HPE Apollo Systems vs IBM Power Systems comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM are both solutions in the Rack Servers category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5, while IBM is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 3.9% mindshare in Rack Servers, compared to IBM’s 9.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of IBM users who would recommend it.

HPE Apollo Systems

Read 23 HPE Apollo Systems reviews

2,251 Views
1,981 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

IBM Power Systems

Read 71 IBM Power Systems reviews

4,225 Views
4,225 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

HPE Apollo Systems

IBM Power Systems

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

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HPE Apollo Systems and IBM Power Systems compete in the high-performance computing market. IBM Power Systems appear to have the upper hand due to their advanced features that users feel justify the investment.

Features: HPE Apollo Systems are known for scalability, energy efficiency, and flexibility. IBM Power Systems are recognized for high processing power, reliability, and robust security features.

Room for Improvement: HPE Apollo Systems users suggest improvements in integration, software tools, and compatibility with existing systems. IBM Power Systems users desire lower costs, more accessible maintenance procedures, and improved affordability without losing performance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE Apollo Systems are straightforward to deploy with comprehensive support. IBM Power Systems, despite more complex deployment, offer responsive technical support. HPE excels in faster initial deployment, while IBM provides detailed guidance for complex setups.

Pricing and ROI: HPE Apollo Systems have competitive setup costs and flexible pricing, offering favorable ROI aligned with budget-conscious decisions. IBM Power Systems, with higher upfront costs, promise long-term value and substantial returns, appealing to those prioritizing lasting investment.

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To learn more, read our detailed HPE Apollo Systems vs. IBM Power Systems Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems vs. IBM Power Systems

July 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

HPE Apollo Systems

Ranking in Rack Servers

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

4.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (2nd)

IBM Power Systems

Ranking in Rack Servers

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

3.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 3.9%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 9.1%, up from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rack Servers

Featured Reviews

Gayan Senadheera

Director at Tyax Pvt Ltd

Offers higher capacities compared to other solutions, making it suitable for handling large storage needs

In terms of improvement, we could benefit from some training. If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo. Currently, we haven't received any specific training related to HPE Apollo throughout my career. If HPE Apollo provides training, we can share the knowledge with our partners, which could lead to more opportunities for HPE Apollo in the market. Deal protection and other support measures would also be beneficial, as they could help us achieve better results in this market.

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Rohintan-Karanjia

Advisory Services at Nangia Andersen LLP

Offers security features, including HIPs, Postgres, intrusion prevention systems, and AI for specific tasks

We've found that sometimes, certain setups require better servers. Ideally, the next level of model that IBM offers would be perfect for those situations. Sometimes, the availability of additional services can be a challenge for some software. Certain IBM software takes time to deliver to the client. It can be slow. So deployment is an area for improvement.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 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."

"The solution is well documented in a data sheet."

"HPE Apollo's support is the most valuable feature."

"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"

"HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products."

"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."

More HPE Apollo Systems pros

"IBM Power Systems are secure and have fast processing."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Power Systems is its performance."

"From a software developer standpoint, virtualization is really the key, as we can more easily spin up a new partition, virtual instance of IBM i."

"We have had a good experience with the technical support team at IBM."

"Active Memory Expansion allows you to compress your memory on the run time to allow you to have less physical memory available, but provision more memory to your partitions, as everything will be compressed on the fly."

"Power VM gives us the flexibility to increase or decrease machine resources when required."

"PowerVM."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

More IBM Power Systems pros

Cons

"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."

"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."

"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."

"HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved."

"The support from HPE Apollo could be better, they are making knowledgeable."

"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."

"What's coming out in Gen 10 is very strong in terms of additional security."

"We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo."

More HPE Apollo Systems cons

"IBM systems are old technologies. I couldn't renew and get to use IBM Power Systems, and it offers users very expensive support."

"I think the cost should be cheaper."

"The pricing is high."

"I know lab services does a lot of work but systems, if they could include some kind of lab services and bundling of services to get you to the greatest and latest feature at the already included cost"

"The price has room for improvement."

"One of the features that we would like, and I think they are also adapting to the latest trends in the market, is to make it more open, more flexible... With VMware, anybody can create a virtual machine without any knowledge of the server side. But with AIX it's a bit difficult."

"IBM should provide a platform where users can learn about the storage and security of IBM Power Systems."

"In the next release, I would like to see additional graphical dashboards to help the administrators access information more easily."

More IBM Power Systems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."

"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."

"Power Systems is very cheap and provides good value for money."

"It's more about the value you get for the price. Considering its stability and performance, the pricing is good."

"Power Systems is a bit more costly than other products in the market, but in terms of ROI and the longevity, performance, and reliability that Power Systems provides, it's worth it in the long run."

"IBM Power Systems is very expensive."

"It is designed for a large workload, as opposed to a small workload. For our circumstances, and even as an independent, I can't buy a Power system to experiment on. It can't happen. You cannot buy them."

"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."

"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 additional software costs are high."

More IBM Power Systems pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HPE Apollo?

HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?

Additional features would be beneficial in the next release of HPE Apollo Systems.

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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...

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What do you like most about IBM Power Systems?

IBM Power Systems provides very good performance and stability compared to other brands or processors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Power Systems?

What I see is that with HP or Dell systems, there may be power failures in India, twice in a year. We have faced such situations where abrupt shutdowns occur due to cooling or power, and when the s...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Power Systems?

We have been providing IBM Power Systems. We do government bidding also, in which certain cases have specific requirements that are catered by IBM Power Systems.

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 35% of the time

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 21% of the time

Dell PowerEdge FX vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerEdge XE Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Moonshot vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 4% of the time

More HPE Apollo Systems Competitors

Intel Server System vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 39% of the time

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 19% of the time

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle SPARC Servers vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs IBM Power Systems

Compared 1% of the time

More IBM Power Systems Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems

July 2025

Download HPE Apollo Systems product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Power Systems

July 2025

Download IBM Power Systems product report

Also Known As

HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo

IBM OpenPOWER LC

Overview

The HPE Apollo high-density server family is built for the highest levels of performance and efficiency. They are rack-scale compute, storage, networking, power and cooling – massively scale-up and scale-out – solutions for your big data analytics, object storage and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. From water-cooling that’s 1,000X more efficient than air, to “right-sized scaling” with 2X the compute density for workgroup and private cloud workloads, the HPE Apollo line is a dense, high-performance, tiered approach for organisations of all sizes.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

IBM Power Systems are built to crush the most advanced data applications - from the mission-critical workloads you run today to the next generation of AI.

IBM

Sample Customers

Weta Digital

Cipher

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems vs. IBM Power Systems

July 2025

Free Report: HPE Apollo Systems vs. IBM Power Systems

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Apollo Systems vs. IBM Power Systems and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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