Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

Our main use case for using Dell PowerEdge R-Series is primarily virtualization, so all of our internal server infrastructure is virtualized, and we do all that on Dell servers.

When we talk about virtualization, it means we're taking a physical piece of hardware and slicing it up and using multiple servers on a single piece of hardware or across a cluster group of hardware, which is what we do.

Using Dell PowerEdge R-Series has affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business by making us very flexible, allowing us to do a lot with Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

When I say increased flexibility, I mean we're able to do a lot of different things, especially in a virtualized environment, as we have the capacity to spin up different kinds of virtual machines and run different kinds of workloads all on the same piece of hardware.

The features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series that I like the most include iDRAC, which is the remote management component that allows you to manage the console of the server from anywhere, and all the other features like redundancy, which are built into the servers by default, that's what has drawn us to the product over the years.

By having the iDRAC, if I have a problem, I don't have to be in the data center to fix it, and I can remotely manage that server from anywhere.

My organization has seen benefits overall, as the benefits are, at least from our experience, better uptime and more resiliency, meaning we don't have outages due to hardware.

For improving the product, I would want to address how we can get this in our office or in our customer's hands at a better price point, but feature-wise, it does everything we need it to do, and we've never had anything that I wish it did.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for 23 years in general with the company.

I find the product to be stable and reliable, as Dell servers are absolutely stable and reliable.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has helped to reduce unplanned production downtime, as we just don't have any issues with them, and even if a hard drive fails, we build in redundancy, so even if that happens, we don't go down.

My impressions of the customer support and technical support are that the customer support and technical support with Dell have always been fantastic, as it's really easy to get support when we do have a problem, and working with support is usually pretty smooth and painless.

Since we have always used them, it's not as if we came from a different platform and went with Dell for a different reason, but over the life and the amount of time that we've been using Dell servers, the amount of downtime has been negligible.

I have never used anything else besides Dell.

In my opinion, it is very easy to deploy Dell PowerEdge R-Series in an environment where they are absolutely very easy to stand up.

I think we have seen a really good return on investment by using Dell PowerEdge R-Series, as we put them in, they work, we don't have problems, and we don't have downtime.

Regarding pricing and licensing, everybody's always very price conscious, and when it comes to buying a server priced at $5,000 or $10,000 or $20,000, people are always looking at that amount, especially with everything being hyper-inflated due to shortages currently.

My choice of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is based on my long experience and how I've been in other environments where they haven't used Dell, but I've always had really good outcomes because their products always just work, and we've never had any issues with them.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series a 10, as I think they have been fantastic.

My advice to other organizations considering Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that if you're not using a Dell server, you should get one and at least evaluate it, as I think once you have one in your environment, it kind of speaks for itself.

I have never had any problems with patching and upgrades, as we've never had any issue, and the hardware has firmware updates and a tool called the Lifecycle Manager that handles those firmware updates for the hardware.

I rate this review a 10 out of 10.

On-premises

We currently have about 70 Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers. In almost every product today there are some AI features. We create a kind of Harbor automated container handling on the harbors, and we run simulations and testing our product. Dell PowerEdge R-Series serves as our virtualization platform.

We are using the iDRAC connection to manage those servers. The biggest benefit that I see from the product is that those are very reliable. Reliability is the most positive impact.

There are some small problems with latency. The only reason we have too slow disks for today is that when those were purchased, the situation was okay. Now we are moving to SSDs and faster disks for the new servers.

There are minor hiccups on the servers detecting USB stick, but that is rather easy to resolve using network boot.

Another issue is memory price, which makes it quite expensive to scale. Memory pricing is probably global. This is probably the only thing that could be considered as a negative part of the product.

10 years.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is a relatively stable product and very stable.

Even though the solution is on-premise, it is scalable. The current most critical reason for not upgrading is because memory price has been increasing a lot currently. Scaling is quite expensive. It is rather easy to buy new servers, but pricing may not be so good. If pricing goes too high, we can always think about using cloud services, but currently it is cheaper on-premise.

I have interacted with technical support from Dell. My experience with support is very positive, and I always get the help I need. I would rate my experience with support somewhere between eight and nine out of ten. I am very pleased.

Positive

Before Dell PowerEdge R-Series, we were using HP over ten years ago. The reason why we changed HP for Dell is because we changed our companies. In this company they were using HP before, but I have never used that one. I have been working here.

Installation is pretty much straightforward. Sometimes we have minor hiccups on the servers detecting USB stick, but that is rather easy to resolve using network boot.

When we were installing the product, it was done in-house.

We have done almost yearly comparison to use cloud on our environment, but it is much more expensive using cloud than servers on our premises.

For our cases, the pricing is very competitive compared to others. We have stayed on Dell mainly because we have a lot of those, but most comparison we have done. At some point, there was HP, but that was before I worked here, and then there was Pure Storage, which was probably the latest comparison.

I have read reports on PeerSpot about Dell PowerStore and Pure Storage, some comparison that was conducted. We just got Dell PowerStore. It is not yet in use, but it is powered up and we are configuring it. So far I have not much experience with Dell PowerStore.

I have not been working with any other storage before Dell PowerStore. This is our first purchase.

My main responsibility includes those servers. I have been working primarily with Dell servers in the past years.

I am working with rack servers. Those are Dell R-Series.

So far so good with the product itself. That is one part with AI. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has suitable solutions for small to enterprise because we have also small physical servers and big ones, and they provide what you need for a suitable solution.

We buy Dell products directly from Dell currently. We buy servers when there is a need to do more testing based on the demands on or the DevOps team internal customers.

My overall rating for this review is 9 out of 10.

We developed software for a company and deployed it using Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers. The workload is not too much, with concurrent users around 400 or 500, and it is working fine for them. So far, no issues have occurred.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is overall a good, stable product that is not giving us any failures. Based upon the processing power required, it serves our purpose well. With 500 users doing CRUD operations, it is serving the purpose well.

The Intel processor in Dell PowerEdge R-Series handles our workload very well compared to what we expected. We are using a three-server cluster, and the overall computing resource being consumed is less than 5 or 10%. This is a very powerful server for our workload.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very stable and reliable, provided you do IT management such as performing regular service on the hardware every few months. It is quite stable and good, and it is recommended for the workload that is basically required within the bounds of the computing power that it offers.

The iDRAC feature is really good, especially the alarms. If any hardware failure occurs, we get an alarm and then we take the correct actions. It is a good feature.

I do not see any technical areas of improvement. Dell PowerEdge R-Series is already a very good product, but the cost is a bit on the higher side. The pricing is the only thing that concerns me today and is a bit overpriced.

We have been working with the product for four-plus years.

We have never experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues with Dell PowerEdge R-Series. Overall, we are satisfied. We do some routine service of the hardware every few months, which is the crucial part.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series scales very well with the needs of our organization. For 500 users, only 5 to 10% of the computing power is being utilized, and most of it is sitting idle. It is handling it very well.

Regarding technical support from Dell, we did not have to contact them. We are not able to comment on that at this moment.

Neutral

Before Dell PowerEdge R-Series, we have worked with other similar products, but we always try to use Dell as the main provider because of the reliability. We have used 410s and 610s as well, and these 710s were really good.

Our experience with deployment of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that it is not very complex. All we had to do was install it in racks as it was pre-built. We had to configure the system and connect the cables. That is all it required.

Regarding ROI for Dell PowerEdge R-Series, we are satisfied with the ROI.

Our experience with pricing for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that it is a little on the expensive side. That comes with the Intel side of things, but overall, we think it justifies the price because it is durable and it is working well. We have no issues.

We have a practice of using hardware from reliable sources and reliable vendors, which is the reason we prefer Dell. They do provide good customer support, which is what we have heard. That is the reason behind using Dell.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is mostly deployed on-premise.

Our company is a medium-size one with about 500 to 800 users, and the client's company was roughly 500 users.

Dell PowerEdge has features for SMB customers. For small and medium businesses, it is a good fit.

We did not have to use any specific features, just some computing power with the network and the IO from the IoT devices. It serves the purpose, and Dell PowerEdge already has good features. This review has been given a rating of 9.

On-premises

Other

My main use cases for Dell PowerEdge R-Series include running our ERP system, which is probably the main thing, along with file storage.

I appreciate the manageability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series the most, especially considering that the iDRAC was a great feature that proved to be a lifesaver many times. Overall, I prioritize redundancy more than throughput, so that aspect is really compelling.

Using Dell PowerEdge servers has absolutely helped reduce unplanned production downtime. Before we had them, we experienced unplanned downtime approximately once every two months, and after we implemented Dell PowerEdge R-Series, there has not been any downtime, resulting in a 100% reduction of unplanned downtime from hardware.

Using Dell PowerEdge servers has affected the overall flexibility of my operations. We have gone through several iterations, starting with physical servers, then moving to virtualization, and now we operate a hyper-converged infrastructure, which has definitely given me the ability to be flexible because I have servers in two different rooms, allowing me flexibility regarding redundancy and the ability to move workloads between different servers.

Using Dell PowerEdge servers has helped reduce my Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). I would say it has reduced costs by about 60% compared to when we ran the old way, basically running off individual servers.

I do not have actual statistics on energy consumption with Dell PowerEdge servers, but I see the reduced energy consumption as an overall reduction in cooling needs. Before these servers, the cooling struggled to keep up with maintaining the room temperature, but with the new servers, that is not so much of an issue, so I can make do with less cooling.

I believe the energy use of Dell PowerEdge servers has definitely had a good impact on my organization's sustainability goals. I think we can run them a few degrees higher at a warmer temperature than other servers, which in turn allows me to run the air conditioning at a higher temperature, leading to less power usage overall and creating a compounding effect of power use.

One of the improvements I seek for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is addressing the issue we faced in the last iteration where the servers are too powerful. We are probably a large medium-sized business at the top end of that range, and when I try to specify our servers for redundancy over throughput, I cannot get the redundancy I want without high throughput. This means the system ends up being more expensive than needed because I have to go with higher throughput servers to get that redundancy. This creates a gap between having single individual discrete servers and the redundancy that medium businesses need without requiring all that high throughput.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for probably a long time, at least 12 years or possibly even longer since the first one came out. We are on the third generation, replacing approximately every four or five years.

I think Dell PowerEdge customer service is great. I am hard-pressed to give five for anything, but if five is the best, it is at least a four.

Before adopting Dell PowerEdge R-Series, we were using Dell tower servers, but that was a long time ago, before Dell PowerEdge R-Series even existed.

We had a service that set everything up for us, which made that experience really great as it was basically a turnkey service.

My assessment indicates that ROI with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is definitely evident in reliability. Given that our ERP system runs on it, our production could not run without it, and we have other systems that depend on the services running on the servers. If the servers were not working, production would not run at all.

I found pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Dell PowerEdge servers to have some challenges. The pricing was a bit of a problem because of the niche that we fell into.

I considered other solutions before selecting Dell PowerEdge R-Series. We also have a storage array, so we looked at some hyper-converged infrastructure solutions from Dell, but they were even more expensive. Dell PowerEdge R-Series fit our budget much better than those other solutions we considered.

We do not run AI workloads on the servers. I would rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series an eight out of ten overall. For any other organization considering it, my advice is to be cognizant of the specs, as we went through several iterations trying to get the cost down and worked with account executives before finding specifications we were happy with. You must figure out exactly what your needs are to answer the questions effectively.

Hybrid Cloud

Other

We often use Dell PowerEdge R-Series in virtualization, which means we install Hyper-V clusters on them. Sometimes we also use them standalone if it's just a small domain controller or SQL server, so there is a wide variety of areas where Dell PowerEdge R-Series are used, but virtualization is the most common application.

When customers want to set up fail-safe infrastructures with Dell PowerEdge R-Series, we usually use two or three at once, which may also be located in different parts of the building and protected in terms of fire protection. However, any other server would do the same.

I see reliability as the most valuable function with Dell PowerEdge R-Series because they are truly durable. Our virtualization projects run for at least five years before they are replaced. There are very few defects and the support from Dell is excellent, which is one of the most important things about Dell since the support works great.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has improved our company through its reliability and scalability. These servers can be easily expanded upwards after two or three years and can grow with the company.

Generally, the scalability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is outstanding. There is everything from very small to very large models, so we can select the model that our company needs. We can size exactly the right model based on our customer's budget and requirements.

Not much distinguishes Dell PowerEdge R-Series from other servers.

Something can always go wrong somewhere with Dell PowerEdge R-Series, so there will never be a 100% perfect product; product defects are completely normal.

Support could be escalated upwards a bit faster for Dell PowerEdge R-Series. It stays too long at the lower support levels before it is passed on to real specialists. If our partner opens a call for Dell PowerEdge R-Series, they have already checked a lot, and we could actually start at a higher support level more quickly.

We have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for four to five years.

I would have to think about it longer to see if there were any real breakdowns, but the servers just run. Either they have an issue right from the start that has to be fixed in the firmware, but once they are running, a Dell PowerEdge R-Series server that runs for a year usually runs for five years as well.

This has happened with Dell PowerEdge R-Series where we experienced some hardware issues right from the start, where something did not fit or firmware versions were incompatible, but then that is a delivery error that gets corrected and after that the machine runs.

Crashes and outages always happen, but whether the hardware of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is responsible or Windows running on it needs to be determined. In case of defects, we have very good support that quickly ensures the machine runs again.

We do not have to buy a new server just because our company has grown. Usually in the existing chassis of Dell PowerEdge R-Series, there is still room to retrofit things.

Even if it is just new disk space or more RAM for Dell PowerEdge R-Series, the CPUs are usually oversized anyway and have more performance than the company needs, so we can get along very well, even with fast-growing companies.

I would rate Dell support for Dell PowerEdge R-Series around nine. There is always room for improvement.

The support for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is excellent. We always have the comparison with other manufacturers. There is no longer the classic German support you might prefer, but most of the time it is just a hard drive that is broken or a firmware that needs to be updated. These are quite simple support cases in 99% of all cases. Very rarely do we have really difficult support where it really goes into the details and real expertise is required on the other side.

Positive

They all just cook with water, whether we have Dell or HP. We used to be an HP partner, but in the storage area Dell made the big difference, and that is why the servers are now also from Dell.

We used HP earlier, which was our standard in-house supplier, but through the storage track we switched completely to Dell. Gradually, the HP logo has disappeared everywhere in our customers' racks and now they all have Dell logos on the servers.

I was involved in the deployment and initial setup of Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

I am involved in working with Dell PowerEdge R-Series, so we select them and we also install them for customers.

We do not do a big evaluation, but I think Dell PowerEdge R-Series contributes to customer retention and customer growth, so it helps us in our general business. If our customer is using Dell and is satisfied with the servers, then they automatically take other products from us as well.

I think there is a return on investment with Dell PowerEdge R-Series; we just cannot really measure it very well, but we definitely perceive it.

It can always be cheaper, but at some point we have to keep our feet on the ground. Customers always want to pay less, but at some point it just costs a certain amount and Dell also has to pay its employees, so those are fair prices for Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

We did not compare any other servers before adding Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series are rack servers that are part of the R-Series of Dell PowerEdge R-Series product line.

I just heard that from February on some automation from Dell is coming for Dell PowerEdge R-Series so that the servers install everything automatically via a Dell tool. Something is coming, something is in the pipeline for Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

Everything is great about Dell PowerEdge R-Series in terms of price-performance ratio. We can talk to Dell about anything and can submit project requests, and basically with Dell as a partner we can get a project through the door. Unless our customer has very difficult expectations regarding the price, then at some point we have to end the negotiation if they are not willing to pay what they want to have, and then they should go elsewhere.

We are not that far yet with metrics for Dell PowerEdge R-Series. The Dell servers just came along with the storage; we and our customers were very satisfied with the storage, so we also added the servers. In servers the manufacturers are all quite interchangeable. No one stands out from the other, but in the storage and backup area, that is where we make the difference and where we can really score and just take the servers along with it.

I have expanded Dell PowerEdge R-Series in the past, and it worked well. I have bought new servers or just expanded. Everything is good with Dell PowerEdge R-Series. There is very good stability and reliability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series with no complaints.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series as a nine for overall product rating. I think that is good. There is always room for improvement, so we will leave one point open for Dell PowerEdge R-Series. We are satisfied with Dell PowerEdge R-Series and definitely happy to be surprised by Dell in the future. Our overall review rating for this product is 9.

Functionality-wise, all of our servers, all of our data storage, and SANs are all Dell products, PowerEdge R-Series. Our whole data center is built with Dell products, and it has been for as long as I can remember.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is basically our data center. All of our data rests within it, everything from domain controllers down to how we store data. That's what we use it for.

From what I've heard from our network engineer, he points out that reliability is key about Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers. I think it's the comfort that he knows them. He knows them inside out. Great support from Dell, never an issue there. The support and reliability are the number one reasons that we keep coming back to the product.

Reliability is number one for Dell PowerEdge R-Series. I think the level of support that we get is also crucial. Those are the two reasons that we come back to it. At the end of the day, it goes back to relationships. A lot of it is knowing that if there's an issue, you can reach out and have a team that's going to back you up, which is very important. When things go wrong, people are calling and expressing frustration. To have that support to guide you through situations is the most important part for us.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has improved our company overall by providing the ability to maintain uptime. We have reliable products that we can manage easily. We store data for decades because of the industry we're in, so being able to expand and know that the product will last and retrieve things that we need from 25 to 30 years ago is still available.

I don't have recommendations for how Dell PowerEdge R-Series can be improved specifically. A lot of it goes back to our network engineer, who plays with it day-to-day.

Our network engineer doesn't say that there should be improvements for Dell PowerEdge R-Series. He always says to stick with Dell products.

We have had Dell PowerEdge R-Series products for at least 15 years.

Regarding the stability and reliability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series, I have not experienced any downtime or crashes. We've had some hard drive issues, but nothing unusual.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very scalable with the growing needs of our company. We just finished a big expansion, and it proved to be very scalable.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series customer service and technical support is excellent. We had a very good project management team that laid out the scope before implementation. Getting the preliminary data through our third party was excellent. They really ran our network numbers, equipment, and needs assessments and developed a good plan to understand what we were about to purchase to get our installation completed. They got our plot set up, scheduled the installation, and everything was excellent.

Positive

We had other brands before Dell PowerEdge R-Series, but we've gone completely Dell-based.

The reason we switched to Dell PowerEdge R-Series is reliability. It comes down to that and support. Those are the two things that matter the most to us. With technology, there are always going to be things that go wrong, and it's never going to be 100%, but it's more important to be able to handle the issues in a timely manner than anything else. An issue is going to happen, but as long as issues are not happening on a regular basis, the reliability is there. When something does go wrong, being able to address it quickly, get a product shipped to you and installed, and have the technical expertise that is needed are vital.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has handled our workloads very well compared to what I expected. We've had no issues and have been very happy customers. It met expectations.

The deployment of the expansion went very good with Dell PowerEdge R-Series. We went through a third-party vendor to buy the product. We had a Dell specialist with us that helped us with the launch, and it went smoothly.

The deployment of Dell PowerEdge R-Series has been pretty smooth. Our latest expansion went so smoothly that I have no complaints.

We evaluate other system providers as our procurement process requires us to go out to get bids. We assess other companies, get pricing, and go through demos, and we've always come back to Dell.

The biggest return on investment when using Dell PowerEdge R-Series in my company is the longevity. You can't beat it because the products are very solid. The return on investment is the uptime and longevity, which is a cost savings in itself.

We were very happy with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerEdge R-Series. Our third-party reseller was excellent. We got great pricing.

We have considered other solutions while on our Dell PowerEdge R-Series journey. We've looked at HP because we have a competitive bid process, and we always have to scope everybody. We've always come back to Dell.

The advice that I would give to other companies that are considering Dell PowerEdge R-Series is to understand what your true needs are and what you're going to use it for, scale correctly, and you'll have a great product team to support you. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

My company is a reseller and integrator. We function as a system integrator. 

We resell services to SMB mostly, covering different use cases from financial to IT, and we have several clients in the crypto markets as well. 

The SMBs that I'm installing this for a range from 50 employees to 200. They need the server specifically for an on-premise setup of infrastructure.

In Dell PowerEdge R-Series, the most valuable feature is the management. It began with Dell OpenManage, and today it's the cloud-managed service. This is the most value of Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers. 

Mostly, organizations get Dell PowerEdge R-Series for the very strong maintenance and support contracts Dell has in Israel. And of course, the OpenManage platform. 

The benefits of the OpenManage platform include integration to SIEM, to RMM tools that our clients are using. 

It provides a very visible point of view on the whole infrastructure, not only for servers but also for storage, servers, and all the add-ons.

If I could improve Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, I would definitely focus on integration to third-party products such as HP and others. Many of our clients not only rely on both Dell and on other services as well, including cloud services such as AWS and Azure. More integration to third-party services would be a great upgrade. I don't have something specific that I remember regarding the interoperability that isn't working right now, but I believe more integration equals more value.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for about 20 years.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series product is overall very stable, very mature, and support is excellent. This is the main reason we continually choose Dell over the competition.

We find that the product can scale with their workloads. Scalability with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very easy because Dell has a wide range of services, both hardware and software. We can easily scale with hardware by adding more racks or more capacity to a single platform. With software, it's also very scalable with OpenManage. We can add more servers to one platform.

I have worked with customer support. In my opinion, customer support is very good. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it a nine. I rate it a nine as, from time to time, there are downs. Mostly they are okay.

Positive

The pricing and licensing of Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers are market competitive. They're okay. There are ups and downs when it comes to comparing them to the competition. Overall, they're okay. I've been in the business for a long time.

There's always room to improve. On a scale of one to 10, I would rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series a nine, which is very good.

On-premises

Other

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is our main platform for VDI, and we also use it for our core infrastructure, which runs on VMware.

One of the features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series that I appreciate most is OpenManage and how iDRAC and OpenManage work together. In my opinion, it is far more user-friendly than HPE's solution.

Using Dell PowerEdge R-Series has significantly affected the overall flexibility of our company operations by providing what we need when we need it. Whenever we do refreshes, which we completed about a month ago, being able to order servers and know they're going to arrive, rather than hoping they show up this year, is a significant advantage.

Using Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers has improved our supply chain for obtaining them and their parts. I cannot say I had any reliability problems with HPE versus Dell; they are both reliable servers. However, when it came to getting parts we needed or new nodes for expansion, the supply chain made a considerable difference, especially when considering private cloud or on-premises environments where you need to plan ahead and have those servers in-house.

Regarding ways Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be improved, I do not immediately know of anything that would make them better or that would be within Dell's control. My only complaints are very generic server problems related to RAM pricing and supply chains for obtaining GPUs, which Dell cannot engineer their way out of. If I had to be specific, I would prefer the old covers that were a darker gray, but that is merely a visual preference.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for about six years now. We moved from HPE to Dell and have been satisfied with them.

My experience with Dell support has been positive; we have had no issues. When parts in servers needed replacement, they were prompt to come out and do so, or they would send us a new drive if it was user-replaceable. I mainly think of drives and other components, and they have been quick to ship us a new drive that arrives the next day, allowing us to install it and be operational.

Before purchasing and implementing Dell PowerEdge R-Series, the only other server platform we considered was HPE, as we have familiarity with them. We had no interest in Lenovo.

I have absolutely seen the return on my investment with Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

My current servers are performing significantly better. As the VDI administrator, I focus on users per box, and I have substantially increased my number of users per box compared to my previous servers. We used to target sub-100 users, but now we are targeting 125 users per box. This allows us to increase our density and reduce the number of servers we have, ultimately reducing cost, power, and all related expenses.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that setup costs and licensing are excellent. Pricing for our last renewal was excellent, but this refresh was challenging. I cannot fault Dell for that because I know it would be similarly challenging anywhere else. The only aspect that concerned us was the non-set pricing for a purchase order. We were told by our sales representatives that if they produced a purchase order and we paid it, the price could change before the server shipped, and we would be required to pay that difference. That approach concerned us, although I understand everyone else is doing the same. We would have preferred a set price so we could pay it and be done with it, without the uncertainty of waiting on the server shipment and hoping the price does not increase again.

We prefer not to use Lenovo primarily because we work with many DoD contracts. I do not think there are specific blocks or regulations against it, but having servers from a Chinese-based company does not align well with our DoD contracts. Therefore, we prefer to deal with US-based companies for our servers because they hold CUI and FCI data that could be problematic if something went wrong in the supply chain.

My advice for others considering Dell PowerEdge R-Series is to request demo units. We obtained demo units beforehand to evaluate everything, and our sales representatives were able to arrange that for us. Although lead time was the main factor that convinced us, we wanted to ensure that before making a seven-figure purchase, we were obtaining servers that we preferred. Having test units to put a load on made us confident with the purchase, so it was not an expensive mystery. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

On-premises

Other

We use Dell PowerEdge R-Series as part of our core infrastructure backbone across our group of companies. Our main workloads include transaction processing systems, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, file services, databases, virtualization, and other business-critical applications.

The feature of Dell PowerEdge R-Series that I appreciate the most is the iDRAC.

I love the remote management capability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, which I find to be one of the platform’s strongest features. Our servers are hosted in a Tier 3 data center that is a good distance away from the system administrators, so the ability to remotely access, troubleshoot, and manage servers without needing to physically visit the site is extremely valuable.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has helped reduce unplanned production downtime because the servers have proven to be very reliable over the years. We are largely a Dell shop across the organization, including Dell laptops, Dell servers, and Dell storage solutions, and that consistency has helped simplify support and operations. Based on our experience, the reliability and manageability of the platform have given us confidence in continuing with Dell technologies.

I do not have any major concerns with the platform. The main area I would like to see Dell continue to strengthen is readiness for AI and modern high-performance workloads, including GPU options, power efficiency, and easier lifecycle management for those environments.

We have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for more than ten years now.

Stability has been excellent. We support a group of approximately thirteen companies, and many of our services require high availability. Dell PowerEdge has helped us consistently meet our uptime expectations, including around 99.9% availability for key services.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has scaled well for our environment over the years. As our organization and workloads have grown, we have been able to expand compute, storage, and virtualization capacity without major operational challenges.

The platform has supported a wide range of workloads across multiple companies within our group, including transaction processing systems, infrastructure services, virtualization, and business-critical applications. The consistency across the platform has also made lifecycle management and expansion much easier from an operational perspective.

From a long-term investment standpoint, the reliability and lifecycle of the servers have also helped reduce our total cost of ownership, as we typically retain these servers for five to seven years.

Dell customer service and technical support have generally been strong throughout our experience with the platform. Early in my career, when we were transitioning to become more standardized on Dell technologies, the support experience was excellent and helped build confidence in the platform.

Over the years, we have had positive experiences with both the technology and the support organization, particularly during hardware issues and escalations. While there is always room for improvement in responsiveness and consistency, overall I still have confidence in Dell support and the value it provides to enterprise environments.

We have had a long-standing relationship with Dell technologies, so the transition was less about moving away from another vendor and more about continuing to standardize on a platform we trusted for reliability, manageability, and enterprise support. Over the years, Dell PowerEdge has consistently met our operational and uptime requirements, which made it a natural choice for our infrastructure strategy.

The biggest return on investment from Dell PowerEdge R-Series has been reliability, reduced downtime, and long-term operational stability. In our environment, uptime is critical because we support multiple companies and business-critical services.

The platform has helped reduce unplanned outages, simplified remote administration through iDRAC, and provided a strong lifecycle value, as we typically retain these servers for five to seven years. From an operational perspective, that reliability and consistency have translated into lower support effort and greater confidence in maintaining high availability services.

We evaluated alternatives in the market, including IBM and HPE, but ultimately continued with Dell because of our positive experience with reliability, lifecycle management, remote administration through iDRAC, and the consistency it provides across our infrastructure environment. Standardizing on Dell has also helped simplify support and operational management across the organization.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series a ten out of ten based on our experience over the years.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has helped reduce unplanned production downtime because the platform has proven to be very reliable for our environment. We use Dell technologies broadly across the organization, including Dell laptops, servers, and storage solutions, and that consistency has helped simplify support and operational management.

My advice to other organizations is to look beyond the initial hardware cost and evaluate the full operational value of the platform, including reliability, remote management, lifecycle support, and ease of administration. Features like iDRAC and the overall stability of the platform have been especially valuable in helping us maintain high availability for critical services.

On-premises

Other

My primary use case for Dell PowerEdge R-Series rack servers in my company is as a hypervisor.

The iDRAC interface of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very convenient and easy to use. It provides a GUI to manage the server, check the status of health, make RAID, etc.

Besides ease of use, I appreciate all these other features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series as they are intuitive and ready to go. I don't need to configure for hours; I just plug it in, configure two or three things, power cycle it, and that's it. I'm good to go. It's fast. I don't spend a lot of time configuring the product. I'm using my time to evolve the business.

With many Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, my company realizes the benefit of seeing all of them in one interface, and they integrate greatly with Dell storage, so everything works harmoniously. It's one panel for managing all of them, so I don't need to log into every one of them.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series could improve by focusing the servers to optimize their performance for Kubernetes clusters or something similar might be beneficial.

I've been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series rack servers for around five to six years.

We will be expanding usage. 

I would assess the customer service for Dell PowerEdge R-Series as excellent. In Israel, it's with the Yael group, and they're all great. I had laptops when I started as a help desk engineer, and I had many laptops that needed replacements, and their service was pretty easy; they came on-site and switched the parts. I once needed a RAID card for a server, and it was pretty straightforward and fast. Great service overall.

Positive

Before switching to Dell PowerEdge R-Series, I used HP.

I didn't have a lot of challenges at all with the deployment. I worked with Dell and iDrac for six years already. It's retty straightforward. It's pretty easy.

I approximate that our performance has improved by between 20 to 30%.

I don't have experience with pricing.

I didn't consider other vendors before selecting Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

My advice to someone considering Dell PowerEdge R-Series depends on their needs first of all. If it's going to be a web server or something general-purpose, then they can go for the low tiers such as R400, or possibly now R500, or R340 and 50 and 60 it's fine. 

If they want to leverage for more AI usage, they should go for the more robust servers that integrate; they do have two or four card GPUs of Nvidia Tesla, which work really well, for example, for rendering live cameras for intrusion detection and things similar to this. 

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series a nine out of ten.

On-premises

Other