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Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs Dell PowerEdge MX- Series comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 8, 2026

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 E-Series Servers
Ranking in Blade Servers
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerEdge MX- Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS E-Series Servers is 3.7%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge MX- Series is 8.2%, down from 14.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge MX- Series8.2%
Cisco UCS E-Series Servers3.7%
Other88.1%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

AK
Solution Architect at COPYCAT LIMITED
Automation and integration capabilities streamline IT infrastructure management
The most valuable feature of Cisco UCS E-Series Servers is the Cisco interface. The server management and automation capabilities have been outstanding in automation, greatly benefiting our IT team. Pricing is acceptable, and these servers have had a significant impact on cost savings and operational efficiency. The integration with Cisco routers simplifies the IT infrastructure.
reviewer2881110 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Modern infrastructure has reduced our rack footprint and simplifies large-scale virtualization
No product is perfect, and there are improvements that can be done on Dell PowerEdge MX- Series. The first improvement is the complex matrix for firmware updates and patching. Managing the cycle for a modular chassis means managing alignment across multiple layers: the chassis management module, compute nodes including I/O, BIOS, and iDRAC, switch network OS such as SmartFabric OS, and the hypervisor driver.Upgrading firmware can feel challenging when an OS10 switch patch is out of sync with an iDRAC version and a VMware ESXi driver release, as it can trigger network instability or failed compliance checks. A simple, single-click, whole-stack update engine that completely guarantees baseline stability across switch OS, server BIOS, and hypervisor drivers without manual dependency checking would be beneficial. The second area for improvement is the high upfront cost and initial setup complexity. The initial capital expenditure for an MX7000 chassis, redundant management nodes, and fabric switching engines is steep compared to buying a few standalone 2U servers or rack servers. Additionally, initial configuration, particularly setting up SmartFabric services and inter-chassis stacking, has a steep learning curve. A lower barrier to entry price for smaller cities and a simplified deployment wizard for IT generalists who do not specialize in enterprise network fabrics would be improvements. The third improvement is the limited native GPU density for modern AI workloads. While composable PCIe fabric exists, running intensive AI training locally inside the chassis is restricted. Sleds designed with specialized cooling, specifically tailored to support high-wattage enterprise GPUs natively with the standard sled footprint, would be beneficial. Power and thermal management per rack is another area that can be improved. A fully populated MX7000 series loaded with high-wattage CPUs, dual switches, and NVMe drives consumes a significant amount of power in a compact 7U space. Racking three or four chassis in a single rack can typically exceed standard power density limits or require specialized rack power distribution units and high-CFM cooling airflow.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco has better visibility and manageability for disaster recovery."
"Stability-wise, it is a good product that remains stable."
"The Cisco chassis is very easy to configure and any network engineer or expert can configure the solution and easily integrate it with the chassis."
"What I can advise other prospective customers is that they should not worry about Cisco's support, stability, and performance."
"Overall, the Cisco chassis is pretty good, pretty stable and easier to configure as compared to HP and others."
"The server management and automation capabilities have been outstanding in automation, greatly benefiting our IT team."
"The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability."
"Cisco UCS E-Series Servers have been reliable, and it took almost five years for any hardware failure, which was only about a $100 repair, so nothing too major."
"Dell PowerEdge MX- Series is highly scalable and highly stable."
"The low cost and high density of the solution has allowed us to place more compute assets per data center rack and increase our virtual machine count."
"The solution is made with high-quality hardware."
"The tool's most valuable features are high availability and scalability. Its integration is easy."
"This system is really good as far as the performance, compared to other legacy or older blade models."
"PowerEdge has high functionality, especially for automation on the firmware, which allows us to receive alerts for issues."
"Dell PowerEdge MX- Series has positively impacted my organization by being the backbone, and I am the gatekeeper for monitoring and troubleshooting, and this product makes my life easy by not giving me any downtime and working up to the mark."
"In my perspective, I do not have much negative feedback about Dell PowerEdge MX- Series, as the features are great."
 

Cons

"I am always asked to justify why we should purchase such expensive hardware when there are other brand names available with same capacity for a lesser price."
"The product should also be available in a standard edition or a standard license since currently there is a need to pay for an extra license, which is very expensive, especially when considering the budgeting part of our company."
"The processing capacity could be improved."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement. There could be more collaborative tools included."
"I would like to see improvements in VMware integration with Cisco, especially in terms of documentation and integration tools. Support of NVIDIA integration would also make it better."
"The tool must be made compatible with multi-vendor ecosystems."
"I think that's probably one of the biggest failure points with Cisco, from their documentation all the way to their products."
"It is not a solution that is cloud ready."
"If I could improve Dell PowerEdge MX-Series, I would consider additional features that are more AI compliant, enhanced pricing options, and faster technical support response times."
"I would like to have additional HPC and AI capabilities on general Dell PowerEdge servers."
"The biggest challenge happens when you have compact boxes such as Dell PowerEdge MX- Series. Managing or maintaining the server ratio within a rack becomes jumbled up because per rack you get a limited power capacity."
"We have had some issues with the vendor's support that we have received. When you open up a support case with Dell they send a partner to assist you and in our experience, they are lacking knowledge about the solution. There are times when you need professional support from the vendor that knows the solution well."
"The second area for improvement is the high upfront cost and initial setup complexity."
"Dell PowerEdge M needs to run AMD CPUs on it."
"Dell support should be faster. Dell's technical support sometimes takes time, and there's a support gap issue."
"Technical support from Dell is not good. I rate it a zero out of five."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's expensive, they are quite pricey."
"There is a need to pay towards the licensing costs of the solution. The most expensive server from Cisco is Cisco UCS B-Series."
"The pricing of the solution is reasonable. From a commercial point of view, the prices are okay."
"The product is expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Dell PowerEdge M price is comparable to other solutions but cheaper than IBM. However, the IBM solution is a higher grade solution whereas Dell PowerEdge M is a medium-level solution."
"The product is budget-friendly. The initial cost for each server was around 10,000 euros. It's a standard price, not too high or too low."
"It was budget friendly."
"The product is neither expensive nor cheap. It is manageable for medium enterprises as well."
"If we would not have gone with the vendor we might have been charged unnecessarily for packages we did not need."
"I know we get three years basic, and the on-site licensing model for business seems fine. I wouldn't pay for a support plus or anything."
"The solution's pricing is slightly higher."
"The cost varies significantly depending on the server's configuration and can range from $10,000 to $60,000 for the same server line family."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Wholesaler/Distributor
7%
Outsourcing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS E-Series Servers?
The pricing of Cisco UCS E-Series Servers is okay, costing around 30,000 per year. Support is included in this cost.
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS E-Series Servers?
I would like to see improvements in VMware integration with Cisco, especially in terms of documentation and integration tools. Support of NVIDIA integration would also make it better.
What is your primary use case for Cisco UCS E-Series Servers?
I use Cisco UCS E-Series Servers ( /products/cisco-ucs-e-series-servers-reviews ) for managing our IT infrastructure and supporting AI-driven projects. The integration with Cisco routers simplifies...
What do you like most about Dell PowerEdge M?
The best feature is the idrac tools, which allows me to manage/config the platform from the Linux level.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge M?
Total cost of ownership depends on the purchase cost plus deployment cost and other things such as maintenance cost and upgrade cost. TCO in Dell PowerEdge MX- Series has shared infrastructure that...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge M?
I don't think I could improve Dell PowerEdge MX- Series overall. I think they're naturally improving as time goes on. I would improve them by reducing the cost now with the change in the world, I s...
 

Also Known As

UCS E-Series Servers
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Navaho,  MiroNet AG, Columbia Sportswear
Newport City Homes, Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC), Georgian College, AgreeYa Solutions, IIHT Cloud Solutions, Arizona State University, AudienceScience, University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Holy Cross School
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs. Dell PowerEdge MX- Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.