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Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Rugged Servers (1st)
HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is 2.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 5.7%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series2.9%
HPE Apollo Systems5.7%
Other91.4%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Md Rafique - PeerSpot reviewer
Desktop Support at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Edge workloads have run reliably with rugged performance and secure remote management
While Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has met our expectations overall, there are a few areas that could be improved. The initial setup and configuration process could be more streamlined, especially for first-time deployments. Firmware and driver updates could be simplified further to reduce maintenance efforts, and more detailed documentation for edge-specific deployment scenarios would be helpful. We would also like to see enhanced monitoring and analytical capabilities within the management tools, providing deeper insights into system health and performance without relying on additional software. Additional areas for improvement include more intuitive management dashboards, faster firmware validations and data processes, and broader compatibility guidance for machine deployments with third-party hardware and firmware. More built-in automation for routine maintenance and proactive issue detection would also help reduce administrative overhead. These are enhancements rather than major shortcomings, as the platform is already stable, reliable, and well-suited for edge computing.
Gökhan  DURMAZ - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager at TD SYNNEX
High-quality integration and strong support have optimized our rack server operations
HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity. When I speak about integrity, I speak about GPU integration or other integrations such as GPU integration, backup software integration, and hypervisor integration. Regarding the integration of high-speed interconnectors in HPE Apollo Systems, they impact computational tasks because the high-speed interconnect affects performance. I don't remember the specifics. Regarding the cooling technologies, they help to reduce operational costs. The positive impact I see from HPE Apollo Systems is that support is good and quality is good. In general, HPE Apollo Systems appears to be for rack servers with some optimization capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The performance of the product in extreme conditions is good; it can run in critical workloads with not much hardware issue."
"The scalability of the Dell XR2 Rugged Server is good and easy to do."
"Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has had a positive impact on my organization by improving the reliability and performance of my infrastructure."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server's technology is always on the competitive edge, with the most current technology."
"Using Dell PowerEdge servers has indeed affected the overall flexibility of my customer's operations and businesses."
"Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is better compared to other servers and runs more efficiently, with stability and reliability that have been good so far."
"Even though it is expensive, Dell PowerEdge XR-Series provides value for money and return on investment, especially for critical workloads and mission-critical applications."
"What I like the most about Dell PowerEdge R-Series is probably the Redfish manageability, which provides management, remote management, and remote configuration capabilities."
"HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity."
"HPE Apollo's most valuable feature is the ability to expand our storage capacity."
"Taking into consideration the cost, HPE gave us the ability to actually do what we wanted to do."
"It's allowed us to compete with cloud storage providers like AWS to put together a scalable on-premises solution of more than 20PB at a similar pricepoint."
"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable."
"HPE Apollo's support is the most valuable feature."
"Absolutely being able to mount into Omni-Path architecture, HFIs on those nodes, because we were the very first site in the world"
"With HPE Apollo, we can propose configurations with many hard drives, making it suitable for large storage needs."
 

Cons

"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
"In comparison with them, Dell hardware and services are good and fine, but they do not have any own operating systems."
"The support could work faster, but that is the only small thing that could be better."
"In terms of needed improvements on Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, I must add more support because I am lagging in a few areas."
"I am not sure about return on investment with Dell PowerEdge XR-Series."
"While Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has many positives, there are areas for improvement."
"I suggest virtualizing the CPU between multiple operating systems on the same server."
"Regarding the weakness of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, I think the main drawback is that it is more expensive than other servers."
"HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved."
"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."
"If there's anything that hasn't been that stable, then it is the Lustre file system."
"We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there."
"The licensing could be greatly improved, I think."
"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."
"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."
"We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of one Dell XR2 Rugged Server is approximately $10,000."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"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."
"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."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
28%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
I found the pricing of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series to be competitive for an enterprise-grade server. The initial hardware investment is significant, but it is justified by the performance and long-ter...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is a reliable platform overall, but there are a few areas that could be improved. The initial setup and configuration can be somewhat complex for new administrators. Firmwa...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
My main use case for Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is hosting and supporting cybersecurity workloads. I also use it to run the security tools and infrastructure that support vulnerability assessments, m...
What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?
It is too early to say what improvements HPE Apollo Systems could implement because the report still needs to come out and the customer needs to properly evaluate the solution.
What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?
My main use case for HPE Apollo Systems is replacing many of the servers and storage boxes at one of the customer's sites to achieve workload optimization and optimized solutions. Additionally, whe...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?
My advice for someone considering HPE Apollo Systems is that if they are looking for consolidation and their workload involves high availability requirements, or if they want to utilize GPUs, then ...
 

Also Known As

XR2 Rugged Server
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

DIGISTOR - Secure Data Storage
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
912,801 professionals have used our research since 2012.