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Cisco UCS B-Series vs PowerEdge C 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
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
74
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
28
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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Al Vasek - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability provided by the product is its most valuable feature for our organization."
"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 initial setup is simple, and not very complex."
"They've been responsive and helpful whenever we've needed assistance."
"The GUI makes is simple to use and deploy."
"The most valuable features are monitoring and processing, which can handle a lot of throughput and are more powerful than the HPE series."
"The most valuable features of the solution are stability and security."
"The most valuable features of the Cisco UCS B-Series are reports for virtualization and the large memory it has."
"It is a scalable platform."
"The management platform is great."
"The product stability has been excellent."
"The solutions are easy to handle, priced correctly, reliable, and dependable."
"It was not complex to deploy."
"It's a good product. Virtualization on it is good."
"The product has high performance and no downtime."
"The hybrid solution is much more stable than other products."
 

Cons

"Cisco is expensive and difficult to manage. The product is not intuitive. It also needs to improve storage management and upgrades."
"The initial setup process is complex."
"The license is expensive. Cisco should decrease the delay in the delivery of their products."
"Compared to the deployment of servers such as Dell XCDs, the deployment of UCS servers is more complex. They take longer to deploy."
"The management interface needs a lot of improvement. As it is right now, it's a pain to use. It's not user-friendly."
"Right now, the market is rapidly transitioning to solid-state media and the Cisco options tend to be less varied and more expensive than a broader slate of products from HP, Dell or IBM."
"The solution’s technical support could be better."
"The solution is expensive."
"HP is a little bit lower in terms of price."
"For improvements, the iDRAC application isn't very intuitive to handle."
"They could automate or simplify it more."
"It should be improved in terms of future expansion. We should be able to have additional free slots for future extensions in terms of memory."
"The product’s cost needs improvement."
"The pricing of PowerEdge solutions is very high nowadays."
"There could be some more ports added in the future."
"It would be better if the solution provided simplified storage and hardware with an integrated one-tier architecture."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution compared to others is fair."
"The product cost is high."
"It is not a yearly subscription but a yearly support renewal that you need to do for Cisco UCS B-Series."
"Cisco UCS does not require a license. However, this license is not specific to users."
"This is a premium device and our clients are not as concerned about the reasonableness of the price compared to satisfaction with their productivity."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"When we talk about pricing it is the cheapest on the market that I have found."
"PowerEdge C is a product that is priced at a medium range, so it is not too expensive."
"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."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The price could be reduced."
"PowerEdge C is very expensive, but personally, I think it's worth the price."
"The cost depends on the configuration."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
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, Cisco One, is priced a bit high but still considered reasonable. No additional...
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 PowerEdge C?
The solution provides good support and service.
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.
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...
 

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
No data available
 

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
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
862,452 professionals have used our research since 2012.