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it_user485724 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Analyst at a local government with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
I just like their reliability.

What is most valuable?

I just like the reliability of them. I've never had an issue with them.

How has it helped my organization?

We only have about 400 employees citywide but if they go down for a day, that angers our citizens so they have to be up all the time and I can't have down time. This gives me the ability to do that.

What needs improvement?

Being in Canada, and with exchange-rate fluctuation, it would be good if I could get a better price point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Since I have been in this position, for the last seven years, I have yet to have - knock on wood - any failure at all. I don't know if they use better parts or whatever, but they just don't fail. It's one less headache for me, so that's what I like.

We refresh our hardware every four years, even if we don't have to. I have ProLiant servers that are still running, and they're eight years old. Obviously disks and stuff like that have been replaced just for my peace of mind. Like I said, I've yet to have one fail.

Buyer's Guide
HPE ProLiant DL Servers
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about HPE ProLiant DL Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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How are customer service and support?

I like their customer service better than Dell's. When I do have to have a call or if I have a small little bug or something like that, it's easier to find support for it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I had an issue with Dell before so that's why I went away from Dell and went to HPE. I briefly used HPE at former positions, so I knew what they're pretty much about; they were my next step, to put it that way.

What other advice do I have?

Just make sure you size it right off the bat. Make sure you know what you want.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user567606 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
A reliable solution to run standard and proprietary applications.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is reliability. We virtually have no problems with it. We run most of our applications on ProLiant DLs. We also run Exchange, and proprietary applications such as Attorney Information Manager and an accounting package called ProVantage.

How has it helped my organization?

It has improved our organization in terms of providing more speed and reliability while being low maintenance. We're totally dependent upon it as we move forward.

What needs improvement?

There's nothing that I would add to it, except maybe on the dashboard. There could be a little more analytics. I would like to see some proactive warnings about maintenance issues. If we were to have an issue, I'd like some more advanced warning. I’d like to see some alerting features. We’ve only a few issues, but I would like to see some alerting improvements.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, It's a perfect fit. We have had no stability issues whatsoever.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's been very scalable. Maintenance wise it's a non-issue.

How is customer service and technical support?

We have used their 24-hour tech support. They've been very good and responsive. They meet the deadline.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before choosing HPE, we looked at Dell. Between Dell and HPE, I think you get a lot of similar bells and whistles but I think in the end HPE is the king.

What other advice do I have?

HPE has excellent maintenance agreements. They provide on-site, 24-hour response times. They deliver agreements. We're not ones to readily replace equipment so they have good extended warranties, which we rely on pretty regularly. This was one of the more important criteria because I work for a law firm and they're not big on shelling out money, unless they absolutely have to. We get the biggest bang for the buck with HPE. Again, I think it's the warranty service that you receive from the HPE that makes the difference. It's reliable. You should always shop around for price. Vendors are always willing to compete in the marketplace.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
HPE ProLiant DL Servers
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about HPE ProLiant DL Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1417017 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Support Executive at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
A stable solution with integrated alerts
Pros and Cons
  • "The feature that I find the most valuable is that all alerts are integrated with HPE InfoSight. Any problem related to an HPE server can be solved remotely at L1, L2 level."
  • "They can increase the controller cache. Currently, it has a controller cache of up to 4 GB. The RAID controller card comes with a maximum of 4 GB cache in HPE servers, whereas it comes with a maximum of 8 GB cache in Dell servers. They can also improve the port size. HP provides a 25 GB port on the server, whereas both Dell and Cisco provide a 100 GB port."

What is our primary use case?

One of our customers wants some on-premises rack servers and AD servers. I suggested buying an HPE server and doing virtualization on that. We are considering HPE ProLiant Gen9 Servers.

What is most valuable?

The feature that I find the most valuable is that all alerts are integrated with HPE InfoSight. Any problem related to an HPE server can be solved remotely at L1, L2 level.

What needs improvement?

They can increase the controller cache. Currently, it has a controller cache of up to 4 GB. The RAID controller card comes with a maximum of 4 GB cache in HPE servers, whereas it comes with a maximum of 8 GB cache in Dell servers. 

They can also improve the port size. HP provides a 25 GB port on the server, whereas both Dell and Cisco provide a 100 GB port. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for five to ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability depends upon the solution we are proposing.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It took a maximum of one and a half hours. The deployment duration also depends upon the operating system.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. HPE servers are better than Dell and Wipro servers. 

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user484980 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
The iLO has been a solid out-of-band management tool for us.

What is most valuable?

They're reliable. They work and I'm familiar with them. The iLO has been a solid out-of-band management tool for us, in comparison to some other out-of-bands that I've had to deal with. The performance out of the box, the stability of the servers, HPE's turnaround for support, and resolving issues.

What needs improvement?

The new rail kits are terrible. The older rail kits were great and simple. It took one person to do it. Now the new rail kits for the DL line, since the Gen-8s, are terrible. It takes more than one person to be there present in order to rack one of those systems without endangering yourself or the server by letting it fall to the ground. The older rail kits were great, the new ones are horrible.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Very seldom do we have problems with the hardware. If we do, it's a grand module that went bad or something that went bad, or a hard drive that failed, but otherwise the system boards themselves rarely give us a hard time and it's good for production.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If we need more, we buy more, and put more in. It's all the whether we have one or five thousand.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support was good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Primarily, my organization has been a ProLiant job since I've been there. Prior to that, I wasn't in this industry to have alternate experiences.

How was the initial setup?

The Gen8's and previous were pretty easy going. We just received Apollo 2000s that we're trying to deploy to now, and getting over the humps of learning the new UEFI deployment which is kind of mandatory. It pushed us over the edge from legacy bios mode to UEFI, so we've got some lessons to learn in our organization to deal with that change with the new Gen9's.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

HPE seemingly always wins the cost-to-benefit ratio for performance.

What other advice do I have?

If we were to move away from using Proliants and HP, I think I'd be disappointed. I've had nothing but good experiences really, racking stacking and deploying to ProLiants. Based on my track record I would say that's probably a pretty good path to go down.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user363369 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It's low maintenance in that we don't have to spend a ton of time configuring it.

Valuable Features

They're reliable and they never break. They're very manageable. The management tools that are available are excellent. We've looked at other solutions in the past, and we always conclude that we don't want to move away from ProLiant and the BladeSystem. They just work, which is basically what our requirement is.

Particularly in the pre-HP days, with Compaq, we used to buy bigger servers, but we've got to a point now where we basically only buy two types of servers, either the ProLiant DL380 or the BL460 Blades. We don't buy any other hardware.

Improvements to My Organization

We're a very small IT group within the enterprise and we haven't got the money or the time to be spending tons of time configuring stuff out and messing around with it, fixing it when it breaks, and that kind of thing. It's a low-maintenance solution. Essentially, we don't have to do much of that with ProLiant, so it's absolutely a good fit for us.

Room for Improvement

The only improvement would be cost. If they keep driving the costs down -- and I don't think they're expensive for what you're getting -- they'd keep everybody happy.

Use of Solution

We've been using HP ever since they were available as Compaq.

Deployment Issues

We've never had any deployment issues.

Stability Issues

We've used them for many, many years and we get very few hardware issues.

Scalability Issues

It scales just fine.

Customer Service and Technical Support

They're really good. I've never had any issues. The few times that we do have to call HP, they always help us out.

Other Solutions Considered

It's quite hard comparing other solutions because I've been solely on ProLiant for so long now I don't have too much to compare to. Although, I looked at Fuji Systems a couple of years ago and it's just massively complex for no apparent reason. I don't see a better fit for our company.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Project Manager at Realnux
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
High-quality, user-friendly, and quick to install
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution has always been very stable and reliable."
  • "The solution is a little bit expensive."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is primarily used for computing and to do database allocations

What is most valuable?

The product is very easy to use. It's extremely user-friendly.

The solution has always been very stable and reliable.

It's a well-made product. The construction is very high quality.

We found the installation to be very easy. It also does not take very long to deploy.

Technical support has always been very good. They and knowledgeable and they respond in a good amount of time.

What needs improvement?

The solution is a little bit expensive. It would be ideal if HPE could adjust its pricing to make the product more affordable.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been dealing with the solution for more than ten years. It's been at least a decade. It's been a long time.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has been very stable over the years. It doesn't crash or freeze. It doesn't have bugs or glitches. The performance is always reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is quite scalable. If a company needs to expand the product, it can do so with ease.

We have about ten or 12 users of the solution at this time.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support has always been very helpful and responsive when we have reached out to them. We're satisfied with the level of support they provide us. They've been very good over the years.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also use Dell servers as well. However, it's based on the project and the client.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not complex at all. It's very straightforward and quite easy. A company shouldn't have any issues with the setup.

You can install it in less than ten minutes. It's a pretty quick process.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation ourselves, in-house. It was very easy. Our hardware team, our engineering team, handled the entire process. We have eight engineers on-hand that can handle implementations.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is not cheap. It's quite expensive. It seems less competitive than other options on the market.

You don't pay for a license; you pay for the hardware outright.

What other advice do I have?

We're an integrator. We can help clients set up the solution.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations. It's a very high-quality product.

In general, we have been very satisfied with the capabilities of the solution. It's well made and works well. I'd rate it at an eight out of ten overall.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
CTO at Cloud Technology
Real User
Performs well and has scalability potential with relaibelity and customized performance
Pros and Cons
  • "There is a lot of extra storage. I am only using half of what I need."
  • "If they could put a SAN storage or resend it in the same product, it would be very helpful and more powerful."

What is our primary use case?

I used it for building an application, database middleware servers. It performed very well for my needs.

How has it helped my organization?

IT is easily manageable and expandable as well as usability for anything. especially for clustering using VMware vCenter server solution.

What is most valuable?

There is a lot of processors, I am only using half of what I need. In addition, they update the ILO to V. 5 so maintenance remains very easy. You can easily monitor everything from office needs, storage, performance, power supply, and temperature.

What needs improvement?

If they could put more disk array in one node or rebuild it in the same server, it would be very helpful and more powerful.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is better with the added microSD instead of LD, so you can still install your operation into the microSD and give the other storage back.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Easy, fast and strong to scale in a different performance like disks, memory,  and power.

How are customer service and technical support?

During our first year of using tech support, it was very good. But recently there has been a lack of help from their support team. Unless it is a special case, they are not very helpful.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Used OLD IBM, Dell, Sun and Huawei they are good but not like HPE, give you deferent feels.

How was the initial setup?

Actually, there are no comlexity in the setup everything is straightforward and clear.

What about the implementation team?

All my implementation are done in house one, as it is very symbol and easy to learn.

What was our ROI?

Four months approximately according to the solution that using.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

My advice is to start getting the training by themselves for how to manage HP Dl servers as the setup is easy to learn then make pricing according to model number and performance last ask the cost from Gold partner of HP as partners give a good discount.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Actually, every company that worked with have preferred vendor according to what systems integrators gave to them,  in Thishknet I did the evaluation and select HP again according to performance, usability and price.

What other advice do I have?

Start to use Nutanix Solution with HPE Dl Servers that recommend by Nutanix.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ahmed Alaiady - PeerSpot reviewer
Ahmed AlaiadyCTO at Cloud Technology
Real User

It's a very good option for any companies want to expand or start new Infrastructure.

it_user485052 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technology Architect at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
We can isolate the customer's various stuff onto machines that have everything dedicated.

What is most valuable?

They are good because we can isolate the customer's various stuff onto machines that have everything dedicated, rather than being a blade, where I share stuff with others and they do something dumb.

What needs improvement?

What would make it better from my point of view is if HPE spent more time on testing with the actual built-in Red Hat Linux drivers, as opposed to always trying to say, "Use our driver."

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is pretty good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scaling where we need to go. The issues we have are more the application not scaling; application design issues, not hardware issues. The hardware will go further than our application will.

How is customer service and technical support?

The technical support sucks, would be understating it, because the first line and the second line support tend to give out stupid suggestions that are completely useless, and they aren't listening to anything. It takes a lot of time to get through them, and that is every call I've been on with them. Oftentimes, I've got a very low expectation of HPE, and they go below my expectation a few times.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was relatively straightforward.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have some IBM machines, but we're mostly an HPE shop. I believe the only reason we bought the IBM was because at the time, HPE didn't have the feature we needed.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Updated: February 2025
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