Cisco UCS B-Series vs Cisco UCS E-Series Servers comparison

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

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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 UCS B-Series

Ranking in Blade Servers

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Ranking in Blade Servers

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 8.2%, down from 9.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco UCS E-Series Servers is 2.9%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

DavidMbugua

Group General Manager-ICT at SkyLink

Reliable product with efficient automation capabilities

Cisco UCS B-Series manages various processes, including handling payments for over 650,000 growers, running group financials, managing human resources, and operating our main ERP system, SAP. The servers' resilience was particularly impactful. Even during power outages, the servers resumed operations from the last saved point without human intervention. The enhanced processing speed also allowed us to complete tasks that took two days in just one hour. The automation capabilities enhanced efficiency and facilitated integration with our networking components, particularly since we also used Cisco switches. The servers' security was reliable, and formal training on Cisco products made management easier. I rate the product an eight.

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DavidMbugua

Group General Manager-ICT at SkyLink

Stable product with efficient security features

We use Cisco UCS E-Series Servers to host enterprise systems The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability. We rarely encounter downtime issues, and it has an expandable memory storage. Additionally, it blends well with Cisco's security tools. The platform's pricing…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward."

"Cisco UCS B-Series is scalable."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to replace a server with another one, simply by applying the profile"

"The Boot from SAN function is good because using OTV, we can boot the device from any remote location."

"The most valuable feature is definitely the service profile."

"Dell has a huge portfolio of products."

"The most valuable feature that the B-Series has is related to the structure and architecture of the solution because in these solutions, you are using fabric interconnect as an interconnect device. The beauty of fabric interconnect is that it can work as in-house mode."

"The solution is stable...The solution is scalable."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pros

"They are really easy to maintain. I've added RAM to them. I've done a lot of other things with the virtualization."

"Cisco has better visibility and manageability for disaster recovery."

"The most valuable features are that they are efficient and easy to setup."

"The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability."

"The Cisco chassis is very easy to configure and any network engineer or expert can configure the solution and easily integrate it with the chassis."

"The product is overall stable."

"The server management and automation capabilities have been outstanding in automation, greatly benefiting our IT team."

"Stability-wise, it is a good product that remains stable."

Cons

"It is more expensive than the competitors."

"Cisco is not going for perpetual licensing."

"The solution is expensive."

"The GUI is not the greatest."

"The UCS manager interface needs to be cleaned up a bit and can be streamlined, but no major complaints."

"Cisco could improve the user-friendliness for less experienced users."

"This model does not support virtualization of the switch."

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

More Cisco UCS B-Series cons

"The tool must be made compatible with multi-vendor ecosystems."

"The processing capacity could be improved."

"The platform's pricing needs improvement. There could be more collaborative tools included."

"The biggest pain point for us is the matrix for the firmware upgrades. It is a pain. You look at that thing, you might as well be reading Greek. It would be a whole lot better if they could clean up their documentation on it."

"The product should also be available in a standard edition or a standard license since currently there is a need to pay for an extra license, which is very expensive, especially when considering the budgeting part of our company."

"It is not a solution that is cloud ready."

"I would like to see improvements in VMware integration with Cisco, especially in terms of documentation and integration tools. Support of NVIDIA integration would also make it better."

"One thing that could be improved is the cost - it is very high for this Blade chassis as compared to other vendors. Especially in Asia. Asian customers mostly prefer a cost effective, cheaper solution."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco UCS B-Series is an expensive solution."

"A physical licensing fees needs to be paid."

"The cost of the blade servers is okay, but the cost of Fabric Interconnects ends up increasing the overall costs. For example, suppose it costs 3,500 USD per blade server. When you include the Fabric Interconnects, you could pay up to 30,000 USD. Therefore, compared to the cost of servers from Lenovo, Huawei, Dell, or HP, the cost of Cisco servers can be high. However, Cisco gives good discounts (about 90% to 94%) to partners and to customers who are already using Cisco servers. New Cisco customers do not get the level of discount that an existing customer does. Because you can get discounts with Cisco, I would give pricing a rating of four out of five."

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

"It is not a yearly subscription but a yearly support renewal that you need to do for Cisco UCS B-Series."

"It makes much more sense for individual licenses for distributed environments"

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

"The product cost is high."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pricing and cost advice

"It's expensive, they are quite pricey."

"The product is expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable. From a commercial point of view, the prices are okay."

"There is a need to pay towards the licensing costs of the solution. The most expensive server from Cisco is Cisco UCS B-Series."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS B-Series?

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is easily scalable.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS B-Series?

The licensing cost for three years, followed by an AMC for two years, is reasonable. However, the management software, Cisco One, is priced a bit high but still considered reasonable. No additional...

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS B-Series?

Last year, we faced challenges with firmware upgrades, but they were quickly resolved with assistance from Cisco TAC.

What do you like most about Cisco UCS E-Series Servers?

The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS E-Series Servers?

The pricing of Cisco UCS E-Series Servers is okay, costing around 30,000 per year. Support is included in this cost.

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS E-Series Servers?

I would like to see improvements in VMware integration with Cisco, especially in terms of documentation and integration tools. Support of NVIDIA integration would also make it better.

HPE Synergy vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Comparisons

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Dell PowerEdge M vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 17% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 15% of the time

Supermicro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 13% of the time

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Supermicro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Compared 25% of the time

HPE Synergy vs Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Compared 24% of the time

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Product Reports

Cisco UCS B-Series

Download Cisco UCS B-Series product report

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Download Cisco UCS E-Series Servers product report

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series

UCS E-Series Servers

Overview

Based on Intel Xeon processor E7 and E5 product families, Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers work with virtualized and non-virtualized applications to increase: Performance, Energy efficiency, Flexibility and Administrator productivity.

Cisco

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers are next-generation, power-optimized, x86, Intel Xeon 64-bit blade servers designed to be deployed in Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) and the Cisco 4451-X ISR. These price-to-performance-optimized single-socket blade servers balance simplicity, performance, reliability, and power efficiency. They are well suited for applications and infrastructure services typically deployed in small offices and branch offices.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Anonymous Banking Group, Artoni Transporti, Bellevue, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Hertz, Houston Methodist, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co.KG, Outscale, Sony Corporation, Talbots

Navaho, MiroNet AG, Columbia Sportswear

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. Cisco UCS E-Series Servers