HPE Synergy vs Lenovo Flex System comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lenovo are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Lenovo is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 17.4% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Lenovo’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Lenovo users who would recommend it.

HPE Synergy

Read 91 HPE Synergy reviews

3,140 Views
2,135 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Lenovo Flex System

Read 10 Lenovo Flex System reviews

393 Views
393 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Lenovo Flex System

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

HPE Synergy and Lenovo Flex System are contenders in the enterprise IT infrastructure space. HPE Synergy, with its composable infrastructure, leads in flexibility and resource optimization, whereas Lenovo Flex System is recognized for user-friendliness and performance.

Features: HPE Synergy is noted for its composable infrastructure, enabling dynamic resource reallocation and efficient utilization. It integrates central management through HPE OneView and supports enhanced deployment with Image Streamer. Lenovo Flex System prioritizes user-friendliness and performance, offering high server density and scalable network and storage capabilities.

Room for Improvement: HPE Synergy needs better integration with third-party hardware and improved compatibility with non-HPE platforms. Users call for streamlined management and faster firmware updates. Enhancements in network speed and storage sharing could enhance its competitiveness. Lenovo Flex System could improve by increasing module flexibility and cloud-native app compatibility while refining firmware and driver update processes and support for future technologies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE Synergy supports flexible deployment options across on-premises and hybrid clouds and is backed by HPE's extensive support network, though experiences vary with issue complexity. Lenovo Flex System focuses on straightforward deployment in on-premises and private cloud environments, lacking the comprehensive hybrid support of HPE but still providing reliable technical assistance.

Pricing and ROI: HPE Synergy often involves higher initial costs but offers long-term savings via operational efficiency and reduced hardware needs, yielding a substantial ROI in complex deployments. Lenovo Flex System presents competitive pricing, appealing for budget-conscious clients needing scalable solutions, though Synergy's broader platform may promise greater savings and ROI over time.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE Synergy vs. Lenovo Flex System Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy vs. Lenovo Flex System

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 872,846 peers since 2012

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 Synergy

Ranking in Blade Servers

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Composable Infrastructure (1st)

Lenovo Flex System

Ranking in Blade Servers

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of HPE Synergy is 17.4%, down from 21.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo Flex System is 3.6%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Blade Servers Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HPE Synergy	17.4%
Lenovo Flex System	3.6%
Other	79.0%

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

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.

Read full review

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

"The most valuable features of this solution are the ease of management and the integration with OneView."

"The solution helps us to implement new business requirements quickly with some app deployments."

"In terms of the productivity of our deployment team, the amount of time has been decreased a lot. In the past, to deploy one c7000 chassis with 15 or 16 blades, we literally used to spend two to three weeks. But with a Synergy, it's very quick. Within three days we can do the deployment."

"OneView, as a single point, a single management tool, it makes me delirious. It's really nice."

"It's a bit easier to manage than the C7000s."

"The stability is very good. We haven't had any outages."

"The initial setup is straightforward. The infrastructures as code enables you to fill out the configuration before you even deploy it, then it is just a one-touch deployment."

"Cable management is a big feature, in addition to time to deployment. We can buy a new server and have it up and running very quickly."

More HPE Synergy pros

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

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

"The Lenovo Flex System is very stable."

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

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

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

"The functionality is reliable and requires minimal support."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

More Lenovo Flex System pros

Cons

"The expansion was complex, because adding a second frame onto the original frame caused an outage."

"The Synergy platform is HPE-specific and more for on-premises. You're kind of locked in with VMware and the HPE with the VMs. The Nutanix offering is a bit more flexible."

"One of the features I want to see, which I will see with OneView 5.0, is to have all the OneView consoles in a single pane of glass. That will make it easy to see everything in one place and not have to log in to multiple consoles."

"Sometimes there are firmware or software difficulties when connecting between networks or with storage."

"The user interface could be more user-friendly. It's for admins, and you should have the knowledge to use it."

"The speed in OneView and how it updates the entire configuration needs improvement. If they can do that, and it could be a little more clear on what impact different actions will have for certain things, that would be good."

"HPE Synergy could improve by developing the chassis to allow for more drives or disks. Currently, it supports only two drives in the blade server, which can be limiting."

"The main challenge we faced was that when it was installed it just did not work. There were faulty components and it took weeks of troubleshooting to find the faulty components, get them replaced. Getting help from HPE was difficult. Nobody knew about the product. It was a brand-new product and people had not been trained on it. That part was not a great experience."

More HPE Synergy cons

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

"Continuing the production of this product is necessary. It is currently out of support, and we are seeking support from other sources besides Lenovo."

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

"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."

"I had some difficulties with the initial setup."

"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 user-interface needs improvement, because they have an application from which we have to manage the whole system and all the infrastructure. This application is not working at our premises, because of some problem with the hardware itself. So although we brought it with our systems, and we used it to manage all the systems: the storage, the switches, and everything, nevertheless we have to support every part alone and enter the interface in one-by-one."

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

More Lenovo Flex System cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The hardware licensing cost is reasonable."

"We outright purchased Synergy."

"Our IT infrastructure costs have gone up each year by 20 percent."

"Synergy has lowered our total cost of ownership significantly. I would say ballpark around 25 percent, maybe more."

"When we made the purchase of the hardware, we added Professional Services to it."

"We have already paid once. It is just the price for the permit and its use. It seems you don't have to keep paying for it, but I am not sure."

"The Nutanix platform came in a little more expensive than the Synergy."

"The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Blade Servers solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	56

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

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 stable. It turns out Bladesystem was the winner. Bladesystem is excellent because...

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 Synergy prices are higher but justify themselves as the solution accommodates all t...

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 complexity as well as an increase in the number of servers that can fit in a single Syn...

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 from other sources besides Lenovo.

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, Linux and Windows. It manages the daily operation efficiently.

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy

Compared 26% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 23% of the time

Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 14% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs HPE Synergy

Compared 3% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

HPE Superdome X vs Lenovo Flex System

Compared 47% of the time

Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs Lenovo Flex System

Compared 15% of the time

More Lenovo Flex System Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

October 2025

Download HPE Synergy product report

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

October 2025

Download Lenovo Flex System product report

Also Known As

No data available

Flex System Blade Servers, Flex System SN Series

Overview

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

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy vs. Lenovo Flex System

September 2025

Free Report: HPE Synergy vs. Lenovo Flex System

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Synergy vs. Lenovo Flex System and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our HPE Synergy vs. Lenovo Flex System report.

See our list of best Blade Servers vendors.

We monitor all Blade Servers reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.