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Cisco UCS B-Series vs Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy comparison

 

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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco UCS B-Series enhances performance and efficiency, reducing costs and power usage, surpassing expectations with minimal maintenance and strong returns.
Sentiment score
7.4
Dell PowerEdge M offers quick ROI and reliable performance with PCIe 5 and Intel CPUs, ideal for long-term stability.
Sentiment score
7.0
HPE Synergy reduces operational costs by up to 50%, increases efficiency, and accelerates deployment while offering strong ROI.
Additionally, we achieved server consolidation, running multiple services on fewer servers without purchasing new ones, resulting in significant financial benefits.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Users praise Cisco UCS B-Series support for professionalism, quick responses, and reliable 24x7 assistance, with occasional minor delays.
Sentiment score
6.8
Dell PowerEdge M's customer service is satisfactory with mixed reviews on technical support, varying from excellent to needing improvement.
Sentiment score
6.4
HPE Synergy support varies, with praised expertise and responsiveness but noted initial inconsistencies; higher-tier assistance is effective.
Cisco's technical support is highly helpful and responsive.
They provide excellent help when needed.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco UCS B-Series offers robust scalability and flexibility, allowing seamless integration and effortless expansion to meet diverse needs.
Sentiment score
7.5
Dell PowerEdge M excels in scalability and efficient maintenance, supporting enterprise applications and virtualization, despite upgrade challenges.
Sentiment score
7.6
HPE Synergy is highly scalable, simplifying expansion with OneView, but some find physical management challenging amid hardware limitations.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco UCS B-Series is praised for its robust stability and reliability, despite minor challenges in certain operations.
Sentiment score
7.8
Dell PowerEdge M offers high stability and uptime, with minor interoperability and disk latency issues under certain configurations.
Sentiment score
7.8
HPE Synergy offers stable performance with minimal downtime, though initial setup and occasional update issues may arise.
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 needs improved storage integration, user-friendly management, lower costs, HTML5 transition, and better support for new technologies.
The Dell PowerEdge M needs improvements in boot times, networking, scalability, support services, and SNMP configuration for better performance.
HPE Synergy needs better integration, user interface, stability, support, and pricing to enhance user satisfaction and broaden hardware compatibility.
Last year, we faced challenges with firmware upgrades, but they were quickly resolved with assistance from Cisco TAC.
There are differences in security configurations, particularly in SNMP and SNMP3, between HP ILO and iDRAC.
Currently, it supports only two drives in the blade server, which can be limiting.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco UCS B-Series is costly but offers value and reliability, with discounts available during year-end negotiations.
Dell PowerEdge M offers competitive pricing and flexibility, ensuring accessibility for medium enterprises despite recent technological cost increases.
HPE Synergy pricing is competitive but includes high initial costs, licensing fees, and varying reports on total expenses.
The management software, Cisco One, is priced a bit high but still considered reasonable.
Pricing in the blade server market is very competitive, with HPE offering a competitive price.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco UCS B-Series excels in scalability, centralized management, ease of deployment, virtualization integration, and offers robust performance and reliability.
Dell PowerEdge M excels in performance and efficiency, offering scalability, manageability, and reliability for advanced workloads like machine learning.
HPE Synergy offers future-proof scalability, efficient management, robust performance, and seamless server image deployment for optimized workloads.
Its administration capabilities provide easy access to performance reports, logs, and utilization data, which are essential for effective server management.
The ease of troubleshooting and managing through remote access, using tools like iDRAC, significantly saves me time.
It offers significant compute power in approximately ten rack units, making it practical for workload optimization.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 8.8%, down from 10.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge M is 18.6%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Synergy is 21.8%, up from 21.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Filip Kopecký - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly stable and secure solution that has a straightforward setup
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…
Brian Ricci - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers a good interface and return on investment to users
My impression of the scalability of the product is good. You can put a lot of memory in the tool now, and you have a good choice in processors, so you can go wherever you want or do whatever you want with your money. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
CarlosArdila - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps grow horizontally or vertically within one box or chassis
The initial setup is very easy. We deployed this in two days, including installation, system setup, firmware upgrades, configuration, and network connection. By the next day, we were already deploying virtual machines. We initially began with the Blade system. As the migration to SAP HANA approached, it seemed prudent to upgrade our hardware. Consequently, we facilitated their transition from the Blade system to Synergy. Subsequently, we collaborated closely with the SAP consultancy company to oversee the migration process, ensuring seamless integration of all workloads and sub-environments. We have four people working on the deployment, including a project manager, two specialists, and one tech support.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
 

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...
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 Dell PowerEdge M?
The solution's most valuable features are centralized monitoring and management and the ease of upgrading firmware.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge M?
The cost of Dell is reasonable. Dell is not expensive compared to HP. It is a little cheaper, but customers still pre...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge M?
There are differences in security configurations, particularly in SNMP and SNMP3, between HP ILO and iDRAC. When conf...
How would you choose between HPE's Bladesystem and Synergy?
For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and s...
What do you like most about HPE Synergy?
It is a good product for hypervisors.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?
Pricing in the blade server market is very competitive, with HPE offering a competitive price. Competitor products in...
 

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
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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
Newport City Homes, Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC), Georgian College, AgreeYa Solutions, IIHT Cloud Solutions, Arizona State University, AudienceScience, University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Holy Cross School
HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell Technologies, Cisco and others in Blade Servers. Updated: April 2025.
850,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.