Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 23, 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 C-Series Rack Ser...
Ranking in Rack Servers
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (3rd)
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
207
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd), Data Center Networking (3rd), Blade Servers (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is 4.7%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 27.6%, down from 28.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Kalpesh Savaliya - PeerSpot reviewer
Good support, and this product well-suited to our size of environment
We use these rack servers for terminal operating systems The initial setup could be easier. I have been working with Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers for five years. This is a stable product. For our use case, this product is scalable up to 16 blades, including two sites. I don't know how well…
Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently
We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload. For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time. We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In most cases, computes compute, and there isn't much differentiation, but one point of differentiation is Intersight cloud management."
"The C-series is the most valuable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the expansion and replacement of parts."
"It is very stable and easy to use. It integrates easily with Cisco's cloud-based UC solutions. There are tools for management that make the management a bit easier, but we don't use them. We don't use what you would term as power users."
"The most valuable features of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers are integration and customization."
"What I really like about the Cisco USC Server is its service profile."
"On the Cisco side, there is a benefit in terms of server management. Cisco provides UCS Manager, which is a multi-tenant site manager. We can manage multiple sites while maintaining disaster recovery, a feature not available on other platforms."
"The technical support from Cisco is fine."
"We are using the Dell PowerEdge Rack Server for core banking applications. It is working fine and we are happy with it."
"The product is very stable."
"The standout feature is the remote control accessibility, which allows our team to access and manage the servers locally or remotely."
"It's helped us reduce unplanned downtime."
"The most valuable aspect of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is that they don't require support for card installation and offer extensive diagnostic software."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are user-friendly."
"My favorite features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have been the redundancy and reliability."
"I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as a nine out of ten overall."
 

Cons

"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers could improve by adding a wider portfolio because they only have two main categories, the C-220 and 240. There is no wide range of options as other solutions have, such as Dell. Additionally, if it was more flexible with the configuration it would be good."
"The solution can be improved by adjusting the cost."
"Technical support could be more responsive."
"Definitely the support area needs improving. Especially the time response in case of hardware failure."
"In the version we need to use, the manager is still reliant on a full Java install on a Windows OS. This is inconvenient and problematic if you have multiple management tools on different versions of Java or if you move to a machine without the appropriate Java environment."
"The pricing is too high and no discounts are available for our country."
"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers could improve integration with third-party solutions."
"The warranty and support periods should be extended."
"The Industrial and healthcare areas both need improvement."
"There is potential for enhancement in terms of its overall upgradeability."
"The performance could be a bit better."
"I've had some trouble where the customers are not happy with the Toshiba drives, and it's a challenge when it comes to specific requests for Dell to a non-deviate, and only use Seagate drives."
"I would like to see better IOPS, i.e. the disc speed. That is the main limitation for scaling up the number of users."
"Maybe on the education side, working with third-party sellers on how easy their products are could probably help."
"The licensing of the different formats of the iDRAC is somewhat annoying."
"There's always room for support improvements, and the AI features could continue to be enhanced as the relationship with Nvidia grows."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is high."
"This product is quite expensive and it would be better if it were cheaper."
"The solution is expensive and I give the price a four out of ten."
"The price for Cisco is a bit higher than its competitors. We paid 40k for one server."
"This solution is a little expensive."
"Cisco is expensive, but we didn't look at the cost of the product. We were looking at reliability and support."
"We have to pay for the VMware and Cisco licenses."
"The solution is moderately priced."
"I wouldn't say the solution's pricing is the best, but it's very competitive."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers is reasonable compared to other solutions."
"Regarding the pricing, it seems fair."
"When you compare public cloud solutions to PowerEdge in terms of cost, initially the cost of Dell servers or Dell technology was really high. However, right now it's on par or, maybe, even cheaper when we use Dell hardware. If we don't swap it out in three years and if we stretch it to four or five years, then we can get even more of an ROI versus cloud cost."
"I personally think the pricing and licensing of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is actually fairly decent, though the way the business runs leads to sticker shock anytime we give them a quote."
"The pricing is great; very competitive. That's the reason we bought hundreds of them."
"This solution is reasonably priced and licenses are easy to acquire."
"At present, the pricing seems a bit high for us."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Rack Servers solutions are best for your needs.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could be improved in areas such as cooling. I've seen some demos of Dell working with Vertiv to manage things such as that, so a combination of air cool and liquid cool....
 

Also Known As

Unified Computing System C-Series, Cisco UCS C-Series
PowerEdge R
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Artoni Transporti, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, City of Mississauga, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Kind en Gezin, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Nationwide, Quest, Talbots, University of St. Gallen
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.