Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

Most of the use cases for our customers are for AI. Nowadays everything is focused on AI, whereas previously it was for virtualization. Currently, everything is virtual regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers improve productivity and ultimately increase business value.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is management. We can manage it effectively. 

Improvement is always necessary for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers so that people don't take it for granted. It keeps everyone on their toes to continue improving. There is always scope for improvement.

We have been selling Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to our customers for quite some time, and performance-wise, it has been doing great.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are 100% stable and reliable.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers scale with our customers' needs. We can implement horizontal scale-out by adding additional Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The customer service and tech support for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are the best. 

I would rate the customer service and tech support for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine, keeping one point for improvement.

Positive

From a sales perspective regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, my team handles the hands-on implementation. According to my team, it is very easy to deploy Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

Some companies have seen return on investment within a year.

The price is competitive with Dell offering the best products.

From a management perspective, OpenManage is one of the best software solutions. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have been selling great.

I would rate this solution nine out of ten.

My current use case for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is as a node in a five-node VMware cluster.

We receive Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vSAN-ready, making it quite easy to install the ESXi software and get a VMware cluster up and running.

When trying to piece out a server for our builds, there are so many different SKUs—probably 30 to 40 SKUs—that it can be difficult to read. If that could be condensed a little bit, that would help.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for at least five years.

I have not had any issues with stability. Considering some of the environments aren't great, I think they are remarkably stable.

We have more than 5,000 people in our organization. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers scale for my company's needs. For the way that we are using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we have more than enough resources to run the VMs that we have running on our clusters. We currently have about ten clusters, with plans to bring on another ten or so in the next four to five years.

It's been great. We haven't had to call much, but I did have to call a couple of weeks ago, and the responsiveness was great. They sent out a replacement hard drive very quickly.

Positive

It was before my time. I am not sure what we were using before Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

I have not evaluated any other solutions during my time using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; however, Broadcom's purchase of VMware has us on edge, so we might be looking at competitors in the near future.

In terms of our partnership, I feel Dell is partnering with us effectively, although there is a concern regarding the new owner of VMware. I am more concerned about the new licensing model and cost of VMware going forward, not the interoperability with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

For AI purposes, I see it being used for troubleshooting, where we gather all kinds of logs and monitor servers, software, and related items. I'd want to get it to a point where the AI could pinpoint where the issue is and maybe even resolve it.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers overall as a nine out of ten.

On-premises

Dell PowerEdge R-Series 760 series and the 650XD series are owned by our organization.

We are involved in working with Dell PowerEdge R-Series in many ways, especially for virtualization software.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series does play a role in our company's AI initiatives. We also have AI-supported systems, for example in monitoring.

Dell in general plays a significant role in our operations. Dell PowerEdge R-Series, since we use it the most, clearly serves a critical function. We use it in many ways, and it is always helping us move forward.

The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series are definitely iDRAC along with the Lifecycle Controller integration.

The support alone and the way we are treated with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is worlds apart. When I have a problem, I am helped immediately. When I need a replacement part, I get the right one and not ten wrong ones first. That really adds a lot of value.

In the area of update services as well as support, those are our main points where Dell PowerEdge R-Series has noticeably improved our business operations.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be improved perhaps in terms of compatibility with other products. For example, we often have problems with Proxmox and Dell PowerEdge R-Series due to a bug. There could be some collaboration there.

At some point, we are lucky to have ProPlus support, which is really great. However, even they call it a day sometimes, and when you get into the follow-the-sun mode, there could be issues. We have had many discussions recently regarding another server about getting hard drive updates, and they suddenly said they were never installed. That is the point deduction.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for over six years.

We once had a problem with a defective RAM stick in Dell PowerEdge R-Series, but that was resolved quickly as well. It was more of a transport issue. Opening it up, pressing it back in, and restarting resulted in everything working perfectly again.

Dell products, including Dell PowerEdge R-Series, grow with our needs. We are always taking on new challenges and Dell keeps up with us and always stands by our side.

The support alone and the way we are treated with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is worlds apart. When I have a problem, I am helped immediately. When I need a replacement part, I get the right one and not ten wrong ones first. That really adds a lot of value.

On a scale of one to ten, I give support for Dell PowerEdge R-Series a nine.

Positive

I used several solutions from HPE before Dell PowerEdge R-Series, with which we were very dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction was mainly due to support.

I was involved in the initial setup of Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

The initial setup of Dell PowerEdge R-Series went absolutely smoothly. We regularly install at least two to three servers a month, and we have never really had problems with that.

I am not sure what distinguishes Dell PowerEdge R-Series itself, but in general I would definitely say Dell really stands out from other companies.

Pricing and licensing of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is a tough consideration. Pricing itself is good. I also appreciate the licensing because it is all-in-one, so you do not always have to buy extras. I find that good. However, the cooperation with certain products from Broadcom is currently very difficult.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is basically install and feel at home, so to speak, and I find that really great. Especially, for example, the rack rails. Even when working alone, you can install it by yourself and put the server in. That is definitely an advantage.

We switched to Dell PowerEdge R-Series because Dell could deliver to us faster and also had closer contact with us and could offer a better overall solution—the whole package.

My main use case for it is a server.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is rackable, which is the feature I like the most about it.That rackable feature benefits my company at the end of the day because it is easy to ship racks all over the world.Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of small-medium organizations, which stands out for Dell versus our competitors. They have a slightly nicer model for managing maintenance of BIOS upgrades and RAID upgrades, and I find it always really easy to get their serial number off the Dell iDRAC code.Dell PowerEdge R-Series has supported growth or operational success for my company because good servers sell good software.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be improved; some of the chassis could use a redesign, though I have older chassis, so I should go check their new models.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for a year and a half.

I have experienced some downtime or crashes, but we are at scale, and nothing is outside of the average normally.

I see Dell products growing with our future needs. We are horizontally scalable, so it is just the number of machines that we buy.

My thoughts on the customer service and technical support for Dell PowerEdge R-Series are that it is good; 10 would be perfect, so I rate it nine.

Positive

I did use something similar to Dell PowerEdge R-Series before choosing this solution.

The deployment of Dell PowerEdge R-Series has been straightforward.

The return on investment for me specifically is good maintenance or a good lifecycle, which I see as the biggest return on investment when using Dell PowerEdge R-Series.The lifecycle has been expanded because it is useful to use the older hardware that we have decommissioned for new use cases; they do not go immediately into e-waste. We are actually using them in other areas for things that we had not even developed a few years ago, so they have been well past their lifecycle, but it is still beneficial.

My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been acceptable, with no complaints.

I have considered switching to other solutions that do the same as Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series does not play a role in my company's AI initiatives, and I do not see it being able to do that someday as well.I do use an Intel processor with Dell PowerEdge R-Series. The Intel processor handles my workloads well compared to what I expected. I do not have a comment on any specific pieces of the Intel processor, but it does have high compute density and good memory bandwidth.I have evaluated other systems powered by other CPU vendors. I do not have a comment on what stands out with Intel. I do not have a comment on the differences or why I switched to Dell PowerEdge R-Series.I have no advice to offer to other companies that are considering this solution. I give this solution an overall rating of nine.

On-premises

As the Head of IT, I am involved in working with Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

My hands-on experience with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is complemented by my team that works with it, and I purchase and design the whole infrastructure.

Our entire infrastructure runs on Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

Since I have not known anything else for nine years, I do not know if Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that are specifically tailored to the needs of small or medium-sized enterprises.

The feature I find particularly valuable in Dell PowerEdge R-Series is the service.

What differentiates Dell PowerEdge R-Series from other servers is the service.

In areas where Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be improved, it is difficult to say, but for the most part, this is always a five out of five, especially regarding service and response times, which are already quite high.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series in the data center for about nine years, and this model is now in its third year.

Regarding failures, performance, and downtime, I experience no issues.

Speaking of stability and reliability, there have been no crashes, outages, or performance issues.

For my company's long-term plans, I switched to the APEX model, and that is very scalable.

On a scale from one to ten, I rate the support a ten.

For that, I have four-hour mission critical service, and that works, although I must say it is a pity, as I would have liked a bit more negative feedback to provide.

Positive

I had other solutions before, specifically IBM and Lenovo.

I removed IBM and Lenovo because they were bad in comparison.

There were specific reasons for switching, namely the licensing policy; in the end, for every tiny thing, I still had to buy an extra license.

With Dell PowerEdge R-Series, everything is simpler, much simpler.

I was involved in the deployment and initial setup of Dell PowerEdge R-Series the whole time.

Everything went smoothly during the setup; it was actually relatively easy.

Regarding return on investment, that was nine years ago, and it was definitely positive, otherwise I would not have done it.

The model I am using is Dell PowerEdge R-Series, specifically the PowerEdge 650 AX.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series plays a role in my future plans as well, but that is still coming.

What is still coming is my consideration of offering local AI as well, but for that, I still have to negotiate with Dell Sales to see if I can get a proof of concept beforehand.

The size of my company is hard to define; I am an internal IT service provider for affiliated companies, so we are a larger group and mid-sized.

Regarding whether I have over five hundred employees, I actually have under five hundred.

I am currently interested in smaller and medium-sized companies and would like to know whether Dell PowerEdge R-Series can or has significantly contributed to growth or business success, and it has, of course.

A concrete example where Dell PowerEdge R-Series has noticeably improved my business operations would be more in the client segment, so fewer servers and more on the user side, which means the rollout via Autopilot and Dell is a bit easier, but for Dell PowerEdge R-Series, I would not really know of a specific example.

Pricing is reasonable, as I already stated, and I did have other solutions before, specifically IBM and Lenovo.

Regarding product purchase via the AWS Marketplace, that is a good question; I do not even know how it was with APEX, as that was a bit more effort because Dell Financials was also involved, but I did all of that through Sales.

I am still considering whether to become a Dell customer or an MSP, but at the moment I prefer to be a customer.

I would give this review an overall rating of ten out of ten.

On-premises

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is primarily used for storage in my organization, mostly for web application data and databases.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has positively impacted my organization by helping us solve the business cases for our business requirements. It has addressed our complex business requirements that arose because applications were distributed amongst different data centers.

This solution has helped us centralize and manage everything properly and effectively.

The best features that Dell PowerEdge R-Series offers are that it provides a very stable environment and requires a much smaller number of people to support it.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series meets all our requirements, so I don't have a wish list for improvement. I chose a rating of nine instead of ten because there is always room for improvements in technology.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for three years.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is stable in my experience.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series meets our growth requirements in terms of scalability.

The customer support for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is excellent, and we have no problems with it. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the customer support a ten.

Positive

We did not use any other solution before Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has definitely simplified the deployment process and has been a great implementation, making a noticeable impact on my business operations.

I oversee the deployment of Dell PowerEdge R-Series and also design the monitoring solutions for Dell products.

We have not calculated a return on investment for this solution.

The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerEdge R-Series was very positive and great, and it worked out very well.

We did not evaluate any other option before choosing Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series does not play a role in my organization's AI initiatives. We don't have any specific metrics to measure success with Dell PowerEdge R-Series. I am using standard R-Series rack servers.

I would highly recommend Dell PowerEdge R-Series as it is a basic but an excellent solution for anyone looking into this product. I provided this review a rating of nine out of ten.

On-premises

We primarily use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for VMware and Hyper-V environments. We deploy them in financial and manufacturing industries, focusing more on small businesses. While most of our servers are diskless, we do employ disked options for small businesses, mainly in a tower configuration.

Cooling has decreased because we have fewer servers. Everything's been a plus. We don't have to attend to them as much. We have iDRAC Enterprise on them, so we can have quick access if needed.

The quality of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent; they never experience downtime. They are highly effective as VMware and Hyper-V servers. They have helped reduce unplanned production downtime considerably. There is a model for anything we need, and we have the flexibility to match servers to client needs, which can vary from diskless servers to setups involving disks. Another advantage is that they are not made in China, unlike some HP servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have pretty much progressed a lot if we look at what features are on them now. I don't know what more could be asked for, perhaps just faster performance. Every product release seems to be an improvement over the previous one, so it's hard to point out specific areas for improvement.

We have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for twenty years.

The Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very stable. They run like a truck, with hardly any issues.

Customer service and support are excellent. Although we are self-sufficient and rarely need assistance, when we do use Dell's support, they have never ignored an issue. They address problems promptly.

Positive

We previously used Lenovo servers and switched because Lenovo's support was inadequate. The Lenovo SANs were not as robust as Dell's offerings.

We are totally self-sufficient and generally don't need external implementation support.

We find the server pricing fair and reasonable.

Buy Dell. Dell is an American company, and their headquarters are here, which makes them a reliable choice over companies with products made in China. Tariffs on Chinese products could make Dell more advantageous. I would rate the overall solution a 9 out of 10.

As part of my role at BSG, I deploy or sell Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to customers who need anything from just a single server to hundreds of servers. Our customers run all kinds of workloads such as virtual SQL, AI, and more on these servers. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers support a wide range of solutions, helping to ensure flexibility to cater to various customer needs.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are valuable because many users utilize iDRAC for management, and appreciate the consistency offered by Dell's server line. They offer a variety of features such as the availability of AMD and Intel options, and Dell is starting to get into direct and indirect water-cooled servers for larger customers. This suits those who need specific power consumption capabilities for their GPUs, CPUs, and RAM. Dell servers are supported by many partners when it comes to different software packages and solutions like OpenShift. Additionally, they offer a range of models to fit different customer needs.

The price of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is competitive. There's always room for support improvements, and the AI features could continue to be enhanced as the relationship with Nvidia grows.

Most of the time, deploying Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is straightforward. It’s crucial to have everything organized upfront, such as defining workloads and management responsibilities. Once these aspects are clear, the solution can be priced and installed efficiently, sometimes with Dell or Connection handling the installation.

Customers looking for higher densities are starting to lean towards AMD to achieve more cores, higher density, lower wattage, and ultimately a smaller footprint with fewer servers. The flexibility provided by Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in terms of model variations supports scalability.

While I do not work directly with Dell for support, customer feedback suggests Dell’s technical support is rated between eight and nine. It is decent, though there is always room for improvement.

Positive

Clients may switch to Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for several reasons, such as better support, new IT leadership preferences, cost considerations, or successful engagement by sales and engineering teams.

The initial setup of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers requires having all the necessary information organized beforehand. Factors to consider include workload management, customer responsibilities, and pricing details. Smooth installation is achievable when these considerations are adequately addressed.

Deployment might require different resources depending on the solution. For example, VDI, virtualization, and SQL databases would need different expertise. Additionally, tasks such as rack and stack, power management, and water cooling could require specialized personnel, sometimes involving up to seven or eight people on deployment calls.

Customers are exploring models like Apex, similar to GreenLake, for consumption-based models that feel like cloud services but keep hardware on-premises, making them feel safer and potentially reducing costs. Some customers find familiarity with Dell servers aids in the process.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are often compared against other solutions like UCS, Lenovo, and Cisco. Customers may switch to Dell for its solid R&D, broad support, and solution flexibility though performance between similar CPUs across different brands tends to be consistent.

PowerEdge is a solid product, continuing to evolve with Intel and AMD changes and partnerships like Nvidia for AI. Overall, I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine to ten as the product has maintained a strong reputation over time.

On-premises