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Cisco UCS B-Series vs Dell PowerEdge C- Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco UCS B-Series improved performance, reduced costs by 40%, and enabled management of 1600 servers with just two people.
Sentiment score
7.2
Dell PowerEdge C-Series offers strong ROI with efficient performance and maintenance, favored over HP and Cisco for time savings.
Additionally, we achieved server consolidation, running multiple services on fewer servers without purchasing new ones, resulting in significant financial benefits.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco UCS B-Series support is praised for efficient, proactive service, though improvements are suggested for response times.
Sentiment score
6.6
Dell PowerEdge C-Series customer service is generally strong, despite occasional delays, with appreciated round-the-clock assistance and prompt issue resolution.
Cisco's technical support is highly helpful and responsive.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco UCS B-Series excels in seamless scalability and integration, efficiently supporting thousands of servers for diverse industry needs.
Sentiment score
7.6
Dell PowerEdge C-Series is scalable and efficient, accommodating diverse needs with professional deployment, despite some storage constraints.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco UCS B-Series is praised for its stability, reliability, and strong performance, with swift resolutions to occasional issues.
Sentiment score
8.2
Dell PowerEdge C-Series servers are praised for their exceptional stability and reliability, garnering high satisfaction from users.
The stability of Cisco UCS B-Series is impeccable, as it has been running smoothly without any need for maintenance.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco UCS B-Series requires improved user-friendliness, integration, pricing, storage management, and software update processes per user feedback.
Dell PowerEdge C-Series needs improvements in pricing, virtualization compatibility, AI monitoring, memory options, interfaces, integration, and storage configurations.
Last year, we faced challenges with firmware upgrades, but they were quickly resolved with assistance from Cisco TAC.
This is one area where they can improve the performance of the server or implement some application improvements in the solution to make it easier for end users to implement properly.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco UCS B-Series has high pricing, complex licensing, but offers discounts and long-term value through reliability and integration.
Dell PowerEdge C-Series offers competitive value, but requires additional licenses for advanced features, impacting overall affordability perceptions.
The management software, Cisco One, is priced a bit high but still considered reasonable.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco UCS B-Series provides centralized management, scalability, high memory, virtualization support, and reduced costs, enhancing efficiency and performance.
Dell PowerEdge C-Series provides streamlined management, cost efficiency, virtualization, scalability, reliable support, and excellent performance with security features.
Its administration capabilities provide easy access to performance reports, logs, and utilization data, which are essential for effective server management.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS B-Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerEdge C- Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 7.2%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge C- Series is 1.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco UCS B-Series7.2%
Dell PowerEdge C- Series1.9%
Other90.9%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Prasanth Kailasam - PeerSpot reviewer
Supports multiple hypervisors but needs to improve in the area of configuration
Speaking about how the tool can improve computing efficiency in data centers, I feel that, ultimately, there are other kinds of hardware or servers that Cisco provides. From a management perspective, certain aspects can be incorporated to help users understand their current standing. It would be good if certain larger configurations could also be made suitable for the tool to suit the needs of multiple customer bases. For virtualization needs, the product works well. I have dealt with certain virtualization environments using - Cisco UCS B-Series. As of now, the tool is fine. Cisco UCS B-Series recently got registered with Nutanix, one of the market's HCI platforms. Nutanix can run on Cisco. Cisco UCS B-Series' direction is right. I don't think any further improvement is required in the tool right now. The integration capabilities of the product are okay. I haven't seen any challenges when installing the tool in an environment. I think that the tool supports multiple hypervisors. Speaking about the feature that has improved our company's data center operation, I would say that the Cisco brand name provides our organization with the benefits we need from the product. I believe that manageability is one crucial aspect of the tool, considering that it is pretty easy to manage. Performance-wise, some improvements have been introduced in Cisco UCS B-Series. Whenever somebody evaluates and goes ahead with some traditional setup in their environment, along with HP and Dell, they can also consider Cisco as a part of it because it has become more cost-effective and competitive presently. Networking-wise, the tool is pretty strong, and it operates as a brand that actually helps with the support offered to customers. The support offered by Cisco adds a lot of confidence for the clients. I feel that Cisco is doing a lot of innovation in order to offer scalability and flexibility to adopt future technologies. I believe Cisco users might see a lot more solutions that get introduced in the market that might become more and more compatible with many products in the future. In the future, I think that users will see AI and other related aspects run pretty well in a Cisco environment. I would say that the benefits and value of the use of the product stem from the brand name attached to Cisco products. Cisco's support when you use Cisco UCS B-Series is good. In the networking space, Cisco has been a leader for a very long time, and the same kind of credibility is what you can expect when you consider Cisco UCS B-Series. Considering the availability of the products from competitors, I rate the tool a seven out of ten.
Naveen Radhwani - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers great performance and customization for application servers
There are a few bugs in PowerEdge C that require some configurational settings to be done with the help of a support team when we reconfigure the solution. This is one area where they can improve the performance of the server or implement some application improvements in the solution to make it easier for end users to implement properly.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm
12%
University
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise41
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
 

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?
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...
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS B-Series?
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 u...
What do you like most about PowerEdge C?
The solution provides good support and service.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PowerEdge C?
My experience with the pricing of this tool is that it's in mid-range. They have good competitors in the market who are offering better pricing, so there is scope for improvement in this area.
What needs improvement with PowerEdge C?
There are a few bugs in PowerEdge C that require some configurational settings to be done with the help of a support team when we reconfigure the solution. This is one area where they can improve t...
 

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge C- Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
873,003 professionals have used our research since 2012.