Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers Reviews and Pricing

it_user795903

Director of Technology at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees

Feb 22, 2018

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Excellent server solution with incredible network throughput

Pros and Cons

"Excellent server solution with incredible network throughput."
"It has centralized our server management and allows us to treat servers like a pool of resources instead of discrete devices."

"In the version we need to use, the manager is still reliant on a full Java install on a Windows OS. This is inconvenient and problematic if you have multiple management tools on different versions of Java or if you move to a machine without the appropriate Java environment."

What is our primary use case?

Excellent server solution with incredible network throughput.

How has it helped my organization?

It has centralized our server management and allows us to treat servers like a pool of resources instead of discrete devices.

What is most valuable?

Boot from SAN allows us to standardize all of our servers to boot up drives to the storage area network.

What needs improvement?

Not sure about the newest UCS Manager.

In the version we need to use, the manager is still reliant on a full Java install on a Windows OS. This is inconvenient and problematic if you have multiple management tools on different versions of Java or if you move to a machine without the appropriate Java environment.

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

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Free Report: Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers Reviews and More

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900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Best to buy all the blades configured for the same purposes of load balancing and failover or load shifting.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user576072

Network and Infrastructure Operations Manager at a individual & family service with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 26, 2017

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The solution has improved the new infrastructure development giving us the ability to create a compute-storage in-a-box solution.

Pros and Cons

"It is very nice and stable with an easy administration GUI."

"Definitely the support area needs improving. Especially the time response in case of hardware failure."
"Absolutely we had scalability issues. We tried several times to upgrade, scale up, expand our infrastructure, but Cisco insists to demand excessive amounts of money."

How has it helped my organization?

The Cisco solution has improved the new infrastructure development giving us the ability to create a compute-storage in-a-box solution.

What is most valuable?

It is very nice and stable with an easy administration GUI. It has reliable and compliant hardware components which are not "Cisco rebranded."

What needs improvement?

Definitely the support area needs improving. Especially the time response in case of hardware failure.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We only had hardware issues from two disk failures.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Absolutely we had scalability issues. We tried several times to upgrade, scale up, expand our infrastructure, but Cisco insists to demand excessive amounts of money. Much more than buying a new infrastructure. This behavior forced us to choose another vendor later and we downgraded of course the role of our Cisco infrastructure.

How are customer service and technical support?

Ι would say the technical support is average. Nothing special.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

It was a difficult decision but we switched for two reasons - better value-for-money approach and more compatible hardware.

How was the initial setup?

It was very easy and straightforward and it was done without previous experience.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would advise to be very careful regarding the pricing especially if they don't buy complete or all included bundles. If they plan to expand their infrastructure in periods, then simply Cisco is not a good choice.