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Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Superdome X comparison

Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0. Cisco holds a 8.3% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 10.5% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.
Cisco UCS B-Series
Read 73 Cisco UCS B-Series reviews
  • 1,135 Views
  • 742 Comparison Views
98% willing to recommend
HPE Superdome X
Read 11 HPE Superdome X reviews
  • 1,252 Views
  • 782 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Cisco UCS B-Series and HPE Superdome X are competitors in the enterprise server space focusing on high-performance workloads. Cisco seems to have an edge in scalability and integration with its innovative management system, while HPE stands out in compute performance and reliability features.

Features: Cisco UCS B-Series boasts scalable network integration, a unified management interface enhancing operations, and seamless virtualization integration. HPE Superdome X is known for its mission-critical RAS features ensuring system uptime, robust compute power, and the ability to partition blades for flexible deployment options.

Room for Improvement: Cisco USC B-Series could enhance user-friendliness within its UCS Manager interface, streamline cabling complexity, and refine initial configuration settings for quicker setup. HPE Superdome X may benefit from better installation guidance reducing complexity, broader virtualization support beyond current capabilities, and cost-efficient scalability options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS B-Series excels in speedy deployment with efficient tools and supportive customer service, making it easier to integrate into existing systems. Meanwhile, HPE Superdome X faces deployment challenges requiring expert involvement but compensates with comprehensive support services.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS B-Series offers competitive pricing appealing to budget-conscious entities seeking faster ROI through integration capabilities. HPE Superdome X, demanding a higher initial investment, promises long-term value through exceptional performance, justifying the cost for reliability-reliant environments.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X
June 2025
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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
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE Superdome X
Ranking in Blade Servers
6th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 8.3%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Superdome X is 10.5%, up from 9.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

DavidMbugua - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable product with efficient automation capabilities
Cisco UCS B-Series manages various processes, including handling payments for over 650,000 growers, running group financials, managing human resources, and operating our main ERP system, SAP. The servers' resilience was particularly impactful. Even during power outages, the servers resumed operations from the last saved point without human intervention. The enhanced processing speed also allowed us to complete tasks that took two days in just one hour. The automation capabilities enhanced efficiency and facilitated integration with our networking components, particularly since we also used Cisco switches. The servers' security was reliable, and formal training on Cisco products made management easier. I rate the product an eight.
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OmobolajiOlaloku - PeerSpot reviewer
High resilience, performs well, and high availability
HPE Superdome X is used in my data center for our core banking application The most valuable features of HPE Superdome X are speed, performance, and resilience. HPE Superdome X can improve by adding a lot of cloud capabilities to allow this solution to be cloud-ready in case the customer wants…
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability of Cisco UCS B-Series is impeccable, as it has been running smoothly without any need for maintenance."
"The Cisco solution provides a unified dashboard which enhances virtualization tasks, allowing configurations from a single interface. It also helps with space and power management, which are vital for data center efficiency."
"The stability provided by the product is its most valuable feature for our organization."
"The initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward."
"The most beneficial feature is UCS Manager. It's the best way to manage hardware, creating group policies, like scrub policies and maintenance policies."
"The solution is very unified and the technical team is very supportive, no help is needed from outside vendors."
"The initial setup is simple, and not very complex."
"The scalability is very good."
More Cisco UCS B-Series pros
"The most valuable features of HPE Superdome X are speed, performance, and resilience."
"This product is very reliable."
"Superdome X is a system that can compete in terms of performance and uptime, but it's now standard. That is the great value. There are competitors like IBM, for example, but IBM has a propietary operating system. With Superdome X, you have a system that can run Windows, Red Hat, or VMware, but in a mission critical server."
"We've got a few of them, because we needed some really large machines. So far, they've been working pretty good."
"SDX gave us a very large RAM and we need that for the large-scale graph-handling applications."
"One of the really cool things about Superdome is, depending on the model you choose, you can put 8-16 blades in it."
"I like the robustness of the machine. Similar performance could likely be achieved with other configurations, but this machine is very stable."
 

Cons

"There is a delay in the product's reporting and the rebooting system compared to servers from other vendors."
"Cisco UCS B-Series competitors have similar features as they do, Cisco needs to make some changes to make their offering better."
"We have to have Java to manage the infrastructure. It would be great if we can manage the infrastructure through a web browser."
"The product could be made more secure."
"Previously, the unified port functionality allowed the same port to function as both FC and Ethernet, however, this has now changed."
"The solution is difficult to set up."
"The pricing could be less."
"This model does not support virtualization of the switch."
More Cisco UCS B-Series cons
"In this specific model, it could be beneficial to have a server configuration similar to Cisco, like the kind offered in HPE Superdome Flex X280. The ability to separate the chassis is important because we are forced to use two chassis even with lower loads. So introducing more flexibility in the Superdome environment would be helpful."
"I'd like to see the onboarding of some storage class memory to really expand the already very large RAM, into something that could be even much bigger."
"HPE Superdome X can improve by adding a lot of cloud capabilities to allow this solution to be cloud-ready in case the customer wants to move it to the cloud."
"I know we support Windows and I think it's Red Hat, and I'd like to see more OSs supported."
"What would make it better from my point of view is if HPE spent more time on testing with the actual built-in Red Hat Linux drivers, as opposed to always trying to say, "Use our driver.""
"It would be helpful if you could do the maintenance completely online."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"UCS is expensive, and we will be migrating to the cheaper HP servers."
"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."
"A physical licensing fees needs to be paid."
"The pricing for Cisco products is always high."
"There is a need to pay towards the licensing costs of the solution on a yearly basis. Price-wise, it is an expensive product"
"The cost of the blade servers is okay, but the cost of Fabric Interconnects ends up increasing the overall costs. For example, suppose it costs 3,500 USD per blade server. When you include the Fabric Interconnects, you could pay up to 30,000 USD. Therefore, compared to the cost of servers from Lenovo, Huawei, Dell, or HP, the cost of Cisco servers can be high. However, Cisco gives good discounts (about 90% to 94%) to partners and to customers who are already using Cisco servers. New Cisco customers do not get the level of discount that an existing customer does. Because you can get discounts with Cisco, I would give pricing a rating of four out of five."
"Pricing with Cisco is very high."
"The product is expensive."
More Cisco UCS B-Series pricing and cost advice
"There is a very expensive one-time cost with no licensing fees."
"The pricing is not very cheap. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being very inexpensive, and ten being very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS B-Series?
The licensing cost for three years, followed by an AMC for two years, is reasonable. However, the management software, Cisco One, is priced a bit high but still considered reasonable. No additional...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS B-Series?
Last year, we faced challenges with firmware upgrades, but they were quickly resolved with assistance from Cisco TAC.
See all answers
What do you like most about HPE Superdome X?
I like the robustness of the machine. Similar performance could likely be achieved with other configurations, but this machine is very stable.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Superdome X?
The pricing is not very cheap. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being very inexpensive, and ten being very expensive.
See all answers
What needs improvement with HPE Superdome X?
In this specific model, it could be beneficial to have a server configuration similar to Cisco, like the kind offered in HPE Superdome Flex X280. The ability to separate the chassis is important be...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 16% of the time
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Compared 37% of the time
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Compared 16% of the time
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Compared 13% of the time
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Compared 12% of the time
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS B-Series
June 2025
Cisco UCS B-Series reportDownload Cisco UCS B-Series product report
Buyer's Guide
Blade Servers
May 2025
HPE Superdome X reportDownload HPE Superdome X product report
 

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
HP Integrity Superdome, HP Superdome X
 

Overview

Based on Intel Xeon processor E7 and E5 product families, Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers work with virtualized and non-virtualized applications to increase: Performance, Energy efficiency, Flexibility and Administrator productivity.
Cisco
HPE Superdome X is an HPE server that represents a new category of x86 modular, mission-critical systems to consolidate all tiers of critical applications on a common platform. Engineered with trusted Superdome 2 reliability, the HPE Superdome X includes a modular, bladed design, and shares HPE BladeSystem efficiencies including a common server management framework, supported from x86 to Superdome 2. With breakthrough innovations such as the fault-tolerant Crossbar Fabric and Error Analysis Engine coupled with hard partitioning capabilities, Superdome X sets the standard for mission-critical x86 computing.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
 

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
Pella
Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X
June 2025
Free Report: Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE Superdome X
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