HPE Superdome X vs HPE Synergy vs Lenovo Flex System comparison

HPE Superdome X and HPE Synergy are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. HPE Superdome X is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0, while HPE Synergy is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6. HPE Superdome X holds a 10.0% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to HPE Synergy’s 19.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of HPE Superdome X users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of HPE Synergy users who would recommend it.

HPE Superdome X

Read 11 HPE Superdome X reviews

1,228 Views
1,216 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Read 91 HPE Synergy reviews

3,228 Views
2,260 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Lenovo Flex System

Read 10 Lenovo Flex System reviews

390 Views
390 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HPE Superdome X

HPE Synergy

Lenovo Flex System

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HPE Superdome X, HPE Synergy, and Lenovo Flex System based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco and others in Blade Servers.

To learn more, read our detailed Blade Servers Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

August 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of HPE Superdome X is 10.0%, up from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Synergy is 19.8%, down from 21.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo Flex System is 3.1%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

OmobolajiOlaloku

Senior Enterprise System Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

High resilience, performs well, and high availability

HPE Superdome X is used in my data center for our core banking application The most valuable features of HPE Superdome X are speed, performance, and resilience. HPE Superdome X can improve by adding a lot of cloud capabilities to allow this solution to be cloud-ready in case the customer wants…

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CarlosArdila

Project Manager, Information Technology at Telelago

Helps grow horizontally or vertically within one box or chassis

The initial setup is very easy. We deployed this in two days, including installation, system setup, firmware upgrades, configuration, and network connection. By the next day, we were already deploying virtual machines. We initially began with the Blade system. As the migration to SAP HANA approached, it seemed prudent to upgrade our hardware. Consequently, we facilitated their transition from the Blade system to Synergy. Subsequently, we collaborated closely with the SAP consultancy company to oversee the migration process, ensuring seamless integration of all workloads and sub-environments. We have four people working on the deployment, including a project manager, two specialists, and one tech support.

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Syed Ibrahim

Assistant Manager Systems - IT Infrastructure at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees

Provides a high initial ceiling before upscaling is required, user-friendly and rich in resources, but has occasional stability issues

The solution should come with cloud native applications to prepare for cloud based solutions. Forced restarts due to free upgrades is an issue that needs to be resolved. We can manage this as we have high availability and redundancy, but without that it could be a real problem. The level of customer support needs to be improved. There is currently an issue with Lenovo switching out SAN switches from the chassis, which will cause problems for people who already have a set up with the SAN switch connected to the central storage. This could require an entirely different network, adding an additional cost for the user.

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

"SDX gave us a very large RAM and we need that for the large-scale graph-handling applications."

"One of the really cool things about Superdome is, depending on the model you choose, you can put 8-16 blades in it."

"We've got a few of them, because we needed some really large machines. So far, they've been working pretty good."

"I like the robustness of the machine. Similar performance could likely be achieved with other configurations, but this machine is very stable."

"Superdome X is a system that can compete in terms of performance and uptime, but it's now standard. That is the great value. There are competitors like IBM, for example, but IBM has a propietary operating system. With Superdome X, you have a system that can run Windows, Red Hat, or VMware, but in a mission critical server."

"This product is very reliable."

"The most valuable features of HPE Superdome X are speed, performance, and resilience."

"We like that the solution can be arranged for an all-in-one single pane of glass, something our customers find important."

"They're easy to swap and move around the datacenter, for sure. They don't occupy too much space for what they offer."

"Its versatility, performance, and size are most valuable. It is very decent for its size. It has very good performance and very good specifications."

"The i3S module can be configured to provision storage to all blade servers and boot to any operating system without needing local hard drives."

"It is really easy to use, because it's GUI-based. It is not command line based, like mainframes."

"The scalability is very good. The ability to link chassis or frames together makes it simplistic, especially with the use of OneView."

"The flexibility to link them together and configure them gives us the ability to scale out easily, to add more compute resources as needed... The way that they're scalable and flexible means we can add additional servers in quickly... We're not spending a lot of time doing procurement and building of physical servers."

"We're able to provision different applications, different demonstrations, add cloud-like speeds on-prem, which is unheard of in the industry."

More HPE Synergy pros

"One of the most valuable features of this solution is its ease of use."

"The stability and speed are always good. The processor is good and it's still working with our loads."

"Flex System's best features are its performance and stability."

"The functionality is reliable and requires minimal support."

"The Lenovo Flex System is very stable."

"We use the solution as a compute model to run the compute load on servers."

"It comes at a good price. We didn't face any problems with this product."

"The product is very user-friendly and has many resources at the enterprise level."

More Lenovo Flex System pros

Cons

"It would be helpful if you could do the maintenance completely online."

"I'd like to see the onboarding of some storage class memory to really expand the already very large RAM, into something that could be even much bigger."

"In this specific model, it could be beneficial to have a server configuration similar to Cisco, like the kind offered in HPE Superdome Flex X280. The ability to separate the chassis is important because we are forced to use two chassis even with lower loads. So introducing more flexibility in the Superdome environment would be helpful."

"I know we support Windows and I think it's Red Hat, and I'd like to see more OSs supported."

"HPE Superdome X can improve by adding a lot of cloud capabilities to allow this solution to be cloud-ready in case the customer wants to move it to the cloud."

"What would make it better from my point of view is if HPE spent more time on testing with the actual built-in Red Hat Linux drivers, as opposed to always trying to say, "Use our driver.""

"I would like it to connect to the HPE Cloud Connect compute platform for simplicity of our infrastructure."

"Continue the path of integrating OneView into a single product. A lot of different people have different OneView experiences based on which product they have used it for."

"The update is problematic. When you want to update the firmware, or when you want to update software on Composer, it takes a lot of time. A lot."

"They have not improved their product since it was purchased."

"A big thing for me is moving InfoSight for ProLiant into OneView, or at least connecting it. Today we have to use the iLO Amplifier Pack and that would require us to reconfigure iLO on every single one of the servers, independently, to get that data into InfoSight. We're really looking for a single control and management plane."

"One of the things that I would like to see, and could be in their road map, is getting virtual connect to 100 Gig throughput."

"They were not so deep into integration with VMware."

"The profiles aren't so easy to work with."

More HPE Synergy cons

"Flex System's integration with the XClarity Management System could be improved."

"The solution's firmware and driver upgrades are a bit difficult."

"Forced restarts due to free upgrades is an issue that needs to be resolved. We can manage this as we have high availability and redundancy, but without that it could be a real problem."

"The most valuable feature of the Lenovo Flex System is the storage system."

"I had some difficulties with the initial setup."

"The product could improve its integration capabilities."

"The solution could improve by providing more integration with other platforms."

"It does not have the same module flexibility that was present in IBM Blade. On the Blade System, I was able to choose between the Cisco module, or BMC module. Since the switch to Lenovo, I have not had the same choice of modules, only the BMC modules."

More Lenovo Flex System cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a very expensive one-time cost with no licensing fees."

"The pricing is not very cheap. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being very inexpensive, and ten being very expensive."

"We outright purchased Synergy."

"For temporal use, when you throw on the fact that you're essentially doubling your capacity, right there you could claim a 50 percent TCO reduction."

"The solution has reduced our IT infrastructure costs because we have had to buy less services than we used to."

"We don't have to pay for Synergy because it's part of our plan."

"We bought everything outright to start with. We don't do much consumption-based stuff."

"For me, the scalability is how much money that I need to spend on switches for how many frames, which ultimately means servers. To get the best bandwidth before the most recent product announcement, I have buy new switches every three frames. The competition is shipping a product right now where I only need switches every ten frames."

"The price point is a little high. We were able to get a good deal on a promotion, to go with it. It would be nice to see the prices come down a little bit."

"The platform that we run Synergy on is all virtualized. Our primary cost is likely VMware."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

"The is an annual license cost to use the Lenovo Flex System. If the price was less expensive and flexible overall and for additional features, our customers would be happier."

"The price is interesting. I am able to quote a client based on their needs and offer them either Lenovo or Dell."

"There is a one-off payment to buy the equipment and the support is purchased annually."

"We are just paying the operational cost, which is not much."

"We have the whole maintenance for the 3 years, starting the deployment. We also have the VMware license for 3 years and I think we have another license to buy. There are no additional costs besides licensing."

"The 14 blade server allows significant room for upscaling before having to invest in another chassis. You would have to purchase another chassis much sooner in the case of an eight or nine blade server."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

18%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HPE Superdome X?

I like the robustness of the machine. Similar performance could likely be achieved with other configurations, but thi...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Superdome X?

The pricing is not very cheap. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being very inexpensive, and ten ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Superdome X?

In this specific model, it could be beneficial to have a server configuration similar to Cisco, like the kind offered...

See all answers

How would you choose between HPE's Bladesystem and Synergy?

For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and s...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?

As far as the prices are concerned, rack mount solutions are less expensive than HPE Synergy prices; however, HPE Syn...

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Synergy?

In my opinion, for future improvements in HPE Synergy, there should be better management of power consumption complex...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lenovo Flex System?

Compared to its quality, the pricing is very reasonable and represents good value.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo Flex System?

Continuing the production of this product is necessary. It is currently out of support, and we are seeking support fr...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Lenovo Flex System?

We are using Lenovo Flex System on the server for our VMware environment, which includes our VMs and all our servers,...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 38% of the time

HPE Integrity vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 15% of the time

HPE NonStop vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 13% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Superdome X

Compared 9% of the time

More HPE Superdome X Competitors

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy

Compared 30% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 26% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 7% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 3% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

August 2025

Download HPE Superdome X product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

August 2025

Download HPE Synergy product report

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

August 2025

Download Lenovo Flex System product report

Also Known As

HP Integrity Superdome, HP Superdome X

No data available

Flex System Blade Servers, Flex System SN Series

Overview

HPE Superdome X is an HPE server that represents a new category of x86 modular, mission-critical systems to consolidate all tiers of critical applications on a common platform. Engineered with trusted Superdome 2 reliability, the HPE Superdome X includes a modular, bladed design, and shares HPE BladeSystem efficiencies including a common server management framework, supported from x86 to Superdome 2. With breakthrough innovations such as the fault-tolerant Crossbar Fabric and Error Analysis Engine coupled with hard partitioning capabilities, Superdome X sets the standard for mission-critical x86 computing.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

HPE Synergy, the first platform built from the ground up for Composable Infrastructure, offers an experience that empowers IT to create and deliver new value instantly and continuously. It is a single infrastructure that reduces operational complexity for traditional workloads and increases operational velocity for the new breed of applications and services. Through a single interface, HPE Synergy composes physical and virtual compute, storage, and fabric pools into any configuration for any application. As an extensible platform, it easily enables a broad range of applications and operational models such as virtualization, hybrid cloud, and DevOps. With HPE Synergy, IT can become not just the internal service provider but the business partner to rapidly launch new applications that become the business.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Flex System is Lenovo’s proven, 2nd generation blade, that efficiently runs your infrastructure applications with up to 80% better density than standard rack server deployments.

Lenovo

Sample Customers

Pella

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

Information Not Available

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco and others in Blade Servers. Updated: August 2025.

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