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Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs HPE Synergy comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Rack Servers (6th), Density Optimized Servers (3rd)
HPE Synergy
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Blade Servers (4th), Composable Infrastructure (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are IT Hardware and Infrastructure solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is designed for Rack Servers and holds a mindshare of 5.5%, up 4.6% compared to last year.
HPE Synergy, on the other hand, focuses on Blade Servers, holds 9.7% mindshare, down 21.9% since last year.
Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers5.5%
Dell PowerEdge R-Series22.9%
HPE ProLiant DL Servers18.1%
Other53.5%
Rack Servers
Blade Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE Synergy9.7%
Dell PowerEdge MX- Series9.6%
HPE BladeSystem8.6%
Other72.1%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1441011 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr, Manager- Network Solution Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Comprehensive support and integration ensure smooth cloud infrastructure operations
I may not be the right person to comment on advanced improvements because we are just using basic functionalities. We are getting all the functionalities which we used to get in other OEM rack servers. Potential areas for improvement may include a more flexible pricing model, better technical support, or tutorials from the vendor for users.
MR
Presales engineer and consultant at Hybrid Tech
Redundant components and single console management improve efficiency while high costs warrant attention
Regarding HPE Synergy, the most valuable feature is that the whole solution and the whole system operate in passive mode, and there are very few chances of downtime as all the components in HPE Synergy are redundant, including VC Flex modules and interconnect modules, as well as power supply and fan modules. Other networking and storage connectivity modules are also redundant, and we can mount the entire Synergy frame in a single rack. If we fully populate a Synergy frame with 12 servers, 12 physical machines could be mounted in one Synergy frame, mostly with redundant power supplies and networking ports along with SAN connectivity on a single console.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would recommend this solution to others because it saves a lot of space and it's very scalable."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack is the use of databases, such as MySQL."
"The intersite options for management make life easier for the operations and management teams because it's a single point of management for the whole server infrastructure."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution has improved our organization by easily integrating with our VMware and storage solutions."
"The solution is reliable and easy to use."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the expansion and replacement of parts."
"The solution is reliable and easy to use."
"HPE Synergy has been dependable for the past 15 years."
"Synergy is much easier to use, which is saving us time. We are able to set the profiles for firmware upgrades. This makes the process for the care and feeding of the IT environment much simpler, quicker, and cleaner."
"This is above and beyond anything else any of the competitors have on the market. If you're researching this, you're going down the right path."
"Orchestrating automations is great because you can connect to other tools with the REST API and automate components."
"Shorter delivery times. Where we now have a delivery time of about six weeks, we hope to go back to days."
"Being able to connect my 3PAR arrays to the Synergy platform is the most valuable aspect to me."
"Synergy has lowered our total cost of ownership significantly, I would say ballpark around 25 percent, maybe more."
"The initial setup is straightforward. The infrastructures as code enables you to fill out the configuration before you even deploy it, then it is just a one-touch deployment."
 

Cons

"I would like to see a little more integration with VMware."
"On the contact center and video conferencing, I would definitely like to see more AI features. The AI features are key for us. You will find a lot of them in the cloud-based solution, but in the on-premises solution, they're hardly there. I would like to see the same AI features that are there in the cloud-based Cisco UC."
"There is room for better integration with other brands."
"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."
"Definitely the support area needs improving. Especially the time response in case of hardware failure."
"I think the pricing is high. Cisco has to look for bundling this solutions with other applications."
"The only thing I would change is to provide more proactive support."
"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers can improve by providing customization features to allow us to deploy them on the cloud. For example, we need VMware to allow us to accomplish a cloud deployment."
"I would be more comfortable if Ansible actually rolled back the data used for automating platforms."
"The only issue that we had was our rack was too small. The product is heavy, so it took a lot to get it in there."
"In the past, I have had issues with configurations."
"In our case, it would not be an improvement over the way our company functions; we have unique scaling demands, and our storage demands scale very differently than our compute demand scales, so doing HCI anything doesn't really fit well with how we operate."
"There is certainly a feature or two missing."
"We've had quite a few issues with stability on this system, with the Gen10 blades - with memory specifically. It's been problematic."
"The speed in OneView and how it updates the entire configuration needs improvement. If they can do that, and it could be a little more clear on what impact different actions will have for certain things, that would be good."
"The cost is high or a big investment and that is a drawback for some customers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is approximately 20 percent more than other solutions."
"​Best to buy all the blades configured for the same purposes of load balancing and failover or load shifting.​"
"Cisco is expensive, but we didn't look at the cost of the product. We were looking at reliability and support."
"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"The price for Cisco is a bit higher than its competitors. We paid 40k for one server."
"The pricing is expensive."
"The solution is expensive and I give the price a four out of ten."
"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."
"The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."
"In our whole environment, the cost is in the millions. On this particular chassis, the annual cost is 12 blades times approximately $40,000."
"Our IT infrastructure costs have gone up each year by 20 percent."
"Nutanix was really hard to implement, and it was very pricey compared to what we get from Synergy."
"Synergy has lowered our total cost of ownership significantly. I would say ballpark around 25 percent, maybe more."
"The solution can be expensive because it requires both hardware and software purchases."
"We do CAPEX."
"When we made the purchase of the hardware, we added Professional Services to it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise56
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?
I may not be the right person to comment on advanced improvements because we are just using basic functionalities. We are getting all the functionalities which we used to get in other OEM rack serv...
What is your primary use case for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?
We are running AI on Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers, and we can do it sometimes even without any GPU.
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?
I would strongly recommend Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers to others.
How would you choose between HPE's Bladesystem and Synergy?
For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and stable. It turns out Bladesystem was the winner. Bladesystem is excellent because...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?
As far as the prices are concerned, rack mount solutions are less expensive than HPE Synergy prices; however, HPE Synergy prices are higher but justify themselves as the solution accommodates all t...
What needs improvement with HPE Synergy?
In my opinion, for future improvements in HPE Synergy, there should be better management of power consumption complexity as well as an increase in the number of servers that can fit in a single Syn...
 

Also Known As

Unified Computing System C-Series, Cisco UCS C-Series
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Rack Servers. Updated: May 2026.
893,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.