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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Rackspace OpenStack 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
7.2
Number of Reviews
280
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (3rd), Rack Servers (1st)
Rackspace OpenStack
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 4.7%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rackspace OpenStack is 7.0%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series4.7%
Rackspace OpenStack7.0%
Other88.3%
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.
Bilal Inamdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Linux Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Flexible virtual infrastructure has supported complex KVM workloads and accelerated SAP-ready hosting
For Rackspace OpenStack security features, we currently opted for ShapeBlue one, which will be installing CloudStack. ShapeBlue is helping us in training. So, we are moving away from Rackspace OpenStack to CloudStack because CloudStack has most of the features that we require, and it is also lightweight. Rackspace OpenStack does not provide that thing. The product has all the things included, you can say like that. But the thing is, if you are a company, if you are a hosting company, you will require at least three to four people with higher expertise to install and get going with Rackspace OpenStack. It is very hard; you have to understand bits and many things about it, how it works. It is not something you just tinker around with. The second thing is we are moving to CloudStack because it comes as just a single package that I can install in a VM and I am done with it. I just need to configure it the first time, and everything, the experience out-of-the-box is very good with CloudStack. But Rackspace OpenStack is very assembled parts, you can say. Would you prefer an assembled PC or would you prefer an HP-provided PC, a branded PC? It depends on you. The main thing about Rackspace OpenStack is that it is totally built on many modules. It is approximately 30 to 40 modules, you can say. You have to learn and understand that, which there is a very steep learning curve. If I am not wrong, there is a very steep learning curve. There is not one way to install Rackspace OpenStack; there are several ways, approximately three to four ways. But it depends on who deployed it. Suppose a person deployed it in a different style; after one or two years, he got changed, and another person comes. He does not know about that style, then it will be very hard to navigate. Currently, Kolla-ansible, which we have, is very hard to navigate for me. Although it is very easy to install, it is very hard to operate because it works on Docker. So, there are too many moving parts. If you say to me, there are too many moving parts, and the visibility is low on that. It is very hard to have any issue with it. It is a very stable product.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers that I value the best is the iDRAC, as it is extremely good and simplifies tasks."
"Reliability is important for us. They are reliable, and the service is very good."
"Our requirement is 99.9999% uptime."
"PowerEdge is one of the top solutions when it comes to the security features that it provides including firmware, drift protection, and systems management."
"Our overall experience with their product and support has been consistently excellent."
"They are easy to configure. It is simple to work with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."
"I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers overall about a nine out of ten as nothing is truly perfect, leaving opportunities for improvement."
"Using the OpenManage console decreased the time it takes us to deploy new data centers; we can do in one hour what previously took us four hours."
"The initial setup isn't too difficult."
"Rackspace OpenStack is stable and reliable, often compared favorably against other solutions."
"The most valuable feature is the customization. With the customization you can really give the customers what they want."
"It was a very flexible and scalable solution. It was very useful because we were not dependent on a single vendor's solution. Increasing the number of machines or changing the hardware configuration was very easy."
"OpenStack allowed for mass uploading of images to Akamai cloud services."
"There are many services that can be directly used which are not available in VMware."
"It created a reusable library with OpenStack features."
"The most valuable feature is the customization, and with the customization you can really give the customers what they want."
 

Cons

"The solution could still use some more analytics."
"As the disks and memory should be expandable, I would highlight scalability as an issue."
"We wanted to have two storage cards during the onboarding process of the solution, which were available only on the more expensive version of the boxes that we usually use for work in our company."
"We have a cloud-first strategy, and hardware is starting to become more and more secondary, so we are not betting on it."
"More integration to third-party services would be a great upgrade."
"There can be more visibility on the equipment remotely."
"They could improve the time between new versions of the product."
"There is no advantage compared to other vendors when tracking return on investment."
"The deployment process could be easy."
"OpenStack is difficult for the novice in terms of beginning to use cloud tools."
"VMware has a side-to-side replication feature, which is still more mature than Rackspace OpenStack's which can't be used in a production environment."
"It could use more examples in different languages (API use cases).​"
"The pricing of Rackspace is quite high in the Vietnam market."
"We are moving from Rackspace OpenStack to CloudStack due to the requirement of human resources and technicality. There are lots of moving parts in Rackspace OpenStack."
"In terms of what needs to be improved, I would say the support. Rackspace might have some good support but the open source OpenStack doesn't have support because there are too many versions coming and too many people are customizing it."
"As a beginner, I find some difficulties in understanding Rackspace OpenStack, as it can be complex without a foundational grasp of cloud and networking concepts."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not a very expensive solution."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers is reasonable compared to other solutions."
"The overall pricing and licensing are fair according to the market."
"They are fairly priced."
"I know the pricing for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers went up last year, and we weren't too happy about that, but it is what it is."
"The pricing is very good because there are a lot of types of PowerEdge Rack Servers. You have the R540, R640, and R740. The prices are very scalable through the specific server, e.g., small businesses can take the R640 while large businesses can take the R740 or R840. Thus, Dell technologies touch on every organization."
"The pricing could always be better."
"The high cost of Dell PowerEdge Rack Server licenses is attributed to the pre-installed Windows Server operating system from Microsoft."
"I use it as an open-source tool."
"The pricing is low."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business101
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise117
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
 

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 do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
I think Dell PowerEdge R-Series should be continued as is; the service part and the hardware quality are good, but the only improvement needed is in the cooling effect. If overall weight could be m...
What needs improvement with Rackspace OpenStack?
As a beginner, I find some difficulties in understanding Rackspace OpenStack, as it can be complex without a foundational grasp of cloud and networking concepts. To improve, I suggest providing pro...
What is your primary use case for Rackspace OpenStack?
My main use case for Rackspace OpenStack involves large data management, as it provides a reliable database service. A quick specific example of a task where Rackspace OpenStack helps me is in hand...
What advice do you have for others considering Rackspace OpenStack?
I advise others looking into using Rackspace OpenStack to have a solid understanding of cloud concepts, as managing these aspects in Rackspace OpenStack requires a good knowledge foundation. I have...
 

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
OpenStack
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
X.commerce
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Rackspace OpenStack and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,830 professionals have used our research since 2012.