I do not yet use the latest update, instead using the full solution which the client has. I use all versions of the solution.
We make IT use of the solution, employing several types of servers, for management, virtualization or whatever may be the needs of the client. The solution comprises a server. I use a standalone server.
Post-sales manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
A stable solution which is easily scalable, easy to set up and provides good tech support
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is easily scalable."
- "I can't think of any features which need to be added to the solution, all of them are good."
- "The price of the solution is problematic, not the solution itself. It could be less expensive."
- "The price of the solution is problematic, not the solution itself. It could be less expensive."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
There is no one feature that I have found to be most useful. I utilize all the features of the solution which I require.
What needs improvement?
The price of the solution is problematic, not the solution itself. It could be less expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers for around ten years.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is easily scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I feel the technical support to be fine. I cannot think of anything needing improvement in this regard. I rate the support as an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is easy to set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution could be more cost-effective.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We had plans to use VMware and then Cisco Prime.
What other advice do I have?
I still use the solution, installing it and providing support for clients.
The solution is not deployed in my organization, but in those of my clients.
I can't think of any features which need to be added to the solution. All of them are good.
I rate Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers as a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Implementation and Support Engineer at PRACSO S.R.L.
Highly scalable and fully customizable
Pros and Cons
- "The hardware customization capabilities are great."
- "I would recommend this solution to others because it saves a lot of space and it's very scalable."
- "I would like to see a little more integration with VMware."
- "I would like to see a little more integration with VMware."
What is our primary use case?
Virtual machines
What is most valuable?
The hardware customization capabilities are great.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see a little more integration with VMware. They used to have a plugin, but it was recently removed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is both very stable and scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is quite good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It was very simple.
What was our ROI?
Yes, we have seen a return on investment with this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This solution is a little expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others because it saves a lot of space and it's very scalable.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.
System Engineer at PT Nusantara Compnet Integrator
Easy to set up, good hardware abstraction, but it is expensive
Pros and Cons
- "What I really like about the Cisco USC Server is its service profile."
- "What I really like about the Cisco USC Server is its service profile."
- "This product is quite expensive and it would be better if it were cheaper."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we provide to our clients.
What is most valuable?
What I really like about the Cisco USC Server is its service profile. They're using software abstraction, which means that the hardware is abstracted as a layer of software and managed by the UCS manager.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been selling Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The USC C-Series is a scalable solution.
How was the initial setup?
I find the initial setup straightforward and easy. I don't know if I'm biased because I am quite familiar with Cisco products. It takes between two and three hours to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
Two people are enough for deployment and maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is quite expensive and it would be better if it were cheaper.
What other advice do I have?
This is a good product and I recommend it.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Technical Services Manager at ProComm technologies
Very stable, easy to use, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
- "It is very stable and easy to use. It integrates easily with Cisco's cloud-based UC solutions. There are tools for management that make the management a bit easier, but we don't use them. We don't use what you would term as power users."
- "It is very stable and easy to use."
- "On the contact center and video conferencing, I would definitely like to see more AI features. The AI features are key for us. You will find a lot of them in the cloud-based solution, but in the on-premises solution, they're hardly there. I would like to see the same AI features that are there in the cloud-based Cisco UC."
- "On the contact center and video conferencing, I would definitely like to see more AI features."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for our IP telephony. We use it for internal communication in terms of making calls, instant messaging, and one-on-one video calling. We also use it when we're working from home remotely. We also use Cisco Jabber as well as Expressway for Firewall Traversal.
In terms of the software, we're using the latest version. In terms of the hardware, we are two generations behind. We simply did a software upgrade on the old hardware.
What is most valuable?
It is very stable and easy to use. It integrates easily with Cisco's cloud-based UC solutions. There are tools for management that make the management a bit easier, but we don't use them. We don't use what you would term as power users.
What needs improvement?
On the contact center and video conferencing, I would definitely like to see more AI features. The AI features are key for us. You will find a lot of them in the cloud-based solution, but in the on-premises solution, they're hardly there. I would like to see the same AI features that are there in the cloud-based Cisco UC.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using it for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is highly scalable. We have ten people in our office, and we have deployed it for our use. Our biggest customer has about 4,000 users, but you can scale it to 40,000 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
We provide technical support ourselves. There are a few instances where we have to refer to a Cisco technical support person.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is straightforward. Normally, the installation takes four to six hours.
What about the implementation team?
We are an integrator. We implement it for ourselves and for customers. It is easy for us.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend this solution. We plan to keep using this solution.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
Director at Datasoft Comnet
Easy to set up and the support is good
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is straightforward and easy to do."
- "The initial setup is straightforward and easy to do."
- "The warranty and support periods should be extended."
- "The warranty and support periods should be extended."
What is our primary use case?
We are a system integrator and this is one of the products that we implement for our clients.
They are for general, mixed usage that includes use cases such as virtualization and hosting VMware.
What needs improvement?
The warranty and support periods should be extended. One of the things that we like about Dell and HPE is the longer duration of support.
What we would really like to see is more years of extended support. If somebody wants to extend it to five years or seven years, this should be possible because some of our customers really want it.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with this product for between five and six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable product and we plan to continue working with it in the future.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is scalable and is typically installed on-premises for customers who are small to medium-sized businesses. We have dozens of clients who use it.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good and we don't have a problem with it, although they have a shorter support cycle for their products.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We work with several vendors including Dell and HPE. When it comes to Dell, the warranty period is generally longer compared to Cisco.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and easy to do. It is not complex at all.
It does not take much time to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
Our in-house team deploys this solution to our customers. Not many people are required for deployment. Two people might be used for racking and stacking, and one person for the configuration.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is slightly more expensive when compared to others.
What other advice do I have?
We do not deal with the latest version because we find that for rack servers, the previous version is a little better. Manageability is not a big option for this type of server.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
Director of Technology at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
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."
- "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."
- "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.
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.
Network and Infrastructure Operations Manager at a individual & family service with 1,001-5,000 employees
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."
- "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.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated HPE DL380 and Dell R730
What other advice do I have?
Update the system with the latest firmware set. There are plenty of fixes.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2026
Popular Comparisons
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
HPE ProLiant DL Servers
Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers
IBM Power Systems
HPE Apollo Systems
Oracle SPARC Servers
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series
HPE Moonshot
Huawei FusionServer X Series
HPE Cray Supercomputing
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Are there any comparisons of HPE & Cisco servers using Benchmarks?
- Does anyone have statistics on how often a fire occurs in a computer room?
- Are there any comparisons of HPE & Cisco servers using Benchmarks?
- When evaluating Rack Servers, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- What's the 2018 Market Outlook for Companies Selling Rack Servers?
- Why is Rack Servers important for companies?








