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HPE Apollo Systems vs IBM Power 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

HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (3rd)
IBM Power Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 6.0%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 6.6%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Power Systems6.6%
HPE Apollo Systems6.0%
Other87.4%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Foluso  Jibowo - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at Hiperdist Ltd
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

"HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity."
"We are running Apollo with SL-series servers and the best thing about them is the density of the storage area available."
"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."
"Stability has been extremely good."
"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance on that."
"It's pretty flexible."
"HPE Apollo's support is the most valuable feature."
"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable."
"The most valuable features of the solution are disaster recovery, replication, and the ability to migrate to another location."
"Power Systems' best features include its user-friendliness and self-checking/self-healing abilities."
"Some of the most valuable features are the processing power, stability, and security."
"We have done testing with Intel, we have done testing with POWER, and the performance we were getting with POWER is actually very good compared to what we were getting on the other systems."
"The technical support that clients get from IBM is excellent."
"The backups work great, data recovery works great."
"With IBM Power11, downtime is virtually eliminated because the system has been fully optimized."
"The solution does not require any maintenance."
 

Cons

"The support from HPE Apollo could be better, they are making knowledgeable."
"The solution's deployment, security, and scalability need improvement."
"If there's anything that hasn't been that stable, then it is the Lustre file system."
"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."
"The predictive analysis feature could be improved."
"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."
"Connectivity to the outside of the server needs to be improved at the same time the network is improving."
"Our first batch of Apollo servers that we got were so new that it was just hard to know kind of what to expect from HPE and what they wanted to deliver to us."
"The power supplies often need replacing."
"For the i customers, I think that Power, the horsepower, has always been there. So, I would like to see something more on the lower end, where they would make it more cost effective for the small guy, rather than the big guy."
"Power Systems' price could always be lower."
"The lack of software vendors moving onto the platform, as opposed to fleeing the platform, is an issue."
"There are improvements that can be made on the technical side."
"IBM should be more flexible with marketing or offer marketing events themselves and invite the partners to attend. That might be far more productive."
"It would be ideal if the solution was more simple to work with."
"I would like to see the scaling model improved so it's not just either tiny or huge."
 

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."
"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."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"There is a yearly licensing cost, and it's an expensive solution."
"Why should I be charged for that use rather than a single CPU, a single socket?"
"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 IBM Power Systems is expensive and could improve."
"IBM Power is more expensive than other rack-mount servers, and you have to have a license for everything, including cores and memory."
"The additional software costs are high."
"The cost model is great. There is so much built in to the technology, that if you know how to use it you can save yourself a lot of money."
"When there is an error in the SAS drive of 10,000 RPM, my company buys support for 1,500 USD."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise42
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What needs improvement with IBM Power Systems?
In my opinion, the product can be improved by maintaining it and not sunsetting it; that would be my recommendation for IBM. I used to work for IBM for nineteen years, and I know, unfortunately, I ...
What is your primary use case for IBM Power Systems?
I am an architect and system administrator, and I'm responsible for anything related to IBM Power Systems. In IBM Power Systems, I have found a lot of valuable features such as LVM, TCP, ODM, RSCT,...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Power Systems?
I would recommend IBM Power Systems to others. I have given this review a rating of ten out of ten.
 

Also Known As

HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
IBM OpenPOWER LC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Weta Digital
Cipher
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Apollo Systems vs. IBM Power Systems and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.