Cisco UCS Manager vs Dell EMC VPLEX

Likelihood to Recommend

If you have a data center and use the Cisco UCS Blade platform with SAN storage, then UCS manager is the right tool for you. Managing one or a few host servers with UCS manager is pretty easy. You can see pretty quick what is going on with your servers. If you need to configure the fabric interconnects, you pretty much need to use UCS manager to do it. I find that it meets the needs for almost everything we do with the UCS C and B servers. If you have hyper flex servers from Cisco, then you would not want to use UCS manger. If you are not using Cisco servers you may not be able to use UCS manager.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Mining & Metals Company, 501-1000 employees

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This works in two fold. First it creates a copy of the data in two locations, protecting the data from a SAN or a NAS failure. Second, it provides a data point in a second location that can be used as storage for a stretched virtual cluster, giving a virtual stack a means to continue operation.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Pros

Service Templates: Provision new hardware using templates in the matter of minutes.
Firmware updates: Modifying the FW level on a template will kick off an FW upgrade on all attached equipment.
Consolidated Views: See all equipment in a single view.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Banking Company, 201-500 employees

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High Availability
Fail Over
Business continuity

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

UCSM is known for its bugs, especially during code upgrades.
Similar options can be set in a variety of places with varying effects.

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Tom Erdman

Network Systems Administrator

Johnson County LibraryLibraries, 201-500 employees

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Requires high bandwidth low latency connectivity between sites.
Cost wise it is expensive because you have to purchase with a mirror in mind.
Configuration can be difficult.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Support Rating

Cisco UCS Manager 9.0

Based on 4 answers

Cisco UCSM Support has been very quick to reply and address our concerns, issues, and questions. We have found that Cisco's documentation is clear and concise and fairly easy to find. With Cisco support's help, we are able to quickly and safely meet the demands of our end-users, consistently.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

We were a IBM Blade Center shop. IBM was easier to manage. However, it was not as all inclusive. The IBM served us well, but when we started pricing out options Cisco came in a little less expensive on the current promotion they were running. The Cisco UCS has proven to be more stable and reliable, as well.

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Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 201-500 employees

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When this was purchased there was no other product that could achieve what we were looking for, now this feature is pretty standard with storage platforms. It is a costly solution not just the hardware but the infrastructure to support it. It requires a connection between sites with at least 3 gigabytes per second and sub 5 millisecond latency and a network infrastructure capable of handling that

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

We were able to achieve a positive ROI on the system within 18 months. This might be unique to our situation. Priced against buying traditional servers and fabrics it would stack up favorably.
The ability to easily expand our infrastructure with blades is a strength. The profiles allow us to add a new server which is configured and deployed in a much shorter amount of time than traditional server infrastructure.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Information Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Reduced down time.
Provides business continuity.
Reduces single point of failure on the SAN.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No