Cisco UCS Blade Servers
Updated October 08, 2025

Cisco UCS Blade Servers

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco UCS Series

Cisco UCS is our compute backbone of our Private Cloud. We have almost 250 UCS Blades distributed across many chassis and 6 UCS Domains. UCS helps us in providing reliable compute resources for our virtualization services to our needs. The NIC virtualization is the most effective feature that we use in our cloud. UCS stateless blades give us leverage to quickly reuse the blade anywhere and migrate seamlessly.

Pros

  • Virtulization of VIC cards
  • UCS Manage to manage all the blades and integration with VMware
  • Consistant Cisco Tech support in TS
  • Stateless Architecture

Cons

  • UCS VIX should support DPDK and SR-IOV
  • 25 G NIC full compaitability wth Nexus switches 25G ports
  • Cisco UCS Manager to manage multiple UCS FIs not just 2
  • After using it 5 years, much less RMA
  • Best Cisco tech support in TS sessions
  • Frequesnt updates for us to be compatible with Vmware hypervisors
  • Statelesness ease migration and reuse
We found Cisco UCS to be more reliable and less fault-prone than Dell Poweredge Servers. Although, we have both of them in our cloud.

Do you think Cisco UCS Series delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco UCS Series's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco UCS Series live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco UCS Series go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco UCS Series again?

Yes

VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, VMware Cloud Director (formerly vcloud Director), VMware NSX
Based on our 5 years of expeience with Cisco UCS, we can say that is best suited for IaaS compute virtualizations. I see it as a fit for all scenarios be it enterprise, DC, Corporate, anywhere.

Using Cisco UCS Series

Etisalat Internal Team from all business functions has different projects which are deployed on UCS.
8 - All Operation members has Cisco UCS official Training and Specialist in Computing Platforms
  • Virtualization
  • Multi Hypervisor OSP and VMware
  • Baremetal Appliance
  • OCP

Evaluating Cisco UCS Series and Competitors

  • Cloud Solutions
  • Scalability
  • Ease of Use
Scalability and integration were the primary drivers, while cloud readiness and ease of use reinforced the decision and future-proofed the investment.
Our Evaluation process is standardized, not required any more changes for now.

Cisco UCS Series Implementation

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.
  • Implemented in-house
  • Third-party professional services
Cisco Gold partner supports us to initially Deploy the UCS and Our Operation manages day to day provisioning and operations.
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled
  • Implementation went smoothly
  • We conducted comprehensive UAT test before going in to RFS

Cisco UCS Series Training

  • In-Person Training
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.

Configuring Cisco UCS Series

I think the product’s configurability is just right for this type of product. Cisco UCS offers a powerful range of options through service profiles and policies without being overly complicated, allowing us to tailor deployments to our needs while keeping management straightforward.
Use Service Profiles to standardize server configurations and speed up provisioning.

Plan Fabric and Network Topology carefully to avoid misconfigurations and downtime.

Coordinate Firmware & Lifecycle Management through UCS Manager to ensure smooth upgrades and reliability.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
no customization done to UCS

Cisco UCS Series Support

We get proactive support directly for Cisco as and when need to any TAC for upgrade cases
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
we always go for 24x7x4 support to ensure our Cloud is 99.999% available.
During a critical UCS firmware upgrade, we faced a service profile issue that risked downtime. Cisco TAC responded immediately, identified the root cause, and guided us through a quick fix. Their proactive support allowed us to complete the upgrade on time with no impact to production.

Using Cisco UCS Series

I would rate Cisco UCS Series’s overall usability as excellent. The centralized management through UCS Manager, policy-based configurations, and service profiles make it very intuitive to deploy and manage servers. Once the initial setup is done, day-to-day operations are streamlined and require minimal manual intervention.
ProsCons
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Centralized server provisioning using service profiles
  • Seamless firmware updates across multiple servers at once.
  • Automated configuration and management through UCS Manager.
  • Advanced troubleshooting can be cumbersome without deep UCS and network integration knowledge.

Cisco UCS Series Reliability

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.
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.
The platform delivers fast and consistent compute performance for a wide range of workloads, including virtualization, and high-throughput applications. Even when integrated with other systems or software, UCS maintains responsiveness, ensuring reports, applications, and services run efficiently without noticeable slowdowns.

Integrating Cisco UCS Series

  • SIEM
  • IBM UFM
it was straight forwards integration

Relationship with Cisco

Extended Support and Maintenance – Longer warranty periods and priority access to Cisco TAC for faster issue resolution.

Flexible Payment and Leasing Options – Options to spread payments over time or lease hardware to optimize cash flow.

Firmware and Software Upgrades – Inclusion of future firmware updates and compatibility assurance with VMware ESXi 8.

Training and Professional Services – Access to in-person training sessions and implementation support included in the agreement.
Discuss firmware and software roadmap to avoid compatibility issues with future releases.

Upgrading Cisco UCS Series

Yes - Yes, the new release went smoothly with minimal downtime. Thanks to careful planning and the use of UCS service profiles and coordinated firmware upgrade policies, the upgrade was completed within the scheduled maintenance window. There were no significant unexpected impacts, and all systems remained stable and fully operational throughout the process.
  • The upgrade ensured full compatibility with VMware ESXi 8, enabling smoother virtualization, better resource management, and support for the latest VMware features.
  • not planning as of now

Comments

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