Cisco UCS B-Series vs PowerEdge C comparison

Cisco and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 8.3% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Dell Technologies’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS B-Series

Read 73 Cisco UCS B-Series reviews

1,135 Views
742 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

PowerEdge C

Read 28 PowerEdge C reviews

138 Views
71 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS B-Series

PowerEdge C

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

PowerEdge C and Cisco UCS B-Series compete in the server management and virtualization market. PowerEdge C seems to have the upper hand due to its affordability, ease of use, and competitive features for hybrid environments, while Cisco UCS B-Series offers significant scalability and integration benefits but is more complex and costly.

Features: PowerEdge C offers strong virtualization capabilities with advanced reliability due to Intel's RAS feature and hot-swappable nodes, making it highly efficient and user-friendly. Cisco UCS B-Series excels in scalability and integration with storage systems, offering centralized management through UCS Manager and robust remote management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: PowerEdge C needs improved pricing, more intuitive integration with AI tools for monitoring, and enhanced iDRAC application features. Cisco UCS B-Series could benefit from simpler management interfaces, improved integration tools, and reduced complexity and costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PowerEdge C is favored for diverse deployment options and good technical services, though offshored support may slow response times. Cisco UCS B-Series provides solid deployment experiences but faces challenges due to its technical intricacies, requiring improvements in support speed and regional specialization.

Pricing and ROI: PowerEdge C is competitively priced with flexible licensing, offering strong ROI. Users appreciate its affordability with bundled offerings. Cisco UCS B-Series, although more expensive with high licensing costs, provides substantial ROI for enterprise features but requires more competitive pricing for mid-market competition.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C

June 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

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PowerEdge C

Ranking in Blade Servers

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 8.3%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PowerEdge C is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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.

Read full review

Al Vasek

Executive Business Development Manager, Cloud and Managed Services at Presidio Networked Solutions

Supports business apps and VDI with reliable compute

The solution is all about compute. The solutions are easy to handle, priced correctly, reliable, and dependable. Cisco is similar but more complex to configure and usually more expensive. My team supports a lot of Dell, focusing on hybrid environments like Azure Stack, splitting workloads between high compute needs in databases, which are expensive in the cloud, and other workloads in the cloud.

Read full review

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 product is easy to use."

"Stateless Blade is the best feature."

"The solution is very unified and the technical team is very supportive, no help is needed from outside vendors."

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

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

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

"The initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pros

"It's a good product. Virtualization on it is good."

"PowerEdge C is the best server I have worked with. I like that it's user-friendly. PowerEdge C performs very well."

"It provides the necessary infrastructure for our operations."

"The scalability of the product is good since it offers high performance and capacity."

"The product has high performance and no downtime."

"The initial setup is not complex. It's a user-friendly tool."

"I have found the compression capability the most valuable feature."

"PowerEdge servers have high CPU processing power, and the support is also good."

More PowerEdge C pros

Cons

"The pricing could be less."

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

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

"It is more expensive than the competitors."

"Its scalability could be better."

"The configuration is a bit complex, as it requires very high technical expertise to apply it."

"Cisco UCS B-Series competitors have similar features as they do, Cisco needs to make some changes to make their offering better."

"We have to have Java to manage the infrastructure. It would be great if we can manage the infrastructure through a web browser."

More Cisco UCS B-Series cons

"The reliability needs improvement."

"The VxRail should be opened to allow other virtualization platforms to be used."

"Its customer service could be better."

"An area where the product lacks and needs to consider improvement is by allowing it to integrate with some AI tool for monitoring."

"The pricing of PowerEdge solutions is very high nowadays."

"Customer service and support have been generally helpful but can be slow due to the need to navigate different specialists."

"The solution’s pricing could be cheaper."

"We had a few minor issues with compatibility on the latest version during the installation process."

More PowerEdge C cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The product cost is high."

"The price of this solution compared to others is fair."

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

"Cisco products are at the high end in terms of cost, but everything is included with the licensing fees."

"Pricing will be based on your requirements so it is important to plan, engage, and negotiate directly with the Cisco Account Manager."

"Considering our market, I rate the pricing of Cisco UCS B-Series as a six."

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

More Cisco UCS B-Series pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"PowerEdge C is a reasonably priced product, and the pricing depends on how many years you need the product. The cost also includes the support."

"There is a need to pay towards the annual subscription-based licensing model offered by the solution. The product is moderately priced. Price is a critical issue, and it is always good to have moderately priced solutions."

"The price could be reduced."

"The licensing cost of PowerEdge C is very high."

"I don't handle the financial aspects, so I don't know the exact costs, but in terms of the value it brings, it's worth it."

"The product costs can be high, especially for disks and other components."

"When we talk about pricing it is the cheapest on the market that I have found."

More PowerEdge C pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

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.

See all answers

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, Cisco One, is priced a bit high but still considered reasonable. No additional...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about PowerEdge C?

The solution provides good support and service.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PowerEdge C?

PowerEdge is quite a costly solution, and I would rate the pricing around seven or eight on a scale from one to ten with ten being the most expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PowerEdge C?

With reference architectures like VX rack, the update process is quite painful. They could automate or simplify it more. There are prerequisites to go through, and that's usually the only time-cons...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE Synergy vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 35% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 18% of the time

Supermicro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 17% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 16% of the time

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

Compared 16% of the time

More Cisco UCS B-Series Competitors

Huawei FusionServer X Series vs PowerEdge C

Compared 54% of the time

Cray CS-Storm vs PowerEdge C

Compared 33% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs PowerEdge C

Compared 13% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series

July 2025

Download Cisco UCS B-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

July 2025

Download PowerEdge C product report

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series

No data available

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

PowerEdge C help you to maximize hyperscale performance with up to 4 independent server nodes, flexible storage and shared infrastructure in a compact 2U chassis.

Dell Technologies

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

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C

June 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C

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