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Cisco UCS B-Series vs Supermicro SuperBlade comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 20, 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
6.5
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Supermicro SuperBlade
Ranking in Blade Servers
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Supermicro SuperBlade is 5.6%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Filip Kopecký - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Gergely Lakos - PeerSpot reviewer
With many servers in one, these blade servers are easier to manage
The service could be improved by faster servers, more widely available VMs, and more storage in one place. Then, in the event of a blade failure, we could start our VMs on another blade in a couple of minutes. This is why we wanted to buy storage. But now, we want to buy a twin server with 24 VMware discs to create test storage. The next product release should allow more servers to be controlled simultaneously.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Overall service and support from Cisco is very good."
"Dell has a huge portfolio of products."
"The solution has the ability to reuse or divide the networking, making it a flexible networking environment."
"They've been responsive and helpful whenever we've needed assistance."
"I like that the hardware is separated from the software definition of the components."
"The most valuable feature is definitely the service profile."
"The most valuable features of the Cisco UCS B-Series are reports for virtualization and the large memory it has."
"The most valuable feature is the service profile."
"I think the IPMI is a really good feature."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The ability to save resource is a key feature."
 

Cons

"There are patches that cannot be implemented without any downtime or reboot required."
"The solution is difficult to set up."
"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."
"It needs a better UI. Cisco makes a great product, but doesn't know how to make a UI."
"The product pricing needs improvement."
"The initial setup and service profile deployment can be tricky and should be improved for ease of use."
"The monitoring features and integration with other products can be improved."
"There is a lack of support for fiber channels currently that needs to be added."
"The solution does not scale well."
"Supermicro blade servers are not the best. They could improve in scalability but are not really scalable right now."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is highly-priced."
"There is a need to pay towards the licensing costs of the solution on a yearly basis. Price-wise, it is an expensive product"
"The cost of the blade servers is okay, but the cost of Fabric Interconnects ends up increasing the overall costs. For example, suppose it costs 3,500 USD per blade server. When you include the Fabric Interconnects, you could pay up to 30,000 USD. Therefore, compared to the cost of servers from Lenovo, Huawei, Dell, or HP, the cost of Cisco servers can be high. However, Cisco gives good discounts (about 90% to 94%) to partners and to customers who are already using Cisco servers. New Cisco customers do not get the level of discount that an existing customer does. Because you can get discounts with Cisco, I would give pricing a rating of four out of five."
"Pricing with Cisco is very high."
"The product is expensive."
"The cost of the Cisco UCS B-Series is comparable to HP solutions but higher than Dell solutions."
"Considering our market, I rate the pricing of Cisco UCS B-Series as a six."
"It is not a yearly subscription but a yearly support renewal that you need to do for Cisco UCS B-Series."
"The product is not expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
SuperBlade
 

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
Prace
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. Supermicro SuperBlade and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.