Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs FlexPod XCS comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Dell Technologies is ranked #3 with an average rating of 9.0, while NetApp is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Dell Technologies holds a 2.0% mindshare in CI, compared to NetApp’s 9.4% mindshare. Additionally, 99% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Read 207 Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers reviews

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18 Comparison Views

99% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

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209 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

FlexPod XCS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

FlexPod XCS and Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers compete in the data center solutions category. FlexPod XCS seems to have the upper hand with its unified support model that simplifies deployment and ongoing management.

Features: FlexPod XCS distinguishes itself with pre-designed architecture, ensuring compatibility and flexibility through seamless integration of components, backed by joint Cisco and NetApp support for easier issue resolution. Key features include powerful scalability, FlexClone, and mirroring capabilities that expand storage and deployment options. Meanwhile, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer robust performance and reliability through iDRAC's remote management, along with OpenManage Essentials for easy hardware management. High resilience and support for virtualization and fault tolerance are noteworthy, accommodating diverse high-demand workloads.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS users call for quicker certification of Cisco and NetApp updates and improved, unified support services to reduce vendor switching. A cohesive interface for component management is desired for smoother integration and better task automation. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could benefit from reduced configuration complexity, more efficient firmware updates, and broader monitoring capabilities. Simplifying the OpenManage Console and ensuring a cohesive upgrade path for hardware iterations are also suggested.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS's verified architecture and single-vendor support streamline deployment, simplifying data center operations despite occasional cross-vendor support inconsistencies. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers provide strong customer service aided by iDRAC's remote management tools, although managing separate components remains complex.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS is considered expensive, yet its scalability and management efficiencies justify the cost by reducing operating expenses and enhancing ROI over time. Licensing complexities for Cisco, NetApp, and VMware require careful cost evaluation. Meanwhile, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are competitively priced, offering good ROI through consistent reliability and lower operational expenses. The ability to customize configurations appealingly suits various business needs, although a more extensive pricing strategy could enhance reach.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. FlexPod XCS Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. FlexPod XCS

June 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 Rack Servers

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

3rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

207

Ranking in other categories

Data Center Networking (3rd), Blade Servers (5th), Rack Servers (1st)

FlexPod XCS

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

5th

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 June 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 2.0%. The mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 9.4%, up from 9.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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

"It is pretty good at handling diverse applications. We have been using these servers for eight years. We have experienced good performance with them."

"The defining characteristic of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers lies in their ability to function as the pivotal nexus of the server infrastructure."

"We like their quality. I have also dealt with HPE and other manufacturers. In terms of service, Dell is optimal."

"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."

"PowerEdge Servers helped to reduce unplanned production downtime because of the configuration of our product, it is active-active. It has 99% high reliability."

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

"Our customers do not ask for any service for the Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers because they are very durable."

"The solutions accelerated GPUs helped to support demanding workloads and to reduce data processing time in our organization."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pros

"The documentation alone that NetApp provides can guide anybody through the setup process."

"FlexPod is easy to setup, maintain and has great stability."

"It is innovative because it's bare metal and you can customize it easily. This brings a lot of benefits to the solution."

"The most valuable feature is ease of deployment. Once I deploy the chassis and I have the back-end storage, configuring more UCS servers is very quick. I can deploy a new UCS server within minutes."

"The solution is innovative when it comes to compute storage and networking. Each environment has knowledge of another in a FlexPod environment. This would be difficult to operate separately."

"When our clients choose to call NetApp or Cisco directly, the cooperative support model means they can get passed back and forth between the two organizations freely. It works really well."

"High availability is outstanding. We haven't had any problems with that."

"This solution has given us a great deal of on-site storage that we didn't have before."

More FlexPod XCS pros

Cons

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

"Considering from a hardware perspective, some areas of concern were network cards on the models we had in our organization, which were fairly inaccessible, so we had to remove the whole motherboard and, basically, the whole system to get rid of or swap a network card."

"The design, in terms of power efficiency, can be improved."

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could improve in clarity when specifying options; for instance, the difference between power supplies can sometimes be a little challenging to understand if you don't already know."

"I would like them to be more flexible when implementing more capabilities."

"The product must improve its integration with VMware."

"A feature that would enhance Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is the ability to get multiple servers up and running quickly versus having to do one at a time."

"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..."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers cons

"FlexPod XCS needs to improve its pricing."

"The upgrades should be improved. We would like to have the ability to do unified upgrades of the whole infrastructure from beginning to end."

"The ability to manage the templates across sites. We would like to easily take out the configuration of one FlexPod and copy it over, just making minor changes. There is a way to do it, but it's clumsy."

"FlexPod XCS' pricing could be cheaper. You need to find the right person for support."

"We dislike going online with the robot stuff. Many times, it has delayed our reaching out to a real support engineer."

"As we do much of the Tier-I support ourselves, and thus don't normally need it, there is time wasted in moving up to the next level."

"I would like more orchestration and networking in-between the VMs, the virtualization layer for networking. I would like to see better tools for this."

"We have experienced issues with patching. When there are Cisco releases, there are some vulnerabilities, i.e., security vulnerabilities. We are as a financial company and need to be on top patching. As a company, we cannot have continuous downtime to do patching, which is a challenge that we have faced."

More FlexPod XCS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a strong agreement in place with our parent company, that typically ensures favorable pricing terms for us, although occasionally we may need to negotiate with Dell representatives for further discounts to provide competitive pricing to our customers."

"The solution’s pricing is competitive with other products."

"I am satisfied with the pricing of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and would rate the cost as seven out of ten, with ten being the best."

"The product's pricing is not good."

"The product is cheaper than HP servers, but the price could always be better."

"The pricing is great; very competitive. That's the reason we bought hundreds of them."

"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."

"The price is good for the quality of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

"It seems very cost effective once it's in place, and it's easy to expand and easy to add capacity without a lot of extra money."

"Pricing and licensing is very affordable from a FlexPod perspective."

"We have seen our data center rack space collapse about 90 percent. We have a data center which only has two racks now out of the 20 that were there previously."

"Everything is purchased, so we do not do any leasing with this product."

"We definitely saw a lot of operational cost savings using FlexPod. As far as capital outlay goes, that was a little bit too much for us to swallow and we weren't able to recognize enough savings in that area to afford it."

"We have saved time and money for new service deployments."

"We immediately saw a return on investment due to the fact that replacing our legacy storage arrays with the new AFFs reduced the footprint and maintenance costs. Overall, we saw an almost immediate ROI."

"The solution has saved our customers' organization in terms of CapEx. E.g., with the cloud availability, it's turned into sort of a hybrid CapEx/OpEx model."

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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

University

Manufacturing Company

22%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

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....

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?

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have higher hardware costs compared to HPE ProLiant servers, which are cheaper. From reliability, performance, and sustainability perspectives, Dell PowerEdge Rack Serve...

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 Rack Servers

Compared 41% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 30% of the time

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

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 6% of the time

Huawei FusionServer RH Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

Compared 5% of the time

More Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Competitors

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 31% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 14% of the time

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

June 2025

Download Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers product report

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

June 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Also Known As

PowerEdge R

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Overview

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are designed to optimize performance and efficiency in a data center environment, supporting various applications. Dell stands as the leading vendor in accelerated servers for AI, commanding a 33.8% revenue share. Based on user reviews, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers supporting tasks from basic web hosting to more demanding applications like data analytics and virtualization. They are engineered to offer high performance, reliability, and scalability. With a focus on automation and integrated security, these servers simplify operations and protect against threats, making them a smart choice for businesses of all sizes.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are a robust, secure, and scalable solution that can meet the diverse needs of businesses, backed by comprehensive support. Benefits to look for in reviews include performance, reliability, scalability, and customer support.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers key features include:

Scalability: These servers can easily scale to meet growing business needs, supporting more workloads and processing power.
Integrated Security: From hardware to firmware to the operating system, Dell PowerEdge servers are designed with security in mind, offering layers of protection.
Energy Efficiency: Advanced thermal design and energy-smart technology help reduce operational costs and environmental impact.
Automation: With Dell EMC OpenManage, the management of servers is streamlined, allowing for automated deployment, monitoring, and updates.

In terms of implementation, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are used across various industries, from small businesses to large enterprises. They serve as the foundation for IT infrastructure, powering critical applications in healthcare, finance, education, and more. The adaptability of these servers means they can be tailored to specific industry needs, from handling large datasets in research institutions to supporting high-transaction databases in financial services.

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 Rack Servers vs. FlexPod XCS

June 2025

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