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Cisco UCS Series vs. Red Hat Virtualization (discontinued)

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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

    Red Hat Virtualization (discontinued)

    Score6.1 out of 10
    N/ARed Hat Virtualization (formerly Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, broadly known as RHEV) is an enterprise level server and desktop virtualization solution. Red Hat Virtualization also contains the functionality of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktop in later editions of the platform.

    $999

    Per Year Per Hypervisor

    Pricing
    Cisco UCS SeriesRed Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Standard
    $999.00
    Per Year Per Hypervisor
    Premium
    $1,499.00
    Per Year Per Hypervisor
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco UCS SeriesRed Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    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 SeriesRed Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    94 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    85 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    95 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    79 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    85 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Cisco UCS SeriesRed Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Cisco UCS Series and Red Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    Feature
    Cisco UCS Series
    -
    Ratings
    Red Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    7.7
    10 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings7.910 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings7.310 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings7.29 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings6.910 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings8.99 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco UCS SeriesRed Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Dell PowerEdge
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Dell PowerEdge
    Score7.6 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Power
    Score9 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco UCS SeriesRed Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.3
    (99 ratings)
    6.6
    (11 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco UCS SeriesRed Hat Virtualization (discontinued)
    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
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    Discontinued Products
    RHEV is well suited for organizations that need a cost-effective and flexible solution for their environment. As its vendor-independent software, easily install on any type of hardware. RHEV provides a GUI interface to manage the software, which makes the management of the software easier for the end-user. RHEV is best for non-production or less critical applications. RHEV can be easily integrated with other REDHAT software.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
    • RHV issues/bugs can be reported via Bugzilla to RH support. The service is great and typically responds soon.
    • Red Hat distribution integration is seamless as it is integrated into the kernel.
    • OpenStack support enables more customized VM templates and network configuration control.
    Incentivized
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    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.
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    Discontinued Products
    • 1- RHVM API is pretty slow, especially after creating a VM it is not possible to retrieve the VM details (i.e VM's MAC Address) fast enough, where we need to place a pause in our Ansible Playbook, make the automation process slow.
    • 2- RHV is still using collected to monitor the hypervisors which is deviating from Red Hat policy for other RHEL based applications to use PCP to monitor, which is richer in features.
    • 3- It will be great if it is possible to patch the hypervisors using other tools such as satellite and not only via RHVM.
    • 4- In the past Red Hat used to present patches in the z release (i.e. 4.3.z), and features in the y release (i.e 4. y), but starting from 4.4 that is mixed together wherein the Z release you get both patches and features, that is not good because that requires a lot of time to test when we patch as it includes features as well.
    • 5- Engineering team has to be more reactive when new feature is requested.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Discontinued Products
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
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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.
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    Discontinued Products
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
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    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
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
    RHEV is an excellent product, includes more features, is less expensive, and has rock solid reliability and is backed with the best Red Hat Support in the industry. RHEV uses KVM under the hood which is used by all the big players in the industry (AWS, Rackspace, etc) to lower their overall costs and improve efficiency and profits and that's why RHEV is an excellent solution!
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
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    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
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    Discontinued Products
    • RHEV has provided a positive ROI as our customers are not experiencing as many outages during maintenances.
    • We have not experienced any catastrophic failures as a result of vsphere losing connection to the ntp.
    • There has been a level of stability in our environment that was not previously experienced with our previous vendor.
    Incentivized
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    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