Cisco UCS Manager vs Dell EMC VPLEX

Likelihood to Recommend

It [Cisco UCS Manager] is extremely well suited to large virtual infrastructure environments with resource dense blades. This solution is also great if you want to consolidate a large number of servers (if they are servers that need to stay physical, but can fit in the profile of a blade) - this would reduce data center space utilization as well as power and cooling. Cisco UCS Manager is also great if you're looking for centralized management of a larger number of servers. This would not be a great solution if you have a very small shop - it's not cheap and probably wouldn't give you a ROI if you only have a couple dozen servers total. I'd say it would be overkill for small shops, but if you have the money and don't care, you'll still like it.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 5001-10,000 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

It is very all inclusive for management of every part our our Cisco blade center.
It allows us to directly connect to a hardware-based server in the blade center as though we were physically at the console.
It allows us to monitor the entire system for faults.
It lets us manage connectivity.
It is set to alert us via email if a fault occurs.

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Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Higher Education 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

Automation: There is a simple power-shell CMD lets, but it leaves more to be desired.
Navigation: Navigating the interface can be confusing.
Integration: Integration with ESXi hosts while doing FW upgrades would be hugely beneficial without the need for additional tools.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Banking Company, 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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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

Starting Price

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General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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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

I think UCS Manager would be able very comparable to other vendors offerings when it comes to server configuration. I think Cisco did a good job in giving you full access to many options that you might not see with Dell or HPE. Every manufacturer would need a similar tool to control their server environment, but I think what Cisco has built into their Manager is a little better than others I've used. You can just see and change so many settings. I would say that is also a bit of a negative by a little bit because sometimes it is hard to dig in and find what you need to change and often might need to reach out to TAC or take a training course to understand all of the interface.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Mining & Metals Company, 501-1000 employees

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Our company has only tested the performance of this platform in workload management. It is the most suitable product with affordable price that we could maintain with ease. Development of reliable storage architecture and uptime operation for business critical application have been boosted by Dell EMC VPLEX. Since we purchased this platform to monitor our storage infrastructure we have not lost any data .

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Angela Wright

Software Engineer

ALTEN MAROCInformation Technology & Services, 501-1000 employees

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Return on Investment

The positive is I was able to consolidate my small server infrastructure from 3 racks to one rack giving me space back and much power savings
The negative would be it could feel a little daunting to manage as there are many tabs and pieces to the interface.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 501-1000 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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Cisco UCS Manager vs Dell EMC VPLEX