Cisco UCS B-Series Reviews

We are running many applications for a logistics provider. We do the storing of goods for our partners and transport and so on.

The most valuable features of the solution are stability and security.

The solution’s pricing could be improved and made cheaper.

I have been using Cisco UCS B-Series for five to six years.

We haven’t faced any issues with the solution’s stability so far.

I rate the solution ten out of ten for stability.

We haven’t faced any issues with the solution’s scalability. Around 1,000 to 2,000 users are using the solution in our organization, and we may plan to increase the usage.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

We implemented the solution through an in-house team.

We have to pay a monthly licensing fee for the solution.

We have a team of around 50 people to deploy and maintain the solution. I would recommend the solution to other users.

Overall, I rate the solution ten out of ten.

We use the solution to help manage our data centers.

Stateless Blade is the best feature. If we have a blade go down we find that the server continues to work well.

The technical support is sometimes delayed and has room for improvement.

The cost of the solution has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

Cisco UCS B-Series is stable.

The solution is scalable by adding additional hardware.

The technical support is good but can sometimes be delayed.

Positive

We use HPE BladeSystem and Cisco UCS B-Series but we are going to replace them both with the Cisco X210c M6 series because of the high performance.

The initial setup is straightforward. The configuration is also simple.

The implementation is completed in-house.

The cost of the Cisco UCS B-Series is comparable to HP solutions but higher than Dell solutions.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

Around ten administrators are required to manage the solution.

I recommend the solution to others because it has good performance and is highly stable with little downtime.

We've used blades and hyperflex. It's for data center refreshes and greenfield solutions. We've done a lot of HCI Solutions.

We're basically taking old three-tier storage, no compute, networking solutions and then pulled into an ACI solution hyperflex or blades. I've worked on both the UCSX series and also the B series. M6, M7, and M5, and with a lot of fabric interconnects - just pretty much anything and everything for UCF.

Over the years, it's been it's come a long way from going from UCS manager to intersite managed solution. So we're doing a lot of cloud type management where we've been able to use that as which are like tenant managed services solutions with Cisco UCS and Hyperflex. We have managed services. Engineers that do manage all the customer's inter-site portal configurations, and then also we manage all the deployments, and pretty much we build run books and everything for them so that they know how to customers know how to how to work with their the hard new hardware for the hyperflex environments. Overall infrastructure-wise, we manage that for them, and they just manage internally.

It's modular. You can get higher-density blades within the 5108 chassis and the 9508 chassis. With the X series, it's even better, as you can add bigger blades and more processing and memory. It is a lot more resource-intensive and scalable. 

The solution is stable.

The setup is straightforward. 

InterSite is still working on a lot of bugs. Specifically, going from UCF's manager to all strictly interstate-managed environments, there have been a lot of challenges. It is a challenging environment as far as migration from UCS manager director to strictly an inter-site managed in the cloud. Cisco's still working out those bugs. We've been doing a lot of troubleshooting.  

I would like to see more density within the blades compared to HPE and other Dell blades. They do have more slots available. However, the UCSX series that's going to be a game-changer. I'm going through advanced architect training for that engineering training for that product as well. I foresee that X is probably going to replace the C or B series blades since you'll be able to get more density. In the end, you may be able to get double the nodes per slot.

The solution is expensive.

Sometimes, support isn't as fast or knowledgeable as customers need them to be.

I've used the solution for probably over ten years. 

It's pretty stable. I'd rate the reliability eight out of ten. 

The B series is pretty scalable. You can have several chassis within an FI pair. Then you could have multiple UCS domains. Now, with the InterSite, you can have multiple configurations more so than the UCSB series with the InterSite managed solutions where you can have B series and you can have both UCS manager and InterSite yet you can't have both. With the UCS X series available, that's another game change.

Our customer base definitely intends to increase usage.

From a partner perspective, we pretty much can troubleshoot more in-depth than some of the tech engineers. We've had a lot of tech engineer engagements with our large customers, and wasn't that I wasn't that impressed. They just seemed not to have a full understanding of what the customer issues were, and that took a long time to sort out. 

They also had multiple tech engineers involved. That prolonged the overall support for the customer. We jumped in and had more expertise, and we were able to help solve the issue before the tech in a lot of cases.

Neutral

The initial setup was straightforward. 

You can deploy on-premises. We've also worked with customers in remote installations where they would rack a stack, and then we would do a remote configuration on everything if it's through either a VPN or a Webex session, a Cisco secure Webex session. If it's InterSite, we can pretty much do it remotely. There's no UCS manager available to support that now, and everything's pretty much in the cloud managed, which is nice.

I typically note a three-year ROI.

The solution is pricey, and Cisco's prices change every month - or, at least, it seems that way. It's a constant challenge for our customers. However, we work with account executives at Cisco and work to get discounts. 

New users need to definitely understand how the UCF manager works. They need to understand InterSites, fabric interconnects, and how everything connects both up links to the northbound core switches and make sure all the connectivity is correct. 

Connectivity is a big issue. If you don't have the right connectivity configured specifically for the UCS manager with the FIs and also the fabric modules coming off the chassis, there will be a lot of issues. I've seen a lot of attack-related issues going forward. Users need to make sure that they have everything configured correctly.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We use it for our digital adjustment. It's a technology that allows you to unify all the major components you need. You have the networking component, and your servers are connected too. We have an established enterprise system for data, and we do not use the historical component of the use case. We only use the networking and the server component. It is a very robust and reliable solution.

It has reliability, high availability, and a low total cost of ownership. Your servers stand a better chance of having data available because the total cost of ownership is very low. Once you buy it, you can almost afford to go to the last, because you don't need to buy another one.

The upgrades could be improved because the software needs various upgrades to be safeguarded against liability. Cisco should be very close to the customer to tell them if they need a new upgrade. In addition, they should include other features to make it useful for public cloud computing.

We have been using this solution since 2014, deployed on-premises.

It is stable and one of the most reliable systems I've ever encountered. You won't regret going for Cisco UCS B-Series because it is very good.

It's already made to scale, so you don't need to buy add-ons. In addition, you can use it to restore almost all your needs, not just for Cisco UCS B-Series. We have over 50,000 jobs running on our servers, which is valuable to our whole organization.

There is wide support. Anytime we have some FDN issues that we cannot fix, we get help from Cisco support. The technical support is very reliable, but you must buy it when buying the service.

The deployment was easy, but you must be skilled to complete it. It requires two engineers to deploy and takes a minimum of five days. Regarding maintenance, you get everything from Cisco and have to follow the guides.

The price is competitive. It's not too expensive, it's good, and it's worth the price.

I rate this solution a ten out of ten. I recommend the solution to others because they will gain from using it, and it is very reliable.

The Cisco UCS B-Series servers are used to run backend databases ranging from small, medium, to large, running different versions of RDBMS such as Oracle, SQL, MySQL. It also includes cloud databases, big data such as Cassandra, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and Snowflake.

Additionally, the middle-tier component includes IAM systems such as Oracle, SailPoint, Ping Federate, and Okta, including Oracle Fusion apps such as EBS, ERP systems, HR system, HCM, both on-premises and cloud. The Cisco UCS B-Series supports various deployments in on-premises data centers and cloud.

Our clients typically start with a proof of concept deployment, focusing on smaller operations before scaling up to larger ones, handling OLTP, OLAP, and large data warehouses. As clients see the value, they proceed to invest further in the system. Cisco UCS B-Series is also designed for cloud virtualization and integrates with VMware, Hyper-V, and Intersight.

Cisco UCS B-Series is flexible as it can be built as a standalone system and expanded horizontally and vertically in a cluster mode. A standout feature is the Unified Fabric which combines LAN and SAN, reducing the need for numerous cables and offering consistent configuration, unlike traditional setups.

Furthermore, Cisco UCS B-Series is a cost-effective alternative to Exadata and integrates seamlessly with cloud virtualization platforms.

Cisco UCS B-Series offers an alternative to more expensive solutions such as Exadata, managing high growth and heavy data loads efficiently. It is essential for setups such as government projects due to its ability to handle massive data operations. Additionally, strong support services make it a reliable choice for businesses.

There is a need for Cisco UCS B-Series to evolve and scale vertically, particularly with the increasing data demands and the integration of AI, ensuring the solution remains certified and capable under such conditions.

I have not had a chance to directly deal with them, but I have not received any negative feedback from my team who directly deals with Cisco support. The overall feedback I received indicates that they are very happy with the support.

Cisco UCS B-Series is quite flexible and can expand horizontally and vertically, using cluster mode to support additional system loads. However, given the rise in AI and massive data, there is room for improvement in ensuring Cisco UCS B-Series remains AI-certified and capable.

Originally, Oracle utilized HP's storage systems, and during this architectural phase, Cisco UCS B-Series was involved. Oracle later shifted to its proprietary solutions such as Exadata, which led to a migration from non-Oracle products to Oracle products.

The initial implementation typically involves me handling the deployment of Cisco UCS B-Series, with the support of a team of at least three people. The system grows from there.

Comparing Cisco UCS B-Series with traditional servers, while its initial cost may be slightly higher, it is not as expensive as Oracle Exadata, making it a worthwhile investment. It pays off in the long run, especially for cloud virtualization.

The Cisco UCS B-Series system is very adaptable as it can be set up as a standalone, expanded, and operated in a cluster mode. Flexibility in scalability supports business growth.

My clients use Cisco UCS B-Series servers for a range of databases, including Oracle, SQL, and MySQL, but also accommodate cloud databases and big data such as Cassandra and MongoDB.

To ensure high levels of client comfort and satisfaction, projects often commence with a proof of concept before scaling to larger operations, accommodating OLTP, OLAP needs, and vast data warehouses.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Cisco UCS B-Series a nine.

We have been working with Cisco UCS B-Series for data center operations since 2018. We implemented it in one bank, but everything else is handled by HP.

The Cisco solution provides a unified dashboard that enhances virtualization tasks, allowing configurations from a single interface. It also helps with space and power management, which are vital for data center efficiency.

The dashboard of Cisco UCS B-Series allows users to have multiple options displayed on a single interface and facilitates configuration from that dashboard. This ease of manageability is also appreciated.

It would be beneficial for Cisco UCS B-Series to improve on the technological adaptability aspect, especially with regard to containerized applications, as the market in our region is still adapting to newer technologies. There is also a need for better local parts replacement, as HP is superior in this area.

We have been familiar with and using Cisco UCS B-Series solutions since 2018.

Both Cisco and HP solutions are similar in scalability, supporting up to sixteen blades. There are no significant differences in scalability between the two.

Cisco's tech support is superior to that of HP's, at least online. However, HP surpasses Cisco in local parts availability and replacement.

Positive

Our team handled the implementation as we executed it in a bank successfully while other projects were handled by HP.

Previously, Cisco pricing was higher, but now both Cisco and HP are competitive with pricing. At the end of negotiations, the pricing is usually matched between the two, so cost is not a major differentiating factor anymore.

HP solutions were considered and are still predominantly used.

I recommend focusing on the relationship with the customer as it plays a more significant role than the technical specifications in our region.

We use it as a stand-alone for computing only in HyperFlex. Using multiple projects and VDI projects, you can utilize distribution and access codes to find the storage that works for various solutions and scenarios.

They have management on the enterprise side. So, we manage directly through Fabric internet or the rack-mounted directly, whether on-premise, on the cloud, or private.

The most significant benefit of the blade itself is its stethoscope-like functionality. You can remove and reinsert the blade and attach the service profile if any hardware is damaged. This is the main objective of the solution. Additionally, we can leverage it in a hybrid infrastructure. We are also authorized to integrate the solution with other vendors. They have a wide range of offerings, and we integrate HyperFlex, which is merged with fabric and implemented with the ACI or Application Centric Infrastructure, to advance software defense solutions.

The price of the solution can be improved.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. We have more than 52,000 customers using this solution. We have it installed in banking, government entities, and private sectors.

The initial setup is not easy. You should know or understand the data center, particularly when integrating with SAN, NAS storage, or NFS.

It generally takes 30 minutes to an hour for basic tasks. However, it may take several days to involve blade integration and integration with other systems. The project's timeline depends on various factors, such as integration requirements, scope, and configuration tasks. Based on these considerations, we can estimate the number of days required for integrating the object.

First of all, we gather information from the customer regarding the project's purpose. The project has multiple components, such as configuring IBM Athena for management, aligning with the latest stable software, and configuring service profiles based on the project scope.

Once we complete these tasks, we will move on to system administration, which includes providing a visual interface and configuring the operating system. Depending on the scenario, we will decide whether to install a hypervisor or directly install the working system on the server. This decision will be based on the sandbox environment we have.

Cisco UCS does not require a license. However, this license is not specific to users. In collaboration with the tech team, it also controls and stores other components, such as hypervisors, JES control, technology integration, and analytics.

It integrates with all other solutions, including building and internal solutions.

Overall, I rate the solution nine out of ten.

We primarily use Cisco UCS B-Series in data center operations.

The system has reduced the number of customer aggregation requirements due to the aggressive network protocol cost.

Going inside with the management and monitoring is valuable. The aggregation in the data center is beneficial. It also makes management easier as we can manage everything from one place.

If we could get more reference architecture available on the portal, it would be helpful in making decisions. Also, the content should be more extensive, especially technical content.

I have been working with Cisco UCS B-Series for almost 12 years.

The performance, stability, scalability, and interface are fine.

The performance, stability, scalability, and interface are fine.

I would rate their technical support a six out of ten. They need more technical content in their documentation and perhaps more support personnel.

Positive

Before Cisco UCS B-Series, I worked with another system for about three years.

The initial setup was easy.

The pricing is competitive. While the UCS price was high before, it is more competitive now.

I would recommend that they include more technical content and ensure there is sufficient documentation available.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.