Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs. HPE Apollo Systems

Download the complete report

Helped 852,649 peers since 2012

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 C-Series Rack Ser...

Ranking in Rack Servers

5th

Ranking in Density Optimized Servers

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE Apollo Systems

Ranking in Rack Servers

6th

Ranking in Density Optimized Servers

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Density Optimized Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is 9.5%, down from 14.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 22.6%, down from 30.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Density Optimized Servers

Featured Reviews

Ehsan Emad

Head of IT at Synnapex

The VIC card is the most important feature.

I rate Cisco USC C-Series Rack Servers 10 out 10. If you plan to buy a C-Series, you should be clear about why you want to use it because the uses vary. different. Whether you're using Cisco, HPE, Dell or any other brand, it's essential to define your use case. For example, are you using it for a simulation graphics, calculations, etc.? Depending on the use case, you might want to go with a small server with more CPU. Sometimes you need a light CPU with a powerful GPU. For example, if we have a C-Series with four CPUs at the same time, or we have a server that's handled two CPUs at the same time—the purpose is crucial. C-Series is good enough compared to other competitors like HPE and the other ones. The HPE C20 is one unit and has a lot of RAM support, but the C-series is number one, in my opinion.

Read full review

Gayan Senadheera

Director at Tyax Pvt Ltd

Offers higher capacities compared to other solutions, making it suitable for handling large storage needs

In terms of improvement, we could benefit from some training. If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo. Currently, we haven't received any specific training related to HPE Apollo throughout my career. If HPE Apollo provides training, we can share the knowledge with our partners, which could lead to more opportunities for HPE Apollo in the market. Deal protection and other support measures would also be beneficial, as they could help us achieve better results in this market.

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

"We have many people in my organization using Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers in the administration."

"The C-series is the most valuable."

"The solution is scalable."

"The solution is easily scalable."

"The most valuable features of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers are integration and customization."

"In most cases, computes compute, and there isn't much differentiation, but one point of differentiation is Intersight cloud management."

"Excellent server solution with incredible network throughput."

"In terms of the features that I have found most valuable, that is basically the hardware, which is more dynamic."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers pros

"HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products."

"HPE Apollo's support is the most valuable feature."

"It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage."

"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable. It is quite effective for the work for which we are using it. We are mainly running video servers on these, and we are quite happy with the resilience, density storage, and streaming capacity of the system."

"It's going to meet our needs moving forward, it is scalable."

"The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience."

"Absolutely being able to mount into Omni-Path architecture, HFIs on those nodes, because we were the very first site in the world"

"It enables us to implement software defined solutions very easily, because Apollo servers are certified for use with Linux systems"

More HPE Apollo Systems pros

Cons

"The warranty and support periods should be extended."

"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack could improve by selling storage. Cisco doesn't sell storage, which is a problem because some customers ask for storage. There are several brands in the market, such as HPE, and Dell EMC. However, Cisco doesn't have any storage. This is where the tension comes from buying this solution."

"There is very little scalability for the cluster. If you need a higher availability, there is a user limitation. So that is the low side."

"The product's stability and delivery time could be better."

"I think the pricing is high. Cisco has to look for bundling this solutions with other applications."

"In the version we need to use, the manager is still reliant on a full Java install on a Windows OS. This is inconvenient and problematic if you have multiple management tools on different versions of Java or if you move to a machine without the appropriate Java environment."

"The solution needs more capacity and more scalability."

"The price of the solution is problematic, not the solution itself. It could be less expensive."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers cons

"I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding."

"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."

"We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there."

"We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo."

"We have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE."

"The support from HPE Apollo could be better, they are making knowledgeable."

"HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved."

"One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it. It was a very long wait-time. So, if I were to give any advice in regards to improving this product, I would say make more of the 8TB disks available quicker."

More HPE Apollo Systems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The server itself isn't costly at all, but the CPU and the RAM can be pretty expensive. You can buy a UCS for $2,000, but the RAM and CPU can cost up to $80,000. The most expensive asset is the intel processor, but it depends on how many cores you want and the technology you want to use on your CPU, like Hyper-V, etc."

"This product is slightly more expensive when compared to others."

"My company has an agreement with Cisco to get discounted rates. It is one of the reasons why we chose the product."

"This product is quite expensive and it would be better if it were cheaper."

"If they plan to expand their infrastructure in periods, then simply Cisco is not a good choice."

"The solution is expensive and I give the price a four out of ten."

"We have to pay for the VMware and Cisco licenses."

"The pricing is expensive."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."

"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."

"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."

"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."

"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Density Optimized Servers solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

852,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The C-series is the most valuable.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The solution is moderately priced.

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The improvement should be done as per customer requirements.

What do you like most about HPE Apollo?

HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products.

What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?

HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved. The solution should provide fast delivery when it comes to replacing a particular product that is under warranty.

What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?

We use HPE Apollo for specific requirements of Linux servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Comparisons

Compared 55% of the time

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Compared 24% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Compared 10% of the time

HPE Synergy vs Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers Competitors

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 35% of the time

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 20% of the time

Dell PowerEdge FX vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 9% of the time

Dell PowerEdge XE Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 9% of the time

More HPE Apollo Systems Competitors

Product Reports

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Download Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers product report

HPE Apollo Systems

Download HPE Apollo Systems product report

Also Known As

Unified Computing System C-Series, Cisco UCS C-Series

HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo

Overview

UCS C-Series Rack Servers deliver unified computing in an industry-standard form factor to reduce TCO and increase agility. Each server addresses varying workload challenges through a balance of processing, memory, I/O, and internal storage resources.

Cisco

The HPE Apollo high-density server family is built for the highest levels of performance and efficiency. They are rack-scale compute, storage, networking, power and cooling – massively scale-up and scale-out – solutions for your big data analytics, object storage and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. From water-cooling that’s 1,000X more efficient than air, to “right-sized scaling” with 2X the compute density for workgroup and private cloud workloads, the HPE Apollo line is a dense, high-performance, tiered approach for organisations of all sizes.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Artoni Transporti, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, City of Mississauga, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Kind en Gezin, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Nationwide, Quest, Talbots, University of St. Gallen

Weta Digital

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs. HPE Apollo Systems