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Cisco UCS X-Series vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 X-Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
15th
Ranking in Rack Servers
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
2nd
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
309
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (1st), Data Center Networking (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2847909 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Centralized profiles have simplified host deployments and have reduced configuration errors
I would say a form factor could improve Cisco UCS X-Series. We are in a life cycle replacement phase, and we face a situation where we have to upgrade the hardware, but to get to the next series, you have to upgrade all of it. The chassis, the backbone components, including fabric interconnect components that provide the networking, all have to be replaced at the same time. You cannot mix and match things. So you get to a situation in your life cycle replacement that you need to upgrade, but it does not make sense economically to just buy a newer blade when the whole life cycle replacement is on the horizon, and you are forced to just replace it all top-down. I would say a form factor that is more universal and is not going to require an overall hardware refresh would be beneficial.
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

"Cisco UCS X-Series scales with the growing needs of my organization very well, as much as you need it to with no issues whatsoever, and it scales whenever we need it to."
"The features I appreciate most with Cisco UCS X-Series are profile, profile deployment, and the ability to orchestrate configurations across all of the compute."
"I'd give Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a rating of ten out of ten."
"We could install all the other accessories and cards the customer asked us to implement on Dell servers and integrate cards from different companies. Each requires a different OS. Dell helped us integrate all the systems."
"It operates without any downtime. It runs 24 hours and 365 days. The downtime is there for an hour or two only when I do an upgrade, but it is within the SLA."
"The biggest benefit in the product is mainly because Dell PowerEdge R-Series is a well-known company with very good support."
"The solution is reliable."
"Using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has helped me to reduce unplanned production downtime by 100%."
"We like their quality. I have also dealt with HPE and other manufacturers. In terms of service, Dell is optimal."
"This means that if you would scale up linearly, one person could take care of 3000 Servers. That's quite impactful. Google published three people for 1000. We are doing one person for 3000. That allows us to free human resources for other tasks."
 

Cons

"We are in a life cycle replacement phase, and we face a situation where we have to upgrade the hardware, but to get to the next series, you have to upgrade all of it."
"Cisco UCS X-Series can be improved with a longer lifespan. The products go end-of-support and end-of-life quicker than I would prefer."
"I would like to see more information about server health and the server's state, on the front. HP has a little screen that shows server utilization, how many disks there are inside, and the power consumption. HP also shows an alert if there is a malfunction of any device inside."
"One area where PowerEdge could improve is the challenge of keeping technology consistent over the years."
"Currently, we are facing issues with updates, particularly on the driver side. We did not receive proper communication about upcoming driver upgrades and other aspects. We are lagging in that area. We need to know about any upcoming updates so that we can plan accordingly. It could be that our emails are not registered properly."
"OpenManage Essentials could do with a visual birthday as it still requires the Silverlight plugin."
"Occasionally, there might be extended wait times between placing an order and receiving the delivery."
"For products that are not part of the premium support package, it is a bit more tedious."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could be improved in areas such as cooling."
"They should reduce its size. Because the CPU power is more now, they can reduce the size of the servers. Currently, we have a 2U server. If possible, they can make a 1U server."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"This is an expensive solution."
"Pricing appears to be comparatively favorable, particularly within the project's scope."
"If price isn't a concern, I would recommend it."
"The pricing is very good because there are a lot of types of PowerEdge Rack Servers. You have the R540, R640, and R740. The prices are very scalable through the specific server, e.g., small businesses can take the R640 while large businesses can take the R740 or R840. Thus, Dell technologies touch on every organization."
"They are affordable. Even during our recent procurement, the cost of Dell servers was lower than that of HPE."
"At present, the pricing seems a bit high for us."
"It's pretty much on par."
"PowerEdge is not a cheap product. It's a quality product, but there is always competition. If you want to buy a server, you need an operating system, and most of it is Microsoft. A bundled solution costs less than a separate operating system and hardware."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business112
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise129
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS X-Series?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing all seems fair. It is handled by a different group in the organization, but when I compare it to other companies, Cisco is always cheaper.
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS X-Series?
Cisco UCS X-Series can be improved with a longer lifespan. The products go end-of-support and end-of-life quicker than I would prefer.
What is your primary use case for Cisco UCS X-Series?
My main use of Cisco UCS X-Series is all for collaboration: setting up CallManager, Unity Connection, CER, Contact Center Express, and all of that.
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?
Regarding how Dell PowerEdge R-Series can be improved, something personal to me is the number of PCI Express slots in the back; however, that is an engineering choice. Otherwise, I am happy with th...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers serve as IO machines for talking to PCI Express devices. The use cases change over time, and I push data to the network for in-flight compute.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS X-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge R-Series and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.