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

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
2nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
319
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (1st), Data Center Networking (3rd), Rack Servers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS E-Series Servers is 3.7%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 4.9%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series4.9%
Cisco UCS E-Series Servers3.7%
Other91.4%
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.
Tom van Mil - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Administrator at Lico Innovations B.v.
Supports flexible hosting needs through seamless upgradability and strong monitoring capabilities
The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me are the feature richness and the upgradability. I really love the way that it is so dynamically applicable for every situation, and they manage to have an all-in-one solution for every single situation. Dell PowerEdge has supported the growth and operational success of my company through its great compute power and price-to-performance ratio. Every time Dell is at the top of its game for us, and there is just no other brand for us that is able to reach that kind of price-to-performance ratio. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of my small company, such as iDRAC. The iDRAC system is a complete feature set for managing servers and hardware technically and monitoring-wise. It really fits in our system and our ecosystem, and monitoring-wise, it is excellent. They have all these sensors available via different protocols and end points, which I love, and the ability to manage and control everything via the iDRAC interface is just a welcome bonus. In our use case, Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very flexible. It is another computer which helps a lot because of the durability over time. They keep running, making scalability for getting more of those resources in our environment so easy.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I can advise other prospective customers is that they should not worry about Cisco's support, stability, and performance."
"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."
"Stability-wise, it is a good product that remains stable."
"The most valuable features are that they are efficient and easy to setup."
"The product's most valuable features are stability, speed, and scalability."
"Overall, the Cisco chassis is pretty good, pretty stable and easier to configure as compared to HP and others."
"Cisco has better visibility and manageability for disaster recovery."
"The product is overall stable."
"This solution has helped us reduce our rack footprint. It reduced our power consumption including size and weight."
"The initial setup is so easy."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series has good backup, supports a lot of good Intel chips that we use for our applications, and provides a good balance for memory requirements."
"The feature I appreciate most about Dell PowerEdge R-Series is iDRAC, which allows me to connect to the server without having to attach a screen to it."
"PowerEdge is one of the top solutions when it comes to the security features that it provides including firmware, drift protection, and systems management."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is the ease of use, as it allows me to spin up different OSes on it without having to go through a bunch of hoops."
"PowerEdge servers powered by Intel are highly stable; some of them have stayed on for two years without ever rebooting."
"The go-to-market implementation was pretty fast."
 

Cons

"The tool must be made compatible with multi-vendor ecosystems."
"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."
"It is not a solution that is cloud ready."
"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 processing capacity could be improved."
"The biggest pain point for us is the matrix for the firmware upgrades. It is a pain. You look at that thing, you might as well be reading Greek. It would be a whole lot better if they could clean up their documentation on it."
"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."
"One thing that could be improved is the cost - it is very high for this Blade chassis as compared to other vendors. Especially in Asia. Asian customers mostly prefer a cost effective, cheaper solution."
"The only thing that could be improved is documentation. During the installation, it would be good to have some information about how is it going."
"The features I love and I struggle with each day still is the Bluetooth feature once in a while to get it working on my phone."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be improved; some of the chassis could use a redesign, though I have older chassis, so I should go check their new models."
"The T150 is a little bit bulky for what it is. I think if they created a T150 version with small form-factor drives, that would be an ideal solution. Currently, it is a tower box and it has quite a big footprint..."
"My experience with pricing, setup, cost, and licensing over the last six to nine months has been challenging because of AI data centers consuming significant resources."
"The licensing of the different formats of the iDRAC is somewhat annoying; I understand why they do it, but if you have the iDRAC license, you should have access to everything."
"OpenManage Essentials could do with a visual birthday as it still requires the Silverlight plugin."
"I would like enhanced latitude in the machine assembly process."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable. From a commercial point of view, the prices are okay."
"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 product is expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"It's expensive, they are quite pricey."
"The more complex the server requirements, the more expensive it gets."
"You can't have computed performance without using more power. That said, when I consider the power consumption and performance of the MX740c, depending on how much memory you install on each blade, you get the best bang for your buck."
"PowerEdge pricing is equivalent to that of all the others in the market."
"It's a bit of a shock when you have to find the money, but the pricing is very competitive, so I'm happy with that."
"The pricing of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has been a little problematic. It was sticker shock with our most recent purchase compared to the previous one, and there's a gap in pricing at our current level because what we do isn't very compute-intensive, resulting in a mismatch where we fit into an in-between category without an exact solution available."
"The price is reasonable. You have to pay if you want quality. When we purchase something, we have to do some market analysis, and I haven't seen a significant difference compared to other solutions."
"Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers are very expensive."
"The solution’s pricing is competitive with other products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Wholesaler/Distributor
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
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 Business112
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise140
 

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...
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 needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
The cost is one area Dell PowerEdge R-Series can be improved. If Dell PowerEdge R-Series could look at the price, that would be best. Whether it is good depends on if the company's budget is good.
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
I use Dell PowerEdge R-Series for installation, and all virtual VMware infrastructure is running on Dell PowerEdge servers. I am mostly using all infrastructure servers with Dell PowerEdge. I am ho...
 

Also Known As

UCS E-Series Servers
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Navaho,  MiroNet AG, Columbia Sportswear
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs. Dell PowerEdge R-Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.