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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs IBM PureSystems comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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

Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
307
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (3rd), Blade Servers (2nd), Rack Servers (1st)
IBM PureSystems
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure for SAP HANA (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 4.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM PureSystems is 5.7%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series4.7%
IBM PureSystems5.7%
Other89.6%
Converged Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

Tom van Mil - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Administrator at Lico Innovations B.v.
Supports flexible hosting needs through seamless upgradability and strong monitoring capabilities
The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me are the feature richness and the upgradability. I really love the way that it is so dynamically applicable for every situation, and they manage to have an all-in-one solution for every single situation. Dell PowerEdge has supported the growth and operational success of my company through its great compute power and price-to-performance ratio. Every time Dell is at the top of its game for us, and there is just no other brand for us that is able to reach that kind of price-to-performance ratio. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of my small company, such as iDRAC. The iDRAC system is a complete feature set for managing servers and hardware technically and monitoring-wise. It really fits in our system and our ecosystem, and monitoring-wise, it is excellent. They have all these sensors available via different protocols and end points, which I love, and the ability to manage and control everything via the iDRAC interface is just a welcome bonus. In our use case, Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very flexible. It is another computer which helps a lot because of the durability over time. They keep running, making scalability for getting more of those resources in our environment so easy.
it_user6186 - PeerSpot reviewer
Independent Analyst and Advisory Consultant at Server StorageIO - www.storageio.com
PureSystems, something old, something new, something from big blue
PART I For a certain generation of IBM faithful or followers the recently announced PureFlex and PureApplication systems might give a sense of DejaVu perhaps even causing some to wonder if they just woke up from a long Rip Van Winkle type nap. Yet for another generation who may not yet be future…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For a small, extra cost, you can get OpenManage Essentials with configuration management, which allows you to deploy pre-configured hardware templates making mass deployment easy."
"Using Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers has helped reduce my total cost of ownership (TCO), doubling the number of machines while reducing the power consumption for the data center and reducing the required sysadmins from four or five for 120 machines to a tenth of one person looking after 300."
"The initial setup is very good, not complex at all."
"PowerEdge Rack Servers are very good for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads."
"Managing it is straightforward, and the scalability aligns well with the needs of our organization."
"Using the PowerEdge Servers and the Dell switch stack interchangeably skyrocketed the firm in the office."
"My experience with customer service has been positive."
"I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten."
"The strengths of the system is how the Flex scales from a very powerful, next generation BladeCenter all the way up to an IaaS platform."
 

Cons

"Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be improved by expanding the slots and local disks. This is the main area for improvement because I have many environments where I need local space, and the slots limit how much I can accomplish."
"I would like to see more information about server health and the server's state, on the front. HP has a little screen that shows server utilization, how many disks there are inside, and the power consumption. HP also shows an alert if there is a malfunction of any device inside."
"Configuring the Dell was a bit more complicated than just using the HP since the HP was really straightforward about everything."
"PowerEdge has a high price tag. The price is a critical factor in our company."
"There's really nothing special about it, and Dell doesn't make servers that are any better than anybody else's."
"Currently, the solution does not have the in-process memory encryption technology."
"Access to specific card models can be limited, and sometimes we require smaller cards than those offered by Dell."
"The data analytics for this solution could be improved."
"The FSM does not quite deliver in the areas it plays too. A fairly sluggish interface that is more complex and less streamlined than it perhaps could be, holds it back and deployment of certain functionality from the switches requires more user intervention than feels necessary."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good compared to other products."
"The solution is expensive."
"Dell is somewhat more expensive than HPE."
"It's a one-time licensing fee for the device and we pay a quota per year for the support."
"It is very competitive. I have not been too involved in the licensing, but from a hardware perspective, I always find them to be competitive."
"The price is good for the quality of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."
"Dell is priced better than alternative solutions."
"This solution is reasonably priced and licenses are easy to acquire."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business110
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise128
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
I think Dell PowerEdge R-Series can support more storage capacity, which would be great. Most other OEMs are trying to ensure you have a one-stop shop for just one server where you could get a whol...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
My main use case for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is to use it as standalone servers but also as part of some clusters. I have some OpenStack private cloud deployed on them and some Ceph software-define...
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Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
PureSystems
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
ABT Online, Ascent Solutions Inc., Desert Research Institute (DRI), Reflexis, Esri, Avcilar Municipality, ValeCard, Computer Gross Italia S.p.A., DynaFront, Silvermoon Business Systems, Diasoft, BPTP, Temenos, Innovation Group, OneTree Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Converged Infrastructure. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.