already involved in virtualization, things are very easy.

We have a hybrid cloud. We work mainly with ANALEC, but the entire management part of the cloud migration is carried out from the headquarters in Mexico. We only participate. We do not make any decisions for the cloud strategy. We, of course, need to have visibility over the strategy from Mexico, and we use that when making decisions about the software solutions that run on top of the hardware. In this case, we will bet on VMware instead of IPV.

These servers are located in our main data center. We have some PowerEdge servers left. We opted for FX chassis a few years ago too, and we have some PowerEdge servers left.

In this case, we counted on ANALEC TECHNOLOGY for help, who also has a booth here at the convention.

The return on investment is mainly in terms of availability. Downtime has significantly reduced, which often is a hidden cost or not taken into account. That is a great ROI.

The pricing policies of the manufacturers vary based on the company, but generally, they are quite correct. What happens is that the purchasing departments of companies like ours do a lot for the price, and sometimes, you find yourself forced to work with another manufacturer. We have two main vendors that we work with to have aligned prices, and Dell is one of them.

We did not evaluate other solutions.

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

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

Altamente confiable, buen soporte y reducción significativa del tiempo de inactividad

¿Durante cuánto tiempo utiliza los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge?

He estado usando servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge durante más de diez años.

¿Cuál es su principal caso de uso de esta solución? (Incluya detalles sobre su entorno).

Utilizamos principalmente servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge para virtualización y para servidores de archivos y controladores de dominio basados en Windows.

Al implementar los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge, principalmente queríamos lograr un buen soporte por parte del fabricante.

Comparta cómo los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge han mejorado su infraestructura de TI? Si no fue así, explique por qué.

El departamento que mantiene el centro de datos tiene muchas menos preocupaciones que antes.

No puedo valorar los Servidores Dell PowerEdge Rack en términos de consumo energético porque los tenemos alojados en un centro de datos y el consumo no depende de nosotros. De manera similar, no puedo evaluar los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge para manejar las necesidades cambiantes de las cargas de trabajo de alto rendimiento porque no tenemos entornos de alto rendimiento. Nuestro entorno es bastante básico.

En términos del impacto de los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge en los objetivos de sostenibilidad de nuestra organización, no conozco los objetivos de sostenibilidad de la empresa, pero creo que Dell tiene una política de desarrollo sostenible. En un stand de esta convención muestran cómo manejan todo el tema de los embalajes y equipos reciclados.

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge han reducido claramente el tiempo de inactividad de producción no planificado, pero no puedo decir exactamente cuánto.

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge no han afectado la flexibilidad general de nuestras operaciones o negocios, pero la virtualización sí.

¿Qué características le han parecido más valiosas y por qué?

La confiabilidad de su hardware y el soporte que brindan son valiosos.

¿En qué áreas se podrían mejorar los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge?

Por el momento no tenemos ningún área de mejora. Tenemos una estrategia que da prioridad a la nube y el hardware empieza a ser cada vez más secundario, por lo que no apostamos por ello.

Mis expectativas son que funcione mientras migramos a la nube y que siga siendo tan confiable como lo es ahora para que en el futuro sigamos usándolo para las cargas que necesitamos tener localmente.

¿Utilizó anteriormente una solución diferente? De ser así, ¿por qué la cambió?

Hemos utilizado HPE ProLiant y Cisco UCS. No solo trabajamos con Dell. También trabajamos con otros fabricantes. La principal diferencia entre las soluciones de servidor sería el precio.

Antes de elegir, ¿evaluaste otras opciones? ¿De ser asi, cuales?

No evaluamos otras soluciones.

¿Qué aconseja a otros sobre el costo de instalación, el precio y/o la licencia?

Las políticas de precios de los fabricantes varían según la empresa, pero en general son bastante correctas. Lo que pasa es que los departamentos de compras de empresas como la nuestra hacen mucho por el precio y en ocasiones, te ves obligado a trabajar con otro fabricante. Tenemos dos proveedores principales con los que trabajamos para tener precios alineados, y Dell es uno de ellos.

¿Cuáles son sus impresiones sobre la escalabilidad de esta solución?

Depende de lo que compres, pero en principio, si trabajas con servidores en rack, el escalado es horizontal, por lo que sólo tienes que seguir añadiendo.

No tenemos ninguna dificultad para escalar. Al final, los sistemas de virtualización te permiten escalar muy fácilmente. Sobre todo, el software es el que proporciona escalabilidad aquí.

¿Cuáles son sus impresiones sobre la estabilidad de esta solución?

La estabilidad de los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge es extraordinaria.

¿Has visto el ROI (Retorno de la Inversión)? En caso afirmativo, ¿de qué manera (es decir, métricas/puntos de datos)?

El retorno de la inversión se produce principalmente en términos de disponibilidad. El tiempo de inactividad se ha reducido significativamente, lo que a menudo supone un coste oculto o que no se tiene en cuenta. Ese es un gran retorno de la inversión.

¿La configuración inicial fue sencilla o compleja y de qué manera?

Formo parte del equipo central de toma de decisiones y del equipo central de aprobación, por lo que en última instancia soy yo quien decide el uso de una tecnología u otra, un fabricante u otro, claro, siempre teniendo en mente que el departamento de compras encuentre justo el precio.

La instalación al final fue muy sencilla. La estrategia fue virtualizar. Una vez que ya estás involucrado en la virtualización, las cosas son muy fáciles.

Tenemos una nube híbrida. Trabajamos principalmente con ANALEC, pero toda la parte de gestión de la migración a la nube se realiza desde la oficina principal en México. Sólo participamos. No tomamos ninguna decisión para la estrategia en la nube. Claro que necesitamos tener visibilidad sobre la estrategia de México y la usamos al tomar decisiones sobre las soluciones de software que se ejecutan sobre el hardware. En este caso optamos por VMware en lugar de IPV.

Estos servidores están ubicados en nuestro centro de datos principal. Nos quedan algunos servidores PowerEdge. También optamos por el chasis FX hace unos años.

¿Lo implementó a través de un equipo de proveedores o uno interno? Si se trata de un equipo de proveedores, ¿cómo calificaría su nivel de experiencia?

En este caso contamos con la ayuda de ANALEC TECHNOLOGY, quien también tiene un stand aquí en la convención.

Cuéntanos tu experiencia con el servicio y soporte al cliente.

Su soporte es muy bueno.

¿Cómo calificaría esta solución en una escala del 1 al 10 en cuanto a servicio y soporte?

9

En una escala del 1 al 10 (1=peor, 10=mejor), ¿cómo calificaría los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge? Por favor explique por qué.

Calificaría los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge con un nueve de diez.

I use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in my company, mostly for virtualization and also for some applications running directly on physical machines.

The solution's lifecycle management with iDRAC works really well, and it is a valuable feature because it helps with maintenance and keeping track of what we have in our company.

The product offers a bit of a larger landscape to manage the entire environment. There is a feature that allows you to see the power distribution the rack servers in your environment use. 

The product has some other features that were really beneficial for my company and made it easier for us to work with the systems, as it became easier to expand and fix them online.

We wanted to have two storage cards during the onboarding process of the solution, which were available only on the more expensive version of the boxes that we usually use for work in our company. It would have been easier for my company to deal with the product if the two storage cards provided during the solution's onboarding process of the expensive versions of the solution were available for the slightly simpler versions of the tool.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for six years.

In our company, we have had some really good results with the product's hardware, but we also had a couple of sets of hardware be bought that had a lot of memory errors, so we needed to have a lot of DIMM hardware replaced. In my company, we had really stable sets of hardware and not-so-stable ones as well.

The range of systems under Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is large enough to have both small enough systems and large enough systems, so the product's scalability is fine.

It is not me but mostly my colleagues who have contacted the solution's technical support. From what I know, I can say that the solution's technical support works really well, so it's okay. In our company, we can schedule a replacement part very quickly with the help of the solution's technical support. 

I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

In my company, we had experienced too many hardware failures with our previous solution supplier, HPE.

My company's tools for deployment had to be modified to take care of the product's deployment phase. The product's deployment phase was not super complicated, but it did take my company a couple of weeks to build it up and to make it work, which was not too bad. The aforementioned process would have been the same for every other company as well, so it was okay, in my opinion, since it was not worse than the processes of some other tools.

I don't know about the product's licensing part. Price-wise, it is an okay product. I believe that the cheaper the better, but I think that the product's price is okay.

As a part of my company's evaluation process, we considered Supermicro against Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. Compared to Supermicro, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are a bit cheaper, but the product's con stems from the fact that we had to do too many things in our company to make it work. The amount of effort to maintain all of it and to build or maintain it all was too much. Though the product was a little bit more expensive than Supermicro, its management features were way more extensive, which made a difference for us in our company.

In my company, we were trying to resolve some particular issues through the implementation of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, as we had experienced too many hardware failures with our previous solution supplier, HPE.

PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture's approach to security, including the silicon-based root of trust, signed firmware updates, and user access security, works well, but my company doesn't have many sales-related areas to report.

The assessment of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for energy consumption in my company is not much of a big deal for us. In our company, we saw that the energy consumption of the product depends on which role of the machines it is concerned with, especially when it came to the more mission-critical servers which we used to use in high-performance mode, causing them to use more power because it helped make our company quicker which in turn helped with the generation of higher revenue for us. Power consumption was not much of an issue like a couple of years ago, meaning it has changed a bit. Our company has B Corp certification, causing us to look towards areas like the product's energy consumption since it is much more important now than it used to be in the past.

In terms of the concept of power or energy consumption of the product, I can say that it fits and helps meet my company's requirements because of the different power profiles we can deploy.

In my company, we don't use OpenManage Enterprise.

The overall flexibility of our organization's operations with the use of PowerEdge Rack Servers has been okay, as we usually use virtualization software on top of the product, giving us big-sized machines.

There are a lot of options that one can opt for when using the solution. I like how my company talks with people inside Dell to help us with what we need or figure out how to do something. If you look at the product from a broader perspective, it works really well as a large package.

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.

We are local governments, and we use the solution for computing power and view. We use the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our ESX cluster, SQL servers, domain controllers, virtual center servers, and backup environment.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are easy to manage and install, and it gives us a lot of time to do other things. We hang it in a rack, install software on it, and it is automatically deployed for the environment.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could improve the bezels in front of it. Because they always change the bezels, it's strange when you come with the customer into your cell room and see ten different bezels hanging.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 25 to 30 years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is a pretty stable solution. When there's something wrong with the hardware or hard drives, it can be changed in a running system.

The solution's technical support is good. I call the technical support team when I have a question or problem, and it's always fixed within 30 to 60 minutes. The technical support team resolves our issues on the phone, or the next day, an engineer would come with spare parts to fix the issue.

I rate the solution’s technical support eight and a half out of ten.

Positive

We previously used HPE Compaq Server.

After surveying what was better for us, we came to Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and stayed with it because it was good. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers' price is better than HPE Compaq Server, and it's easy to rack mount. You don't need equipment to hang it on a rack. With other equipment, you need a screwdriver and a bolt. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are easy to hang and get out of the systems.

The solution's initial setup is a bit complex because we have a fiber environment and a network environment, which we always have to configure. The fiber environment takes a lot of time. The network environment takes some time, wherein you install the OS and deploy your configuration file on it. The implementation is pretty fast and takes five to ten minutes. Then, you do all the configuring around it because you want to connect it to your power store.

In our environment, it takes between 30 and 60 minutes to get the solution out of the box into a running system.

The solution's power consumption has improved a lot. We always have two power supplies on it. When there's a power outage, and one doesn't work, we have the other spare one. The power consumption is always balanced over two. So, power consumption has gone from high to medium and is even lower now. We are not using the spinning disk anymore.

The solution's ability to handle the evolving needs of high-performance workloads is good. We have a couple of power racks exclusively used for SQL storage. Since the SQL databases are running on them, they need performance, and they perform perfectly.

The solution has helped reduce our unplanned production downtime, but that is because we are also using VMware. So, you can do downtime during the daytime and plan it. Our hardware doesn't power off once a year.

We check every month for OpenManage updates. We check the OpenManage appliance, get a catalog, look at it to see if there is new hardware or firmware, and always deploy them every month. So we are always on top of the new updates.

Overall, I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten.

I run network function workloads on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has some power-saving options and employs various green IT concepts. PowerEdge servers consume a normal amount of energy. Like any system, it requires significant energy, but the thermal design limits power consumption. Depending on the type of CPU or hardware you add, it will draw the necessary amount of energy. 

They have implemented small measures to reduce planned downtime. You can schedule upgrades and do other things to limit the total downtime, but it isn't significant compared to other solutions. 

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.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are competitive, but there is room for energy efficiency improvement considering the thermal design and power consumption. The OpenManage Console offers smart features, but its impact is not significantly better than competitors.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for approximately two and a half years.

I haven't experienced any failures with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, so I find the stability to be good.

The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is good as well.

I rate Dell support 10 out of 10. Dell support is excellent. They are proactive and maintain regular contact to ensure successful deployments.

Positive

The initial setup was conducted in-house and was smooth. The deployment and ongoing management of the servers are satisfactory.

The implementation was done internally, without external help.

The biggest ROI comes from transitioning to commodity hardware and removing legacy hardware. This includes adopting generic x86 hardware offered by different vendors.

Before using Dell, we evaluated multiple vendors. Dell was selected because they fulfilled all the requirements during an RFP process.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers 10 out of 10. The system doesn't perform better or worse than competitors, but it performs exactly as expected. I'm getting what I purchased.

The primary use case involves running virtualization workloads mostly. Additionally, we have high-performance workloads and have built a dedicated solution for them using PowerEdge Servers.

The PowerEdge Servers have helped reduce unplanned production downtime by approximately ten percent. The use of the app OpenManage Console has made tasks easier, allowing IT staff to focus on other responsibilities, thus positively impacting overall flexibility and business operations.

The ease of management and automation possibilities are the most valuable features offered by Dell PowerEdge Servers.

One issue is the limited CPU options on the servers compared to the vendor, Intel. Dell offers fewer CPU options than available, which is a bit limiting and could be improved.

I have been using Dell rack servers for four years.

Overall, the servers are reliable, although we have experienced some issues. However, they have been mostly reliable, and we have not considered switching.

It was quite easy to scale our Dell infrastructure as our needs grew, improving our operations positively.

I haven't had much contact with Dell customer support, but I would rate their professional support probably an eight.

Positive

Previously, we evaluated HP servers. We chose Dell PowerEdge Servers due to their ease of management.

The initial setup was very good. We have automated almost everything, right from installation to management.

We did not use Dell Deployment Services for deployment and did it in-house.

The biggest return on investment comes from the ease of management and automation possibilities.

Before choosing Dell PowerEdge Servers, we evaluated HP servers.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for running SQL and Oracle DB.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is a user-friendly solution that provides performance stability. The solution's processor and management-related things are very easy to manage. The other valuable feature of the solution is the disk mirroring and RAID 5.

It's flexible to include additional memories in the solution. It's a hot-pluggable thing where we can remove and add something without switching up the whole system.

Currently, the solution does not have the in-process memory encryption technology. All Intel and AMD processors are now integrating with their CPUs. Dell can add that to the processor so that whenever it does any processing, it will just encrypt those into the memory. That is a new technology most cloud providers are following through with right now.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for six to seven years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is a scalable solution.

We previously used some of the IBM Power Series to host Linux-based operating systems. We also use NetApp storage.

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

We have seen a monetary return on investment with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are better suited for database applications, and they support a lot of applications.

The solution's Cyber Resilient Architecture approach to security has good features like file integration and monitoring. Since a lot of ransomware and cybersecurity attacks happen nowadays, the data should be encrypted end to end. That will give more security to the customer or whoever is using it.

The solution is more suited for database applications. It gives more efficiency in processing CPUs and gives constant improvements in performance.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has reduced our unplanned production downtime by 5% to 10%. We have annual maintenance, where we easily do a lot of software and firmware upgrades.

Overall, I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a seven out of ten.

I work at a university in a research environment. We use PowerEdge powered by Intel servers to run geophysics simulations that stay in the system for a long time. The servers are used to image and process massive data sets. We develop code that requires a moderate amount of power, so that's why we use the racks. 

We currently have between five to ten units, but some of them are down. It's mostly graduate students and a few faculty using them, and we primarily run Linux. The built-in security features aren't really an issue because everything is behind the university's firewalls. We don't have to worry about it because they have a dedicated IT security department. We can dial in from the outside, and we have all kinds of VPN solutions.

The university provides us with batteries and power supplies. They often run for more than a year without any failures, so power isn't a problem. 

We are working with Intel's Xeon scalable processor, but I'm not sure which models we are using. We typically buy the most advanced processor available when we purchase the racks. 

At this time, we have no plans to switch to cloud servers because it's not as comfortable as having an on-premises rack. Also, there are some security restrictions associated with some of our applications, so we can't transfer the data to the cloud. We work with a lot of data, so we prefer local resources because of the security and the speed. 

It does the job for us. We know it's not a high-end product, but it's good enough. We are looking at getting another box. The next series should be 940. The step is not as big as we expected after having the 930 for several years now. We're thinking about getting another one from Dell, but I'm waiting to see what will be available. We are looking for a 4U rack, fully loaded with CPUs and disks. And we have a disk farm outside that we connect to the server, so we can store a lot of data locally. 

We've had no problems with high-performance workloads on our Dell racks. We use the standard software like Intel compilers plus our in-house code, OpenMP, Pilot Processing, and MPI. Intel's Xeon processors improve the performance of our targeted workloads, which is crucial for us. 

We buy the strongest CPUs and run the Intel compiler. We usually run heavy code, so we're working on traditional software languages like Fortran and C. These are heavy applications that run on this cluster.

We started working on Dell servers more than a decade ago. I think it was the 910 version, and its main advantage was the ability to load a lot of in-core memory into the box. It's irrelevant today because everybody can provide as much as they want, but we had memory issues in the beginning. 

We were running out of memory, and that was the first time we heard of a solution that supports a terabyte of core memory. That was the primary reason we got the first box. We've stayed with it since then because we have so many Dell workstations.

Dell servers are easy to use. We've never had a problem. We do more hardware work with workstations, including adding and replacing cards. It's easy compared to what we used to do with screwdrivers years ago. 

Capacity and performance can always be improved. 

I have been using Dell servers for nearly 15 years. 

PowerEdge servers powered by Intel are highly stable. Some of them have stayed on for two years without ever rebooting. Usually, they only reboot for maintenance or something happening in the building, but it is not due to a failure of the machine. Stability is essential because we have jobs that sit on the system for a couple of days.

I haven't used Dell's technical support much. Usually, when I have a problem, we search online for a solution. Sometimes we use the Dell knowledge base or community groups, but we rarely need to contact someone.

Deploying the PowerEdge Rack Servers wasn't a problem. We just plug it into the rack with help from the university computer center. They let us know where to put it and connect it to the required network.

We take care of all the software, like the operating system, permissions, local security, data access, etc. This is all Linux-based, and we have experience, so it's straightforward. For maintenance, we use Dell's OpenManage console a little to tweak the configuration for performance, but we generally set up the system and let it go. We only update the operating system once a year and upgrade the environment.

The price is reasonable. You have to pay if you want quality. When we purchase something, we have to do some market analysis, and I haven't seen a significant difference compared to other solutions.

I'm used to Dell equipment, and the local network is mainly based on Dell workstations connected to the servers. The other servers are usually IBM and HP. I haven't seen any major difference that would justify switching to other vendors.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of ten. 

We mostly use them for managing our testing environment. They manage a different brand of blade servers, not Dell, but the Rack Servers powered by Intel are monitoring and managing the queues that run the tests. Developers are submitting tests to the system 24 hours a day, and nodes on the blade servers run the tests. Our PowerEdge servers manage the test queues.

The management portal is essential because it gives you a lot of flexibility. You don't have to be at the location to manage the server. You can power it on and off remotely or start an installation remotely. All you need to do is connect it to the network and you can do things from thousands of miles away. That is essential when working with data centers. You don't want to be there but you want to have full control remotely.

Another valuable feature is that it's a Dell and that means it's a reliable product.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for the last 10 years.

It has performed the way that we expected it to with no technical problems. I don't recall any problems with the server itself that required us to call support or get replacement parts. It does what we expect it to do.

It's stable. It's working 24/7, 365. We don't ever stop it. We have two offices in Israel, and each has two PowerEdge Rack Servers. They're monitoring our testing environment and that environment is running 24 hours a day, so the servers are very heavily utilized.

We usually keep them for four years or stretch them to five years with a warranty extension. We wreck them and have never had to deal with any problems. The PowerEdge servers we have are the third generation that we purchased for this specific role. I'm assuming the integration team that requested these models specifically is satisfied with the outcome.

We got them in a configuration that hasn't required us to make any changes in terms of scalability.

Dell's support works. Here in Israel, Dell works with a third party that handles the contact with the customer. I don't recall if that third party handles servers, but in general, a lot of improvement is required there.

We are a corporate environment. When I call Dell support and give them my credentials or customer number, I expect the guy on the other side to understand who he is talking with. He should immediately see that I have at least 500 laptops, desktops, and more than 1,000 Dell monitors. I'm not just a private customer calling from home. I expect the service to work accordingly. 

Don't ask me, "Did you reboot the machine?" or "Did you update?" We only call Dell support when we cannot solve the problems ourselves. By the time we call, we have done all the testing and all the updating. We have done everything on our side and that's when we need professional, technical support. But when we call them here in Israel, we get what seems like very consumer-oriented customer support. There is a lot of room for improvement in this area.

Neutral

We had HP ProLiant in the past, but we haven't used them for quite a while. Our entire organization is using Dell for end-user machines, laptops, workstations, and desktops. The PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel deliver what we need. It's easier to work with the same vendor and have a unified environment.

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. You have to slide them exactly into the rails. It's a little bit challenging, but not serious.

From unboxing it to preparing the rack and sliding the server into it, connecting everything, and powering it up, it takes about 30 minutes or so.

Integrating it into a particular environment is very simple. We set up an IP, connect it, and install a server operating system. It's a very rapid process. Within about an hour, it is up and running in the environment.

In terms of handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, you get your money's worth. When you buy something, you need it to perform and deliver and these servers do that. It's a very good product.

PowerEdge pricing is equivalent to that of all the others in the market. We always try to get a better price, but I don't see any problem with the pricing and licensing of Dell's servers. It's not the case, when I compare them to other vendors, that they are extremely more expensive or that the licensing is much more complex.

We looked at HP and Supermicro. We went with Dell, in part, because we are a Dell shop, but price was one of the most critical aspects. We also looked at what we needed to gain from the server. When we connected all these factors, we decided that Dell was the best solution for us.

Before you approach procurement, you should know exactly what you are looking to get out of the product. If you're looking for a reliable vendor and performance, have all your information ready first. Then check the pricing and make sure that you have the budget. It's not like buying a PC for your home. It's a professional server and it costs. You'd better have all the information beforehand, and then you can evaluate whether the purchase of a PowerEdge is suitable for your requirements.

We don't use Dell's OpenManage console. When we need to make changes that don't directly apply to the operating system but to the server itself, we only go into the iDRAC management interface and do it from there on.