Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Superdome X comparison

Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Cisco is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0. Cisco holds a 7.1% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 7.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS B-Series

Read 74 Cisco UCS B-Series reviews

1,501 Views
1,471 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

HPE Superdome X

Read 11 HPE Superdome X reviews

1,154 Views
1,142 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS B-Series

HPE Superdome X

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Cisco UCS B-Series and HPE Superdome X are competitors in the enterprise server space focusing on high-performance workloads. Cisco seems to have an edge in scalability and integration with its innovative management system, while HPE stands out in compute performance and reliability features.

Features: Cisco UCS B-Series boasts scalable network integration, a unified management interface enhancing operations, and seamless virtualization integration. HPE Superdome X is known for its mission-critical RAS features ensuring system uptime, robust compute power, and the ability to partition blades for flexible deployment options.

Room for Improvement: Cisco USC B-Series could enhance user-friendliness within its UCS Manager interface, streamline cabling complexity, and refine initial configuration settings for quicker setup. HPE Superdome X may benefit from better installation guidance reducing complexity, broader virtualization support beyond current capabilities, and cost-efficient scalability options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS B-Series excels in speedy deployment with efficient tools and supportive customer service, making it easier to integrate into existing systems. Meanwhile, HPE Superdome X faces deployment challenges requiring expert involvement but compensates with comprehensive support services.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS B-Series offers competitive pricing appealing to budget-conscious entities seeking faster ROI through integration capabilities. HPE Superdome X, demanding a higher initial investment, promises long-term value through exceptional performance, justifying the cost for reliability-reliant environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X

February 2026

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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

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE Superdome X

Ranking in Blade Servers

6th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

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 Superdome X is 7.4%, down from 10.5% 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	7.1%
HPE Superdome X	7.4%
Other	85.5%

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

Muhammad AlihyderBhuiyan

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.

Read full review

reviewer2056329

Professor at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees

Robust product, helped with workload management and offers remote configuration

In this specific model, it could be beneficial to have a server configuration similar to Cisco, like the kind offered in HPE Superdome Flex X280. The ability to separate the chassis is important because we are forced to use two chassis even with lower loads. So introducing more flexibility in the Superdome environment would be helpful. One other problem is energy consumption. We are forced to use both chassis even when we only need, for example, all four processors. It's not always used at full capacity every day. When underutilized, we still need to have both chassis powered, which creates an energy consumption issue. While the machine can be configured to reduce consumption, the idea of having different possible configurations with varying chassis usage, similar to the Flex version, could be interesting for this model, too. This model leverages specific features of the Intel MAP board, so switching like in the Flex might be difficult due to the motherboard switching involved.

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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 platform has valuable features for management and good monitoring tools. It provides efficient insights."

"The architecture of this solution is very valuable; it has five traffic interconnects, and uses a network highway so bandwidth is never an issue."

"I like that the hardware is separated from the software definition of the components."

"The Cisco solution provides a unified dashboard which enhances virtualization tasks, allowing configurations from a single interface. It also helps with space and power management, which are vital for data center efficiency."

"The Dashboard is quite impressive and is, so far, the best based on my experience."

"Some of the features I like from this solution are it has a fast configuration, it is not complex, and has high availability."

"Stateless Blade is the best feature."

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

More Cisco UCS B-Series pros

"We've got a few of them, because we needed some really large machines. So far, they've been working pretty good."

"SDX gave us a very large RAM and we need that for the large-scale graph-handling applications."

"One of the really cool things about Superdome is, depending on the model you choose, you can put 8-16 blades in it."

"This product is very reliable."

"Superdome X is a system that can compete in terms of performance and uptime, but it's now standard. That is the great value. There are competitors like IBM, for example, but IBM has a propietary operating system. With Superdome X, you have a system that can run Windows, Red Hat, or VMware, but in a mission critical server."

"I like the robustness of the machine. Similar performance could likely be achieved with other configurations, but this machine is very stable."

"The most valuable features of HPE Superdome X are speed, performance, and resilience."

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."

"The upgrades could be improved."

"The main issue with this solution is that it is quite vendor-restricted, meaning that when we use third party software, we cannot use all of the available configuration tools or pre-validated design features."

"Its scalability could be better."

"The graphic code that UCS can support is limited and less accessible than other systems."

"The solution is expensive."

"The GUI is not the greatest."

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

More Cisco UCS B-Series cons

"In this specific model, it could be beneficial to have a server configuration similar to Cisco, like the kind offered in HPE Superdome Flex X280. The ability to separate the chassis is important because we are forced to use two chassis even with lower loads. So introducing more flexibility in the Superdome environment would be helpful."

"I know we support Windows and I think it's Red Hat, and I'd like to see more OSs supported."

"It would be helpful if you could do the maintenance completely online."

"What would make it better from my point of view is if HPE spent more time on testing with the actual built-in Red Hat Linux drivers, as opposed to always trying to say, "Use our driver.""

"HPE Superdome X can improve by adding a lot of cloud capabilities to allow this solution to be cloud-ready in case the customer wants to move it to the cloud."

"I'd like to see the onboarding of some storage class memory to really expand the already very large RAM, into something that could be even much bigger."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing with Cisco is very high."

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

"It is highly-priced."

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

"The product is expensive."

"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."

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

"Make sure you work with a vendor partner than can get you a substantial discount off of list pricing."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pricing and cost advice

"There is a very expensive one-time cost with no licensing fees."

"The pricing is not very cheap. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being very inexpensive, and ten being very expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

15%

Performing Arts

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

15%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

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	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE Superdome X?

I like the robustness of the machine. Similar performance could likely be achieved with other configurations, but this machine is very stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Superdome X?

The pricing is not very cheap. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being very inexpensive, and ten being very expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Superdome X?

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 24% of the time

Supermicro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerEdge C- Series vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 23% of the time

HPE Synergy vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 13% of the time

Lenovo Flex System vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 12% of the time

HPE Integrity vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 9% of the time

HPE NonStop vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 9% of the time

More HPE Superdome X Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series

February 2026

Download Cisco UCS B-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

February 2026

Download HPE Superdome X product report

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series

HP Integrity Superdome, HP Superdome X

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

HPE Superdome X is an HPE server that represents a new category of x86 modular, mission-critical systems to consolidate all tiers of critical applications on a common platform. Engineered with trusted Superdome 2 reliability, the HPE Superdome X includes a modular, bladed design, and shares HPE BladeSystem efficiencies including a common server management framework, supported from x86 to Superdome 2. With breakthrough innovations such as the fault-tolerant Crossbar Fabric and Error Analysis Engine coupled with hard partitioning capabilities, Superdome X sets the standard for mission-critical x86 computing.

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

Pella

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X

February 2026

Free Report: Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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