Cisco UCS Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem SR Series

Cisco UCS blades are very well suited if you want to have dense and easily managed environment that is flexible (server profiles). its perfect if you have a need for business critical applications that requires whole blade to run. in case of any hardware failure you can simply swap its profile with standby node and power your application server back up very quickly, not something you could do with a standard rackmount

Incentivized

I believe all businesses would benefit from Lenovo's series of products - as they can be custom-built to meet your needs. We have been utilizing Lenovo servers for the past seven or eight years now, and have had get success with their hardware builds. We had one issue with a bad SD card that was in a RAID0 - they replaced both SD cards free of charge, and I had them the next business day (this, obviously, is contingent on the level of warranty protection that you purchase with your hardware - but support was fantastic to work with!)

Incentivized

• When used with VMWare, firmware changes cause minimal disruption.
• Simple system software updates using all-inclusive firmware bundles covering the individual parts.
• UCS, in contrast to other Cisco products, is stable and reliable, with relatively few hardware failures during its lengthy lifespan.

Incentivized

• Affordability
• Flexibility with custom builds
• SATA/SSD/M2/SD support for front-end caching or for an entire storage solution
• Allow x2 SD cards to be installed in a RAID0 setup, so that the host can run ESXi without any internal hard drives whatsoever. Also came with an internal battery for the RAID controller.
• Lenovo Support is very quick to respond to issues - either by phone or by email.

Incentivized

• Some issues with the operating system were present in Memory's memory for some time. A few DIMMS had to be replaced before the current firmware stabilized the problem
• Although some of the templating is a little difficult to understand, this is typical of most Cisco products

Incentivized

• A video tutorial on upgrading built-in firmware on their systems would be fantastic. As it was a bit difficult to navigate to find the download, and also the install process the last time I did so.
• The remote BIOS utility through the XClarity controller is difficult to reset a password on - if it's forgotten. I have yet to find a way to reset it on a host that has a password not working.

Incentivized

We are All satisfied with the value and Performance of the UCS servers

Incentivized

While Cisco's hardware is solid and long running, their software is usually the weak point. I will say that they are getting better with each release but if I had to find a problem with usability that would be it. Overall usability is good when you can work around software issues.

Incentivized

Cisco TAC is simply unbeatable and that goes for Cisco UCS server support just as well as it does for Cisco CUCM software. TAC has a well-deserved, excellent reputation and I do not hesitate to call them or open a ticket online, because I always know that I will get the help that I need and get it quickly

Incentivized

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.

The initial selection of Lenovo for servers was provided to us as a recommendation from a reseller. I was skeptical, initially, as I am not a fan of Lenovo's consumer-grade laptops. I was very intrigued by the price of these devices though, so we purchased two for a location to see how they worked. The recommendation panned-out, and all of our needs were met (and exceeded) by this new line of products brought to our attention. I'm sure there are countless other stories like mine with dozens of other manufacturers - but we are more than pleased with our fleet of Thinksystem servers at our district

Incentivized

• Life cycle of new hardware. We were able to refresh 40 existing servers with new ones in under a day
• When having to move chassis around, having to only move 4 cables instead of the 16 that would have been required for rack-mount servers

Incentivized

• Our uptime has increased from our old HP ProLiant servers from 8+ years ago.
• These servers are also cheaper than previous models we have deployed in the past
• XClarity controller allows for remote BIOS functionality - which we hadn't been able to utilize, previously.

Incentivized