Dell PowerEdge XE-Series Reviews

The use case for this product suggests it has the same characteristics as high GPU compute power. We are using a lot of AI in this, and we are using Generative AI here as well. I also talked about high-performance computing, or HPC, which is applicable here. It has more memory capacity and large memory capacity. Even though it has fast data processing capability, these features make it suitable for demanding workloads.

The biggest advantage for the clients is that it is an enterprise AI interface. That major advantage is that it has AI interface, which means it reduces the time to market. It has support for growth from enterprise AI projects to large-scale GenAI deployments. This is the main scalability I have observed in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

In terms of features and capability, it has an advanced cooling feature and large memory capacity. It accelerates AI analytics and HPC workloads under GPU performance. It supports larger data sets and reduces processing time.

The cooling feature in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is used to cool environments and keep performance maintained during intensive AI and GPU workloads.

Regarding flexibility on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, it supports NVIDIA, which allows customers to choose the platform that is best and fits for AI HPC. It is scalable and versatile as well. In terms of workload, it is versatile because it supports AI training and AI interface. Unplanned production downtime will not happen as expected because it has continuous operation capability and reliability. Throughout monitoring and resilient hardware, it has security features that help business maintain continuous operations where we can meet critical service level agreements.

In terms of disadvantages and improvements, we can say it has highly initial cost, as I mentioned for the MX series as well. For improvement complexity, it has challenges because AI requires skills, GPUs, AI frameworks, networking, and storage. The primary trade-offs are higher cost and power requirements. It is complex, but it is faster in AI processing, scalability, and business continuity outcomes when deployed.

It has been more than four years since I began using this solution.

It is a stable product. I do not have any doubt in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series because I have been working with this XE and MX series for four to five years. It is stable.

It is highly scalable.

Support is good because they are available 24/7.

Installation is straightforward. It is a rack installation, and we can install it. Overall, we require iDRAC and overall Open Management tool, which I discussed previously.

Time saving and money saving and reduction regarding return of investment—I will say it is time saving first because we are using faster AI models with the help of NVIDIA. For cost saving, there is lower total cost of ownership, or TCO.

TCO percentage shows up to 73, 75, 80% improvement in power efficiency.

The XE-Series has competitors, and HPE is one of them because they have strong HPE heritage and liquid cooling expertise. However, Dell has simplified management with iDRAC OpenManage tools.

I am aware of PowerProtect Backup service, but I have not had hands-on experience with it. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has multiple series within it. For the MX series, I have not received the reward. The major advantage, as I mentioned, is that it has AI interface. Regarding how much reduced unplanned production downtime, I would say it is not percentage-wise, but it is improving infrastructure reliability. As a percentage, I am not sure about the exact percentage, but downtime percentage is reduced. We can consider approximately 10 hours of downtime per year as a reference. Sustainability goals include energy efficiency, as we initially discussed. It has a platform that improves power efficiency where we can reduce energy consumption for workloads. My overall rating for this product is 9 out of 10.

My clients' use cases primarily highlight HCI, which would include VMware vSAN or Nutanix AHV.

The most beneficial features in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, in terms of capabilities and functions, are the maturity of the management, particularly iDRAC. From an out-of-band management perspective, I rate iDRAC as the best. You can have a server from different vendors with the same specs, but the difference is in the maturity of the out-of-band management.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series impacts the flexibility of business operations positively. They are very flexible with the components; you can take one chassis and beef it up while having another chassis that is efficient and streamlined, not limited in configurations. They have models for all types of environments so you're not using a beefy server for something small. The flexibility does allow you to design for multiple different requirements.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series helps to reduce unplanned production downtime most certainly. They are known for their reliability; you don't get many failures on Dell servers. The difference between 99.9% and 99.99% uptime is just a couple of minutes, but it amounts to 0.01% of a percent. Compared to more low-end manufacturers, I would say it's about 5-10% better.

There are some areas for improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series; it's more of a Dell issue. They've promised changes, but engaging with Dell sometimes means they will take the customer on a direct model and cut the partner out. This isn't a technical issue, but a business one. When architecting a solution and introducing Dell to a customer, you sometimes get an email saying the customer wants to buy directly from Dell, leaving all my hard work and introductions for nothing.

I believe Dell could add new features to Dell PowerEdge XE-Series in the future. There are many more CPU variants available than just Intel and AMD, and it would be nice to have a major vendor introduce another option outside of those. While I know it's difficult due to supportability and changes, that would just be a preference.

I have larger experience and expertise with Dell Technologies than with Portworx.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is a solution that is stable and reliable, hitting around 99.9% stability.

I find Dell PowerEdge XE-Series to be very scalable; there are no limitations on the scalability side.

My impression of customer service is very good; I would give them a 10. In South Africa, from a vendor perspective, they offer the best support for after-sales service, with a significant presence that isn't totally dependent on partners to manage the SLA.

In terms of return on investment when comparing Dell with other vendors, a lot depends on the pricing secured. If ROI was solely hardware-based, I would say Dell is top tier. However, ROI depends on the system being built; if you use a Dell solution for VMware, the ROI on the Dell portion might be good, but the ROI on VMware might be questionable. It's hard to rate one-on-one with maybe one or two other vendors.

Among the products I mentioned, mainly on the HCI side, my clients are dealing the most with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

Regarding the Rack series, I see basically two models or two series, and I need to get on to the configurator. When it comes to the XR and XC, I'm more focused on the XE.

As a reseller, the biggest advantage in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is our relationship with Dell. They are a partner that hasn't always been our best partner, but the skills that come with it are invaluable. We have a large network at Dell, through both Dell Direct and distribution. On the service side, being multi-vendor clouds my judgment a bit; you could see a difference in iDRAC and iLO, for instance. I might think iDRAC is a bit better than iLO, but otherwise, from an availability and pricing perspective, it's much of a muchness.

Regarding Total Cost of Ownership, I would say Dell PowerEdge XE-Series can reduce it if it's designed right. It's difficult because it depends on the system that goes on top of it. From a hardware perspective, I give it about a 5% reduction because the Dell after-sale service is among the best in South Africa, whereas HPE is very partner-dependent, and if the partner manages the service delivery, it's good, but not as comprehensive as Dell.

About artificial intelligence running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, I am a bit skeptical overall. I see a lot of money flowing in and not much going out, and I'm waiting to see who the winners and losers are. This is an interesting question because I think a lot depends on partnerships; Dell obviously has a partnership with NVIDIA and AMD, and you're more dependent on the NVIDIA toolsets rather than the underlying infrastructure.

In terms of the energy consumption part, I can speak generally; it depends a lot on the server design. From an efficiency perspective, it depends on the PSU and CPU selected. The power draw and heat are more dependent on the likes of Intel or AMD chipsets. For our customers, we typically turn off all power-saving features; if you buy a Ferrari to get the speed, you don't limit it to something a Ford Focus.

My impression of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series regarding sustainability goals is that it meets the requirements. It comes down to configuration, and the mindset in Africa is that if you buy something fast, you use the power when it's available.

About the price for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, I'd say it's fair. I might have had a different opinion before AI made everything hellishly expensive, but being a partner, a lot depends on how early you are to the deal, and overall, it's definitely fair.

If I compare Dell with other vendors on the market, I would say Dell is probably not the leader. The reason is that if you look at what HPE has been doing—they now have their own hypervisor, ops management tooling, and monitoring tooling through acquisitions including OpsRamp and Morpheus. Dell is lacking in the completeness of vision side, not necessarily the hardware side. When they had VMware, they had the most complete vision under one umbrella, but since selling VMware, they lack some completeness, especially now that HPE has their own hypervisor and management tools.

My overall review rating for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is 9.

The use case is mainly AI for AI workloads, specifically for GPU-based platforms.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series platform has standardized the way GPUs are implemented. They have standardized GPU sockets from NVIDIA and built a certified hardware configuration. There is an OEM version of NVIDIA servers that provides much more flexibility and is more cost-effective compared to NVIDIA's direct offering.

Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise integrated with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series streamlines IT operations and provides excellent scalability.

Customer awareness about air cooling compared to liquid cooling is an area that needs attention. Liquid cooling requires existing setups, and since AI workloads are significantly different from traditional workloads, a single rack can now have more than 600 kW, which is much higher than traditional workloads. Current data centers are not ready to support heavy AI HPC clusters. If you have requirements from that perspective, you need to understand that you must build new data centers that are liquid cooling ready. This ensures you can have high-density GPUs in a single rack to save space rather than having multiple semi-empty racks with only one or two air-cooled servers.

I have used the solution for around six years.

The stability is excellent. The system is fully redundant with every component protected. Everything is redundant to ensure the product works without any downtime. Since we are speaking about enterprise production, we make sure that stability is number one priority.

Technical support from Dell is the best when compared to other vendors. When speaking about platforms, customers can choose from Dell PowerEdge XE-Series to competitors based on price and matching specs. However, technical support and professional services are what make the difference. What matters is reliability, response time, solving issues quickly, and the professionalism in deployment. Some people view servers as commodities, but what makes these platforms different is that if you have a problem, you can pick up the phone, file a technical ticket, and have it solved immediately. Even if a device has super performance but has no local support, I would avoid it because hardware will eventually fail. Technical support is very important.

The ROI is not about the GPU server or Dell PowerEdge XE-Series server itself. The ROI is about the use case running on that GPU server. When we speak about Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, we are speaking about AI workloads. The ROI is determined by what is actually implemented on that server. The GPU part has high value, but the ROI is determined by the software and the use case the customer implements. The server part, GPU part, and use case are all related. For success, there must be a use case to achieve, clean data that the customer already has accessibility to, and the GPU infrastructure. GPU at the end of the day is about good data in and good data out; garbage in results in garbage out.

The ROI is determined mainly on the full AI story. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is sold as part of an AI factory. We do not go to a customer to sell a Dell PowerEdge XE-Series server with GPUs. Instead, we tell customers that we help them clean their data and identify what AI use cases they can implement for their business. Then we provide the right infrastructure, which includes Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers, networking, operating systems, hypervisors, and Kubernetes. On top of this, ISVs and Dell services integrate all these components together to give the customer a success story, which is the secret sauce.

Early engagement on these projects is essential, and many vendors now work early on data center facilities and data center management to help customers build liquid cooling environments. Vendors like Vertiv provide products that can help. Dell provides integrated racks with liquid cooling already pre-integrated, allowing customers to just plug the servers in. The racks have power and pipes already integrated. However, you need to ensure that the data center is equipped to remove cold water and exit hot water in a proper cycle.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is meant for enterprise. Some customers who need to do small inferencing deployment can use workstations rather than high-end servers. We have the same options on Dell servers. There are different platforms available, including Supermicro and Lenovo, though I am not directly engaging with these platforms.

We have multiple platforms depending on sizing, with different CPUs and silicon models. We have Intel platforms and AMD platforms, and we support different GPUs including Intel Gaudi accelerators and AMD GPUs. This diversity in configuration gives us an advantage compared to the competition.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is part of the enterprise AI story deployment. Customers do not trust a normal service provider; they need a customer service provider or service arm that has success stories in these areas. This is why you need specialized AI or ISVs that work in AI infrastructure. While Dell PowerEdge XE-Series itself can be straightforward and a certified engineer can handle it, delivering a successful project requires proper AI ISVs to integrate everything together. The overall review rating for this solution is 9.

We've seen benefits from running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series because it's been really reliable, and we've been able to utilize on-premises AI with OpenFaaS, and it's been able to cut a bit of cost for all the token usage.

We've seen benefits from running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series because it's been really reliable, and we've been able to utilize on-premises AI with OpenFaaS. It's been able to cut a bit of cost for all the token usage.

Running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has been good value and reliable, with no issues so far.

For the next release of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, I cannot think of anything that should be included.

I think we're starting to see ROI with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, but we probably won't see the full ROI for a couple of years.

What stood out to me in my evaluation process, both positive and negative, when comparing Lenovo and Dell was that Lenovo didn't have the full features that we really wanted. They were price conscious, but Dell had the reputation as well as good customer support.

The usual use cases for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series that I have been working with mostly involve testing, end-to-end testing of the platform for different features like functional testing and also for stability testing.

I am working on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series for end-to-end testing, functional and stress and stability testing as well. I am part of the R&D team where we work on all the components of the server like GPU, memory, CPU, PCI card, and BMC, and all other components for the testing. This testing is an end-to-end testing before it is released to the customer.

There are a couple of features of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series that I have found the most valuable. One is for the GPU, which is very good for the AI/ML workload. The network bandwidth and how the network card is supported are quite good and very helpful for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series platform, basically for the AI/ML and data center trend. The supported network card in the system and the drive are also quite good.

The benefits from running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series are the benchmark and the compatibility with the different GPUs. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series supports NVIDIA GPUs, AMD GPUs, and also Intel GPUs, so the compatibility of all three GPUs in the platform is quite good. The benchmark claimed by the different GPUs is also exceptional, and for the workload training, there is very less latency for the AI/ML workload training, whether it is a Llama or DeepSeek or the other workload that we usually run. The platform is supported with different various OS and it supports all the features claimed by the different vendors of GPUs.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has reduced my total cost of ownership. There are a couple of points where it has reduced cost, one is on the networking side and also on the GPU side, as it supports various vendors of GPUs, and the benchmark and workload handling are quite good.

Regarding how Dell PowerEdge XE-Series could be improved or enhanced, I do not see much improvement is required at this time. One requirement is the storage protocol, as the external storage protocol is not much used in the platform; only iSCSI is used and there is no support for FC or FC over NVMe. This is one area that needs to be improved or have features added. The storage capacity is a point where if the external storage protocol comes into the picture, then the storage issue will be resolved.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series for more than a year.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is quite stable. Once all firmware and drivers are in place with the signed firmware, the system barely goes down. It has high availability, 24/7 for 365 days, most of the time without any power failure, and even when running heavy workloads with either GPUs or storage, the system remains stable without issues.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is very much scalable, as I can connect one unit, two units, three units, or four units at the same time. The systems will be interconnected between each other on the same network, allowing me to run multiple workloads. For example, if I connect two systems, it will allow me 16 GPUs, and similarly for three or four units, multiplying the available GPUs, which is great for AI/ML workloads.

I do not often communicate with the technical support of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

Before using Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, I worked on HPE ProLiant servers, but they did not have GPUs.

Before choosing Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, I worked for HPE but I did not work on the XE or GPU platform. Inside Dell, I have also worked on other platforms, but those also did not have GPUs; I worked on CPU and memory configurations with loaded network card platforms.

I participated in the initial setup of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, starting with CPU and memory placement followed by the required drives, network card, and cable connections. I powered on the server, placed all the firmware of the system, BIOS, FPGA, and other component firmware, followed by installing the OS and drivers, and this is the initial configuration for the system.

I have used official documentation and guides for some of the configurations, which are quite easy to understand, crisp to the point, and very understandable for both the customer and engineering team perspective.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge XE-Series around 8.5 or 9 based on my experience with it.

Dell PowerStore and Dell PowerEdge XE-Series are the only Dell tools that I have been working with within the last 12 months.

I am working on the BMC, specifically with Dell iDRAC BMC.

I deal mostly with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, specifically the XE-Series. My team uses Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers, but I have not used it much myself. We have a lot of workloads in-house with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers, and we have around 1,000 users running different applications, including desktop, web, and other workloads.

In Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers, the control is good, and they are very adaptable, affordable, and easy to learn. The initial setup for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is easy, and management is also easy, which is why the team prefers it. Maintainability is easy, and even when there are network issues, restoring it is easy for us.

There is a return on investment (ROI) with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, and that is why we were long starting with Dell.

What I found in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers is the disk reading; sometimes with heavy imagery, we find it to be slow. Some of our workloads utilize heavy imagery, which could be several terabytes or gigabytes in size, so when accessing imagery, we find disk read to be a bit slow.

I need to check with my team, but I recently noticed some compatibility issues with disk upgrades and RAM upgrades in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, and limitations were there. In the upcoming series, I hope to see flexibility in adding GPUs and similar features.

I would rate the stability of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers around nine.

I am not sure how important multi-vector cooling technologies are in maintaining performance; I may need to check with my team.

We do not have any specific tools for measuring the efficiency of NVIDIA GPUs in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, but it also depends on the tools using that imagery and the data from it. We have some applications utilizing them, so in case we find users mentioning slowness, we can address it.

For technical support, I would rate it about eight.

Positive

Before Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, I mostly worked with our PowerEdge servers, but previously we were using some old series and different servers from Dell.

The initial setup for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is easy, and management is also easy, which is why the team prefers it. Maintainability is easy, and even when there are network issues, restoring it is easy for us.

Generally, we complete the implementation of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series in two days.

We implemented it with our vendor; their support engineer assists us in the setup.

It typically depends on the procurement for how many people we need for the implementation; if we have two or three servers, maybe two or three people come to do it. Sometimes, it is only a new upgrade or something happening, and it depends upon the number of servers the support team deploys.

There is a return on investment (ROI) with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, and that is why we were long starting with Dell.

I would say we regularly see return on investment with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series around four years.

In my region, Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is popular, but I think HP also plays a decent market size. From what I heard, talking to other teams and organizations, I think HP is doing a bit more in marketing.

I think most of them are in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

What I found in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers is the disk reading; sometimes with heavy imagery, we find it to be slow. Some of our workloads utilize heavy imagery, which could be several terabytes or gigabytes in size, so when accessing imagery, we find disk read to be a bit slow.

I need to check with my team, but I recently noticed some compatibility issues with disk upgrades and RAM upgrades in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, and limitations were there. In the upcoming series, I hope to see flexibility in adding GPUs and similar features.

I would rate this review an overall eight out of ten.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series main use cases include cloud computing services. One concrete example is our GPU cloud service. Another main use case is HPC.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series best feature is iDRAC. Regarding iDRAC, you can flexibly manage power, and it has measurement and telemetry functions. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has contributed positively to the development of our cloud services. As an outcome, many customers have used our cloud services.

I would like to see improvements in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series because there are many GPU malfunctions. There are many failures due to heat, so I think it would be good if that aspect were improved.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge XE-Series for three years.

I don't think Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is very stable; there are many failures. I don't feel that unplanned downtime has decreased since introducing Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

I think the scalability of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is sufficient.

I think the support from the sales representatives and technical staff is appropriate. My experience with customer support for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series was fine. If I were to rate customer support on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 9.

I was using other solutions previously.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has the same operability as other Dell PowerEdge series, so we had no particular difficulties with implementation.

I don't have any particular metrics or concrete results to share regarding ROI.

We didn't really consider whether TCO was higher or lower compared to competitors when we introduced Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

Before choosing Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, we considered NVIDIA DGX and HPE Cray, among others.

Even though we're a cloud provider and don't use it ourselves directly, many of our customers use Dell PowerEdge XE-Series and say it's very well received and easy to use.

I think the power consumption of the new Dell PowerEdge X-Series is average for the industry.

As a project manager, I'm not directly involved in management, but I do receive reports about Dell PowerEdge X-Series.

I haven't particularly felt that Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has improved my company's business or operational flexibility.

There's nothing in particular that indicates Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has had an impact on my company's sustainability goals.

I would rate this review a 7 overall.

My main use of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is for research and education.

The features of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series that I like the most are the performance and the GPU.

These features have benefited my organization; however, it is not within my organization, it is for the customer.

The benefits I have seen from running AI workloads on PowerEdge servers include high performance.

My impressions of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series' impact on my organization's sustainability goals include the possibility of having eight GPUs on the XE.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series can be improved by adding features such as a big rack in the new XE.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge XE-Series for approximately three to four years.

I am uncertain if using PowerEdge servers has helped reduce unplanned production downtime.

I evaluate customer service and technical support as very good. Dell provides very good services.

I am uncertain if I was using any other solution prior to adopting Dell PowerEdge XE-Series to address similar needs.

Today, my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is difficult, but since one to two years ago, it has been very simple with Dell.

I do not have sufficient information to respond about whether I have seen ROI with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

It is difficult to respond to whether using Dell PowerEdge servers has helped reduce my total cost of ownership, TCO, because it is for the customer and I do not have access to the cost and TCO data.

I am uncertain regarding the assessment of the new PowerEdge servers for energy consumption.

It is positive for all the reasons I considered before selecting Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell PowerEdge XE-Series a nine, because perfection does not exist, and my advice for organizations considering Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is to go for it. I give this product an overall rating of nine out of ten.

Our main use case for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is that we set up and build our application storage. We also create the servers for our clients.

The best features of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series are the support and product build quality, which we use the most. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is very helpful and saves us cost because previously we were managing our servers on AWS, and now we are managing them in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

We are using most of the Dell PowerEdge XE-Series features that came up during implementation.

I have been familiar with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series for almost 12 plus years.

We regularly review and update all of the server's health with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, which has changed how our team works together.

The best features of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series are the support and product build quality, which we use the most.

Before we landed on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, we were using custom build hardware.

When we first implemented Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, it took almost two hours to get up and running that day.

It is good because we are familiar with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series server, and we did not need formal training on it.

We are saving almost 60% of our cost yearly with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is very helpful and saves us cost because previously we were managing our servers on AWS, and now we are managing them in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series. We are saving almost 60% of our cost yearly with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series.

Yes, we considered HP and Nutanix.

I am working with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series. Our main use case for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is that we set up and build our application storage. We also create the servers for our clients.

When Dell PowerEdge XE-Series opens, the first thing I do is check the server health, and we monitor all the components to ensure they are perfect and working properly. We mostly do not open it regularly, but we check the health of the server.

The adoption of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is specific for the IT department.

I worked with HP Blade Servers including HP Integrity and Altex for the banking sector where I sold blade servers. I have not sold HP Superdome X or HP NonStop. The customers are using it for big data and data analytics.

Dell PowerEdge XE servers are typically recommended for big companies, particularly in real estate sectors.

Dell PowerEdge XE Servers are valuable for big data solutions and data analytics applications. For Dell Avamar, the integration with virtual environment is particularly beneficial.

From my point of view, the deduplication feature is better when implemented on the backup appliance rather than using software deduplication. It is preferable to use Data Domain deduplication instead of software solutions such as Avamar or GBS.

For Dell PowerEdge XE Servers, particularly for standalone servers, extendability would be a great improvement. This feature is currently available only with virtualization environment. Adding extendability capabilities to standalone servers would be a significant enhancement to make the solution closer to perfect.

The solution has been in use since 2018.

When discussing servers and blades, they all use the same concepts as they are based on Intel Xeon processors. In terms of competition in servers, they are technically similar. The choice between HP, Dell, and Lenovo is often based on customer preference rather than technical differences.

Regarding thermal management of PowerEdge servers in challenging environments, there are no significant challenges as servers from Dell, HP, and Lenovo with the same specifications perform similarly.

The hyper-converged solution for VxRail features a one-click setup. Regarding scalability for standalone servers, finding a way to make them extendable and scalable would be beneficial.

The technical support provided by Dell is excellent. Their support service rates 10 out of 10.

The initial setup for hyper-converged VxRail requires just a one-click setup. Dell PowerEdge servers have a very simple setup process, being the most straightforward when compared to other HCIs.

When Dell PowerEdge doesn't fit requirements, VxRail with backup solution using GBS is typically recommended.

The reviewer primarily works with HCI, specifically Dell VxRail Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. Dell's HCI solution is considered superior to HP's in Egypt, where most customers prefer VxRail.

For HP products, they provide blades, servers, C7000, and DL380. Dell's product range includes servers, storage, and hyper-converged infrastructures. Dell offers better pricing for server and technology, especially for HCI since they use VMware, which is considered one of the best hypervisors.

Dell's Data Domain is recognized as the leading backup appliance globally, offering cyber resilience backup solutions. The reviewer has experience with Dell PowerProtect from eight years ago and Dell Avamar, which is particularly suitable for larger companies and virtual environments.

They have also worked with Unity, VNX, and VMAX all-flash storage solutions, with the VMAX implementation using all NVMe (non-volatile memory). For backup solutions, they utilize GBS, Veeam, Veritas, and Dell solutions including DBS and Data Domain.

The reviewer rates this solution 9 out of 10.