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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
7.0
Number of Reviews
309
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (2nd), Rack Servers (1st)
Rackspace OpenStack
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 4.6%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rackspace OpenStack is 7.4%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series4.6%
Rackspace OpenStack7.4%
Other88.0%
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.
SS
Manager Dev Ops at MSD
Private cloud control has deepened my DevOps automation and strengthened security practices
For improvement, I feel the documentation available for setting up and creating infrastructure using Rackspace OpenStack could be enhanced, as I personally find the existing documents are not sufficient for new learners or beginners. We can also work on improving the user interface; the Horizon dashboard is functional, but compared to AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, the UI feels somewhat dated. A more modern, intuitive interface with better navigation would enhance the overall user experience, especially for new users. Improving the documentation, including more real-world deployment examples, troubleshooting guides, and architecture best practices, would make onboarding much easier. Faster upgrades would also help; Rackspace OpenStack upgrades can sometimes be complex, so simplifying the upgrade process and minimizing downtime would assist organizations in maintaining their environments more easily. Additionally, improving monitoring capabilities would be beneficial, with advanced monitoring and analytics dashboards providing administrators deeper visibility into performance, capacity, and potential issues without relying heavily on third-party tools. Adding more managed services, similar to what public cloud providers offer, could reduce operational overhead while still allowing customers to retain the flexibility of a private cloud. Lastly, integrating AI could be valuable, with AI-driven recommendations for capacity planning, security monitoring, and automated troubleshooting improving platform management.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The biggest value of PowerEdge servers is that Dell is a brand name. I also appreciate the flexibility of the platform. I know how to configure PowerEdge servers and build a solution from scratch."
"I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers 10 out of 10. Nothing we have tested has been better."
"The convenience, because we can swap very easily swap hard drives when one goes down."
"This solution is really reliable, the storage functionality is our favourite feature, it is easy to work with, maintain and deploy, and it has helped decrease production down time by 25%, increased staff productivity by 25%, and reduced data processing time in our organization by 10%."
"Enhanced storage and compute density enables the R920 to run intensive mission critical applications for any midsized to large enterprise environment effortlessly."
"The quality of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent; they never experience downtime."
"Reliability is important for us. They are reliable, and the service is very good."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series is basically install and feel at home, so to speak, and I find that really great."
"Customer Service: Top. Technical Support: Top"
"There are many services that can be directly used which are not available in VMware."
"The initial setup isn't too difficult."
"The most useful opinion about Rackspace OpenStack is that it is very flexible, first of all, and the most important feature is that it is feature-rich."
"I like its integration with GitLab and its simplicity. OpenStack has a lot of third-party libraries that it uses."
"The open-source nature of OpenStack provides significant value."
"Rackspace OpenStack is stable and reliable, often compared favorably against other solutions."
"Administrators are very comfortable with the functionality and services OpenStack offers."
 

Cons

"The specs for the benchmarks are very good, but the firmware and software are lacking."
"The Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Server did not scale to our expectations."
"They could improve the time between new versions of the product."
"For products that are not part of the premium support package, it is a bit more tedious."
"I would also prefer additional improvements in the thermal design and the management of servers."
"Using Dell PowerEdge servers has not helped reduce any unplanned production downtime, and I have no comparison available."
"It would be nice if they could make the solution cheaper and faster."
"Since the start of COVID, there is a shortage of support resources and it is challenging to get queries resolved quickly."
"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."
"OpenStack is difficult for the novice in terms of beginning to use cloud tools."
"It should have a single dashboard for cloud management and on-premises systems"
"The pricing for Rackspace OpenStack is sometimes not competitive according to other market products, as sometimes the price is high for some components like Advanced Cluster Management (ACM) and Advanced Cluster Security, which are very costly add-ons, not the main license."
"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."
"The seamless integration between MySQL services and the rabbitMQ database can be revised during the debugging phase."
"Rackspace OpenStack can be improved because it wasn't clear that you have to cancel 30 days before; otherwise they charge you for the month."
"I cannot comment comprehensively on how Rackspace OpenStack can be improved, as I do not find that much difference; however, some areas can be improved, such as support for OEMs deploying highly specialized real-time telecom and media workloads."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an expensive solution."
"We have a strong agreement in place with our parent company, that typically ensures favorable pricing terms for us, although occasionally we may need to negotiate with Dell representatives for further discounts to provide competitive pricing to our customers."
"The pricing is very competitive."
"They are fairly priced."
"The high cost of Dell PowerEdge Rack Server licenses is attributed to the pre-installed Windows Server operating system from Microsoft."
"I'd like them to be cheaper, but that's not the world we live in and that's not where the pound is at."
"The pricing is fair enough."
"The pricing for this solution is competitive compared to others on the market."
"The pricing is low."
"I use it as an open-source tool."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business112
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise129
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise8
 

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?
Regarding how Dell PowerEdge R-Series can be improved, something personal to me is the number of PCI Express slots in the back; however, that is an engineering choice. Otherwise, I am happy with th...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers serve as IO machines for talking to PCI Express devices. The use cases change over time, and I push data to the network for in-flight compute.
What needs improvement with Rackspace OpenStack?
I cannot comment comprehensively on how Rackspace OpenStack can be improved, as I do not find that much difference; however, some areas can be improved, such as support for OEMs deploying highly sp...
What is your primary use case for Rackspace OpenStack?
My main use case for Rackspace OpenStack is that we are particularly using it for our OpenStack applications, where we are putting our applications on Rackspace OpenStack software day-to-day. A spe...
What advice do you have for others considering Rackspace OpenStack?
I rate Rackspace OpenStack an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. I chose 8 out of 10 for Rackspace OpenStack because every product has some space to improve. Regarding Rackspace OpenStack's AI capabilities, ...
 

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: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.