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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 26, 2025

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 Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
211
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (5th)
HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.7
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 27.5%, down from 28.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 3.8%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Aruna Udawatte - PeerSpot reviewer
An affordable and easy-to-implement solution, but its after-sales support and technical support should be improved
We use HPE Apollo for specific requirements of Linux servers HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products. HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved. The solution should provide fast delivery when it comes to replacing a…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very reliable, very cost-effective, and the services that Dell provides are very useful and helpful in deploying infrastructures."
"The pricing of the solution is fair."
"They are very stable. They are rock solid. I am happy with them."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very good for our solution. It is the best option on the market and the best solution so far. I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten."
"I would estimate we save two to four hours a week, depending on what's happening, such as if we need to spin up a new server, which would contribute to more time if done the old way."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped reduce our downtime by a lot."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers scale very well with the growing needs of my company."
"I would evaluate the support from Dell as exceptional."
"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance."
"Absolutely being able to mount into Omni-Path architecture, HFIs on those nodes, because we were the very first site in the world"
"We usually use three blades for two-rack units, and with enough storage, it's really a small system with a powerful CPU, powerful hard drives, powerful disks."
"The solution is well documented in a data sheet."
"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable. It is quite effective for the work for which we are using it. We are mainly running video servers on these, and we are quite happy with the resilience, density storage, and streaming capacity of the system."
"It enables us to implement software defined solutions very easily, because Apollo servers are certified for use with Linux systems"
"HPE Apollo's most valuable feature is the ability to expand our storage capacity."
"It's very reliable. I haven't had a single failure at all in the year and a half; not the slightest problem with it."
 

Cons

"The servers get slower at the end of their life cycle. The technology needs to evolve."
"Although PowerEdge's price is high."
"This solution helped us reduce our rack footprint. It reduced our power consumption including size and weight."
"I would like more resilience because, for all companies, cybersecurity is important."
"The rate controller interface is difficult to get to without installing additional software. It would be helpful if they had preinstalled software to make that easily accessible."
"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..."
"The cost can be improved. For other use cases, we use Hitachi servers, which are a little cheaper but have similar functionality."
"The licensing of the different formats of the iDRAC is somewhat annoying."
"We have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE."
"There is a shared battery for all cache controllers in the node. When you have to replace that element, you have to take down all three nodes and not just one."
"I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding."
"The predictive analysis feature could be improved."
"One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it. It was a very long wait-time. So, if I were to give any advice in regards to improving this product, I would say make more of the 8TB disks available quicker."
"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."
"The solution's deployment, security, and scalability need improvement."
"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We weren't paying very much, but it was at the end of the lifecycle. We are now using the VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure, and the pricing was very similar for the same amount of power but with easier automation."
"It's not a very expensive solution."
"I have no issues with the pricing and licensing costs. They are fine."
"The more complex the server requirements, the more expensive it gets."
"The solution's analytics helped to decrease production downtime by at least 30%."
"The pricing is fair enough."
"Regarding the pricing, it seems fair."
"This solution is reasonably priced and licenses are easy to acquire."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."
"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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....
What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Mainly, I would like to improve the speed of storage response. We would like to improve our performance by using disks without rotation. The price is better now, and I think it will be better in th...
What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?
Additional features would be beneficial in the next release of HPE Apollo Systems.
What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?
We were working with HPE Apollo Systems for one of our projects for the company named VVDN. We were using HPE Apollo Systems, GPU systems and CPU systems. For GPU systems, the model was 6500, in wh...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?
Our company is a platinum partner with HPE, and we continue to deal with HPE. We sell many of their hardware products. Depending on the requirement or deal, we may sell HPE Converged System, hardwa...
 

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
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