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Cisco Optical Networking vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Optical Networking
Ranking in Data Center Networking
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Ranking in Data Center Networking
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
356
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (1st), Blade Servers (2nd), Rack Servers (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

Abdul Samad Irfan Shaik - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Lead at Numeric Technologies
High-speed fiber links have protected critical data and keep our multi-city cloud services running
In terms of improvements, one thing is about how data is transferred. Predictive monitoring would help by using artificial intelligence to identify optical signal degradation, performance issues, downtimes, glitches, increasing error rates, or potential fiber issues such as cuts. Predictive monitoring will definitely assist in this area. Faster troubleshooting could be enhanced by providing a knowledge base related to regular activities. A simpler dashboard is preferred rather than a complex one, as clubbing everything into a single user interface is not helpful for grasping everything easily. Supporting integration with third-party optical equipment and existing network monitoring platforms will play a major role, and the connectivity should be easier with improvements in third-party integration being essential. Regarding support documentation, I would prefer to speak about support rather than documentation. One enhancement needed is better automation capabilities. We aim to reduce manual intervention during network failures by enabling faster automated alarm triggers that should automatically fix issues and control recovery workflows. We have covered all of the necessary improvements.
Jose Oliveira - PeerSpot reviewer
Diretor at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Local servers have delivered long-term ERP and virtualization performance while reducing cloud costs
In terms of improving Dell PowerEdge R-Series, to be honest, the product has so many options that I find it very difficult to improve it in terms of product itself. Of course, there will always be some technological evolution and new components, but what the product offers in each generation, and I've already followed five or six generations of Dell PowerEdge from generation 11 up to generation 17, it has always kept pace with technological innovation. In terms of storage, it's always extremely in line with what the market is offering. In terms of memory, each new generation always follows the newest RAM trends. Processors also have both AMD and Intel options. I believe the product already has very high maturity. The availability of redundant power supplies and the availability of off-band management via iDRAC are excellent. The product is already extremely solid and reliable. The most I could perhaps say is that sometimes in some operations, I find iDRAC a bit slow, but that's a characteristic of off-band management because performance comes from a separate card that has its own processor and its own memory, so sometimes it's not as fast as I'd expect from the machine itself. Overall, there really isn't much to say because the product is extremely robust and efficient.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Cisco Optical Networking provides high-capacity bandwidth and fiber connectivity between the data centers, supporting data replication, backups, disaster recovery, and managing how data is transferred across great workloads."
"Cisco View allows me to see when circuits are up or down very quickly, and I can connect circuits very quickly by a virtual picture."
"Cisco Optical Networking has positively impacted my organization by providing cost reduction, better network performance, high reliability, and most importantly, business growth."
"Cisco Optical Networking has positively impacted my organization by helping add resilience and redundancy."
"After implementing Cisco Optical Networking, I could transport terabits of traffic over long distances, which has amazed us while also reducing the effort and thought involved in network management."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series has had a positive impact on my organization as it has reduced costs and improved the operations side in terms of servers used for applications, file server, and others."
"I appreciate all these other features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series as they are intuitive and ready to go—I don't need to configure for hours; I just plug it in, configure two or three things, power cycle it, and that's it."
"Since using the VxRail, I would say Dell VxRail P670N environment definitely makes our work easier, whether that is directly due to the VxRail or not."
"PowerEdge helped to reduce our customer’s data processing time."
"The machine practically only leaves when it really can no longer perform the tasks."
"Using the service has improved our storage capabilities, as storage expansions are easier to implement, making it user-friendly and simpler to onboard new team members."
"The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series has positively impacted my organization as it is always a better solution."
 

Cons

"There is much work that needs to be done, and providing more proactive artificial intelligence-driven monitoring will definitely help mitigate failures."
"Customer support is good only if you pay for it; if you forget to renew a license and you need support, it is not always so great."
"When it comes to features or tools that stood out to me in Cisco Optical Networking, I faced issues such as wavelength allocations due to fixed grid limitations, which led to spectral inefficiencies when mixing different wavelengths."
"Cisco Optical Networking could be improved by having more documentation and more training."
"In terms of improvements for Cisco Optical Networking, I believe we can enhance monitoring by improving real-time optical power, signal quality, link error, and bandwidth utilization, which leads to better network monitoring."
"The only aspect that concerned us was the non-set pricing for a purchase order."
"In Dell PowerEdge R-Series, the areas with room for improvement are pricing because costs have increased significantly for what they offer."
"The Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Server did not scale to our expectations."
"PowerEdge could have more configuration options, such as the ability to combine different CPUs, memory volumes, data storage, and memory. The new Intel-based ones are a bit power-hungry."
"If I could improve the product in any way, I would make it cheaper."
"All of the marketing terminologies from Dell are very complicated as they have names that sometimes involve the same technology."
"It takes a long time to deliver the hardware. The riser cards can be better. The riser cards are where the PCI cards connect. They need to have more than two riser cards in the server because it can be difficult to connect sometimes."
"At my current company, I have not yet needed to use their customer service, but at my previous company, I did a few times and that was acceptable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has been a little problematic. It was sticker shock with our most recent purchase compared to the previous one, and there's a gap in pricing at our current level because what we do isn't very compute-intensive, resulting in a mismatch where we fit into an in-between category without an exact solution available."
"The main reason I choose Dell there is cost. Dell is cheaper than HPE. Why would I want to pay a premium for an HPE product when I'm getting the same amount of support, the same amount of data protection, and the same amount of performance from Dell?"
"The pricing is fair enough."
"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."
"If price isn't a concern, I would recommend it."
"We do use Dell's OpenManage console. It is easy to use this console for lifecycle management or PowerEdge servers."
"One of the clients has been offered a price of $18,000 instead of the regular price of around $25,000."
"I wouldn't say the solution's pricing is the best, but it's very competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business126
Midsize Enterprise71
Large Enterprise159
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Optical Networking?
The pricing is a bit high, but considering the features, it is reasonable. If Cisco adds more AI assistance, I do not believe the pricing is excessive, so I am satisfied with it.
What needs improvement with Cisco Optical Networking?
In terms of improvements for Cisco Optical Networking, I believe we can enhance monitoring by improving real-time optical power, signal quality, link error, and bandwidth utilization, which leads t...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Optical Networking?
Cisco Optical Networking's main use case is to convert data center connectivity by connecting data centers over high-speed optical links for large-scale data transfer and disaster recovery. It ...
When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Because we've been looking at new Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, it's quite hard to find the right specifications. You have to contact someone. I want the webpage to be easier for specify...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
My role in using or managing Dell PowerEdge R-Series involves updating the firmwares and keeping track of infrastructure when it comes to temperatures and monitoring. Perhaps this may occur in the ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Optical Networking vs. Dell PowerEdge R-Series and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.