Cisco UCS B-Series vs PowerEdge C comparison

Cisco and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Blade Servers category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.9. Cisco holds a 8.8% mindshare in Blade Servers, compared to Dell Technologies’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS B-Series

Read 73 Cisco UCS B-Series reviews

1,273 Views
885 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

PowerEdge C

Read 28 PowerEdge C reviews

128 Views
76 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS B-Series

PowerEdge C

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

PowerEdge C and Cisco UCS B-Series compete in the server management and virtualization market. PowerEdge C seems to have the upper hand due to its affordability, ease of use, and competitive features for hybrid environments, while Cisco UCS B-Series offers significant scalability and integration benefits but is more complex and costly.

Features: PowerEdge C offers strong virtualization capabilities with advanced reliability due to Intel's RAS feature and hot-swappable nodes, making it highly efficient and user-friendly. Cisco UCS B-Series excels in scalability and integration with storage systems, offering centralized management through UCS Manager and robust remote management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: PowerEdge C needs improved pricing, more intuitive integration with AI tools for monitoring, and enhanced iDRAC application features. Cisco UCS B-Series could benefit from simpler management interfaces, improved integration tools, and reduced complexity and costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PowerEdge C is favored for diverse deployment options and good technical services, though offshored support may slow response times. Cisco UCS B-Series provides solid deployment experiences but faces challenges due to its technical intricacies, requiring improvements in support speed and regional specialization.

Pricing and ROI: PowerEdge C is competitively priced with flexible licensing, offering strong ROI. Users appreciate its affordability with bundled offerings. Cisco UCS B-Series, although more expensive with high licensing costs, provides substantial ROI for enterprise features but requires more competitive pricing for mid-market competition.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C

April 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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PowerEdge C

Ranking in Blade Servers

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS B-Series is 8.8%, down from 10.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PowerEdge C is 0.7%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

Filip Kopecký

Chief Technology Officer at HOPI HOLDING a.s.

A highly stable and secure solution that has a straightforward setup

We are running many applications for a logistics provider. We do the storing of goods for our partners and transport and so on The most valuable features of the solution are stability and security. The solution’s pricing could be improved and made cheaper. I have been using Cisco UCS B-Series…

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Al Vasek

Executive Business Development Manager, Cloud and Managed Services at Presidio Networked Solutions

Supports business apps and VDI with reliable compute

The solution is all about compute. The solutions are easy to handle, priced correctly, reliable, and dependable. Cisco is similar but more complex to configure and usually more expensive. My team supports a lot of Dell, focusing on hybrid environments like Azure Stack, splitting workloads between high compute needs in databases, which are expensive in the cloud, and other workloads in the cloud.

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 feature that I found the most value is the abstract and stateless capacities."

"They've been responsive and helpful whenever we've needed assistance."

"In terms of the flexibility of the tool to adapt to technology needs, I think it is a very good solution."

"The initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward."

"Overall service and support from Cisco is very good."

"The Dual Fabric design allows for online/in-service upgrades during production with no impact."

"The most valuable features are monitoring and processing, which can handle a lot of throughput and are more powerful than the HPE series."

"The most valuable features of the solution are stability and security."

More Cisco UCS B-Series pros

"It provides the necessary infrastructure for our operations."

"It is a scalable platform."

"PowerEdge C is the best server I have worked with. I like that it's user-friendly. PowerEdge C performs very well."

"The solution provides good support and service."

"It's a good product. Virtualization on it is good."

"Every new version is better than the previous one."

"The management platform is great."

"The hybrid solution is much more stable than other products."

More PowerEdge C pros

Cons

"Cisco is expensive and difficult to manage. The product is not intuitive. It also needs to improve storage management and upgrades."

"The initial setup and service profile deployment can be tricky and should be improved for ease of use."

"Integration with storage could be improved."

"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 configuration is a bit complex, as it requires very high technical expertise to apply it."

"The upgrades could be improved."

"The monitoring features and integration with other products can be improved."

"The product pricing needs improvement."

More Cisco UCS B-Series cons

"An area where the product lacks and needs to consider improvement is by allowing it to integrate with some AI tool for monitoring."

"They could automate or simplify it more."

"The need to update the firmware and check if there is any bug in the product is one of the areas where Dell PowerEdge C falls short and needs to make improvements."

"A feature that needs to be added is the ability for full container storage."

"Customer service and support have been generally helpful but can be slow due to the need to navigate different specialists."

"The reliability needs improvement."

"The VxRail should be opened to allow other virtualization platforms to be used."

"We had a few minor issues with compatibility on the latest version during the installation process."

More PowerEdge C cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product cost is high."

"It makes much more sense for individual licenses for distributed environments"

"Cisco products are at the high end in terms of cost, but everything is included with the licensing fees."

"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 not a yearly subscription but a yearly support renewal that you need to do for Cisco UCS B-Series."

"The type of service level purchase will determine the level of support response that you receive from Cisco."

"There is a need to pay towards the licensing costs of the solution on a yearly basis. Price-wise, it is an expensive product"

More Cisco UCS B-Series pricing and cost advice

"We buy licenses for the solution's advanced features."

"Despite the slightly higher price, we prefer Dell due to the high quality of their products."

"PowerEdge C is very expensive, but personally, I think it's worth the price."

"The price could be reduced."

"PowerEdge C is a product that is priced at a medium range, so it is not too expensive."

"The cost depends on the configuration."

"PowerEdge C is a reasonably priced product, and the pricing depends on how many years you need the product. The cost also includes the support."

"The licensing cost of PowerEdge C is very high."

More PowerEdge C pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

15%

Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

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 PowerEdge C?

The solution provides good support and service.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PowerEdge C?

PowerEdge is quite a costly solution, and I would rate the pricing around seven or eight on a scale from one to ten with ten being the most expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PowerEdge C?

With reference architectures like VX rack, the update process is quite painful. They could automate or simplify it more. There are prerequisites to go through, and that's usually the only time-cons...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE Synergy vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 33% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 21% of the time

HPE BladeSystem vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 19% of the time

Supermicro SuperBlade vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco UCS E-Series Servers vs Cisco UCS B-Series

Compared 13% of the time

More Cisco UCS B-Series Competitors

Huawei FusionServer X Series vs PowerEdge C

Compared 55% of the time

Cray CS-Storm vs PowerEdge C

Compared 27% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs PowerEdge C

Compared 18% of the time

More PowerEdge C Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series

May 2025

Download Cisco UCS B-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Blade Servers

April 2025

Download PowerEdge C product report

Also Known As

UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series

No data available

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

PowerEdge C help you to maximize hyperscale performance with up to 4 independent server nodes, flexible storage and shared infrastructure in a compact 2U chassis.

Dell Technologies

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

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS B-Series vs. PowerEdge C

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