Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

Our storage is on Dell and nearly all our use cases are on the Dell servers. We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for almost everything. 

My company chose Dell because they were looking for something that is easy to manage, stable, and something we can trust. 

PowerEdge servers are great for high-performance workloads. We get excellent performance every time we use them.  

PowerEdge's management interface is easy to use. It's also a platform that we can trust.

I have been at the company and working with PowerEdge for three years. I know the company has been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for years but I don't know precisely how long. 

PowerEdge is a stable solution. If it wasn't we wouldn't use it. 

I rate Dell support eight out of 10. While we are generally satisfied with their service, we'd like more connections between meetings and proactive support. We had a session about two weeks ago, where we talked about areas they need to improve. 

Positive

We also use HP servers. 

The price is worth it for what you get from it. It's worth the cost. 

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers eight out of 10. 

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers mainly for virtualization and as hypervisors.

We are currently converting from VMware to Hyper-V and trying to use Dell's Azure Stack HCI solution to converge the storage instead of using separate storage devices. We have one environment for network storage and computing, which gives us more flexibility and standardization in the solutions.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are reliable with no serious issues. Now, standardization makes things easier in exchanging components and knowledge.

We have a lot of branches. The most valuable feature is standardization because we have a small group of IT resources that need to do the operational tasks. As long as we have standardization everywhere, it's easier to maintain the environment.

The way we can manage the environment through the solution's GUI could be improved. You need different management tools at the moment for doing different things, and it would be helpful if there were one global tool you could use to monitor and manage updates.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a couple of months.

We never faced any stability issues with the solution.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is a scalable solution.

We previously used HPE Compaq and IBM. We were taken over by another company that was already using Dell, and IBM was quitting with those devices because Lenovo took it over. That's why we switched to the new standard Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The solution's deployment is pretty good, and we used ProDeploy from Dell. We gained a lot of information during the deployment, and it's also been a learning curve for us. It's very helpful that knowledgeable people are doing the ProDeploy so you can also learn about the implementation.

We deployed Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in two weeks.

The solution’s pricing is competitive with other products.

The solution's security by itself is pretty good. The hardening of the server itself is good enough at the moment. We have automation for updates and upgrades that ensure things are tested before they are published instead of running into issues while you do the upgrades.

Our old computers use power supplies of 800 Watts. The new ones were offered twice, 24,00 Watts, which was quite the difference. I'm not saying they are using it, but the fact that they were delivered with 24,00 Watts was shocking because then you think you require more capacity in the data centers, and that isn't the case. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers should improve their power consumption.

We don't currently have very high computing power, so it's standard business applications. When I implement it with Azure Stack HCI, we can hopefully improve the IOPS, using the cluster storage instead of a SAN or a NAS solution.

We discussed technology within Dell during the design phase, which was pretty good. They help us a lot with the sizing of the systems.

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

We use Dell PowerEdge servers for various purposes, including running databases on Windows platforms, blades, and chassis for high-performance computing. Our VMware environment relies on PowerEdge servers, particularly in the HPC setup, which involves complex networking and interconnects. 

While the infrastructure can be intricate, the consistent performance of Dell servers makes maintenance easier. Coming from a Unix environment, I find the reliability of these servers comparable, if not better, and they require less time for repairs.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have been stable and reliable over the last decade.

There is room for improvement in certain aspects of the deployment process as it is a bit complex.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for ten years.

Evaluating the stability of Dell PowerEdge servers, we focus on security patching and follow-ups on vulnerabilities. While our team emphasizes security core aspects, our primary concern is a balance between green IT and cost efficiency. Power and heat consumption are challenges across all brands, mainly influenced by Intel chips. 

The server's reliability in storage is dependent on how storage is divided over multiple storage arrays. Although downtime is required for server replacement, the overall architecture provides a good overview and easy management of multiple servers. 

The stability of Dell PowerEdge servers is excellent, with minimal hardware defects in the last three years. The impact of server maintenance is reduced due to virtualization, allowing easy movement of VMs within the cluster. I would rate the stability as a nine out of ten.

Comparing Dell to Lenovo in our hybrid brand solution for HPC, Lenovo is sometimes a bit more expensive but can be easier to install with less driver complexity. 

Dell, on the other hand, can be cheaper. Dell's recent shift has resulted in a larger data center footprint, but the cost-driven nature of IT decisions often favors the most economical solution. While our return on investment with Dell is generally good, IT views these solutions as costs rather than revenue generators. Overall, the reliability is strong, but our focus remains on minimizing costs.

Deploying Dell servers feels like rocket science, but as a seasoned professional, it is generally straightforward and intuitive for me. I rarely use manuals and rely on my experience. Occasionally, finding the right person with multi-disciplinary knowledge can be a challenge, leading to minor delays. Overall, the experience is good, but there is room for improvement in certain aspects.

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

We are using the solution for our virtualization environments. We are using a VMware environment and some hypervisor environments, and we are using this for that purpose.

With virtualization, you have a lot of freedom to manage the environment. We have a lot of requests coming in, a lot of machines to build, as well as some dev servers, test servers, et cetera. There is also the protection of all the systems. Compared to the cloud, if you have your own bare metal in your own office, that's cheap. That's one of the real advantages.

We can manage and configure all the storage systems ourselves. We have a lot more liberty there. When we add more things like storage servers, we can manage the backup. We are on the safer side since we have our own infrastructure and we have a good backup mechanism. It's more easy and more convenient for a system admin to manage these environments. 

Poweredge has helped our organization. The model we're using is great. We had issues with an older model, however, this new one has been good. We have some production environments in our system. We shifted those to the new systems, and so far, I'm happy with the performance. 

The power is cyber resilience is good. So far, with the security upgrades, it's quite good. 

We have three or four servers and so far, it's going very well. 

It's helped us reduce unplanned downtime. We have PowerEdge in collaboration with VMware. That's going well so far. We can utilize various features, like, B Motion, et cetera, to manage zero downtime. 

I'd need to research the product more. Maybe it needs a little bit more support. We have storage and would like to manage more backups without adding extra storage devices. Maybe it's already there. I need to look at it more. Some hypervisors don't seem to have any extra storage. However, it may already be there, and I haven't found it yet.

I've used the solution for almost two years. 

It's great. It's stable so far. I have not experienced any issues with stability, so I would definitely say it's good.

From a scalability point of view, we are using the servers in cluster mode. It's great so far. We can migrate workloads and do whatever we want to do, including updates, with zero downtime.

Dell support is great, with us, at least. We have direct contact with Dell, so whenever we have a question, they are always there. 

Everyone is great. They really care about their customers. They have offices in Pakistan, the Netherlands, and Germany. They really try to understand the Pakistani market. 

Positive

We did not previously use a different server. I've always used Dell. 

We've reduced downtime. The cost is also a big factor. When you have good servers in-house with power backups, you are able to save quite a lot of money compared to the cloud. 

We have a customer relationship with Dell. We have a good account manager that can help in terms of pricing. 

Three or four months ago, we ordered a new Dell PowerEdge. I do not recall evaluating other options. 

We have more control and are saving money as compared to the cloud, which helps with long-term planning. The last Dell PowerEdge is in our local office. I've given our team the servers to do with them as they want. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

I can't wait to learn more about their technology. 

Foreign Language:(German)

Leicht zu verwalten und konfigurieren, mit einer guten Vor-Ort-Widerstandsfähigkeit.

Was ist unser Hauptanwendungsfall?

Wir verwenden die Lösung für unsere Virtualisierungsumgebungen. Wir verwenden eine VMware-Umgebung und einige Hypervisor-Umgebungen, und zu diesem Zweck setzen wir diese Lösung ein.

Inwiefern wurde meine Organisation dadurch unterstützt?

Mit der Virtualisierung hat man sehr viel Freiheit bei der Verwaltung der Umgebung. Es kommen viele Anfragen herein, viele Maschinen müssen gebaut werden, sowie einige Entwicklungsserver, Testserver und so weiter. Auch der Schutz aller Systeme ist wichtig. Im Vergleich zur Cloud ist ein eigenes Bare-Metal-System im eigenen Büro günstiger. Das ist wirklich ein großer Vorteil.

Was ist am wertvollsten?

Wir können alle Speichersysteme selbst verwalten und konfigurieren. Dadurch haben wir viel mehr Freiheiten. Wenn wir weitere Dinge wie Speicherserver hinzufügen, können wir die Datensicherung verwalten. Wir sind auf der sicheren Seite, da wir unsere eigene Infrastruktur haben und über einen guten Sicherungsmechanismus verfügen. Es ist einfacher und bequemer für einen Systemadministrator, diese Umgebungen zu verwalten.

Poweredge ist für unsere Organisation sehr hilfreich. Das Modell, das wir verwenden, ist großartig. Wir hatten Probleme mit einem älteren Modell, aber dieses neue Modell ist gut. Wir haben einige Produktionsumgebungen in unserem System. Diese haben wir auf die neuen Systeme umgestellt, und bisher bin ich mit der Leistung zufrieden.

Die Widerstandsfähigkeit gegenüber Cyberangriffen ist gut. Soweit, mit den Sicherheits-Upgrades, ist es ziemlich gut.

Wir haben drei oder vier Server, und bis jetzt läuft es sehr gut.

Es hat uns geholfen, ungeplante Ausfallzeiten zu reduzieren. Wir verwenden PowerEdge in Zusammenarbeit mit VMware. Das klappt bisher sehr gut. Wir können verschiedene Funktionen wie zum Beispiel B Motion usw. nutzen, um Ausfallzeiten zu vermeiden.

Was muss verbessert werden?

Ich müsste das Produkt genauer erforschen. Vielleicht braucht es ein bisschen mehr Support. Wir haben einen Speicherplatz und würden gerne mehr Backups ohne zusätzliche Speichergeräte verwalten. Vielleicht gibt es das schon. Ich muss mehr darüber nachforschen. Einige Hypervisoren scheinen keinen zusätzlichen Speicherplatz zu haben. Vielleicht gibt es sie aber auch schon, und ich habe sie nur noch nicht gefunden.

Wie lange verwende ich die Lösung schon?

Ich verwende die Lösung seit fast zwei Jahren.

Was halte ich von der Stabilität der Lösung?

Es ist großartig. Bis jetzt läuft es stabil. Ich habe keine Probleme mit der Stabilität, so würde ich definitiv sagen, es ist gut.

Was halte ich von der Skalierbarkeit der Lösung?

Aus Sicht der Skalierbarkeit verwenden wir die Server im Clustermodus. Bis jetzt läuft das sehr gut. Wir können unsere Workloads migrieren und alles tun, was wir tun wollen, einschließlich Updates, und das ohne Ausfallzeiten.

Wie funktioniert der Kundendienst und der Support?

Der Support von Dell ist großartig, zumindest bei uns. Wir haben direkten Kontakt mit Dell, und wenn wir eine Frage haben, sind sie immer da.

Alle sind großartig. Sie kümmern sich wirklich um ihre Kunden. Sie haben Büros in Pakistan, den Niederlanden und Deutschland. Sie versuchen wirklich, den pakistanischen Markt zu verstehen.

Wie bewerten Sie den Kundendienst und den Support?

Positiv

Welche Lösung habe ich zuvor verwendet und warum habe ich gewechselt?

Wir haben vorher keinen anderen Server verwendet. Ich habe immer Dell verwendet.

Wie hoch war der ROI?

Wir haben die Ausfallzeiten reduziert. Die Kosten spielen ebenfalls eine große Rolle. Wenn Sie gute Server vor Ort mit Stromunterstützung haben, können Sie im Vergleich zur Cloud erheblich Geld sparen.

Welche Erfahrungen habe ich mit den Preisen, den Einrichtungskosten und der Lizenzierung gemacht?

Wir haben eine Kundenbeziehung zu Dell. Wir haben einen guten Kundenbetreuer, der uns bei der Preisgestaltung helfen kann.

Welche anderen Lösungen habe ich geprüft?

Vor drei oder vier Monaten haben wir einen neuen Dell PowerEdge bestellt. Ich kann mich nicht daran erinnern, andere Lösungen geprüft zu haben.

Was kann ich sonst noch raten?

Wir haben mehr Kontrolle und sparen im Vergleich zur Cloud Geld, was uns bei der langfristigen Planung hilft. Der letzte Dell PowerEdge steht in unserem lokalen Büro. Ich habe unserem Team die Server zur Verfügung gestellt, so dass sie damit machen können, was sie wollen.

Ich würde die Lösung mit neun von zehn Punkten bewerten.

Ich kann es kaum erwarten, mehr über ihre Technologie zu erfahren.

We use them for general Windows deployments for domain controllers, file print servers, and database servers.

PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. They have been resilient.

The iDRAC for remote access is the most useful feature because it's built into the machine. I can reboot them without having to be there physically. We do a lot of what we do remotely, and it handles that fine.

Also, the signed firmware, drift detection, and BIOS recovery are useful features in the current security climate. Physically, they're reasonably secure, with locking mechanisms on the physical hardware, and the update processes for firmware fall within the parameters we require for our security.

The OpenManage console for lifecycle management provides an intuitive user experience. The interface is easy to understand. In terms of our IT staff's productivity, it makes things quicker. It's a lot quicker to access OpenManage remotely than actually having to go and look at the server. It depends on where the server is and where most of our staff are. It could save five minutes or it could save two hours. It has also decreased the time it takes to deploy new data centers.

Perhaps they could make it more power efficient. They're pretty good, but there's always room for improvement.

Also, they could try to reduce heat generation.

I've been using Dell PowerEdge Servers for about 20 years.

They're pretty reliable, so we don't have to replace them that often; we just have to maintain them.

We've not had to scale them up from what we've deployed, generally.

But when it comes to handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, they seem to be keeping up to date and providing the latest hardware to keep up with the requirements.

Dell's technical support is generally pretty good.

Neutral

We used HPE previously. We switched to Dell PowerEdge because they were more cost-effective.

The servers that we've deployed have all been in place for long enough to give us a full return on their value.

The pricing is usually in line with what we expect from Microsoft.

To protect our systems from malware and other firmware attacks we use third-party tools.

I work at a university in a research environment. We use PowerEdge powered by Intel servers to run geophysics simulations that stay in the system for a long time. The servers are used to image and process massive data sets. We develop code that requires a moderate amount of power, so that's why we use the racks. 

We currently have between five to ten units, but some of them are down. It's mostly graduate students and a few faculty using them, and we primarily run Linux. The built-in security features aren't really an issue because everything is behind the university's firewalls. We don't have to worry about it because they have a dedicated IT security department. We can dial in from the outside, and we have all kinds of VPN solutions.

The university provides us with batteries and power supplies. They often run for more than a year without any failures, so power isn't a problem. 

We are working with Intel's Xeon scalable processor, but I'm not sure which models we are using. We typically buy the most advanced processor available when we purchase the racks. 

At this time, we have no plans to switch to cloud servers because it's not as comfortable as having an on-premises rack. Also, there are some security restrictions associated with some of our applications, so we can't transfer the data to the cloud. We work with a lot of data, so we prefer local resources because of the security and the speed. 

It does the job for us. We know it's not a high-end product, but it's good enough. We are looking at getting another box. The next series should be 940. The step is not as big as we expected after having the 930 for several years now. We're thinking about getting another one from Dell, but I'm waiting to see what will be available. We are looking for a 4U rack, fully loaded with CPUs and disks. And we have a disk farm outside that we connect to the server, so we can store a lot of data locally. 

We've had no problems with high-performance workloads on our Dell racks. We use the standard software like Intel compilers plus our in-house code, OpenMP, Pilot Processing, and MPI. Intel's Xeon processors improve the performance of our targeted workloads, which is crucial for us. 

We buy the strongest CPUs and run the Intel compiler. We usually run heavy code, so we're working on traditional software languages like Fortran and C. These are heavy applications that run on this cluster.

We started working on Dell servers more than a decade ago. I think it was the 910 version, and its main advantage was the ability to load a lot of in-core memory into the box. It's irrelevant today because everybody can provide as much as they want, but we had memory issues in the beginning. 

We were running out of memory, and that was the first time we heard of a solution that supports a terabyte of core memory. That was the primary reason we got the first box. We've stayed with it since then because we have so many Dell workstations.

Dell servers are easy to use. We've never had a problem. We do more hardware work with workstations, including adding and replacing cards. It's easy compared to what we used to do with screwdrivers years ago. 

Capacity and performance can always be improved. 

I have been using Dell servers for nearly 15 years. 

PowerEdge servers powered by Intel are highly stable. Some of them have stayed on for two years without ever rebooting. Usually, they only reboot for maintenance or something happening in the building, but it is not due to a failure of the machine. Stability is essential because we have jobs that sit on the system for a couple of days.

I haven't used Dell's technical support much. Usually, when I have a problem, we search online for a solution. Sometimes we use the Dell knowledge base or community groups, but we rarely need to contact someone.

Deploying the PowerEdge Rack Servers wasn't a problem. We just plug it into the rack with help from the university computer center. They let us know where to put it and connect it to the required network.

We take care of all the software, like the operating system, permissions, local security, data access, etc. This is all Linux-based, and we have experience, so it's straightforward. For maintenance, we use Dell's OpenManage console a little to tweak the configuration for performance, but we generally set up the system and let it go. We only update the operating system once a year and upgrade the environment.

The price is reasonable. You have to pay if you want quality. When we purchase something, we have to do some market analysis, and I haven't seen a significant difference compared to other solutions.

I'm used to Dell equipment, and the local network is mainly based on Dell workstations connected to the servers. The other servers are usually IBM and HP. I haven't seen any major difference that would justify switching to other vendors.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of ten. 

We made a renovation of our infrastructure, and the problem we're solving is our performance and it is collectivity in our infrastructure too.

We have a full-scale infrastructure for six countries and are able to centralize it. With this kind of product, we are solving a lot of problems, or issues that we had before with regards to performance. The centralization of the platform for the company helped immensely.

The go-to-market implementation was pretty fast. The go-to-market speed for us was pretty important at the time we had to implement that infrastructure. 

In terms of the performance of the servers, I'm already pretty comfortable with that.

When it comes to PowerEdge rack servers handling the evolving needs of workloads, I have support from Dell partners. They constantly assess improvements for us and other versions of items on products. I keep up to date with it via my partners.

We use Dell's Optane to obtain memory in the PowerEdge environment. It helped save money in that aspect, as far as adding memory capacity. We used to negotiate these kinds of platforms and renewal with our partners on a full scale. We have a lot of cost-saving with this infrastructure.

PowerEdge helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. We have an IT continuity plan that is actually based on the infrastructure we already have implemented with Dell.

They could improve the time between new versions of the product. They could move faster, or maybe offer a little bit more support from the partners.

We've been using the solution for four years.

We have 6,500 people across six countries using the platform.

We have good support from Dell and good support from our partners. That said, sometimes it takes a pretty long time to get an answer from Dell. However, we get pretty good support from those folks.

Positive

We had used HP solutions and others as well. We changed as I had some experience with this product and we had comfort in the security that Dell gives us as a platform. The cost and the go-to-market implementation alongside the partner support are the main drivers we looked at when changing.

I was involved in the setup of the product. It was both easy and difficult to set up. However, thanks to the partner, it was more easygoing. There were a lot of people and it was useful to have somebody help as well.

We have a pretty big platform. It took two and a half months to implement the solution. That said, for our needs, it was pretty fast. We had to deal with multiple locations and we migrated everything to just one. We centralized the entire platform.

We had a great partner and planner involved.

For us, it makes more sense to have an on-premise platform rather than a cloud due to the cost. The cost-saving we have in the on-premises platform still is the driver.

We did consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge Racks. We looked at servers for AWS, Azure, and others.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. We are quite satisfied.

It's a good scalable product. It's a good cost-saving product too. That aspect helps us as a company. In my experience, it's a pretty good implementation too. 

I'd advise new users to keep up with the timing of new deployments. That way, you can take advantage of new features. 

The setup is hybrid right now. It was formerly strictly on-premise and we used it for our file storage and for our virtual machines.

Originally, it was purchased for strict file storage and access on-prem. However, when COVID hit, we ended up purchasing laptops for every single employee that we had. Having to use our new file storage device, which is no longer on-premises as they're now at home, was easy. That's why we went with a hybrid environment. We put a lot of the data into the cloud and backed it up in the on-premises file storage.

It allowed us to move some file storage that we had around. It allowed us to really look into what we had and what we were using. Looking at Apex, it is setting us up for when it will need a refresh or when it is at its end of life.

The most valuable aspects include hot swapping and the elasticity as far as being able to scale. We had a bunch of stuff on an old, existing EMC. The company was unaware that they had to keep the files that they had for so long. We realized that once we were meeting the seven-year mark and we could start purging some of those files, we had to scale down a little bit.

The initial purchase that we had was a little big, however, as we started adding more users that were working from home and had their own drive, OneDrive, we had to expand it a little bit. Dell was able to ship me bigger hard drives.

When it comes to running the latest high-demand applications, PowerEdge is good. The VMware that we had was almost end-of-life, so we had to upgrade it and Dell helped out with that quite a bit, putting it on our PowerEdge and assisting us with a lot of stuff that VMware didn’t. VMware just said, "Here. Here's your product. Good luck.” Dell was a lot more helpful. They had a lot of engineers that knew about that service that we were trying to tap into a little better.

The BIOS recovery was something we used because we had a huge power outage and a power strike when one of our air conditioners had a bad power surge run through it at our facility. Dell helped us rebuild our actual BIOS system in it, as one of the mirror arrays that we were using just wasn't being seen. We were afraid it was a hardware issue, however, it was really a BIOS issue that we couldn't see right off the jump. We’re glad Dell was there to help.

The solution's analytics helped to decrease production downtime by at least 30%. I'm in Arizona and down in Tucson we don't get that much downtime. We have a lot of battery backups, we have a generator system, and more. However, when it does happen, the analytics of it, as far as the trends on what months the monsoon season hits, it kept all in the logs.

The system management capabilities of PowerEdge helped increase stack productivity. We've had a little bit of turnover in our system admin department, however, having the ability to go back and look through the logs and see how users ended up using their home drive, their shared files, and their encrypted files really helped out my new guys coming on board.

The solution's accelerated GPUs help support demanding workloads in our organization. We had a couple of changing workloads due to the fact that when people shifted from home, they were hitting the server from a different angle. They were coming in off a virtual private network instead of being on-premises and the system didn't blink.

I’m not sure if PowerEdge helped to reduce data processing time in our organization as we don't crunch a lot. We do have a lot of videos coming in and a lot of video editing going on, so in that way, it does help.

The PowerEdge system management frameworks enable us to progress towards full automation. We knew what we were looking for when we refreshed this last model and we purchased a new server just from the analytics we got off the first one.

It helps me forecast better. We don't grow exponentially. Teachers are hard to come by, however, some will leave and some will stay. The business models are the same, yet they expect more. Now they want to do a video. They want to capture and record the videos and the Zoom meetings that they're doing, therefore, it's a little different.

It's more from the pandemic, however, the logistics part of it could be better. Getting an actual bare-bones server was a little difficult when we ordered it in beginning. I'm still waiting on the printers that I ordered last year as well. That's the only thing I would really say and I'm sure it has to do with the pandemic.

The latency of it is what we're running into, as our teachers do a lot of video captures, video teaching, Zoom, and Teams video conferencing, and their latency is getting worse with the public domain.

I've used the solution since I've been with the company, probably for the last three years.

The scalability is very good. There were different options that we could have gone to. We could either have gotten smaller hard drives and/or downsized if we needed to. They knew our business model was going to change when the pandemic hit.

We have about 650 end users on this particular solution and 80% of them are teachers. The rest are administrative professionals.

Currently, we are planning to put a new server that we have in the mix online and up and running with the PowerEdge server that we have. Now, with Apex and more coming out, we're looking to possibly pivot.

Technical support is very good. We had to call Dell technical support when our BIOS got corrupted and they were on the spot. They escalated us to tier two within 20 minutes. It was really quick.

Positive

We did previously use a different solution, however, I cannot remember what our large area network's device was.

Dell came in with a very competitive offer with the first model of storage that we got, so that's what my predecessor went to, and we kept it around.

The initial setup was very straightforward. We knew exactly where we wanted to put it in our array and how we wanted to set it up, what the power requirements would be, where it would fit on my battery backup system, and the plan for system recovery in case it had to be gracefully shut down. It was super easy.

When deploying PowerEdge, we didn't get a chance to use the automated server and OS deployment features.

The deployment was scheduled for six hours and it took three. 

We actually had to migrate users off of an older version that we had onto the new box that we had. The implementation strategy was all about really getting our users off the box and making sure nobody was trying to access it. After that, it was just migrating users over, setting up the new box, putting it online, and running tests.

For maintenance, normally we use a server admin, myself, and maybe one other developer that helps us with the syslogs on it. There are probably three of us altogether.

We used an integrated reseller for the deployment. They were amazing.

We had an issue with a brownout or a power strike and our BIOS got a bit corrupted, however, it was nothing that couldn't be recovered on the fly.

We've seen an ROI. I don't have any details offhand. I know when we first purchased it, we got a pretty good deal on it and we didn't know if it would actually meet end-of-life due to the usage that we had on it. However, it outperformed our metrics.

I'd advise others to use the pro services that come along with it, that are available for purchase with it. It helped us immensely. If you were to extend the service contract and get the pro level, it costs a bit more.

We did evaluate other options. When it's over a certain dollar amount, we have to go out and get at least four bids.

I can't remember the exact version we have. We just purchased a new Dell SAN.

We do not use PowerEdge for artificial intelligence applications yet. We're looking into it. Right now, a lot of the video data capture that we do is with children, school-aged children, and children in a preschool environment. We were thinking the AI might be able to help us where the teacher might not be looking. If they had a camera in the room to capture the relevant stuff that was going on as far as what the lesson plan was about that day, it might be helpful.

I have not had a chance to use the solution's iDRAC telemetry for monitoring PowerEdge system data and providing analytics, however, we're really looking into that right now. We got the new SAN going in and we'd like to monitor a little better.

We do not use the solution's CloudIQ for predictive analytic capabilities yet.

It is a very stable product. It's something that we use reliably for backups. It's something we use reliably for our main server for a long time and we'd definitely buy another.

My biggest takeaway is it's not as easy going straight to the cloud when you were an on-premises provider. If you are an on-premises provider and you have all your services on-premises, going to the cloud takes a couple of steps. It's not just one big jump.

I'd rate the product nine out of ten. If I could get the same amount of storage that I got three years ago now, I'd rate it ten out of ten. I'd order it as quickly as I did when we ordered it the first time.