Stability. That's about it.
Server Management at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
A stable solution that saves us money.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
It saves us money.
What needs improvement?
Lower price. You have to pay for some of the features after the fact.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It stays up.
Buyer's Guide
HPE ProLiant DL Servers
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about HPE ProLiant DL Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
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Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When looking for a vendor, I look for cost and support.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was straightforward.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have very specific standards, and only HPE met them.
What other advice do I have?
Look at the product and look at the support. In the long term, the support of the hardware is crucial. It is not just about the price point.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

System Admin at American electric power
Stability is better than the other alternatives that we have tried.
What is most valuable?
It provides support for the organization in terms of the commodity hardware as compared to the other HPE competitors. It provides stability for the servers.
What needs improvement?
There is need to always keep trying for improving this product.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is better than the other alternatives that we have tried. There are always issues but typically, they are resolved very quickly.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Experience, knowing which vendor, which division and getting the best results are factors that affected our decision to switch solutions.
Previously, we were using Dell; we had a different vendor, i.e., a lower cost vendor at that time. The reason we switched from Dell was because we felt that the HPE solution was far superior.
The overall value, cost of keeping things running and knowing the product are important criteria while selecting a vendor.
What other advice do I have?
Probably, you should evaluate the total cost of operation before you try and take orders. Check a cheaper solution.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
HPE ProLiant DL Servers
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about HPE ProLiant DL Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We understand what we're going to get in terms of the cost.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is consistency to the cost. We understand what we're going to get, and we also understand the price-point that we're entering into.
What needs improvement?
Some of the features I'm already seeing over there, i.e., really moving more towards a software layer that helps us to manage the infrastructure that we're purchasing from HPE. To use a competitor's term, as to what Nutanix is doing, HPE should be moving in a similar direction, which they are now, both in regards to a free product and a paid product; I'm actually very happy about that.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the HPE Proliant DL380s for seven years or more, and the DL580s only during the last year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product has been consistently stable. We have had no issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability with the hardware alone requires a bit more than just hardware, but we are using it in a scalable architecture. If you look at what we do with our EBS system, we use the DL580s with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) to allow it to scale.
How is customer service and technical support?
The technical support is very good. We recently just had to use it and the items were resolved in a timely manner, so I've been happy with the support.
How was the initial setup?
With some of the new software changes, the setup is getting easier and more consistent for us to apply across the globe; it's improving for sure.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The most important criteria while selecting a vendor are the costs and then, the other long-term factors such as reliability and quality.
We do actually evaluate solutions every year. We still buy other servers but not as many as we buy from HPE. Still, we do buy some stuff from Dell, just because we're in three regions of the world, but most of our stuff goes through HPE.
What other advice do I have?
We're a bit of an HPE shop. We've used Dell in other places, too, but generally, in terms of the price-point and quality of service it has always led us to HPE, so these are the main driving points for us.
For companies like us, we want more than a server. When we buy servers then we want some level of software orchestration on top of it to help us deploy OS or hypervisor plus some form of high-level capacity/environment review. This is sort of happening with Generation nine and ten hardware but not as refined as what you get with Nutanix.
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.
IT Manager at a paper AND forest products with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable features are flexibility and scalability. It just works.
What is most valuable?
Flexibility, scalability, and being a standard. I've used during my career. It's useful to know exactly where to go for information and where to go for support. It just works.
How has it helped my organization?
Just that support is really easy to get a hold of and when things are not functioning, they are able to get the right parts within the right SLAs and it just happens.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see an on-demand model. I think they are already going there. I would like to see something in which you can move your workloads to a cloud kind of offering. That would be something that would be ideal in the future.
From a pricing perspective, a consumption based model would be optimal. There are times when a complete purchase isn’t required and a short term burst of compute is needed.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is really good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The level of scalability depending on the product you choose. With the DL specifically, you can have as many hosts as you want or as much storage as you want. It is very modular. You can just keep bolting things on, essentially like LEGO.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have used technical support, but not recently. In the past, they were really good when I used them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've only been with the organization a short time. The decision to go with this product was made before I started. The vendor, who did our infrastructure as a service offering, is an HPE partner. So we didn't really choose the solution, but rather, it came to us. And I wouldn't have chosen anything else anyway.
When selecting a vendor, I look for flexibility and support. Everyone has a good sales pitch. However, when it comes to actually executing on it and supporting it long-term, those are the really important parts that not a lot of people consider up front.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the setup at this organization.
What other advice do I have?
Just make sure you look at the total cost of ownership and the long-term use case of what you're actually doing, versus the problem that you're trying to solve right now.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr IT Analyst at Bayer Pharmaceuticals
Scalability, rapidness, and computing are valuable features.
What is most valuable?
The scalability, rapidness, and computing are actually very good. It's a Gen9 server that we've been working with, so it is pretty good.
How has it helped my organization?
The benefit is that they're pretty reliable. Reliability is pretty much what we need.
What needs improvement?
There is need to improve the iLO support. There's a management part of the server that they've improved and that was a big deal.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is very stable and the support is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is very good. We were able to move from the servers and upgrade them very easily. It has worked very nicely and is serving generation to generation over the years, so it is pretty good.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support was very good. We have a pretty decent relationship; we have a four-hour onsite repair.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We've tried other products and have had some issues in the past. However, HPE has been the most reliable solution.
How was the initial setup?
We have different locations; in my location, I was involved in the setup. It was pretty straightforward.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have used IBM and Compaq back in the day.
For us, an important factor while selecting a vendor is that the actual company backing the product. We know that we're a company that has been around a long time in the industry.
What other advice do I have?
You would be foolish not to be looking into HPE. A lot of their products seem very interesting and they are very useful in our field.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Linux Admin at a media company with 10,001+ employees
Some of the valuable feature are straightforward installation and less downtime.
What is most valuable?
I believe it is much easier when you are trying to install something or trying to figure out any issues with it. Even though the booting up process itself is a little bit slower, it is easier to work with the HPE 360s and 380s.
I like the way the installation process goes. It's much easier to understand what you're doing. It's easy to troubleshoot and if you are stuck with any of the hardware issues, HPE comes on site. They don't come with just one part which is affecting it, but they come with other parts as well. This makes it easy, because they don't have to make multiple visits and the solution will be repaired in just one visit.
How has it helped my organization?
The downtime on the systems is less frequent. If one machine is out of the cluster, we call HPE and tell them about any of the hardware defects that we have. They come up with the parts pretty quickly. The engineer who comes is really knowledgeable and knows what he or she is doing. The process is much faster.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see the booting process be a little bit faster. Instead of going through the circle loading image, it would be more interesting if it would show what it is doing during each stage of the loading process.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The HPE servers are really stable. There are hardly any issues with them. There are rarely any hardware related issues, such disk failures or a need to replace the memory on the server. They are much more stable than other servers that we have used.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We do scale and the scalability is good. We have thousands of servers.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would give technical support a rating of 8/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have multiple servers, such as from Dell, in addition to the HPE servers. We deal with both of them. My personal preference is HPE, because they are hassle free. The selection of tools is done by solution architects. I don’t take part in that process.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup, but from what I heard, it was pretty straightforward. It was not that complicated. If it would have been, they would have called an engineer from HPE to help us.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is worth it. You should invest in it, go for it, and have fun with it.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
CTO at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It allowed us to consolidate our workloads. It allowed us to process the data more efficiently. To provide real time data for our end user applications.
What is most valuable?
I would say it's well documented and you can find exactly what the configuration is easily as well as the drivers and other documentation that they require to get a junior staff member up and running on the platform.
How has it helped my organization?
It allowed us to consolidate our workloads. It allowed us to process the data more efficiently. To provide real time data for our end user applications.
What needs improvement?
I would say that for us, as we're moving to more of a cloud based solution, we're looking for ways that you can take machines that you can't put in a private cloud instance and how those can be managed from a single user interface.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is excellent. It doesn't break.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is something that we're going into right now with HP as we've built out a stack of these machines. In the future we're planning on moving to more of a cloud based architecture.
They want to add more sites and it's just not good for us to add in another rack of equipment for every site.
How is customer service and technical support?
Technical support gets to the parts where we need it. Like any product, it fails occasionally, right? But we built the system to survive and HP is still there to support us.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I don't know why they chose HP in the end. I think it's just experience and it was the right company at the time.
We look for experience, stability and the ability to support our customers' requirements from a security perspective. Also the availability of documentation. Documentation that can be supported by even new staff members that have never touched the system.
What other advice do I have?
Work with HP to pilot before you go buy it.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System Architect at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
We have used these servers for several years throughout our data centers and they've proven to be very reliable.
What is most valuable?
Reliability is a valuable feature for us. We use the DL380s throughout our data centers and they've proven to be very reliable.
How has it helped my organization?
We've been using them for several years, and because we've been using them throughout our data centers, they've been uniform. All of our techs are familiar with them, and I think it's just familiarity with the servers which has benefited us a lot.
What needs improvement?
We're going to the hyper converged area. I've seen OneView. I'm very pleased with how that interface looks. We saw SimplyView in a demonstration and Synergy. So until I get my hands on it, I don't know that I can say I'm looking for more improvements.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using them for several years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We are very impressed with the stability. The only time they've really failed on us is when the cooling in the area failed one time. Literally, the temperatures got so hot that they physically melted. That's probably the only time they failed.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Right now, we're looking into some of the newer hybrid architectures, hyper converged. So we're looking at keeping our older servers but trying to scale them out. So that's what we're looking at now.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support has been very valuable. We had a storage array go bad, and they worked with us to get that storage array up and running again. So, yes, very valuable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to what we were using, I think we were just using all of the firmware-based solutions for setting up our arrays.
If you use a different supplier or a different company for your firmware or your hardware, then it has a different interface. It was just complicated. If you're using HPE for everything, it just made it so much simpler.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup, although my predecessor was. I've stood up servers and storage arrays from scratch, and I think it's not that complex. I think the user interface that HPE provides is straightforward. It takes away the complexity. That's my feeling, anyway.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We've looked at moving away from HPE in the past, and we were lured away. But HPE, for the requirements of our customers, for our own requirements, especially security, was key.
I think security is one of the first things we look at, and HPE has that covered.
We evaluated Dell. We chose to stay with HPE but we almost switched to Dell.
What other advice do I have?
I mean, look at what other solutions are out there, and look up what your requirements are. For us, it's met all of our requirements. I don't think that the others could do that.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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