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reviewer2009118 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a computer software company with 1-10 employees
Reseller
Windows Server 2022 is pre-installed making deployment almost turnkey, and cost-to-reliability ratio is impressive
Pros and Cons
  • "We like the iDRAC card which gives us remote access to the server out of band. That's fantastic because if a box is misbehaving, I'm able to get into the bare metal and repair the operating system without needing to go out to the branch office, which could be anywhere in the UK."
  • "The T150 is a little bit bulky for what it is. I think if they created a T150 version with small form-factor drives, that would be an ideal solution. Currently, it is a tower box and it has quite a big footprint..."

What is our primary use case?

We use the PowerEdge Rack Server T150 in a small business. I look after a chain of dental practices in the UK and these are fantastic boxes for each one of our branch offices. Every practice is going to have one of these T150 servers installed. 

The T150 server acts as the main controller, our central authentication server for ensuring security on the network. We also use it for file and print services over SMB, and for bespoke applications for the dental world such as SOE or R4. They run on Windows Server 2022, which came pre-packaged with the T150 server.

How has it helped my organization?

These servers have maintained a level of uptime that is needed by the business and that satisfies the business owners and makes them very happy. It has managed 100 percent uptime and I wouldn't expect any less. That's the reliability of the T150s. The cost-to-reliability ratio is impressive.

What is most valuable?

We like the iDRAC card which gives us remote access to the server out of band. That's fantastic because if a box is misbehaving, I'm able to get into the bare metal and repair the operating system without needing to go out to the branch office, which could be anywhere in the UK. That's one of the features which we really like in the PowerEdge T150 server.

In addition, it's all in one box. It has 

  • fault tolerance built-in 
  • RAID 1 sets
  • dual power supplies. 

I need a reliable box. If there is a power supply failure or a drive failure, I'm able to rectify that problem without visiting the customer. And if it's a more serious event, I've got iDRAC so that I can get into it. 

The box comes pre-installed with Windows Server 2022, which was one of the reasons we purchased the T150. The licensing was bundled with it, and it has a very attractive price point as a result. But with Windows Server 2022 sitting on the box, the applications interface with that. The applications we run don't talk to the Dell hardware.

Within the native-OS security features, we encrypt the OS disks and that has increased security.

The solution hasn't helped to reduce unplanned production downtime for us, but I know it can do so. It has what HPE calls Automatic System Recovery. Dell calls it the Watchdog Timer. I haven't had a blue screen or system hang yet, but I'm aware that if the system OS freezes, then the Dell Watchdog Timer built into the T150 will automatically restart the server. In that scenario, it would most certainly help with uptime by recovering from an operating system freeze. The T150 certainly ticks that box. I haven't had to see it in action yet, but the technology is there and it is enabled, and the business is happy with that.

A lot of the features of the PowerEdge 650s cascade down to the T150, which is great.

What needs improvement?

The T150 is a little bit bulky for what it is. I think if they created a T150 version with small form-factor drives, that would be an ideal solution. Currently, it is a tower box and it has quite a big footprint, and I have a couple of drives in it—a RAID 1 with a couple of terabytes, SSDs. The footprint of the box is pretty enormous. It has eight large form-factor drives. Gone are the days of people having large spinning disks.

A smaller, all-flash T150 model with 2.5-inch drives would certainly make it a little bit smaller with the potential for power supplies to not be so big. A general shrinkage of the footprint and noise would be good. That's not to say that it's a problem, but that could make it better.

Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
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For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using PowerEdge servers from Dell for about eight years, but we purchased the T150 server just a few weeks ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't ever had a fault on a Dell server. I've never had to call out a Dell engineer to fix a fault on a Dell PowerEdge Server. I may only have 10 boxes and if someone else has 100, it might be a different story, but I can only speak from my experience. 

I have had issues with Dell laptops and consumer items, but I have never had a fault on data center products, small business servers, or network switches. I'm very impressed. On the consumer electronics side, I don't think they're anywhere near as robust, and perhaps they could learn a lesson from the enterprise side.

The stability is a 10 out of 10. PowerEdge Rack Servers are rock-solid. I don't have a bad word about it because I haven't had a fault.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I wouldn't have a T150 if I had been looking for scalability. I'd have a dual or quad box where I could add an additional processor and scale it as and when needed. I can add more disk, but the days of ripping out an Intel Silver processor and dropping in an Intel Gold processor are gone. It's not cost-effective anymore to do that.

How are customer service and support?

The bulk of my experience with Dell tech support is on the consumer side of things.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used quite a few systems throughout the years. I've just recently bought a couple of R650xs boxes and they're ticking along extremely well.

We worked with Dell and sized the box accordingly. With the budget that we had, chose the T150 based on its price-performance ratio. This isn't a box that's going to be running SQL Databases with 10 billion rows. It's not pitched at that level. But this box does perfectly well for our branch offices, Active Directory services, file and print services, application servers, and small web-server management systems. It's a perfect candidate for this role.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment was very straightforward. The T150 came pre-installed with Windows Server 2022, out-of-the-box. Everything was there, including the drivers. It was perfect. There was just a very small custom setup of the Microsoft part. But out-of-the-box, I turned it on and it just worked. They keep it simple. It was seamless, a turnkey solution, for a Windows Server OS install.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I'm also an HPE guy. At the end of the day, they run the same processes. They still run the same basics onboard. They've still got the same NVMe chipsets. Whether you're buying a flash drive from HPE or Dell, it is going to be the same KIOXIA or Seagate.

The question is, what are you actually paying for? You're paying for Dell's custom firmware that sits on top of the box. Dell doesn't produce their own motherboards or processors. 

The main reason I choose Dell there is cost. Dell is cheaper than HPE. Why would I want to pay a premium for an HPE product when I'm getting the same amount of support, the same amount of data protection, and the same amount of performance from Dell? It's a no-brainer. I can get a Dell system for about 20 percent less than an HPE system, with exactly the same performance, level of support, and reliability.

And in terms of the possibility of going with a public cloud server, the software for this customer isn't available in the cloud. It's only an on-premises installation.

What other advice do I have?

For high-performance workloads, I wouldn't run the T150 server. I would look at a dual-processor box like the 440 for high-performance workloads. The applications that we run on the T150s do have a small, backend SQL Database and I have no issues with running that on them, but I'm not going to run my main web servers, with tens of thousands of clients connected to it, on a T150. High-performance workloads are not the T150's market.

In terms of the T150's security features, fortunately, I've never had to use the BIOS recovery. It's been pretty rock-solid, and that's a credit to Dell. What I do like is the ability to do all of the firmware updates in the rack. What's beautiful about that is that you have a manual or automatic option. I don't use the automatic, but the option is there if I wanted to use it. I don't want to have 40 machines all rebooting at the same time, at 2:00 AM, on a Sunday morning, because a firmware update has been released, and find that none of them come back online. That would be bad IT management. For that reason, I don't use automatic patching. 

I use the manual method, which works very well. It goes out to the internet and tells you what needs to be updated. I click the boxes and schedule the next reboot with Microsoft Patch Tuesday, on the second Tuesday of every month. I review the updates to see what is needed and if it's needed. And typically, I'll apply them on the next weekend, unless something is critical. The rack will then do its firmware updates at the same time.

I haven't monitored the energy consumption of PowerEdge servers. The rack does have energy consumption statistics built into it, but I haven't looked at them, with just a single box running at each site. If I was running them in a data center and I had 40 in the same place, yes, it would be extremely useful to report on. But just having a single box, it's not that important.

Although I haven't really had too much experience with the PowerEdge Rack Server 150 yet, it has done everything I've asked it to do. It's doing what a computer does. It's faultless. I give it 10 out of 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
reviewer1362099 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Have utilized powerful servers for seamless virtualization and exceptional performance in branch offices
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for branch office installations, acting as a standalone server. We primarily utilize it for virtualization.

    What is most valuable?

    There is nothing special, but Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have a strong presence in Qatar, which influences our choice. We use it for virtualization, and for our use case, it works fine without issues.

    What needs improvement?

    We haven't upgraded anything yet. We are simply utilizing even the older models, as they are still working for us. Dell's pricing for hardware is fine, but the software installed on the servers is a cost driver, not the server itself. Regarding additional functions, upgrading storage speed with an SSD drive and increasing memory capacity is needed for improved performance.

    For how long have I used the solution?

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

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I would rate the stability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers at ten. I have no issues with their stability.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent. I would rate it at ten.

    How are customer service and support?

    The technical support from Dell is highly dependent on the service level agreement (SLA). With a higher level of support, such as pro-support, the service is exceptional. I would rate it at nine.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    Previously, we were working with SolarWinds Security Event Manager. However, we switched to Google Graylog, an open-source solution.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup process was very straightforward and simple. Once delivered, we could spin it up within an hour.

    What about the implementation team?

    Sometimes, integration is part of the project. Local partners, who provide installation and commissioning services, are involved in the process.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have reasonable pricing, which I would rate at eight. Other brands might be cheaper, but Dell's pricing is acceptable for us. However, the software associated with servers, like VMware subscription licenses, drives costs.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I haven't worked with other servers, but I am aware of other brands like HP and IBM.

    What other advice do I have?

    I do not have any specific suggestions for improvements or changes. Overall, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers meet our requirements, and I have no issues with the hardware. I would rate the overall solution at ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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    Buyer's Guide
    Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
    June 2025
    Learn what your peers think about Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
    857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Architecte Cloud/Storage at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
    User
    Resilient, cost-effective, and does what we need
    Pros and Cons
    • "The server itself is valuable. It does what we ask it to do."
    • "It is hard to make a comparison without any technical factsheets for the other servers to compare with but like everyone else, it is about the pricing."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in a hyperconverged environment for object storage and some VMs, just like a classic server.

    How has it helped my organization?

    By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we were looking for good performance and cost-effectiveness. We wanted the best cost-performance ratio in relation to our use cases. For example, if we want to increase our object clusters, we would look for servers with a high disk density and not necessarily with a huge amount of CPUs and RAM. In other cases, we would be looking for a better CPU and RAM performance but with a lesser number of disks. It depends on the use cases.

    We have been working with Dell servers for many years. Like everyone, there is more and more RAM, and there are better-performing CPUs. Storage is more and more condensed and powerful, so the applications are becoming faster, and we can respond better. The only downside is that we are not coding as well as before because the hardware compensates for the customization of the code.

    I have spoken to the data center regarding the energy consumption, and we are average in terms of energy consumption. If I compare it with other companies, we have the same average. For example, I made a study of an installation of a power supply at 1100 watts and between 750 and 1100 watts, and it is the same as what we can find elsewhere. Having said that, if tomorrow we could achieve the same performance with only 400 watts, then there would be a gap. It depends on the usage or the disks that we would have, but it is not disproportionate to what we need it for.

    We require these servers to complete a job, and they complete the job. When we reach a limit, we increase it, and we scale it again and again. There could always be a better product that could meet the requirements even better, but as usual, each to their own specialty. If tomorrow, we could put 75 tera disks on the servers, we would be even happier. That would mean smaller and less energy-consuming servers.

    They are overall within the global average in comparison to others. We recently had an RSE implementation and we are looking to reduce energy consumption. When we talk about energy consumption, we also talk about cooling because it is generally linked together. Anything that heats up more will consume more, so we would need more. There is also the issue of space in the data center. If a 2U server can potentially do the same work as a 4U server, it will be an area for improvement for implementation.

    For years now, we have had these servers with a supply and components that are resilient. and that functions well. So, instead of just the servers, it is the applications, the development, and the storage that help us to reduce any unplanned production downtime.

    The overall development of technology has affected our operations. Along with many other components, the servers have contributed to making everything more flexible for our operations.

    What is most valuable?

    The server itself is valuable. It does what we ask it to do.

    What needs improvement?

    It is hard to make a comparison without any technical factsheets for the other servers to compare with but like everyone else, it is about the pricing. They already upgrade regularly, so I do not have any improvement areas. We rely on the required standalone configuration.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers with my client for a very long time.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    They are easy to build, and we have no particular restrictions.

    How are customer service and support?

    I have not interacted with their support for the PowerEdge servers. It is the administrator who deals with the support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We use Dell PowerEdge servers, and we also use HPE servers. We have a wide range. We also have servers from other brands.

    The main difference is the pricing. At some point, we receive a call for tenders, and we increase the number of our servers. Generally, it is more or less the same in terms of the range, but in the end, the one that offers the best deal wins. It is always the same thing.

    We have a wide range of servers and a wide range of disks, and there are times when our needs evolve. So, it is according to those moments, and there are times when Dell offers some great promotions that are potentially better than those from other manufacturers, and sometimes, it is the other way around. It depends on how we want to implement them, and it also depends on the price.

    How was the initial setup?

    There are no problems to report related to their implementation.

    What about the implementation team?

    We do it all in-house. Because we order quite a substantial amount, we have playbooks and many other things to do it. We have reached a certain level of maturity to implement rapidly. When there are new models, we make modifications with the playbooks, and that is it. We can do it. The base is essentially the same. There are no revolutionary changes between the new models.


    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    With regards to the licenses, I do not have a definite idea about all the licenses available out there, but I do know that there are more and more manufacturers who offer licenses.

    We take a package. We do not take a license for the software and then everything that comes on top and one for the base. The thing that is becoming more and more important for us, which is better with Dell than with other manufacturers, is the administration. We are now being asked to separate the administration networks as much as possible, whereas, for a while, there was a trend for virtualizing the administration and production ports. That is becoming a stumbling block now. The new regulations require us to separate the administration from the production.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten. There are not any issues that we are seeing, but the price can always be improved. It is always the same thing. 

    Foreign Language:(French)

    Résilient, coût-performance et fait ce dont on a besoin

    Depuis combien de temps utilisez-vous les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack?

      J’utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack chez mon client depuis très longtemps.

      Quel est votre cas principal d’utilisation de cette solution? (Décrivez votre environnement).

        On utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack dans un environnement hyper convergé, du stockage d’objets et des VMs, tout comme un serveur classique.

        Veuillez nous décrire comment les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont amélioré votre organisation. Si ce ne fut pas le cas, veuillez expliquer pourquoi.

          En implémentant les serveurs Dell PowerEdge, on cherche en principe une bonne performance et le coût-performance. On voulait le meilleur ratio coût-performance par rapport à nos cas d’utilisation. Par exemple, si nous voulons augmenter nos clusters d’objet, nous allons chercher des serveurs avec une haute densité de disques et pas forcément avec une grosse quantité de CPUs et de RAM. Et dans d’autres cas, nous allons avoir besoin de plus de performance en CPU et RAM mais moins de disques. Ça dépend de chaque cas d’utilisation.

          On travaille avec les serveurs Dell depuis de nombreuses années. Comme tout le monde. Il y a de plus en plus de RAM et les CPUs sont de plus en plus performants. Le stockage est de plus en plus condensé et puissant, ça rend les applications de plus en plus rapides et on répond mieux. Le seul défaut, c’est qu’on code de moins en moins bien parce que le hardware compense la customisation des codes.

          J’ai discuté avec le data center sur les consommations d'énergie et on est dans une moyenne. Si je compare avec d'autres sociétés, on a la même moyenne. Par exemple, j’ai fait une étude sur une installation de 1100 watts ainsi qu’entre 750 et 1100 watts et c’est ce que l’on va trouver ailleurs aussi. Maintenant, si demain on arrive à obtenir la même performance avec seulement 400 watts, là il y aura un fossé. Ça dépend de l’utilisation ou des disques qu’on va avoir mais dans l'ensemble, ce n’est pas démesuré par rapport à ce dont on a besoin.

          On demande aux serveurs de faire leur travail et ils le font. Dès qu’on arrive à une limite, on fait grandir, on scale encore et encore. On pourrait toujours trouver un produit qui nous convient encore plus mais chacun sa spécialité. Si demain on pouvait mettre des disques de 75 tera dans les serveurs, on serait encore plus contents. Ça fera des serveurs encore plus petits et qui consomment moins.

          Ils sont dans une moyenne globale par rapport à d'autres. On a récemment eu une implémentation RSE et on cherche à diminuer la consommation énergétique. Qui dit consommation énergétique, dit aussi refroidissement parce que c’est généralement lié ensemble. Tout ce qui consomme plus, chauffe plus généralement et donc, il en faut plus. Il y a également le problème de place dans le data center. Si un serveur 2U fait potentiellement le même travail qu’un serveur 4U, ce sera un axe d'amélioration pour l'implémentation.

          Cela fait des années que nous avons des serveurs avec des alimentations et des composants qui sont résilients et qui fonctionnent bien. Ce sont donc plus les applications, les évolutions et le stockage qui vont nous permettre de réduire les temps d'arrêt de production imprévus.

          L'évolution de la technologie globale a affecté la flexibilité de nos opérations. Ainsi qu’avec d’autres composants, entre autres, les serveurs ont contribué à rendre tout plus flexible pour nos opérations.

          Quelles fonctionnalités avez-vous trouvé les plus utiles et pourquoi?

            Le serveur en lui-même est utile. Il fait ce qu’on lui demande de faire.

            Dans quels domaines les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack pourraient-ils être améliorés?

              C’est dur de faire une comparaison sans la fiche technique pour comparer les autres serveurs mais typiquement, je dirai, comme tout le monde, que ce serait au niveau du prix. Ils évoluent déjà régulièrement donc, je n’ai pas de points d'amélioration. On se base sur la configuration demandée en autonomie.

              Avez-vous auparavant utilisé une solution différente et, le cas échéant, pourquoi avez-vous changé?

                On utilise des serveurs Dell PowerEdge mais également des serveurs HPE. On a une gamme variée. On a aussi des serveurs d’autres marques.

                La principale différence est au niveau du prix. A un moment donné, on reçoit un appel d’offres et on doit augmenter le nombre de nos serveurs. Généralement, c’est à peu près la même chose en termes de gamme mais à la fin, c’est celui qui fait la plus belle offre qui gagne. C’est toujours pareil.

                Nous avons différentes gammes de serveurs ainsi que de disques et nous avons des besoins qui évoluent à certains moments. C’est donc en fonction du moment et il y a des périodes ou Dell fait des promotions qui sont potentiellement plus importantes que d’autres constructeurs et parfois, c’est l’inverse. Cela dépend de comment on veut implémenter et ça dépend aussi du prix.

                Que conseillez-vous à d'autres sur les coûts d’installation, les tarifs et/ou les licences?

                  En ce qui concerne les licences, je n’ai pas de conseils définis sur toutes les licences qui sont disponibles mais je sais qu’il y a de plus en plus de constructeurs qui offrent des licences.

                  Nous prenons l’ensemble. Nous ne prenons pas les licences pour les logiciels avec tout ce qui peut s’ajouter par-dessus mais plutôt ce qui va aller sur la base. La chose qui devient de plus en plus importante pour nous et qui est meilleure chez Dell que chez d’autres constructeurs, c’est l’administration. On nous demande maintenant de séparer les domaines d’administration au maximum alors que pendant un certain temps, la grande mode était de virtualiser les ports d’administration dans les ports de production. Cela devient un point bloquant maintenant. Les nouvelles régulations nous demandent de séparer les niveaux d’administration des flux de production.

                  Quelles sont vos impressions sur la scalabilité de cette solution?

                    Ils sont faciles à monter et on n’a pas de contraintes particulières.

                    Le déploiement initial était-il simple ou complexe et de quelle manière?

                      Nous n’avons aucun problème en ce qui concerne leur implémentation.

                      Vous faites l'implémentation avec une équipe d’un revendeur ou de chez vous? Si vous utilisez une équipe d’un revendeur, comment évalueriez-vous leur niveau d’expertise?

                        On le fait chez nous. Du fait qu’on en ait commandé un certain nombre, on a plein de playbooks et plein de choses pour le faire. On est arrivé à un certain degré de maturité pour implémenter rapidement. Quand il y a des nouveaux modèles, on fait des modifications de playbooks et après, c’est parti. On peut le faire. La base est essentiellement la même. Il n’y a pas de changements révolutionnaires entre les nouveaux modèles.

                        Décrivez-nous votre expérience avec le service client et le support.

                          Je ne discute pas avec leur service support pour les serveurs PowerEdge. Ce sont les administrateurs qui font le support.

                          Sur une échelle de 1 à 10 (1=le pire, 10=le meilleur), comment évalueriez-vous les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack? Veuillez expliquer pourquoi.

                            Je donnerais aux serveurs Dell PowerEdge un neuf sur dix. Nous n’avons pas de problème particulier mais le prix peut toujours être amélioré. C’est toujours pareil.

                            Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
                            PeerSpot user
                            Administrator Systems de Reseaux at Renater
                            Real User
                            Efficient support, easy maintenance, and good value for money
                            Pros and Cons
                            • "The maintenance and remote monitoring are valuable."
                            • "We are working with national markets, and HP Enterprise is cheaper. Dell could have made an effort there."

                            What is our primary use case?

                            We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for data storage, data processing, and computations.

                            We must manage the data, and we have safety restrictions. It is imposed on us to not use the cloud. We do everything locally.

                            How has it helped my organization?

                            Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are convenient. When we have a problem, we have a hotline that is efficient. They are also reliable.

                            Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers fit our resiliency needs. If we want to make them very resilient, we have presales engineers who are also technical. They are competent and able to help us.

                            The servers are fine in terms of energy consumption, but until now, we have not been very concerned about that.

                            They are aligned with our sustainability goals. This is very important for us when we buy a server. Previously, we used to get a five-year guarantee, and now, it is a seven-year guarantee, but we still have some servers working fine after ten years. We do replace them from time to time, but we do not have any problem with reliability. As far as the environment is concerned, we know that when we buy a machine, it will last a long time.

                            Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. They are very reliable, and we usually function by doubling up. We use a couple of servers, and we move our VM from one server to another between two buildings. Because the servers never, or very rarely, break down, we have a very resilient architecture.

                            The OpenManage console has not really affected our IT staff’s productivity.

                            What is most valuable?

                            The maintenance and remote monitoring are valuable.

                            What needs improvement?

                            The problem that we have had is not a technical one but an economic one. In other words, we are working with national markets, and HP Enterprise is cheaper. Dell could have made an effort there.

                            For example, two or three years ago, we spoke to a salesperson or a presales engineer about replacing our infrastructure with file servers, but the price that we were offered was very high.

                            For how long have I used the solution?

                            I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for about 15 years.

                            What do I think about the stability of the solution?

                            They are stable. There is no downtime or breakdowns.

                            What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

                            We are a small research laboratory, but we have a few teams working together. We might gather all of the IT equipment together and buy extensions and all that.

                            As far as scalability is concerned, it is not a problem. It is very scalable but very expensive. For our needs, it is very overpriced. I am on campus, and there are several units, but we have to merge by 2025 and put everything back together and work with people whom I only ever met at the canteen. We shall see then if all of that is actually very scalable and if we can put it all together.

                            How are customer service and support?

                            It is different for PowerEdge. It is a bit different for the PCs. For the servers, support is very good indeed. I would rate them an eight out of ten. We do not know why, but there was a time when the support did not respond quickly enough or go from one level to another. We do need the expertise if we happen to have something that does not work correctly, but it is sporadic. This kind of problem can appear all of a sudden and be gone six months later. All is working well. There are no problems with customer service.

                            How would you rate customer service and support?

                            Positive

                            Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

                            We were working with both Dell and HPE. We preferred Dell. I prefer not to do any counter-advertising, but HPE was not working out very well with regard to customer services, getting a quote, or even anything technical. We prefer Dell products, but we would prefer the prices of the servers to be a bit lower.

                            We did not have many issues with HPE at a technical level, but we have had some issues when communicating with them, even at the presales level. We could not even connect to their server to get a quote. It was so complicated. There were references that we did not understand. If we have to install a particular disk, we must buy some specific accessory or another, whereas, with Dell, if we want something, we just tell them, and we get the configuration.

                            In addition, for Dell’s website, we can use any browser, whereas with HPE, it is Chrome one day and something else another day. We use Firefox, and it does not work. We use something else, and it does not work either. Dell is very open.

                            Other than these two brands, I do not have knowledge of any other brand. We have had integrators for homemade servers, but that was a long time ago. It is usually Dell or HPE. Dell has about ¾th of the market.

                            How was the initial setup?

                            I am involved in the deployment of these servers. I work in a research laboratory. We are about 100 people, but we are a part of the Paris Observatory. It is like a university with about 800 people. We all work daily together with the IT teams.

                            I am responsible for handling presales with the technical and salespeople from Dell or HPE. We are not in charge of the orders. We handle the equipment and install the machines, and we organize the rollout of the infrastructure, VMs, and all that. Afterwards, we also handle interfacing with users.

                            The initial setup is rather simple. We do not have any real problems, and even when we have had a problem, it was fairly quickly resolved.

                            In terms of implementation strategy, when you are a small company, there is no big strategy like big companies. We get there, we install it, and it works. There is no strategy.

                            What about the implementation team?

                            We implement them ourselves. We have integrators but more for some third-party solutions. We have taken a license for safeguarding software on the campus. For that, we work with other companies, but for all of the equipment and for Dell infrastructure, we do not need help. It works very well, and there are no problems. We know that it is simple.

                            What was our ROI?

                            We are not salespeople, so it is difficult to comment on the return on investment, but when we buy a Dell server, we get value for money. We know that we will not have any problem, and it will work fine. We will install VMs and everything required. When I request a credit, my manager knows that the server will work for many years. We will not be having any issues, and I will not be asking for more money. We sometimes change some old machines, but that is only because the new ones are less energy-consuming, and we will be able to put more VMs on just one server, so, ecologically, we will use less energy. Sometimes, that is the only reason why we would change an old server. It still works, but it uses more energy than the new ones.

                            What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

                            They are expensive. As far as the licenses are concerned, we are fine. It is more about the price of the equipment.

                            Some colleagues in other universities have done a comparison, and for a similar configuration, there was at least a 10% to 20% discount with HPE in comparison to the prices from Dell.

                            Which other solutions did I evaluate?


                            What other advice do I have?

                            I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten.

                            Foreign Language:(French)

                            Un support efficace, une maintenance facile et un bon rapport qualité-prix

                            Depuis combien de temps utilisez-vous les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack?

                            J’utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack depuis environ 15 ans.

                            Quel est votre cas d’utilisation principal pour cette solution? (Décrivez votre environnement).

                              On utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack pour du stockage de données, des traitements de données et des calculs.

                              On doit gérer les données et on a des contraintes de sécurité. On nous impose de ne pas utiliser tout ce qui est Cloud. On fait tout en local.

                              Comment est-ce que les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont amélioré votre organisation? Si ce n’est pas le cas, expliquez pourquoi.

                              Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack sont pratiques. Lorsque nous avons un problème, nous avons aussi une assistance téléphonique qui est performante. Ils sont également fiables.

                              Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack correspondent à nos besoins de résilience. Si on veut les rendre vraiment très résilient, on a des ingénieurs qui sont également des technico-commerciaux avant-vente. Ils sont très compétents et peuvent nous aider.

                              Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack sont bien en termes de consommation d'énergie mais pour l’instant, on ne s’en est pas trop préoccupés.

                              Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack sont alignés sur nos objectifs de durabilité. C’est très important pour nous lorsque nous achetons un serveur. Avant, on recevait une garantie de cinq ans et maintenant, la garantie est de sept ans mais nous avons encore des serveurs qui tournent toujours après dix ans. On les remplace de temps en temps mais on n’a vraiment pas de problème de fiabilité. Au niveau écologique, on sait que lorsqu’on achète une machine, elle va durer longtemps.

                              Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont permis de réduire les temps d’arrêt de production imprévus. Ils sont très fiables et généralement, on marche en doublant. On prend un couple de serveurs et on déplace nos VM d’un serveur sur l’autre et sur deux bâtiments. Les serveurs ne tombant jamais en panne, ou très rarement, on obtient une architecture résiliente.

                              La console OpenManage n’a pas vraiment affecté la productivité de notre personnel informatique.


                              Quelles fonctionnalités avez-vous trouvé les plus utiles et pourquoi?

                                La maintenance et le contrôle à distance sont utiles.

                                Dans quels domaines les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack pourraient-ils être améliorés?

                                  Le problème que nous avons eu n’est pas un problème technique mais plutôt économique. Autrement dit, on travaille avec des marchés nationaux et HP, ou HP Enterprise est moins cher. Dell aurait donc pu faire un effort au niveau du prix.

                                  Par exemple, il y a deux ou trois ans, on parlait avec un commercial ou un ingénieur avant-vente sur le remplacement de notre infrastructure des serveurs de fichiers mais le prix qu’on nous a proposé était très élevé.

                                  Avez-vous utilisé une solution différente auparavant et si c’est le cas, pourquoi avez-vous changé?

                                    On travaillait avec Dell et HPE. On préférait Dell. Je préfère ne pas faire de la contre publicité mais ça ne marchait pas très bien avec HPE aussi bien au niveau service client, que de faire un devis ou même pour quoi que ce soit de technique. On préfère les produits Dell mais on préférerait que les prix des serveurs soient un peu plus bas.

                                    On n’avait pas vraiment de soucis avec HPE au niveau technique mais on avait du mal à communiquer avec eux, même au niveau avant-ventes. On n’arrivait même plus à se connecter sur leurs serveurs pour faire un devis. C'était tellement compliqué. Il y avait des références qu’on ne comprenait pas. Si on doit mettre un certain disque, il faut acheter tel ou tel accessoire particulier. Alors que chez Dell, si nous voulons quelque chose, il suffit de leur dire et on a la configuration.

                                    En plus, avec le site web de Dell, on peut utiliser n’importe quel navigateur alors que chez HPE, un jour c’est Chrome et un autre jour, c’est autre chose. Ou on a Firefox et ça ne marche pas alors on prend quelque chose d’autre et ça ne marche pas non plus. Dell est, par contre, vraiment très ouvert.

                                    Je n’ai pas vraiment de connaissances sur d’autres marques à part ces deux-là. On a eu des intégrateurs pour des serveurs faits maison mais il y a longtemps. C’est généralement Dell ou HPE. C’est Dell qui a le marché les ¾ du temps.

                                    Que conseillez-vous en ce qui concerne les coûts d’installation, les tarifs et/ou les licences?

                                      Ils sont chers. Au niveau des licences, ça va. C’est plutôt au niveau des prix du matériel.

                                      Des collègues dans d’autres universités ont fait des comparatifs et pour une configuration équivalente, il y a avait facilement jusqu'à 10% à 20% de réduction chez HPE, par rapport aux prix Dell.

                                      Quelles sont vos impressions sur la scalabilité de cette solution?

                                        Nous sommes un petit laboratoire de recherche mais nous avons quelques équipes qui travaillent ensemble. Il nous arrive de regrouper tout le matériel informatique ensemble et d’acheter des extensions et tout ce qu’il faut.

                                        Au niveau scalabilité, il n’y a pas de problème. C’est très évolutif mais c’est très cher. Par rapport à nos besoins, c’est vraiment surévalué. Je suis dans un campus avec plusieurs unités mais on doit fusionner d’ici 2025, tout remettre ensemble et travailler avec des gens que je côtoyais juste à la cantine. On verra bien à ce moment si c’est vraiment très scalable et si on parviendra à tout remettre ensemble.

                                        Quelles sont vos impressions au niveau de la stabilité de cette solution?

                                          Ils sont stables. Il n’y a pas de temps morts, ni de panne.

                                          Avez-vous constaté un RSI (Retour Sur Investissement? Si oui, dans quel sens (p. ex. mesures/points de données)?

                                            On n’est pas des commerciaux donc, c’est difficile de parler d’un retour sur investissement mais quand on achète un serveur Dell, on rentre vraiment dans nos frais. On sait qu’on n’aura pas de problème et que ça va fonctionner. On va mettre des VMs et on va faire tout ce qu’il faut. Quand je demande des crédits à mon responsable, il sait que le serveur va marcher pendant tant d’années. On n’aura pas de soucis et je n’aurai pas plus d’argent à demander. Parfois, on change des anciennes machines mais uniquement parce que les nouvelles seront moins énergivores et on pourra mettre plus de VMs sur un seul serveur. Donc, au niveau écologique, on consomme moins d'énergie. C’est parfois la seule raison pour laquelle on change de vieux serveurs. Ils marchent encore mais ils consomment plus d'énergie que les nouveaux.

                                            La configuration initiale était-elle simple ou complexe et de quelle manière?

                                              Je suis impliqué dans le déploiement de ces serveurs. Je travaille dans un laboratoire de recherche. Nous sommes une centaine de personnes mais nous sommes intégrés à l’Observatoire de Paris. C’est comme une université mais avec environ 800 personnes. On travaille ensemble avec toutes les équipes informatiques.

                                              Je suis responsable des choix avant-vente avec l'équipe de personnel technico-commerciaux de Dell ou HPE. On ne passe pas les commandes. On reçoit le matériel, on installe les machines et on organise le déploiement de l’infrastructure, des VMs et tout le reste. Et après, on assure l’interface avec les utilisateurs.

                                              Le déploiement inicial est plutôt simple. On n’a pas vraiment de problèmes et même quand on a eu des problèmes, ça s'est résolu assez rapidement.

                                              En termes de stratégie de mise en œuvre, quand on est une petite structure, il n’y a pas vraiment de grande stratégie comme pour dans les grosses sociétés. On arrive, on installe et ça marche. Il n’y a pas de stratégie.

                                              Vous avez fait l’implémentation avec un revendeur ou votre propre équipe? Si vous avez utilisé un revendeur, comment évalueriez-vous leur niveau d’expertise?

                                                On fait l’implémentation nous-mêmes. On a des intégrateurs mais pour des solutions tierce-parties. On a pris une licence pour des logiciels de sauvegarde au niveau du campus. On travaille avec d’autres sociétés pour cela mais au niveau du matériel et tout ce qui est infrastructure Dell, on n’a pas besoin d’aide. Ça marche très bien et il n’y a aucun problème. On sait que c’est simple.

                                                Décrivez votre expérience avec le service client et le support.

                                                  C’est assez différent en ce qui concerne les PowerEdge. C’est encore différent pour les PCs. Pour les serveurs, le support est vraiment bien. Je leur mettrai un huit sur dix. On ne sait pas pourquoi mais à un certain moment, il y a eu des périodes où le support ne répondait pas assez vite ou ça passait d’un niveau à l'autre. Il faut avoir de l’expertise si on a quelque chose qui ne fonctionne pas correctement mais c’est par périodes. Ce genre de problème peut apparaître subitement au bout de six mois et disparaître six mois plus tard. Tout fonctionne bien. Il n’y a plus de problèmes avec le service clients.

                                                  Comment est-ce que vous évaluerez le service et le support pour cette solution sur une échelle de 1 à10?

                                                    8

                                                    Sur une échelle de 1 à 10 (1=le pire, 10=le meilleur), comment est-ce que vous évaluerez les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack? Veuillez donner vos raisons.

                                                      Je donnerais aux serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack une note de neuf sur dix.

                                                      Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
                                                      PeerSpot user
                                                      DSI at Mediactive SAS
                                                      Real User
                                                      Efficient, easy to use, and helpful for speed and resilience
                                                      Pros and Cons
                                                      • "We use remote access a lot. They are fairly simple to use."
                                                      • "We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in the data center. We put the racks in bays. They can improve the compactness so that we can put more of them."

                                                      What is our primary use case?

                                                      We use Dell PowerEdge Rack servers for virtualization. We have these servers for the computing side, and then we have Dell Storage for the storage side.

                                                      How has it helped my organization?

                                                      By implementing this solution, we wanted speed and resilience. Everything is working well.

                                                      Resilience is not only linked to the servers. It is also linked to the software applications that we put on them, so we need to look at the services on PowerEdge. We have virtualization, and we install different products, such as firewalls, and implement access control. We use software for that, and it is working well with Dell PowerEdge.

                                                      In terms of energy consumption, we use them without energy limitations. We always use them at full capacity. They are always working at full capacity, so we use the machines at their maximum. The consumption is quite substantial, but we are not in the saving mode in our data centers. If the servers use less energy, that would be great, but they must provide a lot of power.

                                                      For handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, we have Full Flash, and as far as the processors are concerned, they work fine.

                                                      These servers are efficient. We do have some old ones. We just got rid of the old range, but we still have some from the 10th, 11th, and 12th Generation.

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have not helped to reduce unplanned production downtime because that is not really linked to the servers. We do have quite a lot of them, so they are redundant. We have some load balancing, and we are using software solutions. For us, the PowerEdge servers or any other type of servers either help with computing or are used for storage. The rest is managed through software.

                                                      The OpenManage console has affected our IT staff’s productivity. We do use it, but mainly for setting up alerts.

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have impacted the overall flexibility of our operations or business. Scalability is easy.

                                                      What is most valuable?

                                                      We use remote access a lot. They are fairly simple to use.

                                                      What needs improvement?

                                                      We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in the data center. We put the racks in bays. They can improve the compactness so that we can put more of them.

                                                      We do not have much of a problem with the noise, but they are still as noisy as before, even after they have improved them.

                                                      The customer service on certain parts can be better, but nowadays, we do not get many issues. As far as we are concerned, it is a clean environment. It is a data center environment, so it has air conditioning. The servers do not face many restrictions. They do not have any dust.

                                                      For how long have I used the solution?

                                                      I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for approximately 20 years. I work in the data center, so it has been a long time.

                                                      What do I think about the stability of the solution?

                                                      The stability is fine. They are stable if they have been updated with the updates. As far as we are concerned, there is no downtime on the platform. Of course, we have to restart some servers, but because they are load-balanced, it does not at all impact our production. We just put them in maintenance mode, and we use the VMware solution.

                                                      What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

                                                      With our method, it is simple for us. We can increase the computing and we can increase the storage because there are two different platforms. The hard disks are not in the computing servers. They are separated. If I want to add some computing, I buy more servers. If I want to add to the storage, I add to the storage bays with ESXi (in our case).

                                                      How are customer service and support?

                                                      We have known them for a long time. It is just a matter of knowing what to do for things to happen quickly, such as providing the serial numbers and rack data. We are used to it. It is going well. It is just about knowing the method, that is it.

                                                      I would rate their support an eight out of ten. There can be some kind of notice for when there is a change in disk capacity. It might not mean much to change a disk, but for us, it can sometimes be an issue because of our environment. We would prefer to have the exact same product on the same servers. That is it.

                                                      How would you rate customer service and support?

                                                      Positive

                                                      Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

                                                      We use the HPE range and the Dell range. We use both types of servers.

                                                      We used Supermicro a little bit in the beginning, but that was a long time ago. Nowadays, we use only two manufacturers: Dell and HPE.

                                                      How was the initial setup?

                                                      We were well prepared, and we have the same type of servers in the bays. The wiring is marked, and we know that environment very well.

                                                      What about the implementation team?

                                                      We buy from a reseller, and then we roll them out internally ourselves.

                                                      Which other solutions did I evaluate?

                                                      We did not evaluate other solutions. There is not a lot of choice.

                                                      What other advice do I have?

                                                      I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten because they are very good. The last generations are very good. 

                                                      Foreign Language:(French)

                                                      Compétents, faciles à utiliser et pratiques pour la vitesse et la résilience

                                                      Depuis combien de temps utilisez-vous les Serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack?

                                                      J’utilise les Serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack depuis environ 20 ans. Je travaille dans le centre de données et cela fait donc longtemps.


                                                      Quel est votre cas d’utilisation primaire pour cette solution? (Décrivez votre environnement en détail).

                                                      Nous utilisons les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack pour la virtualisation. Nous avons ces serveurs pour la partie informatique et les serveurs Dell Storage pour la partie stockage.

                                                      Comment les Serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont-ils amelioré votre organisation? Si ce n’est pas le cas, veuillez expliquer pourquoi.

                                                      En implémentant cette solution, on voulait la rapidité, la résilience et que tout fonctionne bien.

                                                      La résilience n’est pas liée qu’aux serveurs. Elle est également liée aux applications logicielles que l’on met dessus et il faut donc regarder les services sur les PowerEdge. Nous faisons de la virtualisation et nous installons donc des produits différents, comme les firewalls et nous implémentons un contrôle d'accès. Nous utilisons des logiciels pour cela et tout s’exécute bien avec le Dell PowerEdge.

                                                      En ce qui concerne la consommation d'énergie, nous on les utilise sans la limitation d'énergie. On les utilise toujours à plein régime. Ils fonctionnent toujours à pleine puissance et nous consommons donc, le maximum de la machine. La consommation est assez importante mais nous ne sommes pas en mode économie d'énergie dans notre centre de données. Si les serveurs consomment mieux, tant mieux, mais ils doivent fournir beaucoup de puissance.

                                                      Pour gérer les besoins évolutifs des charges de travail à haute performance, nous avons Full Flash et en ce qui concerne les processeurs, ils fonctionnent bien.

                                                      Les serveurs sont performants. On a des vieux modèles. On vient juste de se débarrasser de l’ancienne gamme mais on a encore des Générations 10, 11 et 12.

                                                      Les Serveurs Rack Dell PowerEdge n’ont pas aidé à réduire les temps d’arrêt de production imprévus car ce n’est pas vraiment lié aux serveurs. On en a beaucoup et donc, ils sont redondants. On a une répartition des charges et on utilise des solutions de logiciels. Pour nous, les serveurs PowerEdge ou n’importe quel type de serveurs nous aident soit à faire les calculs, soit à faire du stockage. Tout le reste est géré par des logiciels.

                                                      La console OpenManage a affecté la productivité du personnel informatique. On l’utilise mais surtout pour remonter les alertes.

                                                      Les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack ont impacté la flexibilité globale de nos opérations et de notre business. La scalabilité est facile.

                                                      Quelles fonctionnalités avez-vous trouvé les plus utiles et pourquoi?

                                                      On utilise beaucoup l'accès à distance. C’est plutôt facile à utiliser.

                                                      Dans quels domaines les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack pourraient-ils être améliorés?

                                                      On utilise les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack dans nos centres de données. Nous installons les racks dans les baies. Leur compacticité pourrait être améliorée afin que nous puissions en mettre plus.

                                                      Nous n’avons pas vraiment de problèmes avec le bruit bien qu’ils soient aussi bruyants qu’auparavant et malgré le fait qu’ils aient été améliorés.

                                                      Le service client pourrait être amélioré sur certains points mais nous n’avons plus beaucoup de problèmes à présent. En ce qui nous concerne, c’est un environnement propre. C’est un environnement de centre de données et donc, c’est climatisé. Les serveurs n’ont pas beaucoup de contraintes. Ils n’ont pas de poussière.

                                                      Avez-vous utilisé une solution différente auparavant et si oui, pourquoi avez-vous changé?

                                                      On utilise la gamme HPE et la gamme Dell. On utilise deux types de serveurs.

                                                      On avait utilisé un peu de Supermicro au début mais il y a très longtemps de cela. Maintenant, on utilise seulement deux constructeurs: Dell et HPE.

                                                      Avant de choisir, avez-vous évalué d’autres options? Dans ce cas, lesquelles?

                                                      Nous n’avons pas évalué d’autres solutions. Il n’y a pas beaucoup de choix.

                                                      Quelles sont vos impressions sur la scalabilité de cette solution?

                                                      Avec notre méthode, c’est simple pour nous. On peut augmenter le computing comme on peut augmenter le stockage parce que ce sont deux plateformes différentes. Les disques durs ne sont pas dans les serveurs de calcul. Ils sont separés. Si je veux rajouter du computing, je rachète des serveurs. Si je veux ajouter du stockage, je complète les baies de stockage en ESXi (pour notre cas à nous).

                                                      Quelles sont vos impressions sur la stabilité de cette solution?

                                                      La stabilité est bonne. Les serveurs sont stables s’ils ont été mis à jour. En ce qui nous concerne, il n’y a pas de temps d’arrêt sur la plateforme. Bien sûr, on redémarre des serveurs mais parce qu’ils sont en mode load-balance et donc ça n'a pas du tout d’impact sur notre production. On les met seulement en mode maintenance et on utilise la solution de VMware.

                                                      La configuration initiale était-elle simple ou complexe et de quelle manière?

                                                      On était bien préparés et ce sont les mêmes modèles de serveurs dans les baies. Le câblage est banalisé et on connaît très bien cet environnement.

                                                      Lors de l’implémentation, avez-vous utilisé l'équipe d’un fournisseur ou une équipe interne? Si vous avez utilisé l'équipe d’un fournisseur, comment évalueriez-vous leur niveau d’expertise?

                                                      On achète chez les grossistes et après, c’est nous qui déployons en interne.

                                                      Décrivez votre expérience avec le service client et le support.

                                                      On les connait depuis très longtemps. Il suffit de savoir comment faire pour que ça aille vite, comme les numéros de série et les extractions de données. On a l’habitude. Ça se passe bien. Il faut juste connaitre la méthode, c’est tout.

                                                      J’évalue le support avec un huit sur dix. Il serait bien de prévenir lorsqu’il y a un changement de capacité de disque. Cela ne parait pas grand-chose de changer un disque mais cela nous gêne quelquefois à cause de notre environnement. On préférerait avoir exactement le même produit dans les mêmes serveurs. Voilà.

                                                      Comment est-ce que vous évalueriez cette solution sur une échelle de 1 à 10 pour le service et le support?

                                                      8

                                                      Sur une échelle de 1 à 10 (1=le pire, 10=le meilleur), comment est-ce que vous évaluerez les serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack? Donnez vos raisons..

                                                      Je donne aux serveurs Dell PowerEdge Rack un neuf sur dix parce qu’ils sont très bons. Les dernières générations sont très bien.


                                                      Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
                                                      PeerSpot user
                                                      Coordinador de IT at Varian Medical Systems, Inc.
                                                      Real User
                                                      Top 20
                                                      Reliable servers for secure and scalable infrastructure
                                                      Pros and Cons
                                                      • "The reliability and the execution of the necessary assignments are valuable."
                                                      • "I would like them to be more flexible when implementing more capabilities."

                                                      What is our primary use case?

                                                      The use cases are related to Medical Oncology, everything that has to do with radiotherapy.

                                                      By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I wanted a platform with good reliability, good work, and good service.

                                                      How has it helped my organization?

                                                      It gives us reliability for our applications. It offers us a secure and scalable infrastructure, which has become essential to virtualize our workloads.

                                                      The PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture approach to security is very good. I see much more interest from Dell in providing security that reflects our requirements. Because of better monitoring capabilities, it eliminates dependence on third-party certification authorities.

                                                      In terms of energy consumption, I would rate it an eight out of ten. They continually add more and more features to improve power consumption. In all the years as a Dell PowerEdge user, I have seen an improvement in their power delivery and consumption.

                                                      The impact of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has been very high on our organization’s sustainability goals. In our company, we need a platform with high scalability and the capability to handle high workload. With the reliability of the platform, we feel free to be able to deal with other issues.

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have clearly reduced unplanned production downtime, but I cannot exactly say how much.

                                                      The OpenManage console has affected the level of productivity of the IT team. In terms of system repair, they receive fewer demands, which makes them meet more goals than before.

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business. The better performance the servers have, the better the applications will work, which consequently leads to better performance for Dell as well as for the company that uses its services.

                                                      What is most valuable?

                                                      The reliability and the execution of the necessary assignments are valuable.

                                                      What needs improvement?

                                                      I would like them to be more flexible when implementing more capabilities.

                                                      For how long have I used the solution?

                                                      I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 15 years.

                                                      What do I think about the stability of the solution?

                                                      The stability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is very good.

                                                      What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

                                                      The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is very good.

                                                      Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

                                                      We used HP 15 years ago. We switched because of the decision at the company management level.

                                                      How was the initial setup?

                                                      The implementation was very simple.

                                                      They are currently deployed on-premises, with the possibility of a private cloud. We use Microsoft Azure. They are implemented at several locations. In the Galicia community, we have an implementation of PowerEdge with VxRail as well.

                                                      What about the implementation team?

                                                      We had project managers from our company and from Dell.

                                                      What was our ROI?

                                                      The biggest ROI is reliability. These servers never fail, and the performance of these servers is great. They are stable 99% of the time and do not show any signs of failure.

                                                      What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

                                                      They are good and reflect the prices on the market. We always wish they were lower, but they are good.

                                                      Which other solutions did I evaluate?

                                                      At that time, we evaluated IBM and FUJITSU. In general, Rack Servers offer us much more reliability.

                                                      What other advice do I have?

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

                                                      Foreign Language:(Spanish)

                                                      Servidores confiables para una infraestructura segura y escalable

                                                      ¿Durante cuánto tiempo utiliza los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge?

                                                      He estado usando servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge durante 15 años.

                                                      ¿Cuál es su principal caso de uso de esta solución? (Incluya detalles sobre su entorno.

                                                      Los casos de uso están relacionados con Oncología Médica, todo lo que tiene que ver con radioterapia.

                                                      Al implementar los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge, quería una plataforma con buena confiabilidad, buen trabajo y buen servicio.

                                                      Comparta cómo los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge han mejorado su infraestructura de TI. Si no fue así, explique por qué.

                                                      Hay confiabilidad para nuestras aplicaciones. Nos ofrece una infraestructura segura y escalable, que se ha vuelto esencial para virtualizar nuestras cargas de trabajo.

                                                      El enfoque de seguridad de PowerEdge Cyber Resilient Architecture es muy bueno. Estoy viendo mucho más interés por parte de Dell en cuanto a la proporción de seguridad que refleja nuestros requisitos. Gracias a sus mejores capacidades de seguimiento, elimina la dependencia de autoridades de certificación de terceros.

                                                      En cuanto al consumo energético, le daría un ocho de diez. Continuamente añaden más y más funciones para mejorar el consumo de energía. En todos los años como usuario de Dell PowerEdge, he visto una mejora en su suministro y consumo de energía.

                                                      El impacto de los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge ha sido muy alto en los objetivos de sostenibilidad de nuestra organización. En nuestra empresa, necesitamos una plataforma con alta escalabilidad y capacidad para manejar una gran carga de trabajo. Con la confiabilidad de la plataforma, nos sentimos libres de poder abordar otros problemas.

                                                      Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge han reducido claramente el tiempo de inactividad de producción no planificado, pero no sabría decir exactamente cuánto.

                                                      La consola OpenManage ha afectado el nivel de productividad del equipo de TI. En cuanto a la reparación del sistema, nuestro equipo recibe menos demandas, lo que les hace cumplir más objetivos que antes.

                                                      Los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge han afectado la flexibilidad general de nuestras operaciones o negocios. Cuanto mejor rendimiento tengan los servidores, mejor funcionarán las aplicaciones, lo que en consecuencia redunda en un mejor rendimiento tanto para Dell como para la empresa que utiliza sus servicios.

                                                      ¿Qué características le han parecido más valiosas y por qué?

                                                      La confiabilidad y la ejecución de las tareas necesarias son valiosas.

                                                      ¿En qué áreas se podrían mejorar los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge?

                                                      Me gustaría que fueran más flexibles a la hora de implementar más capacidades.

                                                      ¿Utilizó anteriormente una solución diferente? De ser así, ¿por qué la cambió?

                                                      Usamos HP hace 15 años. Cambiamos por una decisión de la dirección de la empresa.

                                                      ¿Antes de elegir, evaluaste otras opciones? ¿De ser asi, cuales?

                                                      En ese momento evaluamos a IBM y FUJITSU. En general los Servidores en Rack nos ofrecen mucha más confiabilidad.

                                                      ¿Qué aconseja a otros sobre el costo de instalación, el precio y/o la licencia?

                                                      Son buenos y reflejan los precios del mercado. Siempre deseamos que fueran más bajos, pero son buenos.

                                                      ¿Cuáles son sus impresiones sobre la escalabilidad de esta solución?

                                                      La escalabilidad de los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge es muy buena.

                                                      ¿Cuáles son sus impresiones sobre la estabilidad de esta solución?

                                                      La estabilidad de los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge es muy buena.

                                                      ¿Has visto el ROI (Retorno de la Inversión)? En caso afirmativo, ¿de qué manera (es decir, métricas/puntos de datos)?

                                                      El mayor retorno de la inversión es la confiabilidad. Estos servidores nunca fallan y el rendimiento de estos servidores es excelente. Son estables el 99% del tiempo y no muestran signos de fallo.

                                                      ¿La configuración inicial fue sencilla o compleja y de qué manera?

                                                      La implementación fue muy sencilla.

                                                      Actualmente se encuentran desplegados on-premise, con posibilidad de nube privada. Usamos Microsoft Azure. Se implementan en varios lugares. En la comunidad de Galicia también contamos con una implementación de PowerEdge con VxRail.

                                                      ¿Lo implementó a través de un equipo de proveedores o uno interno? Si se trata de un equipo de proveedores, ¿cómo calificaría su nivel de experiencia?

                                                      Tuvimos gerentes de proyecto de nuestra empresa y de Dell.

                                                      ¿Cómo calificaría esta solución en una escala del 1 al 10 en cuanto a servicio y soporte?

                                                      8

                                                      En una escala del 1 al 10 (1=peor, 10=mejor), ¿cómo calificaría los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge? Por favor explique por qué.

                                                      Calificaría los servidores en rack Dell PowerEdge con un ocho de diez.



                                                      Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
                                                      PeerSpot user
                                                      reviewer2380758 - PeerSpot reviewer
                                                      Head of Infrastructure at a cloud solution provider with 51-200 employees
                                                      Real User
                                                      Work 24/7 for years without any problems and are more resilient to temperature than others
                                                      Pros and Cons
                                                      • "They provide good support for part replacement, and when they cannot because the part is unavailable, they are pretty good at informing us and letting us know, but generally, these servers just sit in the data center and have been working 24/7 for years without any problems."
                                                      • "My biggest grievance is related to getting a caddy. We have decommissioned our old servers that we used for development or testing. You cannot buy hard drives for old servers from Dell. It is very annoying."

                                                      What is our primary use case?

                                                      We do web hosting. Our web hosting servers, database servers, corporate cluster, and backup cluster are on Dell servers.

                                                      How has it helped my organization?

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are pretty good in terms of energy consumption. Ours are pretty power-hungry, but we load them up with hard drives and CPUs, and they drink power. It is not Dell's fault. The power efficiency or the power supply is excellent. They are on par or better than the rest we used.

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are excellent for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. We have put in platinums and many CPUs in it, and being able to get those in one form or two form factors is incredibly useful. It allows us to deliver as much power as we want without having to get the massive four and six RUs.

                                                      Having four-hour support is very handy. Having someone out there within four hours if something dies has been very handy.

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business because we run very similar servers throughout our entire config so that we can be flexible. We do not have to go buy specific hardware. We can use one hardware to do all the jobs.

                                                      What is most valuable?

                                                      Consistency and reliability are valuable. They provide good support for part replacement, and when they cannot because the part is unavailable, they are pretty good at informing us and letting us know, but generally, these servers just sit in the data center and have been working 24/7 for years without any problems.

                                                      They are less temperamental with temperature. We have had some other providers whose servers would overheat even though they are in the same data center with the same specs as Dell, which did not overheat.

                                                      What needs improvement?

                                                      My biggest grievance is related to getting a caddy. We have decommissioned our old servers that we used for development or testing. You cannot buy hard drives for old servers from Dell. It is very annoying.

                                                      We tried the OpenManage console. We ran it up on a server with about 50 tracks going to it, and it kept crashing.

                                                      Another room for improvement is better OpenBMC implementation. I know Dell is getting into it now, but we do run multiple vendors for various reasons. Being able to have everyone in one would be great. Dell was the one who was missing from the party, and I do believe they have signed to implement it now. 

                                                      For how long have I used the solution?

                                                      We have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for ten years.

                                                      What do I think about the stability of the solution?

                                                      They are very stable.

                                                      What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

                                                      They are not scalable, but they are not meant to be. They are perfect for their role. If you want scalability, you should be using blade servers.

                                                      We are mostly using Dell R730, R740, and R750 because we have some old ones.

                                                      How are customer service and support?

                                                      I would rate them a seven out of ten. I find that when I put in a ticket, they come back and ask me questions that I have already answered, or because I am dealing with level 1, they make suggestions that are absolutely irrelevant, and they waste my time dealing with it. 

                                                      I understand that they do have people who have no idea what they are doing call up, and they need to test these basic things, but it is very frustrating. There is no way to prove I am competent to skip level 1. 

                                                      How would you rate customer service and support?

                                                      Neutral

                                                      Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

                                                      We are using HPE. We had Supermicro, but we were having issues, so we got rid of those. We looked at Gigabyte and SUSE, but they were a lot more expensive than Dell. We did not feel there was a lot of benefit. So, most of our fleet is HPE and Dell.

                                                      Dell servers are much better at temperature management than HPE. I do not have any problems with Dell servers, but the experience that I have been getting with sales at the moment has been very lackluster with Dell.

                                                      In terms of the physical hardware, both Dell and HPE are excellent. We run the same drives, CPUs, and memory. They both perform excellently. Dell servers are a bit more reliable and much more resilient to temperature.

                                                      How was the initial setup?

                                                      The rails are difficult. The way they clip in seems good on paper, but when you are doing it yourself at a data center with a 30, 40, or 50 KG server, it is very difficult to try and line them up, whereas, with some of the competitors, you just kind of push in. They are much easier to put in.

                                                      What was our ROI?

                                                      We have absolutely seen an ROI. These servers are absolutely worth the money. We have no regrets. We still would not be using them otherwise. 

                                                      They cost a lot of money, but they are worth every cent of it because they just work. You just put them in. We run our data center in Sydney, Australia, but my office is based in Melbourne. If anything breaks in the data center, we have to fly to Sydney to fix it. We do not take many flights because we use enterprise hardware.

                                                      What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

                                                      Dell is pretty good. good. I had a conversation with Dell a while ago due to a vendor. We got much better pricing from a competitor. When I looked at another company, Dell called me and asked why am I looking at someone else when they have a distributor. I told them that their pricing was not good, so Dell went back to the distributor, and we got much better pricing. It is displeasing that I had to do that, but at the same time, I understand that the company is trying to make as much money as they can. I do not mean that in a bad way. That is the way all companies are. They were just trying to get what they could. Other than that, it has been pretty good.

                                                      What other advice do I have?

                                                      I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten only because there is always room for improvement, but I would not put anyone above them. I cannot think of a vendor that is on par. After ten years, I am still buying them.

                                                      Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
                                                      PeerSpot user
                                                      Mickael Marimbert - PeerSpot reviewer
                                                      System Administrator at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
                                                      Real User
                                                      Top 10
                                                      The servers are user-friendly, efficient, and accommodate for centralized management
                                                      Pros and Cons
                                                      • "The OpenMange console is effective."
                                                      • "The scalability has room for improvement."

                                                      What is our primary use case?

                                                      We preinstalled Microsoft Windows Server on Dell PowerEdge servers due to its ease of installation and deployment within our data center.

                                                      We utilize Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our file server, Windows server, and WTS server for services.

                                                      We use models, T350, T440, and T560.

                                                      How has it helped my organization?

                                                      The PowerEdge cyber-resilient architecture approach to security is excellent. We can close all the ports as we want and change the ports of the iDRAC. We can also separate the networks for the iDRAC. I love this functionality.

                                                      I am impressed with the efficiency of the PowerEdge Rack Servers. I compared their power consumption with that of APC/UPS units and found them to be highly efficient for utilization.

                                                      PowerEdge has enabled us to centralize the management of all servers and installations. We now have a single, easy-to-follow document for managing our entire infrastructure.

                                                      PowerEdge servers have helped reduce unplanned production downtime by 60 percent.

                                                      What is most valuable?

                                                      I find the support site where we collect drivers valuable. 

                                                      The OpenMange console is effective. 

                                                      The Life Cycle Manager is a valuable feature.

                                                      Overall Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are user-friendly.

                                                      What needs improvement?

                                                      The scalability has room for improvement.

                                                      For how long have I used the solution?

                                                      I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for almost three years.

                                                      What do I think about the stability of the solution?

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable. I have never had an issue.

                                                      What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

                                                      Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are not highly scalable.

                                                      How are customer service and support?

                                                      The technical support is good and also effective. There was one time that I resolved an issue myself.

                                                      How would you rate customer service and support?

                                                      Positive

                                                      Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

                                                      We previously used HPE, but its capabilities and capacities were not as good as those of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

                                                      How was the initial setup?

                                                      The initial deployment was straightforward and took me a few hours to complete.

                                                      What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

                                                      The high cost of Dell PowerEdge Rack Server licenses is attributed to the pre-installed Windows Server operating system from Microsoft.

                                                      What other advice do I have?

                                                      I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of ten.

                                                      Our critical workloads include the printer server, file server, HR server, and all other applications stored in our data center.

                                                      To protect from malware and firmware attacks, we have an EDR that we use to secure our active directory and a centralized password manager in the cloud.

                                                      We utilize public cloud servers concurrently with PowerEdge rack servers.

                                                      We have eight admins that work directly with our Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

                                                      I highly recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

                                                      Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

                                                      On-premises
                                                      Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
                                                      PeerSpot user
                                                      Buyer's Guide
                                                      Download our free Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
                                                      Updated: June 2025
                                                      Buyer's Guide
                                                      Download our free Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.