Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We use this solution for SAP and for other critical information that our customers need.

Our customers are really happy when we use PowerEdge because it improves the performance of their company. They also end up having more internal users or internal customers satisfied with solutions that they use in their company, such as SAP.

The system management capabilities of PowerEdge helped increase staff productivity by 50% for our latest client.

I've found the reliability, support, the capability to grow, and the ability to add other Dell solutions to be very valuable features.

As for security features, it's a good quality solution for the price. You can add different software or patches to have a better security solution.

It has helped reduce the data processing time by 30%.

The PowerEdge system management frameworks have enabled us to progress toward full automation when it comes to managing more.

The Industrial and healthcare areas both need improvement.

I've been using this solution for about three years.

The stability is really good.

It is scalable. You can start small and then add more products that allow you to increase the productivity of your company.

We have about 300 users and plan to upgrade the solution with more components.

We have not had a good experience with support. Technical support staff take too much time to resolve tickets. We have a super plus level of agreement, which means that the time of response is supposed to be four hours. The resulting time is supposed to be 48 hours. We sometimes see 72 hours go by with no solution provided to resolve the problem. So I would rate technical support and customer service at six on a scale from one to ten.

Neutral

We replaced Dell technology because PowerEdge is much better.

The initial deployment was straightforward because we already had technical architects who knew how to deploy the solution.

The deployment took over a month.

We implemented it ourselves with a team of six to seven people including a technical architect, an SAP Basis engineer, technicians, and a security officer.

The price is good for the quality of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

We looked at Lenovo.

You should compare PowerEdge's time for response, the scalability of the solution, the licensing cost, and support to those of other brands.

Sometimes you try not to spend too much on technology, but there is a point at which it is necessary to invest in this solution because you will increase the productivity of your company. When you see the quote, remember that all that money can be recouped with the increase in production.

If you wait for too long, you may start having problems and lose productivity. You can really get hit hard with a loss of productivity. You have to determine the time to change the technology to a new one.

If I were to rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I would rate them a nine on a scale from one to ten.

We run the 900 and 700 models.

PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel offer good performance in handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads and offer good value for money. 

The Intel Xeon scalable processor has helped to improve the performance of our targeted workloads. Dell's OpenManage console is easy to use. 

PowerEdge Rack Servers has affected the overall flexibility of our operations. We are able to build our data centers with multiple clusters, and that provides sufficient scalability for us to do bigger deployments.

The support that you receive from Dell after buying this product is very valuable.

The long lead times in receiving hardware could be improved. 

We have experienced issues with memory. We received help from the Dell team and this has been resolved. 

The security of this solution could be improved. We have very specific needs as an engineering company and require multiple layers of security. This is not offered when implementing the Dell hardware.

Dell's OpenManage console is easy to use but could be better by offering additional features. The console has not decreased the time it takes to deploy new data centers.

I have been using PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for over 15 years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. 

The customer service for this solution is very good. I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

Positive

We have used different solutions including Lenovo. We currently use Dell for all of our needs from our user hardware to our infrastructure data center. 

The initial setup is straightforward. We had 10 staff members involved in the deployment. The server bill team set up the hardware and the DMR team ran the virtualization layer over it. The security team completed the checks. We have about 55,000 users supported by this solution.

The licensing is expensive and inflexible. 

For anyone looking for a reliable storage solution, I would recommend PowerEdge. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

We used PowerEdge Rack Servers to transfer all of our physical servers and legacy systems into a virtualized environment on VMware. 

When we moved to PowerEdge Rack Servers, we converted all the physical legacy servers to the virtualized server. This reduced the operational cost, maintenance, and availability of the environment by 30 to 40%.

This solution's analytics have helped to decrease downtime. We were previously maintaining functionality by 92 to 93%, and this has increased to 98 to 99%.

The security features that PowerEdge provides have been very useful for our environment. We have integrated iDRAC Telemetry with our internal centralized monitoring tool, HPSM.

The complete hyper-converged infrastructure of this solution has been most useful. PowerEdge helped to reduce the data processing time by 20%. The system's management frameworks enabled us to progress towards full automation. 

This is a very stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. We have almost 800 servers hosted on PowerEdge as well as almost all major banking applications. 

I would rate the technical support for this solution a seven out of ten. Since the start of COVID, there is a shortage of support resources and it is challenging to get queries resolved quickly. 

We previously used HPE servers, but found that Dell offered enhanced features in comparison and was the best option in Saudi Arabia. Dell offered stability and scalability. 

Deployment took approximately a week. Initially, we required three people to do the deployment. After the deployment, we have three people dedicated to doing operations and maintenance.

The initial setup was completed by Dell.

Within 24 months, we saw return on investment by using this solution. 

The pricing is good compared to other products. 

I would recommend PowerEdge Rack Servers because it is very stable and easy to deploy, manage, and maintain. It also offers reliable performance. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

We specifically used the VMware and ESX host.

The system integration details are our favourite feature and the fact that we can maintain and control the systems remotely.

The iDRAC Telemetry for monitoring the PowerEdge system is useful. Some of our servers are not in our data centers so we are able to manage them remotely, in case of an outage or any other problem.

This solution is really reliable. The storage functionality is our favourite feature. I would rate this solution a ten out of ten when it comes to running the latest high-demand applications. It is easy to work with, maintain and deploy. 

Lastly, this solution has helped decrease production down time by 25%. The system management capabilities of PowerEdge have helped increase staff productivity by 25% and helped to reduce data processing time in our organization by 10%. 

The data analytics for this solution could be improved. 

I have been using this solution for 15 years. 

This is a stable solution. It offers reliability and we have not had any outages. It improves with every generation. 

This is a scalable solution. We have 200 employees making use of a full stack of applications supported by this solution. 

I would rate the support for this solution a seven out of ten. This is due to the fact that there is sometimes a shortage of parts. 

Neutral

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment took two days. We implemented new power servers in a cluster one by one. 

This solution is reasonably priced and licenses are easy to acquire. 

The PowerEdge system management frameworks have enabled our business to progress towards full automation. This has freed up time to focus on different parts of the business, rather than constantly monitoring issues.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

We use PowerEdge Rack Servers for quantitative analytics, data simulations, and machine learning.

The hardware makes it a good solution.

PowerEdge Rack Servers are very good for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads.

Its tuning and performance are good.

The specs for the benchmarks are very good, but the firmware and software are lacking. There are some issues with the Linux kernel and the long-term support (LTS) for some of the firmware's dependencies. It is causing the kernel to dump. The support for the Linux brands isn't optimal. We would like them to optimize the kernel drivers for benchmarks.

There are some issues that need to be solved with our model in regards to UEFI and firmware. 

I have been using it for about 10 years.

There haven't been any issues with downtime.

Dell's open source support is very good. There are a lot of issues that they need to handle though, like the firmware and UEFI.

We previously used IBM and Lenovo.

It is a cluster, so you just plug and play.

Lenovo is very good with updates.

We use AMD Opteron instead of Intel Xeon.

We chose Dell because of its open source. Our community likes Dell because of its open source delivery.

We use GCP Spot and AWS Graviton as our failover solutions.

I would rate this solution as eight out of 10.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for research calculations. 

With Intel Xeon processors, the solution has helped improve our target workloads' performance by 50 percent at times, depending on the exact calculation we are doing.

It's great at handling high-performance workloads.

They have also done their job when it comes to security features. We haven't ever had a breach, although it is a closed network.

When it comes to energy consumption they're also very good. They don't use power because they're power-hungry, but because we use them very hard.

I don't know much about the new Intel CPUs, but they need to put more than two CPUs in the servers. It may be an Intel limitation, but I'm not sure.

I have used Dell solutions for six years.

We haven't had any downtime with them due to anything on Dell's side. So far, they haven't failed.

We have hundreds of them, and adding as many as we can is as easy as the first one.

The support has been great. We haven't needed it much because the servers just work. But when we had issues, I called Dell. If it was a malfunction of the hardware, we had a solution within a day, and that was usually because of my schedule, not Dell's schedule. I would tell them, "Okay, come tomorrow or the day after. That will be better for me."

Positive

We used to have HP servers but they were horrible. We maintained them for about three years, but by the end of the three years, we didn't get all the features of the BIOS. The Dells, from day one, worked like a charm, with no additional fees or hidden costs, like we had with the HPs.

It's easy to handle. You just put it in, connect it, and it works. The average time it takes me to set up a server and get it to work is about 15 minutes.

We have seen ROI compared to cloud solutions. Similarly, compared to the HPs that we didn't select, we don't need to handle and pet them all the time. We didn't need another system engineer to handle the computers. I was enough.

The pricing is great; very competitive. That's the reason we bought hundreds of them.

We mainly evaluated HPs and Lenovos. Dell was the most cost-effective, power-efficient, and the easiest to handle.

The solution is a great service. They do their job. It requires minimal effort from my side as a system engineer, with very few errors or malfunctions.

My advice is to buy them. They are really good servers. They're straightforward. You don't need to research hidden definitions in the BIOS. They're simple to handle.

We use this solution for data protection and for securing customer data using a solution from Veritas Technology and Dell's hardware.

The PowerEdge systems management frameworks have enabled us to progress towards full automation when it comes to managing PowerEdge. Especially on the security front, we extensively rely on the APIs provided by Dell management systems, and we do integrate it with our software.

In terms of operations, this gives a lot of flexibility. Also different customers have different choices and options, and we can enable different security modes and options for our customers using these features.

The features I've found to be most valuable are integrated management, hardware flexibility, and the latest technology that Dell brings to the table.

We deploy PowerEdge servers in a hyperconverged environment, and often, the workloads are compute- and network-intensive workloads. The PowerEdge servers are capable of taking on more workloads and offering more benefits to the customers.

We extensively rely on PowerEdge servers' security features, and we use APIs offered by Dell systems so that we can enable those security features depending on customer requirements.

iDRAC Telemetry does offer a lot of capabilities, and we expose those capabilities to our customers. We use iDRAC extensively for managing the systems, report generation, understanding firmware deviation and drift, and many other capabilities.

There needs to be more flexibility for business options.

I've been using it for the past five years.

It's a pretty stable solution; no issues have been reported. All of the customers are pretty happy with the Dell PowerEdge Rack servers.

It's scalable. The hyperconverged solution is all about scaling based on customer demand. Our software and the Dell hardware are pretty linearly scalable, which helps our customers have a predictable way of expanding to address increased demands.

We have storage and backup administrators in the data centers and enterprise world who use this product.

We definitely want to increase usage and accelerate and expand more.

Technical support is awesome. Every time we have run into some typical third party firmware issues, which may not be Dell's problem, we have always got great support from Dell. I would give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. We haven't run into any complexities when setting up Dell systems for our end-customers.

For the deployment, one person is sufficient to handle it without any hassles.

The maintenance and management are pretty simple, and an administrator can manage hundreds of these systems efficiently.

Deployment typically takes no more than 20 to 25 minutes maximum if the customer is ready with the network and has taken care of any other environments.

We definitely want to leverage the automation capabilities in terms of deployment because the deployment times will be even less. Moving forward, that's the plan.

We implemented it ourselves.

I don't see any issues with respect to licensing. It's power-efficient, so it's beneficial to the customers price-wise. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fee.

We looked at well known server vendors. The main reason we went with Dell PowerEdge servers is the stability of the product.

The predictable linear scale and the fact that most of our customers love Dell hardware were the other reasons.

Also, if we integrate and support Dell hardware, then it stands to reason that our solution will also get a wider read option.

The biggest lesson I've learned is that with modern technology the parameters are rapidly changing. So, you have to make sure to look at all the current and future growth requirements and evaluate accordingly.

I recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack servers and rate them at ten on a scale from one to ten. Go with the latest technology, the latest server, and the firmware that's offered by Dell. Leverage all the scalability features, which are built for the next generation, that is, for hyperconverged and cloud type of deployments.

We primarily use the solution for compute servers. We use them as compute servers to run our virtual machines on-load, mainly on VMware.

The R6 series has been very valuable as it's more cost-effective and it has a lot of features. Based on the requirements, we found the R6 Series would be best suited for our customers. Reliability-wise, it's also great.

PowerEdge is for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, including VDI, AI, and SAP. We did run PowerEdge servers with virtual workloads, especially on VDI. We realized that SSD is necessary, especially with VMware vSphere platforms as the IO requirements are quite high.

In terms of security, there’s been no issue from our side. In terms of BIOS, it is secure and we can go and log into BIOS to change certain settings.

PowerEdge is good for energy consumption. PowerEdge Servers run on optimal voltage. Compared to other competitors or other brands, the power rating is great.

We use iDRAC for many years already. It's an item we need to buy. We’ve had no problems so far. We use it for monitoring purposes to configure SNMP and the servers.

PowerEdge analytics helped to decrease production downtime.

The data points I’d draw attention to for potential customers depend on how much the customer is going to spend. If there is a certain budget, we would plan around their budget. In terms of analytics, most of the time, our monitoring service is able to collect the data metrics already, so having PowerEdge analytics is a complement to our existing monitoring system. While it's good to have, it depends of course on the customer's budget. If their budget is small, we will take away analytics to save costs.

PowerEdge helped to reduce our customer’s data processing time. In fact, they were getting a lot of data from here, from their data processing. We also partner with some Big Data Analytics which run data points. In terms of PowerEdge, it's running fine except for certain power failures from time to time. In terms of how much they’ve reduced the data processing producing power, I don't have the metrics to comment on.

PowerEdge systems management frameworks enable us to progress towards full automation when it comes to managing PowerEdge. We find it very useful in terms of automation, the setup, and configuration, as it does offer setup and proper checks. With the servers, we just need to set our black bar and then push down the setup and configurations box into PowerEdge and we run after that.

We do encounter power supply failures from time to time, however, in terms of operations, the production uptime, the production is not affected, and the SLA is still within the stipulated time.

In the future, we hope that the noise level will be lower.

I've used the solution for quite a long while. Likely, it's been more than 10 years.

We've had no issues with scaling so far. We have been using PowerEdge for years and we are able to scale well. For networking, we need to build the network to scale, and it hasn't been a problem.

Dell support is responsive. They dispatch an engineer on-site to help us within their SLA plan. They are very good so far.

That said, we would appreciate it if the engineer came down with the parts beforehand so they can resolve hardware issues on the spot.

Positive

We deployed many series of PowerEdge for many years. We also used other vendors, including HP and Cisco among others. I would say that in terms of reliability, they are a bit better than Dell in terms of power supplies. 

The deployment time depends on the size of the setup. So far, we haven't had any problems with the setup.

We engage with vendors to do the setup as unboxing PowerEdge and mounting them onto racks. This is especially true if we are talking about hundreds of servers.

Dell can actually do everything in their staging environment, in their warehouse, before shipping everything to customers. We've been quite satisfied with Dell's level of service so far.

The product meets our requirements. Cost-wise, certain configurations in PowerEdge maybe cost a bit extra. Especially the SSD drives.

The cost will increase if we go with the rack-and-stack approach.

We are partners with Dell.

We use the R series, namely R620, 630, then after that 720, 730, and with the XD series as well. We deploy them in data centers. Inside the data centers, there are systems as well as cloud systems; typically the deployment is hybrid.

We don’t use Dell's cloud view for predictive analytics.

I can’t speak to PowerEdge's accelerated tuning in terms of helping to support demanding workloads. We have not used GPU yet.

I'd advise new users to go ahead and assess PowerEdge. Of course, companies need to get their representative to send some metrics, especially the MTBF or certain components on Dell products. We realize that the power supply may be a weak link when running high loads constantly. In terms of other components, there are no issues. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.