Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

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 deploy PowerEdge to meet our customer's requirements.

Brand recognition is a big reason we went with this. The customer wanted to use Dell's product. Dell integrates with other cards and boards inside a system. The iDRAC is a selling point. It gives you an easy way to manage the system, services, and installation. 

PowerEdge is not that flexible. For example, it's difficult if I need something that is not in Dell's portfolio. We offer the flexibility to the customer. We can implement different things Dell doesn't have. If you have preconfigured systems, it's hard to transition them to what you need.

We have used PowerEdge servers for two or three months. It's new for us. 

I rate Dell customer service 10 out of 10. We had a problem implementing the RAID system on a rack. The Dell RAID specialist helped us a lot and provided more internal information to install RAID on the system successfully. I have experience with many companies, and it was very fast. The guys in Dell support don't waste your time. They find a way to provide a solution. 

Positive

We used industrial systems, so PowerEdge rack servers are more flexible than our previous industrial systems. If we compare them, they're ahead of the industrial systems, so I can say they're better.

We purchase the systems from a reseller and integrate them for our customers. PowerEdge Rack. Servers are easier than other systems we have integrated, but I can't say how easy it is for customers to do it themselves. 

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of 10. 

We are a web hosting company, so we host websites. They are predominantly high-value websites. They tend to be very intensive applications, so we use CPUs with lots of cores and memory. We try to get as much performance as possible out of these machines.

At the moment, we are using Dell R640 and 740XD, and we have some 540s for backups.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very good for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. Even though we do not use the very latest generation servers, they are in line with our customers' needs. Our customers do not know or care what the specs of the servers are. They just want the results, which speed from websites or whatever applications they are running. We have a very strong reputation in the industry for producing those fast results, and at the moment, Dell servers support that very well. Our knowledge perhaps is not as good as it could be on some of the latest technologies. We do not even use NVMe storage yet, but I am quite interested in seeing some of the new technology for NVMe support.

Due to our environmental compliance, we are very aware of our consumption, and it is pleasing to see regular improvements in that area. We are regularly looking at and reviewing our power consumption. We replaced some of our older Dell models with newer ones, which are way more efficient. They are very good in terms of energy consumption. There is a useful calculator available on their website to work out how much we are going to be using, so we can tell in advance. Before we populate a new data center cabinet, we can see how much we should expect it to be using. That makes it a lot easier. We then do not underfill or overfill a cabinet. We can maximize the use of the space by knowing with some degree of accuracy how much power is going to be used.

I like the reliability and ease of swapping out failed equipment. It is very easy to replace power supplies and drives.

We use older-generation servers. We are two generations behind. There can be remote access management and iDRAC improvements, but I do not have many complaints about that.

From the licensing model perspective, it might be useful for enterprises to get an overall enterprise license, rather than licensing each server. That is one option because we tend to buy the service with the licenses, but some of our older equipment does not have them.

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

They are very reliable.

We tend to buy quite high-spec servers, so we do not need to upgrade, but storage-wise, typically, we always have an empty base in the servers we deploy. So, we have plenty of scope for scaling.

We do not use their support. We use a third party. We rarely need to get support because the equipment is so reliable. 

We used to use HPE many years ago. We moved to Dell because their servers were more customizable. We were able to use our own disks, for example, whereas HP would not allow us to do that. They had to ship the disks, and that was the main reason we moved.

Dell is just a little bit more logical. Even when you open up the box and carry out the replacement tasks with the components, it seems a little bit more logical. In every generation, there is a change, but when you open up a new box, it does not take long. Without reading the manual, you can figure out what needs to be done. We have never been disappointed with the new products that do come out, so we are quite involved now and attached to the Dell ecosystem.

They are very good in terms of deployment. Our automated system is there, and there is no problem with using our deployment tool with it. I cannot think of a case where we have hit a problem. It has been fast. There is nothing to do with the hardware. There are no obstacles.

We looked at Supermicro, but we never found them very reliable. The chassis and the build felt a little bit more flimsy compared to Dell. Dell servers felt a lot more like enterprise hardware.

In terms of the impact of PowerEdge Servers on our organization’s sustainability goals, we have not recycled much old equipment. I am not sure what to do with it. I do not know whether they have any incentives for returning old hardware. One thing we need to factor in is how to dispose of older hardware.

For the simple needs that we have, I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten. 

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for application servers, database servers, and virtualization. We also use them for hyperconvergence.

By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we wanted to reduce the footprint in the data center and the costs. We also wanted to have better performance and, above all, durability because we keep them for a minimum of seven years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are well placed in comparison to their competitors in terms of energy consumption. They are even better now with the AMD processors.

At the moment, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers perfectly meet our needs. We have never reached the limit, or there has always been a solution offered by Dell to manage the evolving needs of the high-performance workloads. It is always evolving, and there are no issues.

With regards to the durability of the servers, the advantage is that we keep the servers for seven years before changing them. That is important for us. It allows us to avoid using them for nothing. The support is also there afterward. There is performance too because we are putting fewer of them.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. We have very rare breakdowns with it. That is why we keep them for seven years.

Using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business. It has had an impact on the growth because we can deliver fast. We can grow very quickly because we have a growth of 40% per year, and we have a supplier who can react and install very quickly, which allows us to grow.

The speed of delivery is something super valuable. Reliability and performance are also valuable.

Their support can be better. The speed of their support is not always great because the access to the data centers is sometimes complicated, so there is back and forth. This is where there is room for improvement.

We have a lot of issues with OpenManage. We are currently in talks with Dell to be able to roll it out within the company, but we are struggling because we are a bank, and there are many things that are out of bounds. It seems that the people working on it are not familiar with this type of business, and it is struggling to function properly. We would definitely like to have something better integrated. There is definitely some improvement needed in this software.

One area for improvement could be the capacity to evaluate all of our servers with one console. They might already have it, and I might not be aware of it, but it would be great to have one console that could tell us what, for example, the overall consumption from our servers is. I should be able to know about every rack too. That would help me with my choice related to the new generation and the model I should go for. Because of the rack configuration, I must be careful with each rack’s consumption. I must be careful that it is not too stretched. 

Currently, I use one of their suppliers for PCs to get this kind of information. If I could obtain the information directly from the server itself, it would be more interesting.

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

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable. I would rate them a ten out of ten in terms of stability because I have no problem.

The scalability is very good. I would rate them a ten out of ten in terms of scalability because I do not reach the limit as far as my needs are concerned.

Their support needs improvement. Delivery times are quite substantial, and customer service is very important to us.

I would rate their support a seven out of ten. They can improve the response time because it is always the same system. Bearing in mind that our teams are already pretty highly skilled, their support does not need to ask the same questions, such as:

• Have you updated it?

• Have you done the tests?

Generally, when we identify a problem, it ends up being that one, but we lose quite a bit of time doing the tests because we have to follow a certain procedure. They do not want to change the part until that procedure has been followed and completed. That is how we end up losing time with the support.

Neutral

We have had some from HPE and other brands. I switched because I have been working with Dell for several years now, and above all, because of the server’s modality and direct delivery. The delivery is very fast which is not the case with the others.

The calculation for any return on investments is always a complicated matter. It is always complicated, but as far as durability is concerned, we always see some because we can absorb the costs over a longer period of time. So, that lowers our investment’s cost. In comparison to the competitors, they are in a fairly good position, and it is still the case today, but the ROI is difficult to calculate as we are still growing.

We do not know why they have increased the price by 25%. This is a very steep increase. In my opinion, it is not justified, but it is the same case with everyone. Margins should certainly not be increased.

With regards to the licenses, I do not use any licenses from Dell.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten because there are a few areas for improvement. Overall, it is a good product.

Foreign Language:(French)

livraison rapide, fiable et utile pour réduire l’empreinte de centres de données

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

J’utilise des serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack depuis plus de dix ans.

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

On utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack comme serveurs applicatifs, serveurs de bases de données et de virtualisation. On s’en sert aussi pour de l'hyper convergence.

Veuillez décrire comment les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont amélioré votre organisation. Si ce ne fut pas le cas, veuillez expliquer pourquoi.

En implémentant les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack, on voulait réduire l’empreinte en data center pour réduire les coûts. On recherchait aussi une meilleure performance et surtout, de la durabilité parce qu’on les garde minimum sept ans.

Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack sont plutôt bien placés par rapport à la concurrence en termes de consommation d'énergie. Ils sont encore meilleurs maintenant avec leurs processeurs AMD.

Pour l’instant, les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack répondent parfaitement à nos besoins. On n’a jamais atteint la limite, on a toujours eu une solution proposée par Dell pour gérer les besoins évolutifs de nos charges de travail à haute performance. C’est toujours évolutif et il n’y a aucun souci.

En ce qui concerne la durabilité des serveurs, l’avantage c’est qu’on garde les serveurs sept ans avant de les changer. Ça, c’est important pour nous. Ça nous évite de consommer pour rien. Il y a également le support derrière. Il y a la performance aussi, comme ça on en met moins.

Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont aidé à réduire les temps d'arrêt de production imprévus. On a très peu de pannes dessus. C’est pour cela qu’on les garde sept ans.

L’utilisation des serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack a affecté la flexibilité globale de nos opérations et de notre entreprise. Elle a eu un impact sur la croissance parce qu’on livre vite. Nous pouvons croître très vite car nous avons une croissance de 40% par an et j’ai un fournisseur qui est capable de réagir et d’installer très vite, ce qui nous permet de croître.

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

La rapidité de livraison est quelque chose de super important. La fiabilité et la performance sont également importantes.

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

Leur support pourrait être meilleur. La rapidité de leur support n’est pas toujours bonne parce que l'accès aux data centers est parfois compliqué, il y a des allers-retours. C’est là qu'il y a un point d'amélioration.

On a beaucoup de difficultés avec OpenManage. En ce moment, on discute avec Dell pour pouvoir la déployer dans notre société mais on a du mal parce qu’on est une banque et il y a beaucoup de choses qui sont fermées. Il semble que les personnes qui travaillent dessus n’ont pas l’habitude de ce type de secteur et cela a du mal à fonctionner correctement. On aimerait vraiment avoir quelque chose de mieux intégré. Il y a clairement un effort à faire sur ce logiciel.

Pour ce qui est d’un point d'amélioration, ce serait bien d'avoir la capacité d'évaluer tous nos serveurs avec une seule console. Ils l’ont peut-être déjà mais moi, je n’en ai pas conscience mais ce serait utile d’avoir une seule console qui pourrait nous dire quelle est la consommation globale de nos serveurs, par exemple. Je serai capable de le savoir par rack aussi. Cela m’aiderait dans mon choix vers une nouvelle génération et le modèle sur lequel je devrais me diriger. Puisqu’on est sur une configuration de racks, je dois faire attention à la consommation par rack. Je dois faire attention à ce que ça ne tire pas trop. En ce moment, je passe par un de vos fournisseurs de PCs pour avoir ce genre d'informations. Si je pouvais passer directement par le serveur lui-même pour obtenir ces informations, ce serait plus intéressant.

Avez-vous utilisé différentes solutions auparavant et si c'est le cas, pourquoi avez-vous changé?

On a eu des serveurs HPE et d’autres marques. J’ai changé parce que je travaille avec Dell depuis plusieurs années et surtout pour la modalité du serveur et la livraison en direct. La livraison est très rapide, ce qui n’est pas le cas avec les autres.

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

On ne sait pas pourquoi ils ont augmenté les prix de 25%. C’est clairement une forte augmentation. Pour moi, elle n’est pas justifiée mais c’est la même chose pour tout le monde. Il ne faudrait surtout pas augmenter les marges.

Sur la partie licence, je n’utilise pas les licences Dell.

Quelles sont vos impressions sur la scalabilité de cette solution?

La scalabilité est très bien. Je leur donne un dix sur dix en ce qui concerne la scalabilité parce que je n’arrive pas à la limite, par rapport à nos besoins, en tout cas.

Quelles sont vos impressions sur la stabilité de cette solution?

Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack sont stables. Je leur donne une note de dix sur dix pour la stabilité parce que je n’ai pas de problème.

Avez-vous constaté un RSI (Retour Sur Investissement)? Si oui, de quelle manière (p.ex. métriques/points de données)?

Le calcul sur le retour sur investissements est toujours compliqué. C’est toujours compliqué mais on en a par rapport à la durabilité de toujours puisqu’on amortit sur plus longtemps. Donc, cela fait baisser nos coûts d'investissement. Par rapport à la concurrence, ils sont plutôt bien placés et c’est encore le cas aujourd’hui mais le RSI est difficile à calculer car nous sommes en pleine croissance.

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

Leur support a besoin d'être amélioré. Les temps de livraison sont assez longs et le service client est très important pour nous.

Je mettrai sept sur dix pour leur support. Ils peuvent améliorer leur temps de réponse parce que c’est toujours le même système. Sachant que nos équipes sont déjà bien pointues, leur support n’a pas besoin de demander systématiquement les mêmes questions, telles que:

• Est-ce que vous avez fait les mises à jour?

• Est-ce que vous avez fait les tests?

En général, on cible un problème et ça finit par être celui-là mais on perd pas mal de temps pour faire des tests parce qu’il faut dérouler une procédure. Ils ne veulent pas changer la pièce tant que cette procédure n’a pas été déroulée jusqu'à la fin. C’est de cette manière que nous finissons par perdre du temps avec le support.

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

7

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 donne aux serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack un neuf sur dix parce qu’il y a quelques points d'amélioration. Dans l’ensemble, c’est un bon produit.

Mainly, we started using them when we implemented a cyber recovery solution with Data Domain, in which several Dell PowerEdge Rack servers are also involved.

By implementing this solution, we wanted cyber resilience. We wanted a 1/3 copy cyber recovery solution that would prevent us from losing all the data in the event of a cyber attack.

In terms of deployment, we use them on-prem, directly with Dell as our provider.

They provide the cyber resilience that we were looking for. They are working perfectly so far, and we are happy with them.

The PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture approach to security is very good. Overall, Dell's approach to security is pretty good. I like using Dell products because they always have security configuration guides.

In terms of energy consumption, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers can possibly be improved, but this is what I would say regarding any other type of server.

I do not know specifically about Dell's sustainability goals or how PowerEdge can help, but at the level of on-prem servers, it can always be improved by moving towards new virtualization to reduce the impact and perhaps reduce the number of servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. In our case, we have planned a maximum downtime of one week in the event of a cyber attack. These are the ratios we use.

The OpenManage console has affected our IT staff’s productivity. It has helped in a positive way because it is a console that centralizes many things that our staff manages every day. In that sense, it is in a centralized console. It helps a lot.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have not impacted the overall flexibility of our operations or business. In our case, it is an isolated additional system, so it is not like adding an additional layer to improve the flexibility per se.

There is no specific feature that is more valuable than other servers for us. Because it is part of an overall solution that Dell has offered us, we opted for Dell's PowerEdge servers. Overall, it is a good solution. It works perfectly, especially in terms of availability and reliability, without any type of issue, which is why we are very happy with it.

The cost can be improved. For other use cases, we use Hitachi servers, which are a little cheaper but have similar functionality.

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

So far, we have had no stability problems. They are very stable.

The scalability is very good. We use them in several locations. The main department in which they are used is ours, which is for data protection backup. They are mainly used for a cyber recovery solution.

I would assess their support very positively. I have been working with them for several years, and I am very happy with their support.

Positive

We also use Hitachi. We have not switched. We maintain two brands.

It has simply covered our use case.

They can improve the costs.

We evaluated Veritas. We evaluated Netapp solutions. There were five or six different vendors. We did not see a critical difference. In general, they were similar, but Dell was more present throughout the process.

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

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

Funciona perfectamente y proporciona la ciberresiliencia y seguridad que necesitamos

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

He estado usando servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge durante aproximadamente dos años.

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

Principalmente, comenzamos a utilizarlos cuando implementamos una solución de recuperación cibernética con Data Domain, en la que también están involucrados varios servidores Dell PowerEdge Rack.

Al implementar esta solución, queríamos ciberresiliencia. Queríamos una solución de recuperación cibernética de 1/3 de copia que nos evitara perder todos los datos en caso de un ciberataque.

En términos de implementación, los utilizamos de forma local, directamente con Dell como nuestro proveedor.

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

Proporcionan la ciberresiliencia que estábamos buscando. Están funcionando perfectamente hasta ahora y estamos contentos con ellos.

El enfoque de seguridad de PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture es muy bueno. En general, el enfoque de seguridad de Dell es bastante bueno. Me gusta usar los productos Dell porque siempre tienen guías de configuración de seguridad.

En términos de consumo de energía, los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge son posiblemente mejorables, pero esto es lo que diría de cualquier otro tipo de servidor.

No sé específicamente cuáles son los objetivos de sostenibilidad de Dell ni cómo puede ayudar PowerEdge, pero a nivel de servidores locales, siempre se puede mejorar avanzando hacia una nueva virtualización para reducir el impacto y quizás reducir la cantidad de servidores.

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge han ayudado a reducir el tiempo de inactividad de producción no planificado. En nuestro caso, hemos previsto un tiempo de inactividad máximo de una semana en caso de ciberataque. Estas son las proporciones que utilizamos.

La consola OpenManage ha afectado la productividad de nuestro personal de TI. Ha ayudado de manera positiva porque es una consola que centraliza muchas cosas que nuestro personal maneja día a día. En ese sentido, está en una consola centralizada. Esto ayuda mucho.

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge no han afectado la flexibilidad general de nuestras operaciones o negocios. En nuestro caso se trata de un sistema adicional aislado, por lo que no es como añadir una capa adicional para mejorar la flexibilidad de por sí.

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

No existe ninguna característica específica que sea más valiosa que otros servidores para nosotros. Debido a que es parte de una solución global que nos ha ofrecido Dell, optamos por los servidores PowerEdge de Dell. En general, es una buena solución. Funciona perfectamente, sobre todo en términos de disponibilidad y fiabilidad, sin ningún tipo de problema, por lo que estamos muy contentos con ella.

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

El costo se puede mejorar. Para otros casos de uso, utilizamos servidores Hitachi, que son un poco más baratos pero tienen una funcionalidad similar.

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

También utilizamos Hitachi. No hemos cambiado. Mantenemos las dos marcas.

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

Evaluamos Veritas. Evaluamos las soluciones de Netapp. Había cinco o seis proveedores diferentes. No vimos una diferencia crítica. En general fueron similares, pero Dell estuvo más presente en todo el proceso.

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

Se pueden mejorar en cuanto a su precio.

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

La escalabilidad es muy buena. Los utilizamos en varios lugares. El departamento principal en el que se utilizan es el nuestro, que es para la copia de seguridad de la protección de datos. Se utilizan principalmente para una solución de recuperación cibernética.

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

Hasta ahora no hemos tenido problemas. Son muy estables.

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

Simplemente ha cubierto nuestros casos de uso.

Cuéntanos tu experiencia con el servicio y soporte al cliente.

Valoro su soporte de forma positiva. Llevo varios años trabajando con ellos y estoy muy contento con su apoyo.

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

8.

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.

We have one PowerEdge Rack Server that we got a little while ago that is running Hyper-V and some Windows VMs and we just got a new one, which will be running SQL. We use them for Windows networking tasks. One is a file store server and the other is an application server.

These servers have expanded our storage for our call recording. We no longer have to offsite our calls prior to needing them, within the lifecycle of the call requirements. Before, we'd have to ship off some call recordings after two years, but we can now keep them onsite longer. 

They have also optimized some of the infrastructure and allowed us to reduce our footprint in the server room. We were able to upgrade two servers into one and virtualize them when we got the PowerEdge.

Some of the apps that are critical to our business are Office 365, Sage, which is a finance payment company in the UK, and AWS for some of our hosted solutions that are public-facing, because we don't want them coming in directly to our data center. The integration of these apps' workloads with our PowerEdge Rack Servers is of high importance. We're able to put our applications on them that integrate these services and have them automated and run without worry.

Moving on to the new PowerEdge Rack Server that we have just purchased will definitely reduce downtime and allow more flexibility in our workloads, going forward.

While it's not specific to the PowerEdge side of it, I do like the new feature in the Dell servers, the BOSS system [Boot Optimized Storage Solution]. That is really nice. I don't know if it's unique to Dell, but I like it.

And when it comes to handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, the PowerEdge Rack Servers are fit for purpose. They do what they need to do. 

I am also grateful for the security features, including the signed firmware, drift detection, and BIOS recovery.

I haven't done any energy monitoring of our servers because I don't have a big enough server farm to need to monitor our power consumption at that level. It's not like I need to turn off half of our fleet to save costs during downtime hours. We have a very small footprint as far as service systems go. Having said that, the PowerEdge servers are probably more energy efficient than the older ones we have because the older ones are a lot bigger. They have a lot more active hard drives and spinning disks. These new servers are nice, clean SSDs. Overall, power consumption will have gone down.

I use the Dell OpenManage console on occasion when I'm investigating an issue with the server, but thankfully, that doesn't happen very often. Using the console is pretty straightforward. I don't have any complaints about it. 

What annoys me about every server is just how loud they are when they're turned on, but that's just a function of the server. It's protecting itself. I can't complain that it's noisy when I turn it on, because it's not in its rack yet. It's sitting on a desk near me. That's just how servers work.

We've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a couple of years and we've had at least one Dell in our system for going on 12 years now.

The servers that I have, have been humming away without me having to deal with them in any way, outside of Windows issues. Those issues have nothing to do with PowerEdge. They are the standard Windows issues. Overall, they've been working the way they're supposed to, so I have nothing bad to say about them.

I would imagine they scale very well. Our IT infrastructure has not been overly affected by having these servers. They are easily scaling to our needs and the equipment we have purchased far outpowers our business requirements, but they will be there when we need them.

I haven't had to contact Dell's technical support for the server side. The only technical support from Dell we've had so far was for laptops.

We had HPE ProLiants, but I haven't bought any of those since the last one several years ago. We've gone to Dell since then.

They have good longevity and good warranties. If there were an issue (and we haven't had any) they are covered.

I'd like them to be cheaper, but that's not the world we live in and that's not where the pound is at. 

The price was acceptable for what the product is. If I tried to build my own server, the cost difference would be negligible. And the brand support that Dell provides and the functionality that comes with the PowerEdge Servers made up the difference. So it makes sense. I don't have a problem with the cost. It is in line with what I'd expect.

I considered public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge Rack Servers, but that solution wasn't fit for purpose in this case. We have some public cloud stuff that is useful in some cases, but we wanted hardware onsite for this specific device.

In terms of native OS security features, we use Active Directory and we have BitLocker and some other things enabled. We mostly use them for compliance and because we have them. Nothing has forced me to look outside of the native-provided solutions.

To protect ourselves from malware and other firmware attacks, we have Mimecast for email endpoints and we have ESET Endpoint Security for all of our clients and servers.

The PowerEdge Rack Servers do what they say on the tin. I like them. And our latest one was delivered really fast. We ordered it on the 7th and it came on the 18th, which was unexpected and nice. That's a good turnaround time.

We do web hosting. Our web hosting servers, database servers, corporate cluster, and backup cluster are on Dell servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are pretty good in terms of energy consumption. Ours are pretty power-hungry, but we load them up with hard drives and CPUs, and they drink power. It is not Dell's fault. The power efficiency or the power supply is excellent. They are on par or better than the rest we used.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are excellent for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. We have put in platinums and many CPUs in it, and being able to get those in one form or two form factors is incredibly useful. It allows us to deliver as much power as we want without having to get the massive four and six RUs.

Having four-hour support is very handy. Having someone out there within four hours if something dies has been very handy.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business because we run very similar servers throughout our entire config so that we can be flexible. We do not have to go buy specific hardware. We can use one hardware to do all the jobs.

Consistency and reliability are valuable. They provide good support for part replacement, and when they cannot because the part is unavailable, they are pretty good at informing us and letting us know, but generally, these servers just sit in the data center and have been working 24/7 for years without any problems.

They are less temperamental with temperature. We have had some other providers whose servers would overheat even though they are in the same data center with the same specs as Dell, which did not overheat.

My biggest grievance is related to getting a caddy. We have decommissioned our old servers that we used for development or testing. You cannot buy hard drives for old servers from Dell. It is very annoying.

We tried the OpenManage console. We ran it up on a server with about 50 tracks going to it, and it kept crashing.

Another room for improvement is better OpenBMC implementation. I know Dell is getting into it now, but we do run multiple vendors for various reasons. Being able to have everyone in one would be great. Dell was the one who was missing from the party, and I do believe they have signed to implement it now. 

We have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for ten years.

They are very stable.

They are not scalable, but they are not meant to be. They are perfect for their role. If you want scalability, you should be using blade servers.

We are mostly using Dell R730, R740, and R750 because we have some old ones.

I would rate them a seven out of ten. I find that when I put in a ticket, they come back and ask me questions that I have already answered, or because I am dealing with level 1, they make suggestions that are absolutely irrelevant, and they waste my time dealing with it. 

I understand that they do have people who have no idea what they are doing call up, and they need to test these basic things, but it is very frustrating. There is no way to prove I am competent to skip level 1. 

Neutral

We are using HPE. We had Supermicro, but we were having issues, so we got rid of those. We looked at Gigabyte and SUSE, but they were a lot more expensive than Dell. We did not feel there was a lot of benefit. So, most of our fleet is HPE and Dell.

Dell servers are much better at temperature management than HPE. I do not have any problems with Dell servers, but the experience that I have been getting with sales at the moment has been very lackluster with Dell.

In terms of the physical hardware, both Dell and HPE are excellent. We run the same drives, CPUs, and memory. They both perform excellently. Dell servers are a bit more reliable and much more resilient to temperature.

The rails are difficult. The way they clip in seems good on paper, but when you are doing it yourself at a data center with a 30, 40, or 50 KG server, it is very difficult to try and line them up, whereas, with some of the competitors, you just kind of push in. They are much easier to put in.

We have absolutely seen an ROI. These servers are absolutely worth the money. We have no regrets. We still would not be using them otherwise. 

They cost a lot of money, but they are worth every cent of it because they just work. You just put them in. We run our data center in Sydney, Australia, but my office is based in Melbourne. If anything breaks in the data center, we have to fly to Sydney to fix it. We do not take many flights because we use enterprise hardware.

Dell is pretty good. good. I had a conversation with Dell a while ago due to a vendor. We got much better pricing from a competitor. When I looked at another company, Dell called me and asked why am I looking at someone else when they have a distributor. I told them that their pricing was not good, so Dell went back to the distributor, and we got much better pricing. It is displeasing that I had to do that, but at the same time, I understand that the company is trying to make as much money as they can. I do not mean that in a bad way. That is the way all companies are. They were just trying to get what they could. Other than that, it has been pretty good.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten only because there is always room for improvement, but I would not put anyone above them. I cannot think of a vendor that is on par. After ten years, I am still buying them.

My experience and background is in the OEM space. I help customers take their IP to market on a reliable server, and Dell is normally the go-to option for that.

Reliability is the main benefit. From a services standpoint, on the OEM side, customers always like the ability to deploy in other countries with their own IP. They can use the Dell tier-one global service. Normally, the service appeals to the customers more than the platform.

They are seen as a very power-efficient option, but I do not have any metrics to back it up.

Within that space, one of the most valuable features is the management. We are able to do remote monitoring and installation of hardware and software, and that tends to be very popular with customers. When customers are deploying their IP out into the field, being able to handle the management and servicing of platforms remotely to diagnose issues is always useful.

I do not have any input as such. There can be a bit more expansive AI portfolio, but I have not worked on any AI projects with Dell, so I might not be up to date in knowledge.

There is probably room to expand the lower-end range.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge servers throughout my career. It has been seven or eight years.

We do not have too many reports of the platform being unstable, but it is not something I would directly get involved with.

I do not work directly with the hardware, so I cannot speak from a quality perspective and compare it to others, but Dell has some of the best services when looking at comparable server vendors. Their after-sales and pre-sales support is probably the best in the business. 

My experience has always been positive. I would rate their customer service and support a nine out of ten. No one gets a ten.

Positive

In the environments I work in, they are almost entirely on-prem, but I am not involved in the deployment.

Pricing is very competitive. I have not been too involved in the licensing, but from a hardware perspective, I always find them to be competitive.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten.