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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco UCS Series

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco UCS Series is a modular, high-density, high-availability, dual-node storage- optimized server suited for service providers, enterprises, and industry-specific environments. It provides dense, cost-effective storage to address your ever-growing data needs. Designed for a new class of data-intensive workloads, it is simple to deploy and excellent for applications for big data, data protection, software-defined storage environments, scale-out unstructured data repositories, media…N/A

    Dell PowerEdge

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/ADell's PowerEdge R is a line of rack servers, offering a range of options from cost-efficient one-socket servers to four-socket servers designed to support intensive and critical data center workloads.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco UCS SeriesDell PowerEdge
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco UCS SeriesDell PowerEdge
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco UCS SeriesDell PowerEdge
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco UCS Series
    Flexibility, efficiency, foot print and converged solution are some of the differentiators for preferring Cisco UCS Solution.

    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco UCS Series
    WHereas all vendors provided a wide range fo x86 processor support, Cisco provided the most useful configurations. HPE needed to outsource to 3rd party vendors for parts but was the most cost effective Dell didn't have small form factor processors needed but did offer more …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco UCS Series
    The Cisco UCS Series systems have far fewer hardware issues than the competition and seem to run longer than what we would be able to. They are also easier to manage from an admin perspective with easy to use tools, the right diagnostic and alerting and remote administration …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco UCS Series
    Huge difference
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco UCS Series
    We choose this product over others on the market because it is simple to configure, and Cisco's help during the onboarding process is exceptional. Customers may choose from a variety of other products on the market. Also, the vendor-provided trainings facilitate the team's …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco UCS Series
    We started hosting for our SaaS offering using [Cisco] UCS [Series] and at some point, we wanted to scale up and out. This is where we looked for alternatives. This also gave rise to our multi-vendor strategy. Today we have more than 2,000 servers in our datacenters, a mix of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco UCS Series
    The Cisco systems are much more compact and you can fill it full of blades that are equally or even more powerful than the full-size HP and Dell units of similar specs. Cisco has managed to make everything super easy to use, wire, and configure. Once it's running, you don't …
    Incentivized
    Dell Technologies
    Chose Dell PowerEdge
    Better Management, Better ROI, Better Supply Chain System ensures timely delivery even in recent times where Supply Chain has become a big issue. Also ensuring timely project completion leading to chain effect like customer able to utilize their budget within timelines and we …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    94 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    85 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    95 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    79 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    17 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    85 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco UCS SeriesDell PowerEdge
    Small Businesses
    Dell PowerEdge
    Score7.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Dell PowerEdge
    Score7.6 out of 10
    HPE ProLiant DL
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Power
    Score9 out of 10
    IBM Power
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco UCS SeriesDell PowerEdge
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.3
    (99 ratings)
    10.0
    (23 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    10.0
    (16 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    10.0
    (16 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco UCS SeriesDell PowerEdge
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I like the solutions because they are easy to use and operate via Cisco Intersight. Also, the support is amazing, as there is no better support than Cisco has ever seen. I recommend it for companies to improve reliability and achieve easier operation without incurring overhead. The solution is ready to be used for any workload.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    An excellent warranty and excellent technical assistance can be expected from the PowerEdge C Series, which comes from a well-known brand with a long track record in the market. Scalability, physical space optimization and performance and dependability for handling sensitive and vital data like databases and ERP systems that are fairly sophisticated are just some of the benefits we get from Dell gear, which saves us resources and energy by up to 40%.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • It's very customizable. It's customizable as in you have a chassis, but you could pick and choose the size of your blades puff with full width depending on what your workloads are. So in a way, you're not locked in. It's not like you buy a chassis and you're stuck into one thing could go and put, you need something that's storage intensive or maybe you've got more graphics intensive workload. You could choose and mix and match in the same.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    • Good price - Compared to other vendors’ server platforms. In our scenario (virtualization) we found out PowerEdge offers the best price/vCPU and RAM ratio.
    • Customizable - We were able to select optimal memory/disk capacity for our use case. Other platform's minimum requirements were above our needs, hence needlessly expensive.
    • Good warranty and service - Our project did not involve creating a big cluster with a lot of spare capacity, so the next business day warranty came handy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • It’s about to be replaced, so I would rather wait until I try the UCSX series out, because it’s about to be replaced by a better version of it. So what I would have to say would need to be upgraded is probably being replaced. Well, I mean, some of the issues we would have with it or things we would like to have with it might be in the new thing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    • The value of 24x7 support is expensive, the value of 8x5NBD is more attractive.
    • The other superior models of the C series are more expensive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    Cisco UCS has been a highly reliable compute platform for our workloads, handling MSSQL, SSIS, virtualization (VMware vSphere), and analytics workloads with low latency and high efficiency. UCS Service Profiles and centralized management (UCS Manager, Intersight) make it easy to provision, scale, and manage compute resources efficiently across production and non-production environments. Our UCS setup integrates well with Pure Storage and Nimble HF40, delivering high IOPS, low latency, and fast throughput for data-intensive workloads. Cisco UCS hardware and licensing can be expensive compared to some alternative compute platforms, especially when considering cloud-based or hyperconverged options. While UCS can work in a hybrid cloud setup, it doesn’t natively integrate as seamlessly with public cloud providers like Azure or AWS compared to some newer solutions. We may need to evaluate Azure Stack HCI or AWS Outposts for future flexibility.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    It is the best server in the market.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    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
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    The Dell PowerEdge R range is just intuitive when you have skills engineers managing them in-house, although even with new members of staff on the team, the learning curve is very low providing they have previous general service hardware management experience. From the specification through to the management of this range, the usability is excellent.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    The platform’s redundant fabric interconnects, power supplies, and built-in high-availability features ensure that systems remain online even during hardware failures or maintenance. Unplanned outages are rare, and when combined with proactive monitoring, UCS provides a very reliable environment for critical workloads.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Cisco
    The system performs exceptionally well in terms of speed and efficiency, with pages loading quickly, and reports completing in a reasonable time frame, even with complex configurations. The integration of UCS with other systems, such as VMware vSphere and storage solutions, has generally not caused noticeable performance degradation. The scalability of UCS allows it to handle growing workloads without significant slowdowns. However, the performance could be slightly impacted during hardware or firmware upgrades, but these instances have been rare and well-managed. Overall, the performance has met our expectations and continues to provide reliable results.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    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
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    We consider Dell's support to be best-in-class compared to other solutions and is also reasonably priced. Their SLA targets have almost always been met, except for minor occasions that have had extenuating circumstances. The service staff is also professional and thorough. Overall, we are very satisfied with the level of support we receive.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    I would rate the in-person training as excellent. The sessions were well-structured, hands-on, and delivered by knowledgeable instructors who made UCS concepts easy to understand. It greatly improved our team’s confidence in managing the platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    The training materials provided were generally informative and covered the essential aspects of the UCS platform, such as UCS Manager, Service Profiles, and integration with other systems. However, some of the training modules could benefit from being more hands-on and interactive. Additionally, certain advanced topics, like complex network configurations or troubleshooting hardware issues, were not covered in as much depth. Overall, while the training was useful, there’s room for improvement in terms of depth and practical application for more advanced users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    We were very satisfied with the implementation of Cisco UCS Series. The deployment was well-structured, Cisco’s support team was highly responsive, and the solution integrated smoothly with our existing infrastructure. The project was completed on time with minimal disruption to operations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    Installation was easy.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    UCS integrates with VMware vSphere while adding hardware automation and unified fabric. Why UCS?
    Cisco UCS offers better infrastructure abstraction and automation via UCS Manager and Intersight. The integration of compute and fabric in a single system reduced configuration time and enabled faster troubleshooting. We selected Cisco UCS because it aligns with our long-term strategy, offering infrastructure, simplified lifecycle management, automated scaling, and reduced operational complexity. Additionally, we secured a significant discount from Cisco due to our use of another Cisco solution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    Against hp servers, Dell has outperformed them in terms of incidents regarding hardware memory parts. With the Dell PowerEdge R series servers we have not had any incidents regarding memory modules. On the other hand, with HP servers, we encountered a lot of failures regarding memory modules during the first year of implementation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    Cisco UCS Series provides a highly flexible architecture with service profiles, fabric interconnects, and modular blades/rack servers, allowing organizations to scale compute and network resources across multiple departments and sites efficiently. The only minor limitation is that careful planning is required to maintain consistency at very large scales.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • I'm going to start with the negative impact. Maybe in order to have the ease of use, you have to get some time to prepare correctly and to correctly to design the correct design. But now that you've done this time, you don't have to take that to get back to this configuration. You are all free. And this is the positive side, it's that when everything is prepared correctly, everything is smooth. So the use of the profiles, the connection of new servers, the decommissioning and the adding of new servers, the modification of configuration, everything is more easy to use and the less we interrupt user access to our service, the more the hospital is working fine and we can achieve a better support to our end users. And then to the patients.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Dell Technologies
    • From the perspective of physical server consolidations, when servers spread across multiple branch and remote offices are gathered into a central data center, this simplification process provides ROI in several ways. One, the configuration control, restriction of server access.
    • Reduce complexity and enable greater standardization of hardware purchases, which lowers costs.
    • Increased security of the move are important.
    • The costs of moves, add-ins, and changes are reduced, as well as the costs of travel time and maintenance.
    • Migrating legacy operating systems to a newer version via rehosting brings similar ROI benefits when it comes to server consolidation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Cisco UCS Series Screenshots

    Screenshot of Cisco System I/O ControllerScreenshot of Cisco UCS S3260 System I/O ControllerScreenshot of Cisco UCS S3260 Base ChassisScreenshot of Cisco UCS C4200 Series Rack Server ChassisScreenshot of Cisco UCS C125 M5 Rack Server NodeScreenshot of UCSC-C245-M8SX Rack Server