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Cisco UCS X-Series vs Dell PowerEdge XE-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 Rack Servers
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Blade Servers (15th)
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
MW
Senior Solution Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Flexible management has delivered reliable uptime and supported diverse workloads efficiently
There are some areas for improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series; it's more of a Dell issue. They've promised changes, but engaging with Dell sometimes means they will take the customer on a direct model and cut the partner out. This isn't a technical issue, but a business one. When architecting a solution and introducing Dell to a customer, you sometimes get an email saying the customer wants to buy directly from Dell, leaving all my hard work and introductions for nothing. I believe Dell could add new features to Dell PowerEdge XE-Series in the future. There are many more CPU variants available than just Intel and AMD, and it would be nice to have a major vendor introduce another option outside of those. While I know it's difficult due to supportability and changes, that would just be a preference.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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 most valuable feature is that it can support up to 32 drives of internal storage."
"The solution has almost everything."
"The resource management features are valuable."
"In Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers, the control is good, and they are very adaptable, affordable, and easy to learn."
"In general, it works well. We haven't had issues."
"The most valuable feature is the trusted platform module."
"This is a very stable product; we have implemented more than 60 servers over the past three years and we have not come across any issues with stability, making it a very reliable server."
"The most beneficial features in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, in terms of capabilities and functions, are the maturity of the management, particularly iDRAC, and from an out-of-band management perspective, I rate iDRAC as the best."
 

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."
"Dell PowerEdge XE Servers can improve by adapting HCI technology."
"The support team must improve the speed of response."
"We use OpenManager a lot, and that can be a bit clunky at times. They can make that better."
"There are some areas for improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series; it's more of a Dell issue."
"The quality and reliability could be improved."
"The big problem with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is the volatility in pricing, so trying to find stability is pretty important to us."
"It should be easier to extend PowerEdge XE servers. We haven't architected them with an eye toward scalability. They have a fixed number of slots for hard drives, which is enough for our present use case, However, we would have more options if we could extend that. We could deploy the servers in a broader range of use cases with different requirements. It's fine for our current deployment with only a few thousand users. We're exploring other solutions like such as VxRail or PowerFlex for larger public-facing use cases."
"It is mostly stable, but the usual problem would be, for example, upgrading to a newer version of VMware or dealing with compatibility issues during the process."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Dell has competitive pricing."
"If you want an SLA for parts and equipment then you need to purchase a support agreement."
"There are different types of licensing available, that works well for customers. The product is not very much to purchase."
"The pricing model is quite competitive."
"This solution is priced very reasonably."
"You always want slightly cheaper, but overall, they are quite comparable and quite neutral."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise6
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is very helpful and saves us cost because previously we were managing our servers on AWS, and now we are managing them in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series. We are saving almost 60%...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
There are some areas for improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series; it's more of a Dell issue. They've promised changes, but engaging with Dell sometimes means they will take the customer on a dire...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
My clients' use cases primarily highlight HCI, which would include VMware vSAN or Nutanix AHV.
 

Also Known As

No data available
PowerEdge XE Servers
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Epsilon, ROZETTA CORP, JIGUANG, RACKSPACE, NEW BELGIUM BREWING
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS X-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.