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Cisco UCS Manager pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco

4.1 out of 5

27 reviews
96% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Cisco UCS Manager is known for its scalability through templates, though expansion is limited to 160 blades. The hardware excels in power, and Cisco infrastructure is leading in switching and routing. While flexibility and management ease are praised, installation and firmware upgrades need improvement. Training access is challenging; hence, reliable support service is essential. Rapid server deployment benefits users but high pricing and needed security improvements could enhance competitiveness.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco UCS Manager is highly scalable due to templates that simplify system editing.

Hardware is powerful, offering stability and robustness compared to other options.

Management and flexibility are highlighted as key features, enhancing deployment capabilities.

Technical support is praised for its effectiveness and reliability, meeting company needs.

Multiple installations and configurations are streamlined, providing efficiency in server management.

CONS

Training on UCSM is challenging to obtain, resulting in reliance on support for unresolved challenges.

The installation and upgrade systems require enhancement.

Cisco UCS is not a scalable option beyond 160 blades.

The cost of Cisco UCS is high compared to other options.

Integration with other solutions needs improvement, relying heavily on Intersight.

Cisco UCS Manager Pros review quotes

Technical Specialist at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Jan 12, 2016

I strongly recommend that you go with a Cisco UCS solution for a cloud business.

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Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 24, 2016

The best thing about UCSM and the UCS B-Series servers is its centralization, which means from one location we can configure storage, network and compute for all the servers that will be using it.

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EM

System Specialist at MTN

Sep 19, 2019

The solution is highly scalable, mainly because of the templates that make it easy for you to actually edit on the system.

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Cisco UCS Manager

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AO

Senior System Administrator at Royalcement

Oct 6, 2019

The hardware is very powerful and it is a stable solution.

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Network and Security Manager at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Oct 20, 2019

Cisco Infrastructure is one of the top vendors and no one can beat them in terms of switching and routing.

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Senior Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 20, 2019

The management is one of the most valuable features of this solution.

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Senior System Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Dec 30, 2019

The most valuable features are flexibility and management.

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Infrastructure Architect at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 16, 2020

Ease of management is certainly the most valuable feature in this product.

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Sr. Lead Consultant - Infrastructure | Virtualization & Cloud Computing | SDN |NFV at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 22, 2020

The reporting functionality will give you any report you want.

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Data Engineer at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 2, 2020

Cisco UCS Manager is overall a good package because it gives a GUI interface and a CLI.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 27)

Cisco UCS Manager Cons review quotes

Technical Specialist at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Jan 12, 2016

We faced issue with Nexus vem licensing issue which makes our complete DC went isolated in connect

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Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 24, 2016

But the GUI needs some work.

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EM

System Specialist at MTN

Sep 19, 2019

I found it a bit of a challenge to get training on UCSM. I've been trying to get that for some time now. I feel like I have to figure it out a lot of things myself. For years I've to log calls with support whenever I've got challenges that I cannot resolve. If I had some training or more manuals, I'd be better able to handle more things on my own.

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Cisco UCS Manager

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Cisco UCS Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.

884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

AO

Senior System Administrator at Royalcement

Oct 6, 2019

The installation and upgrade sytems need to be improved.

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Network and Security Manager at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Oct 20, 2019

In the next release, I would like to see improvements made to their security.

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Senior Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 20, 2019

The pricing can be better.

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Senior System Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Dec 30, 2019

We have three data centers and if we could manage all three data centers using one interface, it would be great.

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Infrastructure Architect at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 16, 2020

Upgrading the firmware is a difficult procedure.

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Sr. Lead Consultant - Infrastructure | Virtualization & Cloud Computing | SDN |NFV at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 22, 2020

I would like to see Cisco UCS optionally work as a hyper-converged system because right now, it only operates as a converged system.

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Data Engineer at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 2, 2020

Cisco UCS Manager is not a scalable solution because once you have 160 blades, it cannot be expanded more.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 27)

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