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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 March 2026, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 7.2%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE NonStop is 4.7%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco UCS B-Series7.2%
HPE NonStop4.7%
Other88.1%
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 B-Series is scalable."
"The most valuable feature that the B-Series has is related to the structure and architecture of the solution because in these solutions, you are using fabric interconnect as an interconnect device. The beauty of fabric interconnect is that it can work as in-house mode."
"The servers' resilience was particularly impactful."
"It's faster to provision virtual servers than physical, and it has very good orchestration with UCS Director 5.2."
"The scalability, high availability, and security all combined is a good offering."
"Some of the features I like from this solution are it has a fast configuration, it is not complex, and has high availability."
"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."
"Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) provides unified, embedded management of all software and hardware components in the Cisco UCS, is scalable, and controls multiple chassis while managing resources for thousands of virtual machines."
"It helps us to keep the business running 24/7."
"They've been very reliable since we started using them in 1978, but we're going to replace them in a few years."
"Feature-wise, the most valuable one is the fact that it has 100 hundred percent uptime every year. Secondly, it is stable."
"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."
"Technical support is A++. If there is a problem, HPE will fix it."
"We don't have any issues with the stability of HPE NonStop."
"Because we're able to get immediate support, this prevents downtime and directly impacts cost savings."
"The stability of HPE NonStop is good."
 

Cons

"The UCS manager interface needs to be cleaned up a bit and can be streamlined, but no major complaints."
"The initial setup and service profile deployment can be tricky and should be improved for ease of use."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."
"The initial setup process is complex."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved and made cheaper."
"We have to have Java to manage the infrastructure. It would be great if we can manage the infrastructure through a web browser."
"Cisco UCS B-Series competitors have similar features as they do, Cisco needs to make some changes to make their offering better."
"They use LSI for their RAID, while they may be robust RAID controllers, they lack a lot of functionality that Adaptec or HP Smart array."
"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."
"I would never advise someone to buy or to implement the new NonStop because it's hard to find skilled people."
"If pushed, then the only thing I can think of would be utilities provided by the vendor."
"The NonStop Support Center is very good, with an occasional bump in the road."
"There were some scalability issues. When we decided to migrate an application or port application, the limitations of these servers did not help us."
"Currently the NonStop platform doesn’t support virtualization of servers or CPU’s. Only storage."
"HPE NonStop could improve by having infrastructure management."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for Cisco products is always high."
"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."
"We have to pay a monthly licensing fee for the solution."
"It makes much more sense for individual licenses for distributed environments"
"A physical licensing fees needs to be paid."
"The price of this solution is a little bit higher, but given that this system is Cisco, it feels more secure and dependable."
"Cisco UCS B-Series is not a cheap solution."
"It is expensive."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
14%
Performing Arts
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise41
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS B-Series?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is easily scalable.
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...
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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: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.