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Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE NonStop comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS B-Series
Ranking in Blade Servers
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE NonStop
Ranking in Blade Servers
12th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 7.3%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE NonStop is 4.9%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco UCS B-Series7.3%
HPE NonStop4.9%
Other87.8%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

MB
Head of IT Operations at NCC BANK LIMITED
Efficient server management reduces costs and supports seamless operations
Cisco UCS B-Series has reliably sustained smooth operations without the need for significant maintenance. Its administration capabilities provide easy access to performance reports, logs, and utilization data, which are essential for effective server management. Additionally, the integration capabilities are seamless, and the power consumption and heat generation are low, resulting in reduced cooling costs and increased financial benefits.
Roni Wijaya - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President of It Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
With a perfect record for uptime, the solution ensures a return on investment
Since it is a legacy tool, there is a need to change it for flexibility. I think now it has improved because the security is very good. It is very secure for the performance of the machine critical application service, and it is very good. I don't know how to speak more on improvement needed because it's a good enough tool. However, depending on the application, it's limited. Not a lot of applications run on HPE NonStop. It is not flexible because I know that because of the compatibility of Java with HPE NonStop. When we are using Java, the performance is not good.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Cisco UCS changed the server blade game, converging network and compute into a single profile-based platform."
"VirtualNICs/HBA allow us to redesign completely the IO schema (network and storage) without needing to upgrade or acquire additional hardware and controllers."
"I can recommend the solution wholeheartedly to other organizations."
"Cisco UCS B-Series is flexible as it can be built as a standalone system and expanded horizontally and vertically in a cluster mode, with a standout feature being the Unified Fabric which combines LAN and SAN, reducing the need for numerous cables and offering consistent configuration, unlike traditional setups."
"None of them have come close to the combination of performance and reliability that I get from Cisco."
"The solution is very unified and the technical team is very supportive, no help is needed from outside vendors."
"Some of the features I like from this solution are it has a fast configuration, it is not complex, and has high availability."
"Easy to deploy, scale and expand based on a number of server range available, with centralization for different resources including network, compute and storage."
"Technical support is A++. If there is a problem, HPE will fix it."
"Implement it. You will never regret it."
"The HPE NonStop solution is rated with the highest level of availability in the industry."
"It is a nearly perfect product, although it also has some restrictions and short comings."
"We don't have any issues with the stability of HPE NonStop."
"This is the standard for reliability and fault-resilience."
"If you are contemplating a fault-tolerant, high uptime transaction processing machine with above normal transactions volumes - to act as a transaction server with infrequent changes to code - and you simply must have bulletproof performance - this might be the ticket."
"The stability of HPE NonStop is good."
 

Cons

"It should be more user-friendly."
"The UCS Manager is written in Java and has many problems after the new Java releases."
"The high price of the solution is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The management interface needs a lot of improvement. As it is right now, it's a pain to use. It's not user-friendly."
"The aggregation in the data center is beneficial."
"The initial setup process is complex."
"Cisco is behind as far as SSD qualifications and options allowed, relative to other vendors, but that is in keeping with their philosophy of a stateless working environment."
"The initial setup is not easy."
"Currently the NonStop platform doesn’t support virtualization of servers or CPU’s. Only storage."
"The hardware fails often, and I feel that HP really needs to pay more attention to this issue."
"The initial setup is complex. You need the help of a consultant for it to go smoothly."
"It would be helpful if they brought the price down."
"NonStop (formerly known as Tandem) in the Guardian OS could use another, friendlier macro language."
"The NonStop Support Center is very good, with an occasional bump in the road."
"The NonStop system is well priced, but the software that runs on it is quite pricey."
"HPE NonStop could improve by having infrastructure management."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From a business point of view, the price is on the higher end."
"The pricing for Cisco is less than for the HP Proliant series."
"Make sure you work with a vendor partner than can get you a substantial discount off of list pricing."
"The licensing cost is a little bit expensive because by default, it depends on your fabric interconnect model. Most of the time, however, Cisco provides a lot of promotions to the customers, so the cost can be waived for many projects. The price of the chassis itself is fair."
"Cisco products are at the high end in terms of cost, but everything is included with the licensing fees."
"Cisco UCS does not require a license. However, this license is not specific to users."
"Every three years, I need to renew my license and support the product...Every time I have to opt for the renewal of the license, I am shocked to learn about the increase in the price of the product."
"The product is expensive."
"HPE NonStop is definitely on the higher end."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive, I rate the pricing an eight."
"The price of the solution is too high. If they lowered the price substantially it would open up more opportunities. It's considered a replacement for the old 9000 boxes of HP. If it had a lower price, we would be able to compete in the financial, and other sectors and other solutions such as Terraform. Having a high price makes other solutions more attractive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise41
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS B-Series?
Comparing Cisco UCS B-Series with traditional servers, while its initial cost may be slightly higher, it is not as expensive as Oracle Exadata, making it a worthwhile investment. It pays off in the...
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS B-Series?
There is a need for Cisco UCS B-Series to evolve and scale vertically, particularly with the increasing data demands and the integration of AI, ensuring the solution remains certified and capable u...
What is your primary use case for Cisco UCS B-Series?
The Cisco UCS B-Series servers are used to run backend databases ranging from small, medium, to large, running different versions of RDBMS such as Oracle, SQL, MySQL. It also includes cloud databas...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
HP NonStop, HPE Integrity NonStop
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Anonymous Banking Group, Artoni Transporti, Bellevue, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Hertz, Houston Methodist, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co.KG, Outscale, Sony Corporation, Talbots
Bankart, Capital Securities Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE NonStop and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.