Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE NonStop comparison

Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #10. Cisco holds a 7.6% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 4.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS B-Series

Read 74 Cisco UCS B-Series reviews

1,130 Views
1,107 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

HPE NonStop

Read 12 HPE NonStop reviews

825 Views
825 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS B-Series

HPE NonStop

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Cisco UCS B-Series and HPE NonStop compete in the enterprise server market. Cisco UCS B-Series appears to have the upper hand in scalability and integration, while HPE NonStop leads in reliability needed for mission-critical environments.

Features: Cisco UCS B-Series provides high-density blade architecture, unified infrastructure and advanced management options, such as centralized management using UCS Manager. It also facilitates seamless virtualization integration and service profile management. HPE NonStop offers unparalleled fault tolerance, continuous availability, and exceptional reliability vital for industries like banking and telecommunications. Its linear expandability allows for increased processing capacity by linking additional systems.

Room for Improvement: Cisco UCS B-Series could benefit from simplifying its complex UCS Manager and enhancing the user experience. It also needs to optimize its setup configuration process. HPE NonStop could improve by lowering its high upfront costs and minimizing complexities in deployment architecture. Additionally, enhancements in usability and user interface will aid in better client experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS B-Series offers a streamlined setup with strong vendor support, making it easy to deploy and integrate. HPE NonStop is more complex to deploy due to its specialized architecture but is backed by in-depth customer service, providing excellent support for managing critical applications.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS B-Series provides competitive pricing, focusing on cost reduction through automation and achieving a strong ROI. HPE NonStop, while more costly upfront, delivers long-term value through its substantial reliability, justifying its expense in mission-critical sectors with its 99.9% uptime and fault tolerance.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE NonStop Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE NonStop

July 2025

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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

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE NonStop

Ranking in Blade Servers

10th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 7.6%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE NonStop is 4.4%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Blade Servers Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco UCS B-Series	7.6%
HPE NonStop	4.4%
Other	88.0%

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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Roni Wijaya

Vice President of It Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

With a perfect record for uptime, the solution ensures a return on investment

Since it is a legacy tool, there is a need to change it for flexibility. I think now it has improved because the security is very good. It is very secure for the performance of the machine critical application service, and it is very good. I don't know how to speak more on improvement needed because it's a good enough tool. However, depending on the application, it's limited. Not a lot of applications run on HPE NonStop. It is not flexible because I know that because of the compatibility of Java with HPE NonStop. When we are using Java, the performance is not good.

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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

"Since its UCS release in 2009, Cisco has extended the core functionality with Central, a tool for managing multiple domains"

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

"The solution is very reliable in comparison to the other brands."

"The hardware is easily swappable and, utilizing the boot from SAN option, you can always keep your server intact due to the service profiles."

"Dell has a huge portfolio of products."

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

"The GUI makes is simple to use and deploy."

"The most valuable features of the Cisco UCS B-Series are reports for virtualization and the large memory it has."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pros

"The stability of HPE NonStop is good."

"We don't have any issues with the stability of HPE NonStop."

"Feature-wise, the most valuable one is the fact that it has 100 hundred percent uptime every year. Secondly, it is stable."

Cons

"The management interface needs a lot of improvement. As it is right now, it's a pain to use. It's not user-friendly."

"This product uses a converged network adapter because it is the only way to provide flexibility with both fiber and ethernet connections."

"Previously, the unified port functionality allowed the same port to function as both FC and Ethernet, however, this has now changed."

"There is also a need for better local parts replacement, as HP is superior in this area."

"HTML5 interface is a much needed improvement over the old Java interface, but still needs a little work."

"It is more expensive than the competitors."

"There are patches that cannot be implemented without any downtime or reboot required."

"The upgrades could be improved."

More Cisco UCS B-Series cons

"It would be helpful if they brought the price down."

"HPE NonStop could improve by having infrastructure management."

"It is not flexible...Not a lot of applications run on HPE NonStop."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"From a business point of view, the price is on the higher end."

"It is highly-priced."

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

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

"UCS is expensive, and we will be migrating to the cheaper HP servers."

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

"The pricing for Cisco is less than for the HP Proliant series."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pricing and cost advice

"HPE NonStop is definitely on the higher end."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive, I rate the pricing an eight."

"The price of the solution is too high. If they lowered the price substantially it would open up more opportunities. It's considered a replacement for the old 9000 boxes of HP. If it had a lower price, we would be able to compete in the financial, and other sectors and other solutions such as Terraform. Having a high price makes other solutions more attractive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

20%

Retailer

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	41

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	7

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.

See all answers

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...

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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...

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Comparisons

HPE Synergy vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 35% of the time

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

Compared 20% of the time

Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 19% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 14% of the time

Supermicro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 13% of the time

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HPE Superdome X vs HPE NonStop

Compared 36% of the time

Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs HPE NonStop

Compared 33% of the time

Fujitsu CX1000 vs HPE NonStop

Compared 17% of the time

HPE Synergy vs HPE NonStop

Compared 14% of the time

More HPE NonStop Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series

September 2025

Download Cisco UCS B-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE NonStop

September 2025

Download HPE NonStop product report

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series

HP NonStop, HPE Integrity NonStop

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

When availability matters, the new HPE Integrity NonStop X enables you to stay ahead of your competition by mitigating the risk of downtime and effortlessly meeting your business processing, OLTP, and database requirements all with an industry-standard x86 architecture. HPE brings you an unparalleled portfolio of HPE Integrity NonStop systems the NonStop i family and the NonStop X family. These systems deliver the highest level of availability for the most-demanding, high-value workloads and customer-facing applications.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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

Bankart, Capital Securities Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE NonStop

July 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE NonStop

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE NonStop and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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