Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

We made a renovation of our infrastructure, and the problem we're solving is our performance and it is collectivity in our infrastructure too.

We have a full-scale infrastructure for six countries and are able to centralize it. With this kind of product, we are solving a lot of problems, or issues that we had before with regards to performance. The centralization of the platform for the company helped immensely.

The go-to-market implementation was pretty fast. The go-to-market speed for us was pretty important at the time we had to implement that infrastructure. 

In terms of the performance of the servers, I'm already pretty comfortable with that.

When it comes to PowerEdge rack servers handling the evolving needs of workloads, I have support from Dell partners. They constantly assess improvements for us and other versions of items on products. I keep up to date with it via my partners.

We use Dell's Optane to obtain memory in the PowerEdge environment. It helped save money in that aspect, as far as adding memory capacity. We used to negotiate these kinds of platforms and renewal with our partners on a full scale. We have a lot of cost-saving with this infrastructure.

PowerEdge helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. We have an IT continuity plan that is actually based on the infrastructure we already have implemented with Dell.

They could improve the time between new versions of the product. They could move faster, or maybe offer a little bit more support from the partners.

We've been using the solution for four years.

We have 6,500 people across six countries using the platform.

We have good support from Dell and good support from our partners. That said, sometimes it takes a pretty long time to get an answer from Dell. However, we get pretty good support from those folks.

Positive

We had used HP solutions and others as well. We changed as I had some experience with this product and we had comfort in the security that Dell gives us as a platform. The cost and the go-to-market implementation alongside the partner support are the main drivers we looked at when changing.

I was involved in the setup of the product. It was both easy and difficult to set up. However, thanks to the partner, it was more easygoing. There were a lot of people and it was useful to have somebody help as well.

We have a pretty big platform. It took two and a half months to implement the solution. That said, for our needs, it was pretty fast. We had to deal with multiple locations and we migrated everything to just one. We centralized the entire platform.

We had a great partner and planner involved.

For us, it makes more sense to have an on-premise platform rather than a cloud due to the cost. The cost-saving we have in the on-premises platform still is the driver.

We did consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge Racks. We looked at servers for AWS, Azure, and others.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. We are quite satisfied.

It's a good scalable product. It's a good cost-saving product too. That aspect helps us as a company. In my experience, it's a pretty good implementation too. 

I'd advise new users to keep up with the timing of new deployments. That way, you can take advantage of new features. 

I am an IT infrastructure guy, and I use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a variety of workloads, including data imported from machines, file shares, and many other applications.

Using Dell PowerEdge Servers has helped us reduce planned production downtime by approximately 15 percent. PowerEdge has improved the overall flexibility of our business operations. 

I'm still working on reducing power consumption. I'm working with one of Dell's partners to get some power consumption certificates. I need to submit some certificates of sustainability showing how we are working on that. I'm still working on it. That is something entirely new for me. I don't know how to drive that, but I'm getting help from the Dell coordinator on how to do that.

We have only begun our AI journey. We want to use AI to analyze our data, and we're also trying to coordinate. We don't have any AI workloads on our servers yet. We're only capturing data. Currently, our data is being washed, and our data scientists are enriching it to prepare it for the next level. After that, we'll bring AI in to build reports and things like that. It's a work in progress.

I find Dell PowerEdge Servers to handle diverse applications and evolving needs effectively, but we have to upgrade the hardware periodically. PowerEdge's cyber resilience architecture approach to security is good. I don't have any concerns on that part.

Dell has already started working with NPUs and AI, which is a good thing. Right now, data is everyone's primary concern. Every company wants to evaluate data to advance technology and improve its business. The server should work better on the data side. Data is a priority around the world. 

There are a lot of data platforms around, but it would be helpful if we could perform some basic data operations on the server so we don't need an extra vendor. Azure is their Microsoft Cloud solution, and they collaborate with data companies like Databricks. We are also on the cloud and work with Databricks, but they could add some basic features so an enterprise doesn't need to go for extra Databricks to do their data things. 

If data could be handled within the Dell server, we can achieve a milestone on all the low-level sites. Our company is global, with many sites in Sweden and small sites in other countries. We don't need a complete Databricks solution for them. We need Dell servers to handle basic data and talk to our application. We have to configure a bridge between Dell servers and use Databricks for analysis. We could save a lot of money if the fundamental data functions can be done within the server.

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

The stability is excellent. Our only problems are software issues that our technical team can manage. 

I rate PowerEdge six out of 10 for scalability. As our needs have grown, we've faced some challenges. 

I rate Dell's support five out of 10. Sometimes, the technical skills are lacking. I'm not an expert, but I have worked with Dell solutions for 10 years.  Not everyone is an expert, so sometimes I have to help them with the troubleshooting part. Sometimes, someone is having a bad day, or you get the wrong person. 

They improved communications by adding a point person in Sweden. That person is more of a salesperson but has helped in many ways. That was missing for a long time, but they implemented it in the last few years.

They needed someone who could connect with the customer. Dell is a massive global company, but we are a big customer, and sometimes I feel they forget about us. They should treat every customer as if they're your biggest. Biggest. I felt a few times like we weren't prioritized.

Neutral

Dell has been our traditional server, and we have not evaluated other brands because we've worked with Dell for a long time. It's significantly better than other server brands on the market based on key metrics, so we haven't looked at other ones. 

The initial setup has always been smooth because we take our time and have never rushed the deployment.

We did the implementation in-house. We used autopilot integration, but nothing beyond that.

I rate PowerEdge Rack Servers eight out of 10.

We are an MSP that sells, deploys, installs, and maintains Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our customers who use them for storage and as their main server.

Our customers implement Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for better performance and lower prices. They have a lower price and the best performance. 

Dell is an established and trusted name for our customers. They have proven themselves as a leader in storage. 

PowerEdge cyber-resilient architecture approach to security is good. The updates come regularly and quickly when there is a zero-day occurrence. We trust that security is tight. 

PowerEdge does a good job handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads.

PowerEdge has minimal downtime. Out of 100 servers, we may have an issue with two servers per year.

The OpenManage console has improved productivity through ease of maintenance. It's easy to use and it's good for the team. We use it every day. 

Because the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable and work well, our customers can work around the clock, giving them the flexibility to do what they need.

From a technical perspective, the iDRAC system's most valuable feature is its performance, while from the customer's perspective, it is the other features. It's easy to manage. 

I want Dell to offer more virtualization platforms because the cost of VMware is getting too high.

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

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable.

We are able to plan for scalability based on the customer's requirements and have not had any issues with it.

We use Dell technical support two to three times a year. They are professional and always meet our SLA time. However, there are sometimes service delays on weekends.

Positive

We also sell HPE and Lenovo servers. When we buy a Dell PowerEdge server, most of the features are included in the price, but for the others, such as HPE iLO for connecting or IBM X servers, we must purchase add-ons.

The deployment of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is similar to that of other vendors in terms of complexity. It's easy.

We implement the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our customers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are reliable, ensuring customers see a return on investment as they don't need to extend warranties on their servers.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers ten out of ten. I also deal with Lenovo and HPE, and we must pay extra for support and add-on features. This is not the case with Dell PowerEdge. With Dell, it includes all the servers. 

It is very easy to sell Dell.

We use the solution to host on a private cloud. We use a lot of the 600 and 700 series.

Dell has grown a lot since the fourth generation. When I buy Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I don't have to worry about servers, stability, and ease of deployment.

The solution is easy to use and very stable, and we are happy with it.

Some of Dell's competitors have already been feeding a lot of the performance and availability data to an online platform. We haven't seen that with PowerEdge, or at least we never used it. It would be nice if it were all included as a part of PowerEdge so you can check your server's performance and availability online.

I've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a long time. I have been using it before it was called PowerEdge.

The solution's scalability is very good. Nowadays, you can jam so much infrastructure into very small 1U or 2U servers, which is very impressive.

The solution’s technical support team is pretty responsive.

Positive

We use a lot of Supermicro servers, which are very good in terms of customizability. Supermicro servers can also be a lot aggressive in pricing. We use Supermicro for really lower-end and high-end servers. We use Dell for a lot of the middle-end servers.

It is easy to deploy Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

We have seen a return on investment with the solution in terms of stability and ease of use.

I wouldn't say the solution's pricing is the best, but it's very competitive.

Right now, we're using a lot of 13, 14, and 15-gen PowerEdge servers.

Many of our customers who do encryption at rest use Dell's TPM chip capability, which works.

PowerEdge Servers are very good for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. We were able to use the solution to scale many of our compute nodes, which are used by many of our customers who need a lot of high computing. So, we're pretty happy with it.

Nowadays, PowerEdge is very reliable and has helped reduce unplanned production downtime twice as much as five years ago.

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

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for virtualization with VMware products to host ESXi. We also use products such as vCenter and vSphere, and we are now in the process of moving towards the VCF solutions to do our SVDC infrastructure.

By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we are looking to replace some of the old machines with more recent machines. We want to reduce energy consumption and also gain some space in our data rooms and our data centers. We are going to replace several machines with just one machine that is a more recent machine.

We have always had them. We have always worked with Dell PowerEdge servers. So, I have only known those servers. They have improved our organization in terms of productivity, continuity, and the quality of the service. They are quite robust. We are very happy with the malware incident-product resilience ratio.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have improved a great deal in comparison to the older generations of servers when it comes to energy consumption. I do not have the figures because I am not part of the teams that measure our data centers, but we have easily had 20% or 30% energy savings.

To manage the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, the racks or the machines that we buy have a lot of storage space to add memory or disks if needed. In terms of storage, we are using the PowerEdge servers to make some VMware vSAN. With vSAN, there is a storage layer with disks, flash, etcetera for the cache. We have the option to stretch it by buying more disks for more storage, but we also have the possibility to easily stretch and add memory to our machines, which is good. In terms of evolution, this is very important for us because in the beginning or at the kickoff point of a new project, it can be a bit vague for us and we do not know how our needs will evolve. We might need more over time.

The machines that we have today are the oldest that I know of from the Dell PowerEdge series. For example, they might be 11G. We still have some of them, and they still work. They are robust, resilient, and durable. However, they no longer get any support. If we want any maintenance from them for this hardware, we have to pay for support extensions. This way we get help when we have a supply or hardware breakdown with these models. We must pay for the support because this kind of equipment came out a long time ago, and it has reached its end of life, so the support exists but at an extra cost. That could be an area for improvement, but from a commercial point of view, it is hard to maintain the support and storage for parts and keep a stock of parts for aging machines while knowing that they have been replaced by new-generation machines that are more efficient and less energy-consuming. It is debatable, but commercially, it is understandable. We just live with it.

For all of our Dell products, including PowerEdge servers, we have a ProSupport contract for the data center. We are very pleased with them because any breakdowns are very quickly resolved. We get a technician in less than 24 hours. We can also resolve certain breakdowns quickly because we can simply get connected to the machine. Even when we no longer have access or a connection to the machine, we always have an administration link that allows us to connect to iDRAC and reboot the machine. As a result, this feature is helpful.

We use the OpenManage console. It helps the team and saves a huge amount of time with the lifecycle management and updating BIOS and firmware. It is good for that. Without it, we cannot manage to keep our servers up to date, so it is a very significant gain. It is very important for us.

Using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has affected the overall flexibility of our operations. We have gained productivity. To start with, we have gained in terms of performance at the writing level with IOs. In the past, our users used to complain a lot about the waiting time and the slowness. There was some congestion with IOs. Since we have been using the new generation servers, people are happier. We no longer get problems with the slow speed of the IOs writing, etc.

Nowadays, iDRAC is very important. It is one of the features that we use the most because we do not always have physical access to our machines. iDRAC is a tool that we use daily. If we did not have it, it would be very complicated to manage the machines. This is a great feature.

The pricing can be better. These are expensive machines. Especially since COVID-19, many organizations are trying to reduce costs in various directions, and they often end up challenging the IT services and IT teams to reduce the costs. As a result, the choice made today for IT machines is very much based on the price, especially for the hardware. We are currently working with Dell because when we do an RFP, we put several resellers in competition, and at the moment, Dell is able to produce competitive and interesting prices for our needs. So, the final decision is often based on the price. It is essentially the price that will influence the choice of the hardware.

We order vSAN Ready Nodes, but it can happen that between the moment we order our machines and the moment they get delivered, there are some updates or new versions that may have come out. As a result, when we receive our machines and switch them on, even though they are vSAN Ready Nodes, we still have to patch them and build them with a version to be able to integrate them in a cluster so that they are uniform and with the same version as the others servers. So, there is room for improvement with regard to getting the target version.

There can be a long time gap between the order, the manufacturing, and the delivery or receipt of the machines. After receiving them, we have a process of hardwiring. We still have tasks left, such as racking the machine and hardwiring, before using the machines. It can sometimes take several weeks before we are able to use them, and that is when we notice a difference between the production machines and the new machines. Although the new machines are vSAN Ready Nodes, they are not actually ready.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for seven years, but it has been longer for our organization.

The stability is good.

They are scalable.

We are very happy with their support because we benefit from ProSupport. It includes the intervention on the data center, the parts, and the technician in less than 24 hours. So, it is working well.

I would rate their support a nine out of ten because sometimes, there are issues. Sometimes, a part might not be available. When a part is not available, it can have an impact. They have several strategic points in France where the parts are stored, and the parts come from those points. When those parts are not in those areas, they widen the search for the parts, and that can be worldwide. As the parts can come from anywhere, they can take longer to get to us. Some service requests might also have gone over the SLAs, but we understand that it cannot be perfect.

Positive

In this organization, I have always worked with Dell servers, but in the past, I have worked with HPE. They are fairly similar. HPE has the iLO card, and Dell has the iDRAC card. I do not have enough insights into HPE servers because I have worked very little with them. I do not have that many elements for comparison. The only elements for comparison that I have are more or less the same.

I was involved with the new infrastructure. It was very simple because the new PowerEdge servers that we ordered were vSAN Ready Nodes. We get our own machines. We do the hardwiring. We switch them on, and we immediately have our ESXi installed. Only the configuration is left to do. We only need to integrate new nodes and new servers in the bay centers and ESXi in our clusters at the bay centers. We then do the configuration. That is the administration part, and then, we link VMware. So, the integration has been hugely simplified by the fact that we have some vSAN Ready Nodes.

We do the implementation ourselves.

Personally, I find them extremely expensive, but my colleague is a part of the buying team, so he would know better than me.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten. I am not entirely satisfied to rate them a ten.

Foreign Language:(French)

Des serveurs robustes pour la productivité, la continuité et la qualité de service

Depuis combien de temps utilisez-vous les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack?

J’utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack depuis sept ans mais cela fait plus longtemps pour notre société.

Quel est votre cas principal d’utilisation de cette solution? (Décrivez votre environnement).

On utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack pour de la virtualisation avec les produits VMware pour héberger de l’ESXi. On utilise des produits vCenter et vSphere et en ce moment, on est en train de se tourner vers les solutions VCF pour faire notre infrastructure SVDC.

En implémentant les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack, on cherche à remplacer des vieilles machines par des machines plus récentes. On veut réduire la consommation énergétique et gagner de la place en salles serveurs et dans nos data centers. On va remplacer plusieurs machines par une seule machine qui est plus récente.

Comment est-ce que les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont amélioré votre organisation? Si ce ne fut pas le cas, veuillez expliquer pourquoi.

On en a toujours eu. On a toujours travaillé avec les serveurs Dell PowerEdge. Donc, je n’ai toujours connu que ces serveurs. Ils ont amélioré notre organisation en termes de productivité, de continuité et de qualité de service. Ils sont robustes. On est très contents du ratio incident malware et résilience du produit.

Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack se sont beaucoup améliorés par rapport aux anciennes générations de serveurs en ce qui concerne la consommation d'énergie. Je n’ai pas les chiffres en tête parce que je ne fais pas partie des équipes qui mesurent nos data centers mais on est facile à 20% ou 30% de gain en énergie.

Pour gérer les besoins évolutifs des charges de travail à haute performance, on achète des racks, des machines qui ont beaucoup de place pour ajouter de la mémoire ou des disques, si besoin. En termes de stockage, on utilise les serveurs PowerEdge pour faire du VMware vSAN. Avec la vSAN, il y a une couche stockage avec des disques, flash, etcetera, pour le cache. On a la possibilité d'étendre en rachetant des disques pour la partie stockage mais on a aussi la possibilité d'étendre et rajouter de la mémoire dans nos machines assez facilement, ce qui est une bonne chose. En termes d'évolution, cela est très important pour nous parce qu’au début, au moment où on démarre un nouveau projet, on est des fois dans le flou et on ne sait pas comment nos besoins vont évoluer. On peut parfois en avoir besoin de plus.

Les machines qu’on a aujourd’hui des séries Dell PowerEdge sont les plus anciennes que je connaisse. Ce sont des 11G, par exemple. On en a encore quelques-unes et elles fonctionnent toujours. C’est robuste, résistant et durable. Après, ce sont des produits qui n’ont plus de support. Si nous voulons de la maintenance sur ce matériel, on doit payer pour des extensions de support. C’est le seul moyen d’avoir de l’aide si jamais on a une panne d’alimentation ou du matériel sur ces modèles. On doit payer du support parce que c’est du matériel qui est sorti il y a longtemps et qui a atteint sa fin de vie. Le support existe donc bien mais avec un surcoût. Cela pourrait être un point d'amélioration mais d’un point de vue commercial, c’est dur de maintenir du support et de produire et d’avoir du stock de pièces pour des machines qui sont vieillissantes, sachant que c’est remplacé par des nouvelles générations de machines qui sont plus performantes et moins énergivores. Ça se discute mais commercialement, c’est compréhensible. On vit avec.

Pour tous nos produits Dell avec les serveurs PowerEdge inclus, nous avons le contrat ProSupport pour le data center. Nous sommes très satisfaits parce que les pannes sont résolues très rapidement. On a un technicien qui arrive en moins de 24 heures. On peut résoudre certaines pannes rapidement parce qu’on peut tout simplement se connecter à la machine. Même lorsqu’on n’a plus d'accès ou de connectivité avec la machine, on a toujours un lien d’administration qui nous permet de nous connecter à l’iDRAC et relancer la machine. Du coup, cette fonctionnalité est utile.

On utilise la console OpenManage. Elle fait gagner énormément de temps aux équipes sur la gestion du cycle de vie et pour mettre à jour les BIOS et firmware. C’est très bien pour tout ça. Sans cette console, on ne serait pas capable de maintenir nos serveurs à jour donc, c’est un gain très important pour nous. C’est un produit très important pour nous.

L’utilisation des serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack a affecté la flexibilité globale de nos opérations. Nous avons gagné en productivité. Nous avons déjà eu des gains en termes de performance au niveau des écritures des IOs. Par le passé, nos utilisateurs se plaignaient beaucoup de problèmes de latence et de lenteur. Il y avait des congestions au niveau de l'IOS. Depuis qu’on utilise les nouvelles générations de serveurs, les gens sont plus contents. On n’a plus ces problèmes de lenteur d'écriture d'IOS, etc.

Quelles fonctionnalités avez-vous trouvé les plus utiles et pourquoi?

Aujourd’hui, l’iDRAC est très important. C’est une des fonctionnalités qu’on utilise le plus parce qu’on n’a pas toujours accès physiquement à nos machines. L’iDRAC est un outil qu’on utilise quotidiennement. Si on ne l’avait pas, ce serait très compliqué de gérer les machines. C’est une super fonctionnalité.

Dans quels domaines les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack pourraient-ils être améliorés?

Le prix pourrait être meilleur. Ce sont des machines qui sont chères. Surtout depuis le COVID-19, beaucoup d’organisations cherchent à réduire leurs coûts dans différentes directions et elles vont souvent challenger les services et les équipes informatiques pour réduire les coûts. Du coup, le choix des machines aujourd’hui est plutôt basé sur le coût, surtout pour le matériel hardware. Nous, aujourd’hui, on travaille avec Dell parce que quand on fait un RFP, on met plusieurs revendeurs en concurrence et pour le moment, Dell est capable de sortir des tarifs qui sont compétitifs et intéressants par rapport à nos besoins. La décision finale est donc souvent basée sur le prix. C’est essentiellement le coût qui va influencer le choix du hardware.

On commande les vSAN Ready Nodes mais entre le moment où on commande nos machines et le moment où elles sont livrées, il se peut qu’il y ait eu des mises à jour ou des nouvelles versions qui soient sorties. Du coup, quand on reçoit nos machines et qu’on les allume, bien qu’elles soient du vSAN Ready Nodes, on doit encore les patcher et les monter en version pour pouvoir les intégrer dans un cluster pour que ce soit uniforme et la même version que les autres serveurs. Il y a donc un point d'amélioration sur le fait d’avoir une version cible.

Il peut se passer beaucoup de temps entre la commande, la fabrication et la livraison ou la réception des machines. Et après les avoir reçues, nous avons encore un autre processus de câblage. On a encore toute la main-d’œuvre derrière pour mettre les machines en rack et faire le câblage avant de pouvoir les utiliser. Cela peut parfois prendre plusieurs semaines, avant de pouvoir s’en servir et c’est là où on constate une différence entre la production des machines et les nouvelles machines. Bien que les nouvelles machines soient vSAN Ready Nodes, elles ne sont pas vraiment ‘ready’ (prêtes à être utilisées).

Avez-vous utilisé une solution différente auparavant et le cas échéant, pourquoi avez-vous changé?

Dans cette société, j’ai toujours travaillé avec des serveurs Dell mais par le passé, j’ai travaillé avec du HPE. Ils sont assez similaires. HPE a la carte iLO et Dell a la carte iDRAC. Je n’ai pas assez de recul sur les serveurs HPE parce que j’ai très peu travaillé avec eux. Je n’ai pas beaucoup d'éléments de comparaison. D'après les seuls éléments de comparaison que je puisse avoir, c’est plus ou moins identique.

Que conseillez-vous à d'autres sur les coûts d’installation, les tarifs et/ou les licences?

Personnellement, je les trouve extrêmement chers mais mon collègue qui fait partie de l'équipe des achats en sait plus que moi.

Quelles sont vos impressions sur la scalabilité de cette solution?

Ils sont scalables.

Quelles sont vos impressions sur la stabilité de cette solution?

La stabilité est bonne.

La configuration initiale était-elle simple ou complexe et de quelle manière?

J'étais impliqué sur la nouvelle infrastructure. C'était très simple parce que les nouveaux serveurs PowerEdge que nous avions commandés étaient des vSAN Ready Nodes. On a nos propres machines. On fait le câblage. On les allume et on a déjà directement notre ESXi d’installé. Il reste juste la configuration à faire. Il nous reste juste à intégrer les nouveaux nœuds et les nouveaux serveurs dans nos centres de baies et les ESXi dans nos clusters dans les centres de baies. Après, on passe à la configuration. Et ensuite, c’est la partie administration pour lier le VMware. L'intégration a donc été grandement simplifiée du fait d’avoir des vSAN Ready Nodes.

Avez-vous fait l'implémentation avec une équipe d’un revendeur ou en interne? Si à travers un revendeur, comment évalueriez-vous leur niveau d’expertise?

Nous la faisons nous-mêmes.

Décrivez-nous votre expérience avec le service client et le support.

On est très content avec leur support parce qu’on bénéficie du ProSupport. Cela inclut l’intervention sur le data center, les pièces et le technicien en moins de 24 heures. Donc, ça marche bien.

Je donnerais un neuf sur 10 pour leur support parce que des fois, il y a des problèmes. Il arrive parfois qu’une pièce ne soit pas disponible. Lorsqu’une pièce n’est pas disponible, cela peut avoir un impact. Ils ont plusieurs points stratégiques en France où les pièces sont en stock et elles viennent de ces points-là. Lorsque ces pièces ne sont pas stockées dans ces points-là, ils élargissent pour trouver la pièce et des fois, ça peut venir du monde entier. Comme les pièces peuvent venir de n'importe où, elles mettent plus de temps à arriver chez nous. Certaines demandes de service ont pu dépasser les CNS mais on comprend que cela ne peut pas être parfait.

Comment évalueriez-vous cette solution sur une échelle de 1 à 10 pour le service et le support?

9

Sur une échelle de 1 à 10 (1=le pire, 10=le meilleur), comment évalueriez-vous les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack? Veuillez expliquer pourquoi.

Je donnerais une note de huit sur dix aux serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack. Je ne suis pas entièrement satisfait pour leur donner un dix.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers across our organization for diverse needs. Some handle essential services like DHCP and DNS, while others support websites and applications. Additionally, we use them for storage and computational power, adapting to the unique requirements of each site efficiently.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have significantly improved our organization, especially for simulation work. 

The switch to SSDs has made a tremendous difference, reducing simulation times from a day to just an hour. This boost in performance has translated into cost savings, allowing us to accomplish more in less time. 

The impact of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers on our organization's sustainability goals has been significant. Although we are a large company and often maximize hardware life, investing in newer, more energy-efficient systems has proven worthwhile. 

With energy pricing in leased buildings and considering the collective impact of servers, desktops, and screens, the upgrade has made a substantial positive difference both economically and environmentally.

Additionally, switching to Dell VSAN SSD storage has significantly boosted our server performance, especially for high-performance workloads. The transition from external storage with a different supplier to Dell storage took some time to adapt, but the results have been impressive. The performance now is exceptional and has surpassed our previous setup.

What I find valuable about Dell is that the newer servers are more energy-efficient compared to older ones, aligning with the need to consider power consumption.

We are generally very satisfied with Dell, but there is a suggestion to potentially revisit pricing, although this is a common consideration with most products.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers since 2012.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have been incredibly reliable, minimizing unplanned production downtime. Over the past 11 years, I have experienced very few issues, such as only one failed hard drive. The servers have been stable, even during moves and power cycles, consistently performing well.

Tech support for Dell PowerEdge has been excellent. I have had the same account manager for about two and a half to three years, and she has been awesome. Whenever there is a project or need for assistance, they provide valuable support, creating a collaborative and effective environment for problem-solving.

I find Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers valuable for our company's needs. While we have used HP systems before, we switched back to Dell due to their better service and more familiar hardware. The way Dell products work aligns well with our preferences, making them a more pleasant choice for our business.

The deployment time for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers depends on the project. For longer planning phases, it can take up to three years, while in more straightforward cases, it is a matter of weeks. The actual installation is easy and tool-free, involving simply clicking on the hardware, connecting it to the network, and using remote access for configuration.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have fair prices for our basic needs, and when we need more power, the cost matches the value we get. It feels like we get a good deal for what we pay.

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

We're using it for various purposes, such as DB servers, web servers, application servers, file servers, print servers, etc.

We can use the OpenManage console for managing multiple rack servers. We can manage all of them in a single console. The firmware can be pushed on multiple servers via the OpenManage console. It's very user-friendly, and it makes it easy to download and update the firmware. There are multiple options. If I have 15 servers of the same model, to update the firmware, I don't need to download the firmware on each server. With the OpenManage console, we can download it just once and then push it to multiple servers.

The OpenManage console has affected our IT staff’s productivity. Upgrading firmware on each server generally takes two hours. So, upgrading firmware on multiple servers would take a lot of time. For example, for 15 servers, it would take at least 30 hours, whereas, with the OpenManage console, we can update all the servers within two hours.

The OpenManage console also decreases the time it takes to deploy new data centers. It would take more time to deploy the individual servers.

We can use Dell Lifecycle Controller for remote server management. If something happens, I use the iDRAC console to check the impact. It's easy to identify the issue from the iDRAC console. If there is a blue screen or purple screen, it's a hardware-related or software-related issue. I am based in India, but I can easily support US operations. iDRAC allows me to work remotely to troubleshoot. So, troubleshooting, as well as firmware downloads and updates, are very easy. All the firmware and drivers are available on a single page. I can download or update the firmware if there is a purple screen or a driver is missing. In the OpenManage console, everything is visible. We can see the installed version and the available version in a single console. It shows anything that is non-compliant in your list. If my environment has 1,000 servers, it will show whether all 1,000 servers are up to date or not. I can then identify and plan for the firmware updates. After updating the firmware, the hardware runs smoothly.

It supports multiple operating systems. I have experience installing Windows servers, ESXi, and Linux. It's not only for Windows. We use the VMware ESXi operating system. On ESXi, we run around 6,000 virtual servers. We have app servers, DB servers, and file servers. There are also manufacturing applications, where they are running robotic machines. So, there are different applications running.

You can use Dell PowerEdge hardware for anything. It supports everything such as file servers, web servers, and DB servers. It can support all critical servers and applications. There are bank applications running on PowerEdge servers.

PowerEdge rack servers are good in terms of energy consumption.

Dell hardware is not as stable as HP. I have not seen any issues with HP in five years, but with Dell, I am getting multiple issues. It's not stable. They need to verify why it has multiple issues and why Dell hardware is not as stable as HP hardware.

I have 15 years of experience in the IT industry. I have worked in multiple companies, and I have more than 10 years of experience with Dell hardware. I have worked with Dell PowerEdge R720, R730, R740, R830, R840, and R940, and I have also worked with Dell PowerEdge VRTX Chassis M630 and M640.

Dell hardware is not as stable as HP hardware.

Their support is number one worldwide. I never got that much support with other hardware. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

Positive

I have also worked with HP hardware in one of the companies. In five years, I generally did not see any issues with HP hardware, but in case I had any problem with hardware, they took more than 10 days to replace the hardware or troubleshoot the problem. I don't like that. Whereas Dell provides support within four hours for hardware replacement. They provide better support. Within four hours, they arrange for a replacement. Their support is number one. I would recommend Dell because their support is very good.

Dell's hardware is not as stable as HP's. We see multiple issues, such as hard disk failures. We need to apply updates or patches. Dell is user-friendly. So, it's very easy to apply and download, but the hardware is not stable. This is the only part that needs to be developed from Dell's side.

HP is more expensive than Dell. Dell provides better quotes. They give multiple options to buy the hardware.

Its deployment is very easy. Anybody can deploy it. They provide everything. Its deployment is easy and user-friendly.

For deployment, we have customized ISO for our environment. We use that. For ESXi, we are using the Dell custom image that they provide on their website. We can download that directly from there, and that's it.

One of the clients has been offered a price of $18,000 instead of the regular price of around $25,000.

It supports everything. You can install anything you want. If you want DB, you can do that. If you need high-performance workloads, you need to increase storage capacity. It depends on the configuration, but it will support that. The PowerEdge server has 16 slots. You just need to buy maximum capacity during the purchase.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a 10 out of 10.

Our company offers various solutions, but for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, our clients had specific requirements such as a very new, unsupported CPU, extensive RAM support, and numerous PCIe lanes. Only Dell met all these needs.

The learning curve for Dell products is not steep due to the excellent support and easily accessible information. Compared to other projects I'm involved in, I found it much easier to learn and use Dell products. 

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have redundant power supplies that would help reduce downtime.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer flexibility due to their remote management capabilities, redundant components, and ease of diagnosis and repair.

The most valuable aspect of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is that they don't require support for card installation and offer extensive diagnostic software. I was able to work on the servers installed in our lab remotely from my office via the management tools. This eliminated the need for a physical display connection, requiring only an ethernet cable and power for remote access and management. 

Their servers are modular, but there are specific applications for which I wish they would publish the specifications, such as the specs of internal connectors. If Dell doesn't provide a connector, I'd like to be able to provide it myself.

The limited connectivity of the Rack Servers, due to having only three USB ports, is an area of improvement for Dell. Dell continues to use micro USB for the management port, and that cable type is increasingly more difficult to find. A shift to USB-C for the management port would be a welcome improvement from Dell.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for one year.

We sometimes build in-house using components from vendors we represent, but this project required something completely different, so we went with Dell. I hadn't worked with Dell before and had no prior experience. I had designed PCs based on Dell-style motherboards from one company and cards from another, handling integration, software support, and everything else. This was different because they didn't conform to usual standards and used their own products. There was a learning curve, but it was much easier overall.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of ten.

We collaborated with Dell Professional Services to obtain cable design specifications. The power supplies used DC voltage, and we needed to determine the recommended cable thickness and any other pertinent design considerations. We planned to install our cards, which necessitated an internal power supply, so we needed the specifications to ascertain the maximum power draw from each connector.

Dell Professional Services were great compared to others I have used. I would rate them ten out of ten.