HPE Apollo Systems vs Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lenovo are both solutions in the Rack Servers category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5, while Lenovo is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 4.1% mindshare in Rack Servers, compared to Lenovo’s 15.9% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Lenovo users who would recommend it.

HPE Apollo Systems

Read 22 HPE Apollo Systems reviews

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1,681 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Ser...

Read 27 Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers reviews

7,568 Views
6,322 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

HPE Apollo Systems

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Ser...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers and HPE Apollo Systems are competing products in the server market. Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers are favored for better pricing and support, while HPE Apollo Systems is seen as superior for its robust features, justifying its higher price.

Features: Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers provide reliable performance, customizable configurations, and are well-suited for enterprises with specific needs. HPE Apollo Systems offer high-density storage, advanced analytics tools, and are designed for data-intensive applications.

Room for Improvement: Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers could enhance energy efficiency, cooling options, and update management tools. HPE Apollo Systems could improve scalability options, integration flexibility, and cost management strategies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers are noted for straightforward deployment and responsive customer support. HPE Apollo Systems are appreciated for detailed deployment guides, though they face challenges with longer customer support response times.

Pricing and ROI: Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers stand out for cost-effective setup and quick ROI, attracting budget-conscious buyers. HPE Apollo Systems, while more costly to set up, provide significant ROI through comprehensive features and long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE Apollo Systems vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

April 2025

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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

HPE Apollo Systems

Ranking in Rack Servers

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (2nd)

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Ser...

Ranking in Rack Servers

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 4.1%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers is 15.9%, down from 16.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rack Servers

Featured Reviews

Gayan Senadheera

Director at Tyax Pvt Ltd

Offers higher capacities compared to other solutions, making it suitable for handling large storage needs

In terms of improvement, we could benefit from some training. If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo. Currently, we haven't received any specific training related to HPE Apollo throughout my career. If HPE Apollo provides training, we can share the knowledge with our partners, which could lead to more opportunities for HPE Apollo in the market. Deal protection and other support measures would also be beneficial, as they could help us achieve better results in this market.

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Adalberto Giaretta

Technology director at Infodive Representações e Serviços ltda

Reliable with an easy setup and good support

These are rack servers. We use them for applications. It stores everything including VM servers, application servers, Windows, et cetera The reliability is great. The solution is like any other commodity like Dell or HPE. These are all very similar. Setting up the solution is easy. It is stable.…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable. It is quite effective for the work for which we are using it. We are mainly running video servers on these, and we are quite happy with the resilience, density storage, and streaming capacity of the system."

"We're going to buy another Apollo 6500. We may configure it with half the number of GPUs because that may be all we need. In a sense, we can see the Apollo 6500 being so powerful that we only need half the GPU capability that we have now."

"HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products."

"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance."

"The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience."

"It's very reliable. I haven't had a single failure at all in the year and a half; not the slightest problem with it."

"HPE Apollo's most valuable feature is the ability to expand our storage capacity."

"Absolutely being able to mount into Omni-Path architecture, HFIs on those nodes, because we were the very first site in the world"

More HPE Apollo Systems pros

"It is a scalable product."

"It's very power-efficient and allows you to access the rack server directly without accessing the operating system on that server."

"I would say the stability of the system itself would be the biggest advantage."

"The most valuable aspect of Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers is the brand name and the service relationship we have with Lenovo."

"We appreciate the stability and easy mountings of all the machines. We have some direct connections with IBM, Lenovo, and other companies, and we get close support from them."

"The hardware performance is very valuable."

"Easy integration with UPS systems provides added convenience and efficiency for our operations."

"It is a stable solution."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers pros

Cons

"One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it. It was a very long wait-time. So, if I were to give any advice in regards to improving this product, I would say make more of the 8TB disks available quicker."

"We could, perhaps, use more GPUs in the future, go from eight to 16 GPUs per instance. That could run head-to-head against the DGX-1, the DGX-2 that NVIDIA has developed in their own chassis. That would be interesting to see."

"The solution's deployment, security, and scalability need improvement."

"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."

"There is a shared battery for all cache controllers in the node. When you have to replace that element, you have to take down all three nodes and not just one."

"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."

"The support from HPE Apollo could be better, they are making knowledgeable."

"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."

More HPE Apollo Systems cons

"The solution's initial setup was complicated."

"I would like the solution to be improved by having more advanced utilities."

"It is quite an expensive product. Its price can be improved."

"The RAID Management and the RAID Configuration tools need to be improved."

"To be frank, the technical support from Lenovo's team needs improvement. There seems to be a lack of support, and it is important for Lenovo to address this issue."

"It was complex to get this started because the Lenovo and VMware are not very compatible. We had to get some updates in order for it to be implemented."

"Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers could improve the availability of their solution. The supply chain is severely broken, we've had to wait many months for component parts to a system time after time. The availability of discs and raid controllers has been difficult lately."

"The performance of the solution could be better."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."

"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."

"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."

"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."

"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."

"As the costs got high, we had to use the virtualization feature to consolidate the server farm."

"It is too expensive. Because we are a university and we have to look for our money, many times we buy some refurbished machines or equipment at reasonable prices from IBM or Lenovo. We are a little bit limited in terms of money, and we buy as much as we can. If they were cheaper, we would buy more."

"The licensing cost is the same as HP. It doesn't have any additional cost. However, the price, for example, for the memory option, does not match other vendors such as HP or Dell. They should work on the pricing of Lenovo. It is a great competitor, and it should compete with the price."

"Its pricing is very competitive."

"The price of Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers is competitive."

"The cost of the solution depends entirely on the client. There are not any additional costs other than the standard licensing fee."

"It is expensive compared to other vendors."

"The price of the solution is very expensive when compared to other solution like HP or Dell."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

University

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HPE Apollo?

HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products.

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What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?

HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved. The solution should provide fast delivery when it comes to replacing a particular product that is under warranty.

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What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?

We use HPE Apollo for specific requirements of Linux servers.

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How do Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers compare with HPE ProLiant DL servers?

Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers offer flexibility and efficiency in order to meet mission-critical demands. I like that Lenovo blends outstanding performance, reliability, and manageability. The bi...

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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....

See all answers

What do you like most about Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is the easiest product to set up and maintain.

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 35% of the time

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 20% of the time

Dell PowerEdge FX vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 9% of the time

Dell PowerEdge XE Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 2% of the time

More HPE Apollo Systems Competitors

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

Compared 54% of the time

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

Compared 34% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

Compared 3% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems

May 2025

Download HPE Apollo Systems product report

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

May 2025

Download Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers product report

Also Known As

HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo

SR Series, Lenovo SR Series, ThinkSystem Rack Servers, IBM Rack Servers, ThinkSystem SR Series, Lenovo Rack Servers,

Overview

The HPE Apollo high-density server family is built for the highest levels of performance and efficiency. They are rack-scale compute, storage, networking, power and cooling – massively scale-up and scale-out – solutions for your big data analytics, object storage and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. From water-cooling that’s 1,000X more efficient than air, to “right-sized scaling” with 2X the compute density for workgroup and private cloud workloads, the HPE Apollo line is a dense, high-performance, tiered approach for organisations of all sizes.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

From growing small businesses to enterprise workloads, Lenovo rack servers offer the unmatched value, flexibility and industry-leading efficiency to meet mission-critical demands with legendary quality and reliability.

Lenovo

Sample Customers

Weta Digital

immixGroup, Komsomolskaya Pravda, SRG Global, Seekr, Infiniti Red Bull Racing, jKool, Tennis Australia, VEKA, Netpoints, Gamma Powersports

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

April 2025

Free Report: HPE Apollo Systems vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Apollo Systems vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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