Dell PowerEdge R vs. Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers

We chose Dell PowerEdge R series because we need to consolidate a lot of physical load into a smaller number of nodes. Their hardware configuration, specifically for vSAN helps us achieve a high-density load in a very low number of physical servers. On top of that, they have lots of expansion ports, so we can increase our load internally on each other with simple upgrades.

Incentivized

It's possible that a Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers won't be useful in a less substantial setting. It is more cost-effective to buy separate servers if you need only a few. A BladeCenter would be useful if you have a requirement for several servers, require high levels of uptime and redundancy, or must share a SANS. I've dealt with other businesses where I was first instructed on how to use a mouse. Doing so is pointless given that you have been called to report a malfunctioning system. They are quick to respond, and if you require replacement hardware, they will even drive to your location to get and deliver the necessary components.

Incentivized

• 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

• The Lenovo BladeCenter has a management feature that notifies the IT staff when there are any hardware problems. It is extremely convenient to receive notifications for potential problems that we can address before they become problems. It also allows us to log into one place and see the status of all BladeCenter servers. That is very helpful.
• It is very easy to configure servers for purchase. You only need to choose the processor and memory, and maybe an additional card if you have special requirements. If you want the server to boot using it's own hard drives, then you would need to add that. If it will boot from a SANS, then that is not even needed. The rest is handled by the BladeCenter.
• The physical BladeCenter is designed to see if there are any issues at a glance. There are a led's on the front of the unit that allow you to see the status of much of the hardware.
• There is a remote management feature that allows you to see the servers from one application without having to open several remote sessions from Windows of some other VNC service. You can just open a web browser and easily click a drop down to switch back and forth to see your server screens. This is very convenient if you are doing mass server maintenance and restarting several servers at once.
• Hardware maintenance is very easy. Instead of dismounting a heavy server from a rack, or lifting a large server tower, these are light-weight blades that slide out of the BladeCenter. They are very easy to take out, add memory or change processors, or do whatever maintenance is needed, and then just slide back into the BladeCenter.

Incentivized

• Getting DSAT report remotely does becomes a challenge sometimes
• Server rebooting becomes an issue, it does not starts up easily
• Server heats up sometimes a lot, emitting lot of noice

• More parts for prompt delivery
• More courses with certification
• IA for implementation process

Incentivized

It is the best server in the market.

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.

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

Installation was easy.

PowerEdge R servers was selected by CIO. I think the servers have lots of benefits for our company and are well placed on our projects. In most business cases they are working good and our management have a clear vision to upgrade them to the same brand with better specs. Hope to see this upgrade in close future.

Incentivized

I find that IBM/Lenovo servers are more robustly constructed and provide more comprehensive online technical specifications, which are useful for troubleshooting and budgeting purposes. Their gear is strong, solid, and trustworthy. Hardware problems are extremely rare for us. IBM/customer Lenovo's service is top-notch; it's always quick to respond and really helpful. Support doesn't have you answer a lot of questions before helping you. Since they recognize you as a server administrator with some amount of expertise, they can converse with you at that level.

Incentivized

• 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

• BladeCenter servers are about half the cost of standard servers. To get true cost savings you must calculate the cost of the actual BladeCenter which may appear to be cost prohibitive, but it does have other benefits. We received ROI after purchasing 7 servers in a BladeCenter that could hold 14.
• Our budget allowed us to purchase twice as many servers as planned because the cost of each server went down after investing in a BladeCenter. It was easer to get approval for purchases and do what we needed as an IT department.

Incentivized