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 8.6. Cisco holds a 8.8% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Dell Technologies’s 0.7% 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

1,334 Views
941 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

PowerEdge C

Read 28 PowerEdge C reviews

124 Views
74 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: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C

April 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 May 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 8.8%, down from 10.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PowerEdge C is 0.7%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

Filip Kopecký

Chief Technology Officer at HOPI HOLDING a.s.

A highly stable and secure solution that has a straightforward setup

We are running many applications for a logistics provider. We do the storing of goods for our partners and transport and so on The most valuable features of the solution are stability and security. The solution’s pricing could be improved and made cheaper. I have been using Cisco UCS B-Series…

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Niraj Shah

Founder Owner at Interface

Good return on investment, round the clock technical support, and easy to install

PowerEdge C is used in both corporate and industrial settings One of the main features that attract customers to buy their products is the great management tool and almost zero failure rate, making it easy to use. As far as I'm concerned, the current product works perfectly fine and I don't see…

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

"The scalability and easy management of the lifecycle, upgrades, and hardware failures are valuable."

"Overall service and support from Cisco is very good."

"The solution is stable."

"The ratio in terms of the number of units and the number of servers that we can get each chassis is quite good."

"From a return on investment perspective, Cisco UCS B-Series is worth the money."

"If we could get more reference architecture available on the portal, it would be helpful in making decisions"

"The Dual Fabric design allows for online/in-service upgrades during production with no impact."

"The solution's most valuable feature is KVM Launch Manager."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pros

"The scalability of the solution met our needs."

"The hybrid solution is much more stable than other products."

"With the tool, we can easily upgrade and ensure compatibility between operating systems, hardwares and drivers. Among other features, the hardware also stands out because it is certified and aligns with the processor manufacturers like Intel. This enables them to offer the latest options which are not available with other suppliers."

"I like the feature that allows for a backup and that is suitable for me."

"Every new version is better than the previous one."

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

"The solutions are easy to handle, priced correctly, reliable, and dependable."

"The solution provides good support and service."

More PowerEdge C pros

Cons

"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."

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

"The pricing could be less."

"The monitoring features and integration with other products can be improved."

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

"The cost is expensive and has room for improvement."

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

"The GUI is not the greatest."

More Cisco UCS B-Series cons

"The product’s cost needs improvement."

"They could automate or simplify it more."

"It would be easier if data center management and disaster recovery were combined."

"For improvements, the iDRAC application isn't very intuitive to handle."

"The solution’s pricing could be cheaper."

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

"The price must be improved."

"It would be better if it worked with SMTP servers on the cloud. Right now, it only allows notifications via the SMTP server. In the next release, I would like to have a better processor."

More PowerEdge C cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

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

"Cisco UCS B-Series is not a cheap solution."

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

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

"Cisco UCS does not require a license. However, this license is not specific to users."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pricing and cost advice

"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 licensing cost of PowerEdge C is very high."

"We buy licenses for the solution's advanced features."

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

"Despite the slightly higher price, we prefer Dell due to the high quality of their products."

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

"The price could be reduced."

"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."

More PowerEdge C pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

16%

Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm

11%

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 31% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 21% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 20% of the time

Supermicro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 15% of the time

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

Compared 12% of the time

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Huawei FusionServer X Series vs PowerEdge C

Compared 58% of the time

Cray CS-Storm vs PowerEdge C

Compared 25% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs PowerEdge C

Compared 18% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series

April 2025

Download Cisco UCS B-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

April 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

April 2025

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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