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Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs IBM Power Systems comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 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 XR-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Rugged Servers (1st)
IBM Power Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
4.8
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 8.7%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Power Systems8.7%
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series0.6%
Other90.7%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Jesse_B - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to scale, high availability, and top level service and support
Dell XR2 Rugged Server's technology is always on the competitive edge, with the most current technology. They have proven reliability. If you're looking for a mission-critical system and support is important to you, then this is something a solution you should consider. I rate Dell XR2 Rugged Server a nine out of ten.
Foluso  Jibowo - PeerSpot reviewer
Has empowered enterprises with secure and cost-effective solutions
When discussing disadvantages, I do not see many areas for improvement because we have received good testimonies from every client. IBM gives customers peace of mind. One challenge, which I would not really call a challenge, is that initially people have the notion that IBM Power Systems is quite expensive. However, IBM does not lose deals based on price. This is a message we need to keep communicating to people who feel that IBM is on the high side in terms of cost. We encourage them to have a discussion with us about their total cost of ownership over three or five years. There is a notion in the market that IBM is expensive, which is false. However, once we engage and show them their return on investments and their total cost of ownership savings, they tend to embrace IBM.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The storage and the disc performance in terms of IOPS is great."
"The scalability of the Dell XR2 Rugged Server is good and easy to do."
"The most valuable feature of our machines is their ability to replace faulty parts without causing any downtime."
"The performance is the solution's most valuable asset. It has one of the highest levels of performance I have ever seen. It's quite remarkable, in that sense."
"The backups work great, data recovery works great."
"IBM Power Systems' best features are its reliability, resilience, and performance per rack unit."
"When it comes to reliability, availability and profitability, nothing can beat IBM Power Systems."
"We have had a good experience with the technical support team at IBM."
"Power VM gives us the flexibility to increase or decrease machine resources when required."
"The performance and stability are great."
 

Cons

"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server could improve if there was more customization allowed."
"Initially when sizing it, people perceive IBM Power Systems as quite expensive."
"The solution is highly-priced."
"There are improvements that can be made on the technical side."
"There is a notion in the market that IBM is expensive, which is false."
"It does not offer the ability to run any X86 or X64 Intel architecture-based application on Power Systems. There are a lot of applications, lots of business use cases that do not support this architecture as of now. If somehow application tasks can be ported on to IBM Power Systems, that would be a big improvement."
"Technical support and documentation need to be improved."
"The lack of software vendors moving onto the platform, as opposed to fleeing the platform, is an issue."
"Its price can be improved. It is too high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of one Dell XR2 Rugged Server is approximately $10,000."
"IBM Power Systems is very expensive."
"The licensing costs are okay. With IBM Power Systems, it's inclusive, so you can differentiate the price of the hardware from the software itself."
"The price of the solution could be somewhat better and this is what lowers my rating of it to a seven or eight out of ten."
"It's more about the value you get for the price. Considering its stability and performance, the pricing is good."
"Why should I be charged for that use rather than a single CPU, a single socket?"
"I give the cost a one out of ten."
"The additional software costs are high."
"The price of the solution depends upon the configuration part of it. Based on what configuration you want to go for it, there is a range like IBM Power Systems POWER9 and IBM Power Systems Power10."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise42
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about IBM Power Systems?
IBM Power Systems provides very good performance and stability compared to other brands or processors.
What needs improvement with IBM Power Systems?
When discussing disadvantages, I do not see many areas for improvement because we have received good testimonies from every client. IBM gives customers peace of mind. One challenge, which I would n...
What is your primary use case for IBM Power Systems?
IBM Power Systems are used mainly in large organizations, generally in the financial industry, government, telecommunications, oil and gas sectors for their high availability environment. These sys...
 

Also Known As

XR2 Rugged Server
IBM OpenPOWER LC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

DIGISTOR - Secure Data Storage
Cipher
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs. IBM Power Systems and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,202 professionals have used our research since 2012.