HPE BladeSystem Reviews

* High Performance

* High Reliability

* "Insight Management" of the hardware

* Compatibility with all of the major Network Operating systems

It has provided us with a platform on which we have been able to create innovative solutions for our customers at very reasonable prices.

It would be nice if they were a little lighter in weight.

I have used Proliant series servers since they were first introduced.

On rare occasions, I have experienced hardware failures out of the box, but HP, and Compaq before that, were quick to resolve the problem and get the hardware up and running the next business day.

On very rare occasions, instability was experienced due to driver incompatibilities or firmware maladies. HP provided updates or workarounds to get the system stable fairly quickly.

I've never experienced an issue with hardware scalability.

Customer Service:

Customer service is outstanding.

Technical Support:

Over the years, technical support has gone from outstanding to "needs improvement", and back to "reasonably good". Typically, I've had to push the front line support team to escalate the issue to the back line, and the issue from there was quickly resolved. For hardware failures, it's been necessary from time to time to convince the front line that all of the diagnostic steps needed to isolate and identify the failed component have already been performed, and that what is needed is to get the replacement part. That process has also improved.

The initial setup has been straightforward in that HP has provided "Smart Start" kits to assist in getting their systems up and running very quickly. These kits typically prepare the systems for NOS installation and provide the necessary drivers to successfully discover all of the hardware components installed.

I am a Value Added Reseller, working with the end-user to acquire and build the solutions.

I have evaluated Dell and IBM products as part of an overall review of possible solutions for the customer.

If you need assistance in deploying Proliant servers, please feel free to contact me.

The HP ProLiant line has proven to be a very durable and reliable product. This is the greatest thing that I love about HP servers. They just work and keep on working. We have HP ProLiant servers which are almost 10 years old and is still working until today.We bought HP ProLiant servers as they offered us the best value for money in our part of the country. HP also has great support countrywide, and we didn't have any problem that the local support could not handle. This for me is the number reason why selected HP ProLiant for our servers in our part of the country. We felt more at ease with HP ProLiant rather than with IBM System X, as HP has better support.

The only con I can think off with using HP ProLiant is the limited parts of the old servers. This is understandable though, as it is also not feasible for vendors to stock parts which might never be sold.There is also this thing about server management. Other vendors like Cisco has really taken leaps and bounds in overhauling server manageability and make it work. HP has had new products as of late, but I think they must have innovated sooner as they are now behind the competition in this regard.

I would definitely recommend HP ProLiant servers. They are very reliable and very easy to configure. Just make sure that you stock-up on parts which you think might not be available any more in the foreseeable future. From experience, stock on the hard disks especially if you are still using the older technology, and buy redundant power supplies as these are the ones that normally fail after years of continuous operations.

These are the servers I use to host my virtual desktops and virtual servers. They outperform the older Dell servers that only had one system on them. I have about 10 machines on each physical blade. The HP ilo Management Interface is very useful and user friendly.

Blade servers are fading away. I shouldn't have bought these. Overall value is less than traditional rackmount servers. Scalability is limited; restricted by the chassis.

These work great for what I'm using them for, but they are not future proof. XenServer has great features allowing me to have heterogeneous pools. Blades are a good solution for organizations that have limited space and don't want to virtualize.

We have been using HPE BladeSystem for our DBS telecommunication system.

The solution has high performance. 

The solution could improve by having more automation, such as the automatic mapping feature that is available in the Synergy Blade series.

In a future release, the backup system could improve but having a built-in storage module.

I have been using HPE BladeSystem for a couple of years.

The solution is stable and reliable.

The scalability is very good.

The technical support has been slow at responding which can cause some operational issues if we do not have backups. The speed of support could improve.

The initial installation would be difficult for new users without training. I do not find it difficult because I have the HPE professional certification.

The HPE BladeSystem is an expensive solution.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate HPE BladeSystem a nine out of ten.

On-premises