What users are saying about
Top Rated
89 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9 out of 100
Based on 89 reviews and ratings
5 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.2 out of 100
Based on 5 reviews and ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Cisco UCS Series is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
Cisco UCS Series
92%
33 Ratings
9.0
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
90%
2 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
Cisco UCS Series
91%
1 Rating
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
N/A
0 Ratings
Usability
7.8
Cisco UCS Series
78%
8 Ratings
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
N/A
0 Ratings
Support Rating
8.5
Cisco UCS Series
85%
15 Ratings
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco UCS Series
Cisco was a pioneer in redefining the traditional server paradigm, and it's the only one we've seen so far. When it comes to infrastructure upgrades, we're not tempted by the latest hyper-converged offerings. The HP Poliant and HP blades were our go-to weapons for years. However, nothing has come close to matching UCS's comprehensive offering. Network, computing, and storage management capabilities have not yet been beaten.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 10,001+ employeesLenovo Flex System Blade Servers
Smaller environments may not get the benefit of a BladeCenter. If you only have a few servers, it would be cost effective to just purchase individual servers. If you need to share a SANS, need high-level uptime and redundancy, or just have a need for lots of servers, then a BladeCenter would be beneficial.

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Automotive Company, 501-1000 employeesPros
Cisco UCS Series
- Cisco UCS servers are really excellent hypervisor hosts. They were built for it and one can tell that they were. They also have nice add-on features that you can buy when you first get them, but you can also add a lot of features later on.
- Cisco USC servers, exactly like their HP analogues, HP ProLiant servers, are very robust, extremely reliable and have really excellent management tools. You don't have to pay or an iLo subscription on UCS servers like you do on HP ProLiants, however. A USC server comes with the "CIMC" or "Cisco Integrated Management Controller" which is obviously pretty much exactly the same thing as an iLo.
- You can get parts for Cisco UCS server super fast (depending on your SmartNet plan type) and the support (through TAC) is unbeatable.
Senior Systems Administrator
DRT Holdings, Inc.Aviation & Aerospace, 501-1000 employees
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
- Physical disks management
- Integration with VM
- Ethernet scalability without any lost compression.
IT Manager
Marangoni Tread Latino AmericaIndustrial Automation, 5001-10,000 employees
Cons
Cisco UCS Series
- Price - typically a little higher priced compared to similar hardware.
- This product could be improved if it allowed other memory choices besides Cisco memory. You cannot simply add more memory that is not from Cisco. You have to purchase their memory which is more expensive than other memory choices.
- Setup is a little complicated at first. Once set up and running there isn't much to configure later.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Hospital & Health Care Company, 501-1000 employeesLenovo Flex System Blade Servers
- We purchased the BladeCenter with the expectation of using it for many years, and only replacing the servers when they got older. IBM/Lenovo technology has changed and we can no longer purchase servers that are compatible with our BladeCenter. We got a lot of good use from it, and are still using it. However, our future purchases will not be blade center servers because we will either have to buy another BladeCenter or regular rack mounted servers. I wish we could have gotten more use out of this BladeCenter because it makes IT live much simpler.
- Sometimes the BladeCenter's web interface for the management module has trouble switching between areas. I use IE and it could just be a browser issue. I just have to click and wait sometimes before the screen updates and changes so I can perform certain tasks.
- It would be nice to have a text option for alerts. You can configure email and "IBM Director" alerts, and tell it which types of alerts you want and if you just want information, warnings, or critical alerts. We don't use IBM Director so I'm not familiar with the features. That may have more options. With just purchasing the management modules I can only receive emails. If there is a critical alert at night, email is not going to get my attention; a text would.

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Automotive Company, 501-1000 employeesPricing Details
Cisco UCS Series
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Cisco UCS Series
Cisco UCS Series 9.1
Based on 1 answer
We are All satisfied with the value and Performance of the UCS servers
Systems Engineer
Schleswig-Holstein Netz AGOil & Energy, 1001-5000 employees
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco UCS Series
Cisco UCS Series 7.8
Based on 8 answers
Cisco UCS's usability is where they really shine compared to other server and compute platforms. Cisco has a very simple network configuration, so only a few cables to connect to the network core and you are up and running. Overall, the management interface for Cisco UCS is pretty straightforward as well. We have onboarded engineers onto our team and they can pick up basic UCS administration pretty quickly. We also like the ability to leverage APIs, etc. to automate blade and server builds.
Senior Network Administrator
University HealthSystem ConsortiumHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco UCS Series
Cisco UCS Series 8.5
Based on 15 answers
Cisco support is generally very good. Licensing issues will creep up at times when contact support but if you keep good documentation or plan to use smart licensing you can avoid those problems. Cisco responds quickly in an outage and has fast hardware turn around time when you need a part.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employeesLenovo Flex System Blade Servers
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco UCS Series
Easier to integrate and to use after that. It gives a better feeling as a server and it is better in performance also it is more durable. Offers a variety of use cases and also it is a very scalable server. Offers a great redundancy (has already [been] integrated) and also [gives] you easy access from terminal or GUI.
Senior Network Engineer
NettxioInformation Technology & Services, 201-500 employees
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
Data Domain is one of the most impressive things in the world. The possibility to reduce our backup size, and deliver without any losses back it's just impressive. I understand and it's easy for everyone to understand how it works, but looking in front of you, following the process, and seeing an entire VM return after a disaster recovery in 10 minutes is a dream come true.
IT Manager
Marangoni Tread Latino AmericaIndustrial Automation, 5001-10,000 employees
Return on Investment
Cisco UCS Series
- Our facilities have thanked us, as the HVAC associated with Cisco Blade Chassis cut our power footprint almost in half. Of course, we still had some standard servers with the HP Blades when we moved to UCS.
- On the server team one person now does what we had 3 doing for upgrades.
Sr. System Engineer
Kent Intermediate School DistrictEducation Management, 501-1000 employees
Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
- BladeCenter servers are about half the cost of standard servers. To get true cost savings you must calculate the cost of the actual BladeCenter which may appear to be cost prohibitive, but it does have other benefits. We received ROI after purchasing 7 servers in a BladeCenter that could hold 14.
- Our budget allowed us to purchase twice as many servers as planned because the cost of each server went down after investing in a BladeCenter. It was easer to get approval for purchases and do what we needed as an IT department.

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Automotive Company, 501-1000 employees