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Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE NonStop comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

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
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE NonStop
Ranking in Blade Servers
12th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 7.1%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE NonStop is 4.8%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco UCS B-Series7.1%
HPE NonStop4.8%
Other88.1%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

MB
Head of IT Operations at NCC BANK LIMITED
Efficient server management reduces costs and supports seamless operations
Cisco UCS B-Series has reliably sustained smooth operations without the need for significant maintenance. Its administration capabilities provide easy access to performance reports, logs, and utilization data, which are essential for effective server management. Additionally, the integration capabilities are seamless, and the power consumption and heat generation are low, resulting in reduced cooling costs and increased financial benefits.
Roni Wijaya - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is definitely the service profile."
"The solution has the ability to reuse or divide the networking, making it a flexible networking environment."
"The most valuable features of the Cisco UCS B-Series are reports for virtualization and the large memory it has."
"The hardware is easily swappable and, utilizing the boot from SAN option, you can always keep your server intact due to the service profiles."
"The ratio in terms of the number of units and the number of servers that we can get each chassis is quite good."
"If we could get more reference architecture available on the portal, it would be helpful in making decisions"
"The Dashboard is quite impressive and is, so far, the best based on my experience."
"Since its UCS release in 2009, Cisco has extended the core functionality with Central, a tool for managing multiple domains"
"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 integration is an area where Cisco UCS B-Series needs to provide users with more details."
"This product uses a converged network adapter because it is the only way to provide flexibility with both fiber and ethernet connections."
"The high price of the solution is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The configuration is a bit complex, as it requires very high technical expertise to apply it."
"It is more expensive than the competitors."
"The pricing could be less."
"The product could be made more secure."
"Next generation support for VMware needs to be introduced as it does not support eighth-generation VMware."
"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

"Every three years, I need to renew my license and support the product...Every time I have to opt for the renewal of the license, I am shocked to learn about the increase in the price of the product."
"A physical licensing fees needs to be paid."
"The pricing for Cisco is less than for the HP Proliant series."
"Cisco products are at the high end in terms of cost, but everything is included with the licensing fees."
"The type of service level purchase will determine the level of support response that you receive from Cisco."
"It is not a yearly subscription but a yearly support renewal that you need to do for Cisco UCS B-Series."
"Cisco UCS B-Series is an expensive solution."
"Compared to the more in-demand hyper-converged environments such as Nutanix or DVX rail, Cisco UCS B-Series is even more costly due to the expensive fabric interconnects."
"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."
"HPE NonStop is definitely on the higher end."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
14%
Performing Arts
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
16%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

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 Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

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...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
HP NonStop, HPE Integrity NonStop
 

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
Bankart, Capital Securities Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE NonStop and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,515 professionals have used our research since 2012.