Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs FlexPod XCS comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Dell Technologies is ranked #4 with an average rating of 9.0, while NetApp is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. Dell Technologies holds a 2.6% mindshare in CI, compared to NetApp’s 10.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Read 216 Dell PowerEdge R-Series reviews

13,506 Views
0 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

2,048 Views
799 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

FlexPod XCS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 26, 2025

FlexPod XCS and Dell PowerEdge R-Series compete in data center management. FlexPod XCS has the upper hand in integration and ease of deployment, which is ideal for complex environments.

Features: FlexPod XCS offers a unified solution that streamlines data center management and integration. Its deployment ease and adaptability are beneficial in multi-vendor settings. Dell PowerEdge R-Series is valued for its robust hardware, effective remote management, and capability to handle network-intensive workloads.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS could improve in management efficiency and support for cloud-centric needs. Unified control and automation enhancements are suggested. Dell PowerEdge R-Series should focus on cloud platform integration and faster support response times. Automation features and analytics could further enhance efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS excels with support from multiple vendors, simplifying troubleshooting in multi-vendor environments. Dell PowerEdge R-Series is praised for reliable support and customer service, though improving local expertise and spare part availability could enhance support capabilities.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS, as a premium investment, offers long-term cost savings and operational efficiency. Its higher upfront cost is offset by optimized infrastructure operation costs for a compelling ROI. Dell PowerEdge R-Series provides a strong value with competitive pricing and is perceived as cost-efficient in hardware capabilities and operational savings.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. FlexPod XCS Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. FlexPod XCS

September 2025

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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

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

4th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

216

Ranking in other categories

Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (4th), Rack Servers (1st)

FlexPod XCS

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 2.6%. The mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 10.1%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Converged Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
FlexPod XCS	10.1%
Dell PowerEdge R-Series	2.6%
Other	87.3%

Converged Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood

Country manager at Asta Innosys

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.

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John Kevin

Deputy IT Manager at MBBank

Enforces standardized setup procedures following Certified Validated Design (CVD) guidelines and offers greater flexibility and control over the system compared to traditional systems

The GUI setup follows the right setup, meaning we have to follow the CVDi.e. Certified Validated Design. Everything is clear, because you can build CI yourself, but without rules, it can be messy. With FlexPod, there are rules to follow, making it more standardized. This helps with troubleshooting and compatibility assessments, simplifying troubleshooting significantly. We also use FlexPod pre-validated architectures to validate the design. It is very, very important to us because we had a bad case in 2015 where separate items integrated poorly due to no version or firmware compatibility certification. Troubleshooting became a nightmare. So, standards are crucial for us, and everything entering production should be verified or at least documented for certification.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The reliability and the execution of the necessary assignments are valuable."

"The most valuable feature, when I compare Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers with other brands available, is the price versus performance, as I get more for what I pay, and mostly, we use this for our CAD workloads."

"I find the flexibility of the build-out in Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers very valuable because we can do different things based on the use case. This flexibility is highlighted by being able to reduce CPU count, RAM count, and the number of drives depending on the site's importance."

"Any necessary adjustments can be made seamlessly without the need to unplug cables, as everything is contained within the rack itself."

"The active directory and file server are valuable features."

"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."

"This product has really saved us a lot of headaches when it comes to hardware replacements. It's something it seems that Dell has improved. You quickly log your support case and get support. The turnaround time is really fast."

"The product is well-rounded and has been effective in meeting our needs."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series pros

"The biggest lesson that I have learned from this solution is the ease of actually setting it up and learning it."

"It is extremely stable and well-supported because of the leadership and partnerships put in place."

"I am happy with the stability. I haven't had any major issues with it in four years. This includes upgrades."

"Our performance increase has been about 15 percent from what we previously used."

"The advantage is being able to consolidate everything into a relatively small chassis."

"It scales well. It allows us to have very flexible architecture but to have the same level of simplicity that we'd normally expect in hyper-converged environments."

"Availability is the most valuable part of this solution. We have not had any trouble since we installed it."

"I can leverage its multiple storage abilities. We have various kinds of storage in our environment, like IBM or NetApp. We can mix those types of storage with the FlexPod environment."

More FlexPod XCS pros

Cons

"We have experienced some challenges with iDRAC when upgrading firmware."

"It is not good in terms of its energy consumption for a large-scale deployment. I probably would go for something more dense, like blades or any type of small scale hardware service solutions, to lower the heat and power consumption. However, for small environments, this solution is okay and easy to maintain."

"I would like to change the physical rails to be more like how HPE rails are formatted and organized."

"In Pakistan, the vendors or the partners of Dell are not providing a good environment. They need to improve their support and hire partners that have certified support sources. Currently, we are not getting good deployment experience. However, after deployment, Dell solutions perform very well."

"We are working with national markets, and HP Enterprise is cheaper. Dell could have made an effort there."

"We use PowerEdge servers in conjunction with VMware, a VCF Rack, and VxRail. That has worked out well. We are using it for firmware upgrades and other similar tasks. It's a one-stop shop, but it could be better when the servers aren't on a VCF stack. Profile handling and upgrading standalone servers could improve, but they have gotten better over the years."

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are competitive, but there is room for energy efficiency improvement considering the thermal design and power consumption."

"Dell could increase the training. My ability to use the product improved vastly once I became more knowledgeable about it. The sales desk and presales service could also improve."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series cons

"We haven't seen ROI yet."

"The procedure for contacting technical support could be simplified."

"The interface is a little convoluted."

"For the next release, because I know that we are using Pure Storage, what I want to see is the GUI interfaces on this UCS monitor."

"I'd like to see a little more on the provisioning and the replication piece... Also, I don't want to say analytics are lacking but I'd like to see more analytics."

"We have had some problems with SnapSuite and the replication functionality."

"FlexPod was born to be used like building-block elements, to create large EDP premises. If used to create a single FlexPod CED, optional operational collaterals (backup, management, etc.) are missing, both in docs and in design."

"We would like to have a single pane of glass available for it. It is something that the management in the business would like to have."

More FlexPod XCS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good compared to other products."

"The cost structure associated with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers presents itself as a potential point of contention for budget-conscious consumers, as it could be more strategically positioned to compete within the broader marketplace."

"We have not compared them with others. The price is okay, but they can always be a little bit cheaper."

"Dell is pretty good. good. I had a conversation with Dell a while ago due to a vendor. We got much better pricing from a competitor. When I looked at another company, Dell called me and asked why am I looking at someone else when they have a distributor. I told them that their pricing was not good, so Dell went back to the distributor, and we got much better pricing"

"The pricing for this solution is competitive compared to others on the market."

"I don't know about the product's licensing part. Price-wise, it is an okay product. I believe that the cheaper the better, but I think that the product's price is okay."

"This is an expensive solution."

"It's pretty much on par."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series pricing and cost advice

"The cost is a little high."

"Cost is the primary factor behind why I would not give this product a perfect rating."

"It created lower total cost of ownership. Previously, we had disparate storage and servers, and there were bits of kits everywhere. Now, we have two data centers with almost identical setups in both."

"I have saved time on new service deployments. I've done deployments in under a week, and if it's a cloud-based deployment, it's even faster."

"We have absolutely seen ROI. We have saved between two to four million dollars on travel alone over the past 24 months."

"The scalability is very expensive."

"We pay approximately $1,400 USD in total for between five-thousand and ten-thousand ports."

"We have a lease for approximately $10,000 USD per month."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user244362

Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees

Aug 30, 2015

Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod

Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

20%

Educational Organization

15%

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	78
Midsize Enterprise	52
Large Enterprise	89

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	66
Large Enterprise	182

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....

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?

It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?

I don't have any issues or complaints with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, but they could make the service tags larger as I get older. It's not that they aren't customizable; you can actually use ...

See all answers

What do you like most about FlexPod?

The system is designed for easy scaling. Because we define everything clearly. So when we plug the system in, we apply the profile, and it scales easily.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FlexPod?

The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers. Following XCS rules ensures a stable environment, which is crucial. For me, C...

See all answers

What needs improvement with FlexPod?

FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities. More automation would be helpful. Currently, we cont...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 40% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 28% of the time

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

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 6% of the time

Huawei FusionServer RH Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 6% of the time

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Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 28% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 16% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 12% of the time

HPE ConvergedSystem vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

September 2025

Download Dell PowerEdge R-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

September 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

No data available

Overview

PowerEdge R-Series delivers high performance, flexibility, and scalability for data centers. It supports demanding tasks with robust management tools and advanced cooling, providing reliability and efficiency across various workloads.

Engineered for large deployments, PowerEdge R-Series supports extensive configurations optimizing performance in data centers. With features like advanced cooling and energy-efficient architecture, it empowers organizations to manage heavy workloads while facilitating seamless scalability. It offers remote management, robust security, and integration with VMware ensuring operational excellence and high availability for business-critical applications.

What are the key features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series?

Scalability: Supports flexible configurations for diverse workloads.
Remote Management: iDRAC and OpenManage facilitate easy oversight.
Energy Efficiency: Architecture helps reduce energy consumption.
Security: Robust features ensure protected performance.
VMware Integration: Enhances manageability and productivity.

What benefits and ROI should you look for?

Performance: Handles high-performance and demanding tasks.
Flexibility: Offers easily upgradable configurations.
Reliability: Provides consistent performance with long-term support.
Efficiency: Reduces energy use and operational costs.
Ease of Use: Simplifies management and maintenance.

PowerEdge R-Series is deployed across industries for virtualization, database hosting, and application servers. It supports environments like VMware and Hyper-V for AI, cloud infrastructure, and computing tasks. Widely used by finance, healthcare, and academia, it enhances reliability and efficiency of IT infrastructure.

Dell Technologies

FlexPod XCS is the secure platform your applications need from edge to cloud. Easily manage your suite of cloud-native, edge, and enterprise apps. Integrate advanced cloud services without compromising performance, security, reliability, or scale.

NetApp

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. FlexPod XCS

September 2025

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