Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our office automation and our VDI needs. It offers a robust and reliable solution that can scale with our business requirements while providing the flexibility and manageability necessary to streamline IT operations.

As a customer, we find that these servers offer excellent durability and require minimal maintenance over time. They deliver strong performance, backed by reliable support services. The ability to control the servers remotely through the rack interface is particularly valuable, as it eliminates the need for onsite visits or physical access. All that's required is the password, providing full access to manage the servers efficiently without any additional hassle.

The server energy consumption has shown significant improvement. Looking back about a decade, energy efficiency wasn't a major concern, leading to higher consumption levels. However, there's been a noticeable decrease in power consumption in recent years, resulting in a smaller environmental footprint. This reduction in power usage is largely attributed to the servers becoming more compact, requiring less power overall.

Addressing the evolving demands of high-performance workloads requires a versatile range of server options. By conducting a thorough assessment of our requirements and performance expectations, we identify the most suitable model from the diverse array of choices available. This process ensures that we select a server that aligns closely with our specific needs. With such a broad spectrum of products to choose from, there is consistently a model that fits our requirements effectively.

It significantly reduces unplanned production downtime. In our entirely virtualized environment, we can seamlessly place one server into maintenance mode, conduct complete hardware and software upgrades, and then transition to the next server. While the software solutions provided with virtualization products play a key role in this process, Dell servers also contribute to this uptime reliability. Remarkably, we have experienced no downtime whatsoever in the past five years.

The combination with the OpenManage, along with the ease of installation, configuration, and maintenance, is the most valuable aspect for me.

There have been certain environmental concerns, but they don't pose a significant issue for me as my focus is on maximizing performance, especially in providing a fast API environment for both my customers and myself. Larger customers might benefit from servers that strike a better balance between performance and environmental considerations.

We have been working with it for approximately twenty years.

When comparing Dell's PowerEdge Rack Servers with competitors like HP's Proliant servers, as a Dell partner, we have experience with both brands and their respective services. In our assessment, Dell outperforms HP in several key areas, notably in terms of support and ease of maintenance. While HP offers OneView for server management, which some find easier to use than Dell's OpenManage, this might be a subjective opinion. Overall, Dell's PowerEdge servers excel in delivering superior support and streamlined maintenance processes compared to HP's Proliant servers.

Deployment typically takes around one hour.

We have noticed a return on investment.

The pricing is considered fair.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We have implemented the PowerEdge servers in data centers for intelligence, governments, banks, hospitals, and for different use cases. It's a very robust product. 

We're a Dell Gold partner, and we sell services for our clients. We've been working in this domain for a long time.

We're using the seven series and the six series, and we previously used the eight series.

Most of our implementations are completed on-premises.

PowerEdge's system management capabilities help increase staff productivity.

It provides centralized management capabilities for large environments. In data centers, implementing multi-servers and managing different kinds of resources from a single portal definitely helps us a lot.

PowerEdge reduces data processing times. The server must be set up well to do this. Knowing your application and how to set up a real configuration that will map your request, helps a lot in the PowerEdge environment.

The enabling of full automation has affected the operations of our company.
This is the target of every client and organization. The servers fully support automation. A combination of a company's strategy when implementing solutions and having applications that are synchronized with the hardware requirement will lead to a very good result. The hardware is the best part of it because it's so easy. The hardware supports big implementations. If the structure is right, the results will be very good.

PowerEdge hasn't let us down in any situation. It's a very robust system.

We haven't faced any kind of downtime with applications, especially in analytics, because we implement a PowerEdge cluster and support it with storage. The infrastructure is highly available based on the Dell server.

From our implementations over the years and the new demand in technology, we haven't faced any kind of problems related to hardware based on PowerEdge. Everything is based on the application itself and the algorithm that the client uses through the servers. The problem isn't with the servers. The problem is with development.

It's all about processing. If you use a different kind of application that needs a lot of resources, that is a key factor, especially in data collection, open-source data, and applying different analytics over that. That will need a lot of processing, and the hardware is a key factor in that part.

Full automation is fully supported with PowerEdge. From the server perspective, it is fully compliant.

We haven't faced any problems with the power supplies. The consumption of power is robust. We still have slots for the new hard discs for availability and upgrading RAM, but the machine itself has been working nonstop for ten years.

We haven't faced any problems with new demands for digital transformation and infrastructure development.

The system is very updated. The machine itself is secure, but it depends on the client's environment and security strategy.

PowerEdge has good value for energy consumption. We know this from other vendors that have the same data centers that we used to work with. It provides better performance in terms of power consumption. More power is saved with the use of a full cabinet of PowerEdge servers versus other solutions with multi-servers.

We work in environments with systems in analytics, AI, Hadoop infrastructure, open source, and data gathering. We have those kinds of servers in our setups, and we never face problems when running the latest high-demand applications. We have an advantage in getting those results on PowerEdge servers rather than other servers.

We had some applications in artificial intelligence. Some of the clients are starting to adopt those use cases. We didn't face any problems adopting those kinds of solutions, although it's still an open discussion.

We are very familiar with the Dell portal, updates, supports, and assessments.

The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller telemetry for monitoring the PowerEdge system data and providing analytics is very simple and accessible. For centralized management, it's a good value. These kinds of implementations in a big data center make a difference.

We have CloudIQ in the machine learning systems that we are implementing for some of our clients, and those are based on Dell PowerEdge. We have those kinds of predictive analytics, and the hardware is doing great so far.

Dell EMC is a combination of processing, storage, and power. We're in a really good position in terms of technology, trends, and the leaders in the market. 

Dell has different types of servers that can fit different types of businesses.

Different types of applications that are now trendy in the market, like AI, are still big topics that are not mapped correctly in the server and storage environment. Knowing those kinds of activities and definitions will help us more to position these kinds of servers for the client.

I have used this solution since 2005.

It's very stable. We have been using it for ten years.

It's easy to scale.

I would rate technical support an eight out of ten. We have never had a problem with technical support. There are a lot of different layers of support, and they're all very responsive. Dell is a very good company.

Positive

We used to work with HP most of the time, and we worked with servers from Cisco for a short time.

Dell used to have different categories of servers that can fit different types of businesses. Sometimes we find that small servers have good specs over other competition, which is key for some new clients. For some new businesses, small servers can help achieve different targets for SMEs.

The setup is very simple. When deploying PowerEdge, we used the automated server and OS deployment features. Our clients are very familiar with the setup. It's straightforward and very fast. If someone is knowledgeable in IT, they are familiar with PowerEdge.

As a partner, most of the time we help clients. However, most of the clients are knowledgeable enough to implement the servers in a very simple way.

PowerEdge is not a cheap product. It's a quality product, but there is always competition.

If you want to buy a server, you need an operating system, and most of it is Microsoft. A bundled solution costs less than a separate operating system and hardware.

We cannot compare public cloud solutions with PowerEdge. This decision is related to the availability of features over the internet versus something that you own in your data center, your servers, and your manageability and power. Implementing those kinds of servers on-premises will cost more, but having a cloud solution with on-premises storage is more feasible and economically better.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

I cannot recommend a solution other than PowerEdge. I'm very happy with it and proud that we have it implemented.

I would definitely recommend this solution to those who are interested in using it. It's a robust, solid solution, and the hardware is designed carefully. The features and capabilities are built-in and it's a very supportive, long-term company. There are continuous efforts for development.

It's a standard server that we've got. It's a site server, so it'll hold up to a manufacturing server and a normal Active Directory server.

We have Dell PowerEdge servers with pre-installed Microsoft Windows Server OS. For security, we mainly have antivirus. We've got web security monitoring tools. In addition, we've got firewalls. So, we've got a number of technologies that will hopefully protect us from ransomware.

Reliability is its main benefit. It works. I have not had many servers go down with hardware failure.

Email and ERP systems are critical to our business. We've also got manufacturing applications running on it as well. Those are one of the biggest key areas for our business. For the manufacturing and everything else, it's highly integrated. We need a server that's always on.

It has been good in terms of the impact on our IT infrastructure and the ability to handle the demand. It does what it says on the tin. We haven't had any issues with it. It's a server. It's one of those things that once it's in, it's in. We don't want it to do anything special because it's there for our infrastructure. It looks after our infrastructure, and it has been doing its job, and it has been working. Because we've not had any issues, its reliability has made a big impact on our business.

The ease of installation is valuable. The physical side of installation is quite intuitive and has got better by leaps and bounds. The hardware has always been fantastic, and it has always been reliable.

The iDRAC is one of my favorite features of this solution. From an IT or management perspective, we are able to easily control the servers with it. It has been the biggest help.

Its pricing could be better. In terms of features, I've got nothing to improve.

I have about 25 years of experience with the product.

Its stability is very good. Its performance has always gone up in leaps and bounds. They've always been ahead of the curve, and we've always got the best technology from Dell.

Its scalability is very good.

Their support is good. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

Positive

I previously used an HP solution. I switched because of my experience with peer reviews for Dell products. Ever since we made the change to Dell servers, we've not gone back. There is the ease of use of racking and the ease of use of remote management. There is reliability and simplification of the server as well. They've not overcomplicated it. Those are the main selling points for Dell servers in comparison to HP.

Its initial setup was very straightforward. It took a day. We have a certain process that we follow. We've had a server setup from a couple of years ago, and we follow that process. It's just making sure that all the relevant information is in.

It's very difficult to measure, but it should be good. We've made an initial investment in the capital costs for the server purchase, and if we get good five years of use out of it, then we've got good returns for it.

We could realize its benefits straightaway after the deployment.

They seem to have become more expensive. I've not done a comparison with other vendors recently. If the price increases more, we would need to do a comparison next year just to make sure that we are benchmarking our server purchases correctly.

We did consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge Rack Servers, but it wasn't a choice. We are in a hybrid environment. We do have a number of servers internally, but then we have public cloud servers as well. Overall, the public cloud is cheaper because I don't require internal expertise and internal maintenance for the physical environment, which is cost-saving. The only reason for getting PowerEdge internally was to meet the demand for great speed for our manufacturing services. Therefore, we have to have something internal.

I would definitely recommend it. You just have to install it, and that's it. It works.

I would rate it a 10 out of 10.

We employ Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers within our vSphere cluster to support our business applications.

Virtual storage, bandwidth optimization with caching, SSD integration, and similar features contribute significantly to the overall performance and efficiency of the servers. These advancements provide a notable improvement in operations.

The PowerEdge servers have poor energy consumption performance.

For the sustainability of our company, we plan to purchase new PowerEdge servers. Our current servers have been in use for five years and are nearing the end of their life cycle. Therefore, we intend to replace them with new PowerEdge servers to ensure continued efficiency and satisfaction.

It contributed to reducing production downtime by approximately 20%.

One of the key reasons we integrate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, particularly the ID Rack model, is for its remote monitoring and administration capabilities. This feature is essential for managing the servers efficiently, allowing remote access and administration without the need for physical monitors or on-site presence.

Using SD cards for installing the hypervisor is not particularly reliable. Its customer support should be improved.

I have been using the servers for fifteen years.

It offers excellent stability.

Tech support can be slow to respond at times, and there are occasions when they seem hesitant to trust our assessments. This can lead to prolonged troubleshooting processes, often requiring us to provide extensive logs for investigation. I would rate it seven out of ten.

Neutral

We utilize various types of servers, with a predominant focus on HPE models.
In my view, there isn't a significant distinction between them; they essentially perform the same tasks but in slightly different ways. There are variations in management tools, however. Customers seem to prefer Dell, possibly due to their positive experiences with the products and alignment with specific guidelines or regulations.

Deployment was straightforward, and to be honest, not much different from other solutions.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We are using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for the data storage of applications.

Before implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we had many servers. Thanks to the implementation of these servers, we now have all the servers concentrated in one solution.

We had multiple solutions that did the same job, and thanks to this solution, I now only have to use one solution. It not only improves our space; it is also much less expensive for our company.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have the PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture approach to security. It is the most important thing for our company. It is not an option for us to continue working without this execution modality.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very sustainable in terms of energy consumption. If I have many applications and solutions, the consumption will be high, but if I work with only one, the consumption level will be better.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are good for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. All the data I work with is very heavy. We use PowerEdge servers because they can handle the data without any problem. This is very reassuring.

For us, the issue of electricity pollution is very important. This system is perfect for us in terms of sustainability.

Using PowerEdge Rack Servers has not much affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business. For us, it has always been very important to have a fast response time to keep our customers satisfied, even before we implemented the servers. That is why it has not impacted our flexibility much.

The user interface is very simple, and the support team is always happy to answer any questions we have. They are very easy to contact.

Whenever I have worked with Dell, I have felt a lot of simplification.

The price is very high.

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

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very stable.

At the moment, I do not know. Next year, we are planning to invest more in these servers, and I guess this is a good sign about its scalability.

Their support is perfect. There are never problems communicating with them. If you have any questions, you can contact them very quickly.

Positive

We were using another solution previously.

I was not involved in its implementation. It was my team that was involved. What I know is that it was very easy to implement.

In terms of implementation strategy, we spoke with Dell and our specialists, and everything was very easy.

We have a hybrid cloud. We use Microsoft as the cloud provider. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are currently being used only in our department.

The biggest ROI is time in terms of the time it takes you to access each application and upload data. It would be difficult if there were different solutions.

Its accessibility is extraordinary.

They are a little expensive, but in the end, with everything they provide you, the solution is perfect.

We did not evaluate other solutions.

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

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

Accesibilidad extraordinaria, rentabilidad y soporte perfecto

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

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

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

Estamos utilizando servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge para el almacenamiento de datos de aplicaciones.

Antes de implementar los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge, teníamos muchos servidores. Gracias a la implementación de estos servidores ahora tenemos todos los servidores concentrados en una sola solución.

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

Teníamos varias soluciones que hacían el mismo trabajo y gracias a esta solución, ahora solo tengo que usar una solución. No sólo mejora nuestro espacio; también es mucho menos costoso para nuestra empresa.

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge tienen el enfoque de seguridad PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture. Es lo más importante para nuestra empresa. No es una opción para nosotros seguir trabajando sin esta modalidad de ejecución.

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge son muy sostenibles en términos de consumo de energía. Si tengo muchas aplicaciones y soluciones el consumo será alto, pero si trabajo con una sola el nivel de consumo será mejor.

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge son buenos para manejar las necesidades cambiantes de las cargas de trabajo de alto rendimiento. Todos los datos con los que trabajo son muy pesados. Usamos servidores PowerEdge porque pueden manejar los datos sin ningún problema. Esto es muy tranquilizador.

Para nosotros la cuestión de la contaminación eléctrica es muy importante. Este sistema es perfecto para nosotros en términos de sostenibilidad.

El uso de servidores en rack PowerEdge no ha afectado mucho la flexibilidad general de nuestras operaciones o negocios. Para nosotros siempre ha sido muy importante tener un tiempo de respuesta rápido para mantener satisfechos a nuestros clientes, incluso antes de implementar los servidores y por esta razón no ha afectado mucho a nuestra flexibilidad.

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

La interfaz de usuario es muy sencilla y el equipo de soporte siempre está dispuesto a responder cualquier pregunta que tengamos. Son muy fáciles de contactar.

Siempre que he trabajado con Dell, he sentido mucha simplificación.

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

El precio es muy alto.

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

Estábamos usando otra solución anteriormente.

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?

Son un poco caros, pero al final con todo lo que te aportan la solución es perfecta.

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

Por el momento no lo sé. El año que viene, planeamos invertir más en estos servidores y creo que esto es una buena señal sobre su escalabilidad.

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

Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge son muy estables.

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

El mayor retorno de la inversión es el tiempo en términos del tiempo que lleva acceder a cada aplicación y cargar datos. Sería difícil si no fuera una sola solución sino diferentes soluciones.

Su accesibilidad es extraordinaria.

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

No participé en su implementación. Fue mi equipo el que estuvo involucrado. Lo que sé es que fue muy fácil de implementar.

En cuanto a la estrategia de implementación, hablamos con Dell y nuestros especialistas y todo fue muy fácil.

Tenemos una nube híbrida. Utilizamos Microsoft como proveedor de la nube. Actualmente, los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge se utilizan únicamente en nuestro departamento.

Cuéntanos tu experiencia con el servicio y soporte al cliente.

Su soporte es perfecto. Nunca hay problemas para comunicarse con ellos. Si tienes alguna pregunta, puedes contactarlos rápidamente.

¿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 ocho de diez.

We are using R640 and R740 models. We use the solution as the back end and front end of our environment.

We use it for computing, storage, and server capacity for our back-end and front-end workloads.

The product provides good quality for its price. PowerEdge is one of the best in the market. We have been using it for 12 to 15 years, and the server has broken only once. The product is reliable. It is really important for us. The tool delivers everything we need. It does what we want it to do.

The product must improve its integration with VMware. It is really important to us. They should make the management more out of the box so we have less maintenance.

I have been using the solution for 12 to 15 years.

The tool is stable.

The scalability depends a little bit on the software we use.

The initial setup is pretty easy. It is an out-of-the-box experience. It's plug-and-play. We click it in, attach the cables, and start.

As an enterprise customer, the pricing is fine for us. There are also possibilities to interact over the price and discuss. We have no complaints.

We have evaluated HPE and Cisco. The main difference we noticed is interoperability. We use a lot of VMware software. The integration with Dell is always perfect. It is a big advantage for us. HPE lacks interoperability.

The Cyber Resilient Architecture approach is a good step. Hackers always try to get into infrastructures or use ransomware to encrypt files. Dell has taken it very seriously. We can see there's a lot of development in PowerEdge. New services are coming out. It's more powerful. It also has less energy consumption. They're going in the right direction.

We use the OpenManage console to patch our servers. It made some really good developments in the last few years. We can just press a button, and the upgrade continues. We're very happy with it. It has made our staff's work easier and reduced the time spent on tasks. A task that took us 40 hours before now takes us 20 hours to complete.

The product has provided us with reliability in a positive way. 

HPE and Lenovo are the product's competitors.

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

I integrate PowerEdge for customers who buy the servers and storage, doing the integration between them. I have helped integrate 20 to 30 customers.

Dell PowerEdge powered by Intel helps improve organizations that we work with a lot.

I like the integration between iDRAC and the system. It is very easy to update the framework and install the operating systems. 

Intel's Xeon CPU makes the system work very well and fast. I like this type of CPU. It has helped to improve the performance of targeted workloads by 70%.

Some customers took the machine to the extreme, which makes it a bit slower and delays the system. Since the customer can put a lot of VMs with a lot of data, it can use up the CPU memory to 20% to 25%, which slows down the system. However, if we reduce the CPU memory or split it to another, then it works very well.

I would like to change the physical rails to be more like how HPE rails are formatted and organized.

I have been using PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for almost three years.

PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. The organization will not have downtime at all if you can migrate VMs between servers, but you need at least two. With two or three clusters, you can convert the machines.

The stability is very good, if you have at least two servers. Then, you have full redundancy of all the VMs and the system. If one server has downtime, then all the data in the VMs on the server convert automatically to the other. Therefore, you need at least two or three servers to have full redundancy.

Our customers can run the systems in their organization 24/7 without any downtime.

PowerEdge offers a lot of types, which is very good for customer scalability, from small businesses to large businesses. 

I have not used their technical support.

It is very quick to deploy. It takes something like 30 minutes to an hour for us to deploy.

I recommend reading the documentation before you deploy the product.

It makes the integration with a lot of storage systems cheaper. 

The pricing is very good because there are a lot of types of PowerEdge Rack Servers. You have the R540, R640, and R740. The prices are very scalable through the specific server, e.g., small businesses can take the R640 while large businesses can take the R740 or R840. Thus, Dell technologies touch on every organization.

I like Dell Technologies' products, such as PowerEdge and PowerStore, more than their competitors. It is very easy to work with Dell because of all their documentation for deployments. It is much easier than their competitors.

There are no issues with security in my experience.

I am hoping that some customers will use Dell’s OpenManage console in the future.

I would rate the product as nine out of 10.

The setup is hybrid right now. It was formerly strictly on-premise and we used it for our file storage and for our virtual machines.

Originally, it was purchased for strict file storage and access on-prem. However, when COVID hit, we ended up purchasing laptops for every single employee that we had. Having to use our new file storage device, which is no longer on-premises as they're now at home, was easy. That's why we went with a hybrid environment. We put a lot of the data into the cloud and backed it up in the on-premises file storage.

It allowed us to move some file storage that we had around. It allowed us to really look into what we had and what we were using. Looking at Apex, it is setting us up for when it will need a refresh or when it is at its end of life.

The most valuable aspects include hot swapping and the elasticity as far as being able to scale. We had a bunch of stuff on an old, existing EMC. The company was unaware that they had to keep the files that they had for so long. We realized that once we were meeting the seven-year mark and we could start purging some of those files, we had to scale down a little bit.

The initial purchase that we had was a little big, however, as we started adding more users that were working from home and had their own drive, OneDrive, we had to expand it a little bit. Dell was able to ship me bigger hard drives.

When it comes to running the latest high-demand applications, PowerEdge is good. The VMware that we had was almost end-of-life, so we had to upgrade it and Dell helped out with that quite a bit, putting it on our PowerEdge and assisting us with a lot of stuff that VMware didn’t. VMware just said, "Here. Here's your product. Good luck.” Dell was a lot more helpful. They had a lot of engineers that knew about that service that we were trying to tap into a little better.

The BIOS recovery was something we used because we had a huge power outage and a power strike when one of our air conditioners had a bad power surge run through it at our facility. Dell helped us rebuild our actual BIOS system in it, as one of the mirror arrays that we were using just wasn't being seen. We were afraid it was a hardware issue, however, it was really a BIOS issue that we couldn't see right off the jump. We’re glad Dell was there to help.

The solution's analytics helped to decrease production downtime by at least 30%. I'm in Arizona and down in Tucson we don't get that much downtime. We have a lot of battery backups, we have a generator system, and more. However, when it does happen, the analytics of it, as far as the trends on what months the monsoon season hits, it kept all in the logs.

The system management capabilities of PowerEdge helped increase stack productivity. We've had a little bit of turnover in our system admin department, however, having the ability to go back and look through the logs and see how users ended up using their home drive, their shared files, and their encrypted files really helped out my new guys coming on board.

The solution's accelerated GPUs help support demanding workloads in our organization. We had a couple of changing workloads due to the fact that when people shifted from home, they were hitting the server from a different angle. They were coming in off a virtual private network instead of being on-premises and the system didn't blink.

I’m not sure if PowerEdge helped to reduce data processing time in our organization as we don't crunch a lot. We do have a lot of videos coming in and a lot of video editing going on, so in that way, it does help.

The PowerEdge system management frameworks enable us to progress towards full automation. We knew what we were looking for when we refreshed this last model and we purchased a new server just from the analytics we got off the first one.

It helps me forecast better. We don't grow exponentially. Teachers are hard to come by, however, some will leave and some will stay. The business models are the same, yet they expect more. Now they want to do a video. They want to capture and record the videos and the Zoom meetings that they're doing, therefore, it's a little different.

It's more from the pandemic, however, the logistics part of it could be better. Getting an actual bare-bones server was a little difficult when we ordered it in beginning. I'm still waiting on the printers that I ordered last year as well. That's the only thing I would really say and I'm sure it has to do with the pandemic.

The latency of it is what we're running into, as our teachers do a lot of video captures, video teaching, Zoom, and Teams video conferencing, and their latency is getting worse with the public domain.

I've used the solution since I've been with the company, probably for the last three years.

The scalability is very good. There were different options that we could have gone to. We could either have gotten smaller hard drives and/or downsized if we needed to. They knew our business model was going to change when the pandemic hit.

We have about 650 end users on this particular solution and 80% of them are teachers. The rest are administrative professionals.

Currently, we are planning to put a new server that we have in the mix online and up and running with the PowerEdge server that we have. Now, with Apex and more coming out, we're looking to possibly pivot.

Technical support is very good. We had to call Dell technical support when our BIOS got corrupted and they were on the spot. They escalated us to tier two within 20 minutes. It was really quick.

Positive

We did previously use a different solution, however, I cannot remember what our large area network's device was.

Dell came in with a very competitive offer with the first model of storage that we got, so that's what my predecessor went to, and we kept it around.

The initial setup was very straightforward. We knew exactly where we wanted to put it in our array and how we wanted to set it up, what the power requirements would be, where it would fit on my battery backup system, and the plan for system recovery in case it had to be gracefully shut down. It was super easy.

When deploying PowerEdge, we didn't get a chance to use the automated server and OS deployment features.

The deployment was scheduled for six hours and it took three. 

We actually had to migrate users off of an older version that we had onto the new box that we had. The implementation strategy was all about really getting our users off the box and making sure nobody was trying to access it. After that, it was just migrating users over, setting up the new box, putting it online, and running tests.

For maintenance, normally we use a server admin, myself, and maybe one other developer that helps us with the syslogs on it. There are probably three of us altogether.

We used an integrated reseller for the deployment. They were amazing.

We had an issue with a brownout or a power strike and our BIOS got a bit corrupted, however, it was nothing that couldn't be recovered on the fly.

We've seen an ROI. I don't have any details offhand. I know when we first purchased it, we got a pretty good deal on it and we didn't know if it would actually meet end-of-life due to the usage that we had on it. However, it outperformed our metrics.

I'd advise others to use the pro services that come along with it, that are available for purchase with it. It helped us immensely. If you were to extend the service contract and get the pro level, it costs a bit more.

We did evaluate other options. When it's over a certain dollar amount, we have to go out and get at least four bids.

I can't remember the exact version we have. We just purchased a new Dell SAN.

We do not use PowerEdge for artificial intelligence applications yet. We're looking into it. Right now, a lot of the video data capture that we do is with children, school-aged children, and children in a preschool environment. We were thinking the AI might be able to help us where the teacher might not be looking. If they had a camera in the room to capture the relevant stuff that was going on as far as what the lesson plan was about that day, it might be helpful.

I have not had a chance to use the solution's iDRAC telemetry for monitoring PowerEdge system data and providing analytics, however, we're really looking into that right now. We got the new SAN going in and we'd like to monitor a little better.

We do not use the solution's CloudIQ for predictive analytic capabilities yet.

It is a very stable product. It's something that we use reliably for backups. It's something we use reliably for our main server for a long time and we'd definitely buy another.

My biggest takeaway is it's not as easy going straight to the cloud when you were an on-premises provider. If you are an on-premises provider and you have all your services on-premises, going to the cloud takes a couple of steps. It's not just one big jump.

I'd rate the product nine out of ten. If I could get the same amount of storage that I got three years ago now, I'd rate it ten out of ten. I'd order it as quickly as I did when we ordered it the first time.