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Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs IBM Power Systems comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 2025

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 XE-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Power Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is 2.1%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 7.2%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Power Systems7.2%
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series2.1%
Other90.7%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

HM
CEO at Matrix ITS
Positive feedback highlights seamless integration and exceptional support
The reviewer primarily works with HCI, specifically Dell VxRail Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. Dell's HCI solution is considered superior to HP's in Egypt, where most customers prefer VxRail. For HP products, they provide blades, servers, C7000, and DL380. Dell's product range includes servers, storage, and hyper-converged infrastructures. Dell offers better pricing for server and technology, especially for HCI since they use VMware, which is considered one of the best hypervisors. Dell's Data Domain is recognized as the leading backup appliance globally, offering cyber resilience backup solutions. The reviewer has experience with Dell PowerProtect from eight years ago and Dell Avamar, which is particularly suitable for larger companies and virtual environments. They have also worked with Unity, VNX, and VMAX all-flash storage solutions, with the VMAX implementation using all NVMe (non-volatile memory). For backup solutions, they utilize GBS, Veeam, Veritas, and Dell solutions including DBS and Data Domain. The reviewer rates this solution 9 out of 10.
Foluso  Jibowo - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at Hiperdist Ltd
Has empowered enterprises with secure and cost-effective solutions
When discussing disadvantages, I do not see many areas for improvement because we have received good testimonies from every client. IBM gives customers peace of mind. One challenge, which I would not really call a challenge, is that initially people have the notion that IBM Power Systems is quite expensive. However, IBM does not lose deals based on price. This is a message we need to keep communicating to people who feel that IBM is on the high side in terms of cost. We encourage them to have a discussion with us about their total cost of ownership over three or five years. There is a notion in the market that IBM is expensive, which is false. However, once we engage and show them their return on investments and their total cost of ownership savings, they tend to embrace IBM.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is that it can support up to 32 drives of internal storage."
"The most valuable feature of these servers is the ability to store a lot—the capacity and the number of hard disk drives."
"Its reliability and consistency are most valuable."
"In general, it works well. We haven't had issues."
"PowerEdge XE servers are high-performing. We're hardly using 15 percent of their computing power, so there's a lot left over that we could utilize."
"The strong point of this solution is its compatibility with VMware and its resilience."
"The resource management features are valuable."
"The solution is flexible in my experience."
"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."
"The virtualization and the quality you get from it is one reason we like the solution."
"Power Systems is like a dream solution for every IT person because it has redundancy, and it doesn't stop. It doesn't get affected easily. I don't see any weaknesses in this solution. At the moment, we have Power8. It is stable and runs smoothly. We have a big load, and it is working very well. It can be customized based on our needs. Flash copy is helping us amazingly. We have virtualization for vDisks, which is again very helpful. We are working on this virtualization technology, and we have a team that is working on redundancy and architecture."
"Power Systems' best features include its user-friendliness and self-checking/self-healing abilities."
"The technical support that clients get from IBM is excellent."
"It scales a lot, you can just keep on adding frames, you can add on CPUs, you get capacity on demand, you can tune the machine very easily to handle different workloads."
"From a software developer standpoint, virtualization is really the key, as we can more easily spin up a new partition, virtual instance of IBM i."
"IBM Power Systems' best features are its reliability, resilience, and performance per rack unit."
 

Cons

"In future releases, there should be more support options for the latest processor."
"The quality and reliability could be improved."
"Dell PowerEdge XE Servers can improve by adapting HCI technology."
"We use OpenManager a lot, and that can be a bit clunky at times. They can make that better."
"The support team must improve the speed of response."
"I would like to have support for performing a detailed analysis of the server from a mobile device."
"Upgrading can be a bit difficult."
"It should be easier to extend PowerEdge XE servers. We haven't architected them with an eye toward scalability. They have a fixed number of slots for hard drives, which is enough for our present use case, However, we would have more options if we could extend that. We could deploy the servers in a broader range of use cases with different requirements. It's fine for our current deployment with only a few thousand users. We're exploring other solutions like such as VxRail or PowerFlex for larger public-facing use cases."
"There is a notion in the market that IBM is expensive, which is false."
"We have a problem with the storage software. The media to restore data is also not found."
"No available price list is on the web. Due to this, the customer cannot compare pricing."
"IBM systems are old technologies. I couldn't renew and get to use IBM Power Systems, and it offers users very expensive support."
"The pricing of the product could always be lowered."
"One of the main challenges with IBM Power Systems is the functionality of live partnership mobility."
"Sometimes, the availability of additional services can be a challenge. Certain IBM software takes time to deliver to the client. It can be slow."
"One of the features that we would like, and I think they are also adapting to the latest trends in the market, is to make it more open, more flexible... With VMware, anybody can create a virtual machine without any knowledge of the server side. But with AIX it's a bit difficult."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are different types of licensing available, that works well for customers. The product is not very much to purchase."
"Dell has competitive pricing."
"If you want an SLA for parts and equipment then you need to purchase a support agreement."
"The pricing model is quite competitive."
"This solution is priced very reasonably."
"You always want slightly cheaper, but overall, they are quite comparable and quite neutral."
"The pricing of the solution is very good because we can beat any other competitor with the pricing. Lately, they have offered good pricing for their customer."
"Why should I be charged for that use rather than a single CPU, a single socket?"
"The price of IBM Power Systems is expensive and could improve."
"IBM Power Systems is a really expensive product."
"The price of the solution depends upon the configuration part of it. Based on what configuration you want to go for it, there is a range like IBM Power Systems POWER9 and IBM Power Systems Power10."
"It's more about the value you get for the price. Considering its stability and performance, the pricing is good."
"Price-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten."
"IBM Power Systems is very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Retailer
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise42
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
For Dell PowerEdge XE Servers, particularly for standalone servers, extendability would be a great improvement. This feature is currently available only with virtualization environment. Adding exte...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
I worked with HP Blade Servers including HP Integrity and Altex for the banking sector where I sold blade servers. I have not sold HP Superdome X or HP NonStop. The customers are using it for big d...
What advice do you have for others considering Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
The reviewer primarily works with HCI, specifically Dell VxRail Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. Dell's HCI solution is considered superior to HP's in Egypt, where most customers prefer VxRail. For ...
What needs improvement with IBM Power Systems?
In my opinion, the product can be improved by maintaining it and not sunsetting it; that would be my recommendation for IBM. I used to work for IBM for nineteen years, and I know, unfortunately, I ...
What is your primary use case for IBM Power Systems?
I am an architect and system administrator, and I'm responsible for anything related to IBM Power Systems. In IBM Power Systems, I have found a lot of valuable features such as LVM, TCP, ODM, RSCT,...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Power Systems?
I would recommend IBM Power Systems to others. I have given this review a rating of ten out of ten.
 

Also Known As

PowerEdge XE Servers
IBM OpenPOWER LC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Epsilon, ROZETTA CORP, JIGUANG, RACKSPACE, NEW BELGIUM BREWING
Cipher
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. IBM Power Systems and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.