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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Lenovo Flex System comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 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 Blade Servers
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
267
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (2nd), Data Center Networking (4th), Rack Servers (1st)
Lenovo Flex System
Ranking in Blade Servers
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 3.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo Flex System is 4.4%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series3.6%
Lenovo Flex System4.4%
Other92.0%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

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.
FA
Senior System Administrator at Khushhali Microfinance Bank
Used to run the compute load on servers, but firmware and driver upgrades are a bit difficult
We use the solution for multiple purposes, such as in the virtualization cluster and the standalone applications We use the solution as a compute model to run the compute load on servers. The solution's firmware and driver upgrades are a bit difficult. I have been using Lenovo Flex System for…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I'd give Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a rating of ten out of ten."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series has improved our company overall by providing the ability to maintain uptime, and we store data for decades because of the industry we're in, so being able to expand and know that the product will last and retrieve things that we need from 25 to 30 years ago is still available."
"Any necessary adjustments can be made seamlessly without the need to unplug cables, as everything is contained within the rack itself."
"The biggest benefit my company gets from having Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that they work as we expect and deliver the performance that we expect."
"I like the reliability and ease of swapping out failed equipment. It is very easy to replace power supplies and drives."
"What distinguishes Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers compared to others is their reliability, as we have very few failures; apart from a disk from time to time or a memory stick from time to time, we never have failures on the servers."
"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."
"The ease of setting them up is valuable. It is easy to set them up."
"Flex System's best features are its performance and stability."
"We use the solution as a compute model to run the compute load on servers."
"One of the most valuable features of this solution is its ease of use."
"The Lenovo Flex System is very stable."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of the Lenovo Flex System is the storage system."
"The functionality is reliable and requires minimal support."
"The product is very user-friendly and has many resources at the enterprise level."
 

Cons

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could be improved in areas such as cooling. I've seen some demos of Dell working with Vertiv to manage things such as that, so a combination of air cool and liquid cool."
"I would like to change the physical rails to be more like how HPE rails are formatted and organized."
"The only aspect that might raise it to a ten is the response time for quote turnaround; it used to be one day, however, it now seems to take longer since the merger of Dell and EMC."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be improved perhaps in terms of compatibility with other products."
"My experience with customer service is that it can sometimes be challenging because there are GPUs in that system."
"Lately, we feel that we need an improvement in our servers. Surprisingly, we have seen some servers here that do meet these characteristics. They are slightly smaller servers."
"The price is acceptable but could be improved."
"I would increase the life cycle management and those life cycle management tools."
"The product could improve its integration capabilities."
"The solution could improve by providing more integration with other platforms."
"Continuing the production of this product is necessary. It is currently out of support, and we are seeking support from other sources besides Lenovo."
"It does not have the same module flexibility that was present in IBM Blade. On the Blade System, I was able to choose between the Cisco module, or BMC module. Since the switch to Lenovo, I have not had the same choice of modules, only the BMC modules."
"The most valuable feature of the Lenovo Flex System is the storage system."
"Forced restarts due to free upgrades is an issue that needs to be resolved. We can manage this as we have high availability and redundancy, but without that it could be a real problem."
"The solution's firmware and driver upgrades are a bit difficult."
"I had some difficulties with the initial setup."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is good for the quality of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."
"I have no issues with the pricing and licensing costs. They are fine."
"The pricing is great; very competitive. That's the reason we bought hundreds of them."
"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."
"The solution’s pricing is competitive with other products."
"This solution is reasonably priced and licenses are easy to acquire."
"We do use Dell's OpenManage console. It is easy to use this console for lifecycle management or PowerEdge servers."
"There is room for improvement in making it more cost-effective."
"The price is interesting. I am able to quote a client based on their needs and offer them either Lenovo or Dell."
"We are just paying the operational cost, which is not much."
"The 14 blade server allows significant room for upscaling before having to invest in another chassis. You would have to purchase another chassis much sooner in the case of an eight or nine blade server."
"The is an annual license cost to use the Lenovo Flex System. If the price was less expensive and flexible overall and for additional features, our customers would be happier."
"We have the whole maintenance for the 3 years, starting the deployment. We also have the VMware license for 3 years and I think we have another license to buy. There are no additional costs besides licensing."
"There is a one-off payment to buy the equipment and the support is purchased annually."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
11%
University
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business95
Midsize Enterprise58
Large Enterprise112
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise7
 

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?
I do not have anything that I believe could be improved about Dell servers. However, I would like to see a range for AI that is more accessible for companies that do not have significant budgets. T...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lenovo Flex System?
Compared to its quality, the pricing is very reasonable and represents good value.
What needs improvement with Lenovo Flex System?
Continuing the production of this product is necessary. It is currently out of support, and we are seeking support from other sources besides Lenovo.
What is your primary use case for Lenovo Flex System?
We are using Lenovo Flex System on the server for our VMware environment, which includes our VMs and all our servers, Linux and Windows. It manages the daily operation efficiently.
 

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
Flex System Blade Servers, Flex System SN Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Lenovo Flex System and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.