HPE Synergy vs PowerEdge C comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.9. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 21.8% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Dell Technologies’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

HPE Synergy

Read 90 HPE Synergy reviews

2,663 Views
1,899 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

PowerEdge C

Read 28 PowerEdge C reviews

128 Views
76 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

PowerEdge C

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

PowerEdge C and HPE Synergy are two server solutions in the high-performance server market. PowerEdge C is often chosen for its affordability and robust support, while HPE Synergy is preferred for its superior feature set and advanced capabilities, particularly in composable infrastructure.

Features: PowerEdge C offers ease of management, reduced power consumption, and hot-swappable nodes, making it ideal for virtualization and critical applications. Its iDRAC feature ensures streamlined remote server management and high stability. HPE Synergy's standout feature is its composable infrastructure, which provides flexibility in managing compute, storage, and networking. It integrates seamlessly with HPE OneView, enhancing its manageability and orchestration capabilities.

Room for Improvement: PowerEdge C can improve its cost structure and update processes. It also faces compatibility challenges with certain virtualization platforms. HPE Synergy could develop enhanced event management and better integration with non-HPE platforms. Additionally, optimizing its update processes could be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both PowerEdge C and HPE Synergy provide hybrid and on-premises deployment options. PowerEdge C is typically recognized for easier initial setup, whereas HPE Synergy is valued for its composable nature. PowerEdge C receives positive feedback on technical support despite occasional delays. HPE Synergy faces similar issues with offshore support, affecting satisfaction levels.

Pricing and ROI: PowerEdge C is regarded as cost-effective, offering good value through competitive pricing and a commendable ROI due to its performance and lifecycle cost. HPE Synergy, while more expensive, is valued for its reliability and extensive features, providing good ROI in complex environments despite a higher total cost of ownership.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE Synergy vs. PowerEdge C Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy vs. PowerEdge C

April 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 Synergy

Ranking in Blade Servers

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Composable Infrastructure (1st)

PowerEdge C

Ranking in Blade Servers

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of HPE Synergy is 21.8%, up from 21.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PowerEdge C is 0.7%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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.

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Al Vasek

Executive Business Development Manager, Cloud and Managed Services at Presidio Networked Solutions

Supports business apps and VDI with reliable compute

The solution is all about compute. The solutions are easy to handle, priced correctly, reliable, and dependable. Cisco is similar but more complex to configure and usually more expensive. My team supports a lot of Dell, focusing on hybrid environments like Azure Stack, splitting workloads between high compute needs in databases, which are expensive in the cloud, and other workloads in the cloud.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Synergy is much easier to use, which is saving us time. We are able to set the profiles for firmware upgrades. This makes the process for the care and feeding of the IT environment much simpler, quicker, and cleaner."

"The composable infrastructure allows us to build our own server profiles, then build up the infrastructure that we need from compute modules."

"The single pane of glass management is huge, because in all our previous systems, depending on what we were managing, we would go to a different management point. Being able to go to one spot to get everything is helpful. I find that server profile creation is a lot easier in OneView than it was previously. We are able to stay compliant with firmware and updates, because we are assigning server profiles and reapplying them when there are changes. This makes everything a lot simpler."

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

"In the data center, you see customers with a lot of blade enclosures and a lot of servers, and this solution works fine."

"It is a good product for hypervisors."

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

"The processing time has been about 50 times faster and allows us to do AI models."

More HPE Synergy pros

"It was not complex to deploy."

"Technical support has been helpful."

"The security of the product is very good."

"It's a good product. Virtualization on it is good."

"The product's initial setup phase was easy."

"One of the main features that attract customers to buy their products is the great management tool and almost zero failure rate, making it easy to use."

"The product stability has been excellent."

"The performance is good."

More PowerEdge C pros

Cons

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

"The solution must concentrate on improving the product quality."

"We have flaky things, like a lot of bad fans."

"A faster Composer module would be a good inclusion for the next release of this solution."

"The installation and initial setup process is complex and needs to be improved."

"The initial setup was complex. From what I was told, there were issues initially with getting the SFPs on the floor for our data center and something with the image, but I think that was on our service provider' side. They couldn't get the image to deploy with the right drivers and stuff."

"When templates are created, there are some steps where you need to reboot the machines. Being in production, this is not a good idea. For example, if you reconfigure the network, you should not have to reboot the machine. You should just apply the new template and that's it."

"Instead of having Synergy vertical, make it horizontal. It is easier to stick in when it is vertical."

More HPE Synergy cons

"We had a few minor issues with compatibility on the latest version during the installation process."

"The solution’s pricing could be cheaper."

"The pricing of PowerEdge solutions is very high nowadays."

"A feature that needs to be added is the ability for full container storage."

"There is some trouble with the stability part of the product, making it an area where improvements are required."

"An area where the product lacks and needs to consider improvement is by allowing it to integrate with some AI tool for monitoring."

"The reliability needs improvement."

"Customer service and support have been generally helpful but can be slow due to the need to navigate different specialists."

More PowerEdge C cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."

"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."

"We do CAPEX."

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

"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 hardware licensing cost is reasonable."

"It costs us around $60,000 a year."

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

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

"The price could be reduced."

"The cost depends on the configuration."

"PowerEdge C is a product that is priced at a medium range, so it is not too expensive."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"There is a need to pay towards the annual subscription-based licensing model offered by the solution. The product is moderately priced. Price is a critical issue, and it is always good to have moderately priced solutions."

"I would rate the pricing 4 out of 10, in terms of its cost expense."

"When we talk about pricing it is the cheapest on the market that I have found."

"The product costs can be high, especially for disks and other components."

More PowerEdge C pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

15%

Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

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What do you like most about HPE Synergy?

It is a good product for hypervisors.

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

Pricing in the blade server market is very competitive, with HPE offering a competitive price. Competitor products include Dell's MX series and Cisco's UCS X series.

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What do you like most about PowerEdge C?

The solution provides good support and service.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PowerEdge C?

PowerEdge is quite a costly solution, and I would rate the pricing around seven or eight on a scale from one to ten with ten being the most expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PowerEdge C?

With reference architectures like VX rack, the update process is quite painful. They could automate or simplify it more. There are prerequisites to go through, and that's usually the only time-cons...

See all answers

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Blade Servers

April 2025

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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

PowerEdge C help you to maximize hyperscale performance with up to 4 independent server nodes, flexible storage and shared infrastructure in a compact 2U chassis.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy vs. PowerEdge C

April 2025

Free Report: HPE Synergy vs. PowerEdge C

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