Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

My organization uses the product as a simple server.

We implemented the product for its simplicity and scalability. We wanted a simple system that we could scale up if needed. Currently, we only have a few servers. It's easy to change them. The components can be changed around.

The simplicity of the bars is valuable. We can pull out elements and change them ourselves. It saves us time. We do not open the machine much. It leads to less maintenance efforts. We can also use components of other brands. It is easy to use.

The product must provide more options to add GPUs to the machines. It's always a challenge. If we don't think about it when buying the machine, we cannot do it afterward.

I have been using the solution for 20 years. We use R730 and R630.

The support is good. The support was better ten years ago. Now, we have to do more things ourselves. Ten years ago, the team focused on solving the issues first instead of finding who was to blame.

Positive

We used HPE some time ago. The machines are the same, but the support provided by Dell is better.

The initial setup was easy.

The product's pricing is not good. It's always a winning factor for other solutions. It is not the most affordable tool.

I hope PowerEdge's Cyber Resilient Architecture approach is sufficient. Once, we had a problem because the rack was not updated. It's annoying that I didn't get informed by Dell that we had to update it. Communication should be better for security reasons.

I never thought about energy consumption, but we all must decrease our power consumption. It was never an issue for us, though. The tool is efficient for what we use it for. It is scalable till the end. The product lasts for seven years. We can use the machine for a long time.

The solution has helped reduce unplanned production downtime. We have a cluster. If one fails, the other one takes over. The OpenManage console has affected our IT staff’s productivity. We use it a lot. It's a good tool to access our service. The tool saves 25% of our time.

Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

We use them to host a car parking system. 

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers with pre-installed Microsoft Windows Server. It is just easier when they come already loaded. There is less for us to do.

We host our application on them. They are great for running our applications. We recently had to upgrade the specs of some of the servers due to the demands on the system. For example, where it used to be Dell R350 with hard drives, we are now expected to go with SSDs, but it deals with our applications very well.

We do not necessarily use a lot of its security and other features. We take it out of the box, put our application on it, and then just run it or install it on a device if needed.

With Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we now have more resilience. Previously, we used a PowerPC as a server. By using a dedicated PowerEdge Rack Server, there is resilience when using, for example, a RAID array.

Our in-house application runs directly on it. That is a big critical element, but the impact of these servers on our IT infrastructure is no different from another server.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime by about 20%.

The ease of setting them up is valuable. It is easy to set them up. 

Training needs to be improved. I feel we are not getting the best benefit out of the PowerEdge servers at the moment because we do not have in-depth knowledge on how to fully configure them. The PowerEdge servers are fine. It is our training that needs to be improved.

Their support can be better. Getting to the right person for support is a challenge.

We have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for eight or nine years.

I have never seen any major issues with stability. They are stable.

Once we have deployed a server, we do not increase any specs on it, so we do not have too much experience with scalability. If we do need an improved or enhanced server, we will get that straight from Dell. We would not enhance RAM, SSD, or anything else on our own.

There are about eight people who may configure them. Once these servers go to the site, there are more people using them, but I do not know how many.

Their support is usually very good, but getting to the right person is a challenge. They are good once we get to the right person or once somebody is dedicated to helping us, but getting to that point in the first place is a bit annoying. 

Neutral

My predecessor was already using them, so I carried on ordering them. We do not have any experience with anything similar. We just stick with what we know. The only alternative that we use is a tower PC as a server. It is just a standard PC.

We did not consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge servers. Our platform at the moment is not native to the cloud. It has a heavy data demand and bandwidth requirement, so the cloud was not necessarily within the scope of our product at the time. However, we are developing a cloud-native solution. That might be something we can consider moving forward.

We went for PowerEdge servers because of the price and specs. It is something that has been used by our team before I even joined it, so we continue to use it. The support from Dell is usually very good as well. So, it is a combination of price, specs, and support that makes us keep using Dell.

It is easy to set them up. We could realize their benefits within a few months of deployment.

I am involved in their deployment as an assistant and not as the main person. Most times, it is straightforward, but it also depends on the spec that we get with different solid-state drives or hard drives. Sometimes, the RAID sets can be a bit more complex.

With regards to getting the server into a state where we can deploy our application, it takes a few hours. In a few hours, we can deploy the Windows operating system, do the RAID setup, and then it is ready for our in-house solution.

It is usually a one-man job. I might provide some assistance, but typically, it is a one-man job.

We have potentially seen an ROI, but I would not be able to give a figure. We deploy our solutions onto those servers, and effectively, that is no longer our equipment, so we do not necessarily see what is going on with them. 

They are fairly priced.

I would recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I would advise having a good relationship with Dell, and they will support you above and beyond.

Overall, I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten.

We have one PowerEdge Rack Server that we got a little while ago that is running Hyper-V and some Windows VMs and we just got a new one, which will be running SQL. We use them for Windows networking tasks. One is a file store server and the other is an application server.

These servers have expanded our storage for our call recording. We no longer have to offsite our calls prior to needing them, within the lifecycle of the call requirements. Before, we'd have to ship off some call recordings after two years, but we can now keep them onsite longer. 

They have also optimized some of the infrastructure and allowed us to reduce our footprint in the server room. We were able to upgrade two servers into one and virtualize them when we got the PowerEdge.

Some of the apps that are critical to our business are Office 365, Sage, which is a finance payment company in the UK, and AWS for some of our hosted solutions that are public-facing, because we don't want them coming in directly to our data center. The integration of these apps' workloads with our PowerEdge Rack Servers is of high importance. We're able to put our applications on them that integrate these services and have them automated and run without worry.

Moving on to the new PowerEdge Rack Server that we have just purchased will definitely reduce downtime and allow more flexibility in our workloads, going forward.

While it's not specific to the PowerEdge side of it, I do like the new feature in the Dell servers, the BOSS system [Boot Optimized Storage Solution]. That is really nice. I don't know if it's unique to Dell, but I like it.

And when it comes to handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, the PowerEdge Rack Servers are fit for purpose. They do what they need to do. 

I am also grateful for the security features, including the signed firmware, drift detection, and BIOS recovery.

I haven't done any energy monitoring of our servers because I don't have a big enough server farm to need to monitor our power consumption at that level. It's not like I need to turn off half of our fleet to save costs during downtime hours. We have a very small footprint as far as service systems go. Having said that, the PowerEdge servers are probably more energy efficient than the older ones we have because the older ones are a lot bigger. They have a lot more active hard drives and spinning disks. These new servers are nice, clean SSDs. Overall, power consumption will have gone down.

I use the Dell OpenManage console on occasion when I'm investigating an issue with the server, but thankfully, that doesn't happen very often. Using the console is pretty straightforward. I don't have any complaints about it. 

What annoys me about every server is just how loud they are when they're turned on, but that's just a function of the server. It's protecting itself. I can't complain that it's noisy when I turn it on, because it's not in its rack yet. It's sitting on a desk near me. That's just how servers work.

We've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a couple of years and we've had at least one Dell in our system for going on 12 years now.

The servers that I have, have been humming away without me having to deal with them in any way, outside of Windows issues. Those issues have nothing to do with PowerEdge. They are the standard Windows issues. Overall, they've been working the way they're supposed to, so I have nothing bad to say about them.

I would imagine they scale very well. Our IT infrastructure has not been overly affected by having these servers. They are easily scaling to our needs and the equipment we have purchased far outpowers our business requirements, but they will be there when we need them.

I haven't had to contact Dell's technical support for the server side. The only technical support from Dell we've had so far was for laptops.

We had HPE ProLiants, but I haven't bought any of those since the last one several years ago. We've gone to Dell since then.

They have good longevity and good warranties. If there were an issue (and we haven't had any) they are covered.

I'd like them to be cheaper, but that's not the world we live in and that's not where the pound is at. 

The price was acceptable for what the product is. If I tried to build my own server, the cost difference would be negligible. And the brand support that Dell provides and the functionality that comes with the PowerEdge Servers made up the difference. So it makes sense. I don't have a problem with the cost. It is in line with what I'd expect.

I considered public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge Rack Servers, but that solution wasn't fit for purpose in this case. We have some public cloud stuff that is useful in some cases, but we wanted hardware onsite for this specific device.

In terms of native OS security features, we use Active Directory and we have BitLocker and some other things enabled. We mostly use them for compliance and because we have them. Nothing has forced me to look outside of the native-provided solutions.

To protect ourselves from malware and other firmware attacks, we have Mimecast for email endpoints and we have ESET Endpoint Security for all of our clients and servers.

The PowerEdge Rack Servers do what they say on the tin. I like them. And our latest one was delivered really fast. We ordered it on the 7th and it came on the 18th, which was unexpected and nice. That's a good turnaround time.

We have implemented the PowerEdge servers in data centers for intelligence, governments, banks, hospitals, and for different use cases. It's a very robust product. 

We're a Dell Gold partner, and we sell services for our clients. We've been working in this domain for a long time.

We're using the seven series and the six series, and we previously used the eight series.

Most of our implementations are completed on-premises.

PowerEdge's system management capabilities help increase staff productivity.

It provides centralized management capabilities for large environments. In data centers, implementing multi-servers and managing different kinds of resources from a single portal definitely helps us a lot.

PowerEdge reduces data processing times. The server must be set up well to do this. Knowing your application and how to set up a real configuration that will map your request, helps a lot in the PowerEdge environment.

The enabling of full automation has affected the operations of our company.
This is the target of every client and organization. The servers fully support automation. A combination of a company's strategy when implementing solutions and having applications that are synchronized with the hardware requirement will lead to a very good result. The hardware is the best part of it because it's so easy. The hardware supports big implementations. If the structure is right, the results will be very good.

PowerEdge hasn't let us down in any situation. It's a very robust system.

We haven't faced any kind of downtime with applications, especially in analytics, because we implement a PowerEdge cluster and support it with storage. The infrastructure is highly available based on the Dell server.

From our implementations over the years and the new demand in technology, we haven't faced any kind of problems related to hardware based on PowerEdge. Everything is based on the application itself and the algorithm that the client uses through the servers. The problem isn't with the servers. The problem is with development.

It's all about processing. If you use a different kind of application that needs a lot of resources, that is a key factor, especially in data collection, open-source data, and applying different analytics over that. That will need a lot of processing, and the hardware is a key factor in that part.

Full automation is fully supported with PowerEdge. From the server perspective, it is fully compliant.

We haven't faced any problems with the power supplies. The consumption of power is robust. We still have slots for the new hard discs for availability and upgrading RAM, but the machine itself has been working nonstop for ten years.

We haven't faced any problems with new demands for digital transformation and infrastructure development.

The system is very updated. The machine itself is secure, but it depends on the client's environment and security strategy.

PowerEdge has good value for energy consumption. We know this from other vendors that have the same data centers that we used to work with. It provides better performance in terms of power consumption. More power is saved with the use of a full cabinet of PowerEdge servers versus other solutions with multi-servers.

We work in environments with systems in analytics, AI, Hadoop infrastructure, open source, and data gathering. We have those kinds of servers in our setups, and we never face problems when running the latest high-demand applications. We have an advantage in getting those results on PowerEdge servers rather than other servers.

We had some applications in artificial intelligence. Some of the clients are starting to adopt those use cases. We didn't face any problems adopting those kinds of solutions, although it's still an open discussion.

We are very familiar with the Dell portal, updates, supports, and assessments.

The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller telemetry for monitoring the PowerEdge system data and providing analytics is very simple and accessible. For centralized management, it's a good value. These kinds of implementations in a big data center make a difference.

We have CloudIQ in the machine learning systems that we are implementing for some of our clients, and those are based on Dell PowerEdge. We have those kinds of predictive analytics, and the hardware is doing great so far.

Dell EMC is a combination of processing, storage, and power. We're in a really good position in terms of technology, trends, and the leaders in the market. 

Dell has different types of servers that can fit different types of businesses.

Different types of applications that are now trendy in the market, like AI, are still big topics that are not mapped correctly in the server and storage environment. Knowing those kinds of activities and definitions will help us more to position these kinds of servers for the client.

I have used this solution since 2005.

It's very stable. We have been using it for ten years.

It's easy to scale.

I would rate technical support an eight out of ten. We have never had a problem with technical support. There are a lot of different layers of support, and they're all very responsive. Dell is a very good company.

Positive

We used to work with HP most of the time, and we worked with servers from Cisco for a short time.

Dell used to have different categories of servers that can fit different types of businesses. Sometimes we find that small servers have good specs over other competition, which is key for some new clients. For some new businesses, small servers can help achieve different targets for SMEs.

The setup is very simple. When deploying PowerEdge, we used the automated server and OS deployment features. Our clients are very familiar with the setup. It's straightforward and very fast. If someone is knowledgeable in IT, they are familiar with PowerEdge.

As a partner, most of the time we help clients. However, most of the clients are knowledgeable enough to implement the servers in a very simple way.

PowerEdge is not a cheap product. It's a quality product, but there is always competition.

If you want to buy a server, you need an operating system, and most of it is Microsoft. A bundled solution costs less than a separate operating system and hardware.

We cannot compare public cloud solutions with PowerEdge. This decision is related to the availability of features over the internet versus something that you own in your data center, your servers, and your manageability and power. Implementing those kinds of servers on-premises will cost more, but having a cloud solution with on-premises storage is more feasible and economically better.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

I cannot recommend a solution other than PowerEdge. I'm very happy with it and proud that we have it implemented.

I would definitely recommend this solution to those who are interested in using it. It's a robust, solid solution, and the hardware is designed carefully. The features and capabilities are built-in and it's a very supportive, long-term company. There are continuous efforts for development.

It's a standard server that we've got. It's a site server, so it'll hold up to a manufacturing server and a normal Active Directory server.

We have Dell PowerEdge servers with pre-installed Microsoft Windows Server OS. For security, we mainly have antivirus. We've got web security monitoring tools. In addition, we've got firewalls. So, we've got a number of technologies that will hopefully protect us from ransomware.

Reliability is its main benefit. It works. I have not had many servers go down with hardware failure.

Email and ERP systems are critical to our business. We've also got manufacturing applications running on it as well. Those are one of the biggest key areas for our business. For the manufacturing and everything else, it's highly integrated. We need a server that's always on.

It has been good in terms of the impact on our IT infrastructure and the ability to handle the demand. It does what it says on the tin. We haven't had any issues with it. It's a server. It's one of those things that once it's in, it's in. We don't want it to do anything special because it's there for our infrastructure. It looks after our infrastructure, and it has been doing its job, and it has been working. Because we've not had any issues, its reliability has made a big impact on our business.

The ease of installation is valuable. The physical side of installation is quite intuitive and has got better by leaps and bounds. The hardware has always been fantastic, and it has always been reliable.

The iDRAC is one of my favorite features of this solution. From an IT or management perspective, we are able to easily control the servers with it. It has been the biggest help.

Its pricing could be better. In terms of features, I've got nothing to improve.

I have about 25 years of experience with the product.

Its stability is very good. Its performance has always gone up in leaps and bounds. They've always been ahead of the curve, and we've always got the best technology from Dell.

Its scalability is very good.

Their support is good. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

Positive

I previously used an HP solution. I switched because of my experience with peer reviews for Dell products. Ever since we made the change to Dell servers, we've not gone back. There is the ease of use of racking and the ease of use of remote management. There is reliability and simplification of the server as well. They've not overcomplicated it. Those are the main selling points for Dell servers in comparison to HP.

Its initial setup was very straightforward. It took a day. We have a certain process that we follow. We've had a server setup from a couple of years ago, and we follow that process. It's just making sure that all the relevant information is in.

It's very difficult to measure, but it should be good. We've made an initial investment in the capital costs for the server purchase, and if we get good five years of use out of it, then we've got good returns for it.

We could realize its benefits straightaway after the deployment.

They seem to have become more expensive. I've not done a comparison with other vendors recently. If the price increases more, we would need to do a comparison next year just to make sure that we are benchmarking our server purchases correctly.

We did consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge Rack Servers, but it wasn't a choice. We are in a hybrid environment. We do have a number of servers internally, but then we have public cloud servers as well. Overall, the public cloud is cheaper because I don't require internal expertise and internal maintenance for the physical environment, which is cost-saving. The only reason for getting PowerEdge internally was to meet the demand for great speed for our manufacturing services. Therefore, we have to have something internal.

I would definitely recommend it. You just have to install it, and that's it. It works.

I would rate it a 10 out of 10.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for Windows Servers and VMware Servers.

With Intel’s Xeon scalable processors in our PowerEdge Rack Servers, we have been able to reduce the number of servers we need when we change our workloads to the new generation, once every five years or so. I can feel a big improvement in terms of workload.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel

• are easy to use 
• are easy to manage with Dell's OpenManage Console
• have extended support for five years.

When it comes to handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, they're good. They deliver like they're supposed to.

And while I haven't had to use the BIOS recovery, it's a nice feature in case there is a problem.

I've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 15 years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel are reliable, so I can say that they have reduced unplanned production downtime.

We use PowerEdge in a VM environment, so it is scalable.

We haven't used Dell's tech support.

We are also using HPE and Lenovo servers right now.

Deploying PowerEdge is straightforward. To get it up and running takes about an hour.

We always implement with in-house team.

We've been using the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a long time and have found them to be very reliable. With the extended support, we can use them for five years, so it's a good investment.

The pricing could always be better.

When I compare PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel to the other vendors like HPE or Lenovo, I can say that it's a bit better than them. It delivers good value. Dell provides longer support for operating systems when compared to HPE. We also considered all the public cloud servers, but they were not a cost-effective solution for our college. When we buy the on-prem service, we can use it for five years, and with a physical solution, we see a return on investment after about two years. If we were to use public cloud, we would lose after two years. This solution saves us about 1 million shekels (about $289,000 at the time of the review).

Dell's PowerEdge Rack Server is the best solution that I've seen, compared to other vendors.

I integrate PowerEdge for customers who buy the servers and storage, doing the integration between them. I have helped integrate 20 to 30 customers.

Dell PowerEdge powered by Intel helps improve organizations that we work with a lot.

I like the integration between iDRAC and the system. It is very easy to update the framework and install the operating systems. 

Intel's Xeon CPU makes the system work very well and fast. I like this type of CPU. It has helped to improve the performance of targeted workloads by 70%.

Some customers took the machine to the extreme, which makes it a bit slower and delays the system. Since the customer can put a lot of VMs with a lot of data, it can use up the CPU memory to 20% to 25%, which slows down the system. However, if we reduce the CPU memory or split it to another, then it works very well.

I would like to change the physical rails to be more like how HPE rails are formatted and organized.

I have been using PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for almost three years.

PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. The organization will not have downtime at all if you can migrate VMs between servers, but you need at least two. With two or three clusters, you can convert the machines.

The stability is very good, if you have at least two servers. Then, you have full redundancy of all the VMs and the system. If one server has downtime, then all the data in the VMs on the server convert automatically to the other. Therefore, you need at least two or three servers to have full redundancy.

Our customers can run the systems in their organization 24/7 without any downtime.

PowerEdge offers a lot of types, which is very good for customer scalability, from small businesses to large businesses. 

I have not used their technical support.

It is very quick to deploy. It takes something like 30 minutes to an hour for us to deploy.

I recommend reading the documentation before you deploy the product.

It makes the integration with a lot of storage systems cheaper. 

The pricing is very good because there are a lot of types of PowerEdge Rack Servers. You have the R540, R640, and R740. The prices are very scalable through the specific server, e.g., small businesses can take the R640 while large businesses can take the R740 or R840. Thus, Dell technologies touch on every organization.

I like Dell Technologies' products, such as PowerEdge and PowerStore, more than their competitors. It is very easy to work with Dell because of all their documentation for deployments. It is much easier than their competitors.

There are no issues with security in my experience.

I am hoping that some customers will use Dell’s OpenManage console in the future.

I would rate the product as nine out of 10.

We have a 1U and a 2U PowerEdge Server. We're using them to scale storage devices. They provide a platform for our software that involves managing multiple, high-speed disks. We're using them to connect Mellanox and Intel NICs, which are very fast network interfaces.

For us, the most valuable feature is the iDRAC. It helps us to solve problems when a server is stuck or hung or we don't have any network access. 

It's also easy to deploy new firmware or a new update to the servers remotely. 

We're also able to manage multiple servers in one place. 

Also, the way the hardware is architected, you can replace parts in no time. It's very quick and easy to replace a fan, disk, CPU, or insert a new card into the server.

I would like to see more information about server health and the server's state, on the front. HP has a little screen that shows server utilization, how many disks there are inside, and the power consumption. HP also shows an alert if there is a malfunction of any device inside. Those kinds of features would be useful for Dell customers.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for about seven years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel are very stable.

The scalability is a bit of a downside because of our technology. In our environment, the scalability comes from the network and not from adding another server. We are adding a lot of NVMe devices and when we reach capacity we need to add another server. This is what determines the scalability.

Dell provides very good support. It's very fast and they answer in a professional manner. That's what I need.

I would rate their support at nine out of 10. It's not a 10 because they have to improve by answering even faster. They also need to give local distributors more permission or to provide hardware parts faster. If you have a malfunction with the device, you usually have to send it abroad, and they investigate it and then bring it back. That takes a long time.

Positive

We are currently using Lenovo, AIC, Tyan, and Quanta servers in addition to the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel, because we need some OEM equipment to reduce the cost. PowerEdge has a high price tag. The price is a critical factor in our company. We don't have a lot of budget for acquiring servers and that is why we look at other vendors.

But the flexibility of the PowerEdge servers and the approach to resolving problems really quickly make it more convenient to work with. I like working with PowerEdge. Solving a problem on a PowerEdge will take, say, a few minutes, while with the other vendors it will take 10 to 20 minutes to investigate and debug the problem.

We are using both Intel and AMD technology with our Dell servers. We are comparing the performance of both. While there are some issues and challenges on the Intel side in some areas, the overall impression of the Intel technology is that it is working well. I expect we are going to use it for the next few years.

The Dell platform works very well. We are very happy with it. If price isn't a concern, I would recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.