Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We are running VMware vSphere and regular Windows servers. We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for server implementation, virtualization, storage, so basically virtualization and server support.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. They have also helped to reduce the consumption of energy. We have seen decreased consumption levels through our monitoring systems. The cooling system has been significantly improved in the newer versions and models of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The optimization of hardware and the ability to extend the hardware are valued features.

Pricing might be an area for improvement. There is competition, and lowering prices could be beneficial.

We have been using it for at least ten years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have managed to reduce the consumption of energy. We have seen that in the levels of our monitoring systems, which definitely show a decrease in consumption.

I've contacted them many times. The overall support is very good with first-class service.

We are using Pure Storage—the flash drives from Pure Storage.

It was easy. 

At the end, the cost benefit will be greater than the original investments. We just implemented the solution in our Mexico City offices. This is the first month for the actual payment. The benefit in the long run financially is structured so the company does not decapitalize. In the three or five years, we will have the newer equipment once the leasing is over or is renewed.

We are at the initial stage in our AI journey as a multinational level company. We are still working on testing, but it hasn't been totally implemented yet. We have done some automation with Python and are trying to use CoPilot for small tasks, but it hasn't been developed to a large scale. We are still in progress at this point.

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

We are using the Dell PowerEdge Rack Server for core banking applications. It is working fine and we are happy with it.

Dell PowerEdge Servers have had an impact on our organization’s sustainability goals. Their power consumption seems to be fine. We have not seen any issues.

We have not experienced any security incidents or vulnerabilities with our PowerEdge Servers.

We do not have much workload right now. We are happy with whatever we have tested.

Currently, we are facing issues with updates, particularly on the driver side. We did not receive proper communication about upcoming driver upgrades and other aspects. We are lagging in that area. We need to know about any upcoming updates so that we can plan accordingly. It could be that our emails are not registered properly.

It is a new company, and we started using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers only six months ago.

Until now, it has been working fine. It is stable.

Dell PowerEdge Servers have not helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. We are a start-up company, so we do not have much downtime. We have a downtime of five minutes or ten minutes over here and there.

I have not had the need to scale yet. Currently, we have only 50 users. We are planning to grow next year and have about 25 more users.

When it comes to hardware replacement and other issues I faced previously, the response has been good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

Positive

I used HPE in my previous organization. We are an entity within a group, and we were asked to go for Dell servers.

All the backend work is supported by a company in India.

We started only six months ago, so I cannot measure the ROI.

We are a new company, and we are at the initial stage of our AI journey. We need proper engineers for our AI journey.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten. We do not have much load at the moment. We are at the beginning stage, but so far, we are happy with it.

Our use case for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is data storage and computing for satellite images and AR picture generation.

It's required for our business. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers benefit our organization as we build satellites and use images from Earth to check the planet's health and constellation for telecommunication purposes. Our company is very young, with eight satellites in space, and we are still building the company.

Being in Belgium, which is a small country, we might be considered too small for Dell since we only have 40 Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. This sometimes affects our ability to receive deployment support.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for ten years.

We've 300 people in our organization. I believe Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers can grow with our business. Our company has a megafactory for satellites, making us the biggest company in Europe for satellites and the third in the world. Dell can support us in growing the company and developing our IT infrastructure.

The customer service is excellent, but we don't always get deployment support.

Positive

I have used HPE servers previously.

It's very easy to deploy Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

I did not evaluate other solutions besides Dell when we were looking because our IT manager had previous experience with Dell, and we continued with that decision.

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

On-premises

Our use case for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is as a private cloud. We have three products: utility computing where we use servers for bare metal configuration for our customers, private cloud, and integration of private cloud with hyperscalers.

The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are its flexibility and performance of the servers which are very good. I have been using PowerEdge for almost 25 to 30 years in my server rooms and data centers. I trust them more than other products because I have been managing not just data centers but also the internal IT of Tech Mahindra. I have been seeing a lot of improvements in Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as we progress forward.

Onsite support can improve hands and feet as we progress forward, but the remote site support is very good. The dispatch services are outsourced to small and medium companies, so we don't get consistent support.

We have been using PowerEdge for a very long time, and I have been using it for almost 25 to 30 years in my server rooms and data centers.

We want to see what the approach is on generative AI as we move forward. On AI, we need to understand how this is going to scale, as AI is a different animal altogether.

I evaluate the customer service and support for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as good; it has been good, and we don't find any problems.

Positive

We are using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for AI initiatives as we move forward because we have developed infrastructure as code for our customers, and we are bringing generative AI and writing LLMs for that. We will definitely be using our systems for that in our data centers, GPU as a service.

Overall, I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers ten out of ten.

Private Cloud

Other

We use Dell PowerEdge for databases, file servers, and virtualization.

PowerEdge reduces energy consumption by achieving the same results with fewer servers and more virtualization. We're starting our AI journey with some AI workloads running on R750 servers. I don't have much insight into the applications, but I recommend Dell servers to colleagues who want to run AI workloads. In the end, the benefit outweighs the cost. 

We constantly upgrade to newer hardware, and everything stays the same but with updated architecture. This consistency is good for our technicians on the data center side. We also appreciate the integration with VMware. It keeps things simple for us. 

We use PowerEdge servers in conjunction with VMware, a VCF Rack, and VxRail. That has worked out well. We are using it for firmware upgrades and other similar tasks. It's a one-stop shop, but it could be better when the servers aren't on a VCF stack. Profile handling and upgrading standalone servers could improve, but they have gotten better over the years.

I have used Dell servers for 20 years. I've used Dell PowerEdge servers at my current company for six years, but I used them at other jobs. 

We don't have issues with PowerEdge except for occasional hardware problems. 

We can easily scale PowerEdge. We have a good platform on the software side, so we just scale out with more servers. We have had some issues scaling up more ports, but that's hardware. Nothing scales to infinity. We've had no problem handling high-performance workloads. We upgrade every few years to the latest and fastest hardware when necessary. 

I rate Dell support nine out of 10. They've helped us get the platform running and perform remote upgrades. They've been a good intermediary contact point for discussions with VMware and Broadcom. I talk with the support engineer, who talks with the networking team or someone else.

Positive

We have used HP and IBM Servers. Initially, we decided to adopt Dell because they offered a better price point. We are satisfied with the solution and will continue to use it. 

I rate PowerEdge eight out of 10 for ease of deployment. 

We deployed the servers using consultants this time, but we've used Dell professional services before. Our experience with consultants was good. 

I rate PowerEdge Rack Servers eight out of 10. 

On-premises

Regarding running AI workloads, I have not used Dell PowerEdge R-Series extensively, as I just received it. It functions more as a secondary Active Directory server, so it is not something I use with a heavy application server.

In terms of how Dell PowerEdge R-Series has benefited my organization, I do not see any difference from HP; I do not see much difference.

When considering what I find most valuable about Dell PowerEdge R-Series, I feel HP is better. I obtained Dell to see how it performs, and I do not see much value compared to the HP servers I have since I only have one server that functions as an AD server, so there is not much I do on Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

In terms of overall flexibility, I would say Dell PowerEdge R-Series is interoperable with HP. I would say it has flexibility for my business.

When rating Dell PowerEdge R-Series from one to ten, I would say seven. I have not used it much; however, it has been very stable, and I have never had any issues with upgrades or firmware upgrades, and everything is feasible.

When considering stability and reliability, I appreciate the service of Dell when I call them for support. They are much better than HP because lately HP has really declined. For example, I have to register even to download software, but I did not notice that with Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

I chose to switch from HP to Dell PowerEdge R-Series because we have always been HP, and I wanted to try a different server. Dell PowerEdge R-Series was more cost-effective than the HP servers.

To be honest, because I only have one server, I have not done much comparing HP and Dell PowerEdge R-Series, but I still prefer HP over Dell because I am more comfortable with it.

The model of our Dell PowerEdge R-Series is RX350.

I rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series overall as a seven out of ten, where one is worst and ten is best. I have not used it extensively; it is a secondary AD server. Since I have not used it extensively for a heavy application such as database or SQL Server database or a website, it sits there and replicates from the main HP servers. It has been very stable, and I have never had any issues with upgrades or firmware upgrades, and everything is feasible. My overall rating for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is seven out of ten.

I use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as the main server for my network. I install Windows Server and utilize all the features it offers for my network management.

I use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as the main server for my network. I install Windows Server and utilize all the features it offers for my network management. One of the valuable features is Active Directory, which helps in managing the network. Additionally, it is used as the active server for my network.

I would like Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to be faster and more secure. Improving these aspects would be beneficial. If possible, I would also appreciate a reduction in price.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for about sixteen years.

The deployment of Windows Server on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers was very easy. Implementing Windows Server is straightforward.

The product is very stable.

I haven't faced any problems with the servers, so I haven't had any reason to contact customer service.

Positive

I previously used HP servers before switching to Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The initial setup was very easy with Windows Server.

I used Windows Server for deployment and did not utilize any specific Dell deployment services or consultants.

I have not seen a return on investment.

The price of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is not cheap, especially considering the currency circumstances in Egypt. I purchased it for approximately 500,000 Egyptian pounds.

I use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as the main server for my network. I install Windows Server and utilize all the features it offers for my network management. One of the valuable features is Active Directory, which helps in managing the network. Additionally, it is used as the active server for my network. I would rate the overall solution as eight to nine out of ten.

On-premises

We started full-scale deployment in 2013 exclusively with Dell PowerEdge. We have the fourth generation of servers. We went from 720, 730, 740, and now 760. I have all the models.

We use PowerEdge to connect directly to electronics and readout systems so it is all deployed on-prem, on a private network with no connection to the outside.

I work in a research environment. We use these 400 huge clusters to connect to the electronics of readout detectors to read the data out of the homemade front-end electronics and then assemble the data files to be analyzed. It's moving data between electronics and the IT world of storage grid analysis, etcetera. I'm the service manager only for the readout part and that is already enough of a job.

Our servers are on the private network completely disconnected from the outside world. It's less of an issue than it would be for a front-end server to the Wild West. The whole firmware handling what Dell is doing through OAK Management Enterprise or other tools from the iDRAC is also important so that we get signed from the packages we can trust that were tested and don't render our server into a brick. When I get a maintenance window, it's once every four, or five months for four hours. I don't have time to do something, figure out if it doesn't work, and undo it. It has to work with the first job. Resilience in total globally is also important. I can install firmware and updates and have trust that it will work.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are good for power consumption compared to other brands. When we buy our Servers, we always take platinum, it's the best quality power supply. Maybe the others consume more power but I can certainly compare them to other platforms or vendors, and they are absolutely on the low side. Now with the 16th generation that came out, there's another huge step in the positive direction compared to the previous generations. In general, every time there's a new generation, I see that we get the same computing power for less electrical power. It moves in a good direction. We cut our energy consumption by half. This has saved us costs because we are running 300 days a year 24/7 on a full load. Thanks to PowerEdge we can lower our energy consumption lower than the competitors.

In our case, we figured out how much computing power we needed and bought more from the start. However, I'm spending my days buying memory and plugging additional memory. The change increases network bandwidth by changing onboarding functions. The memory capacity you can plug in is absolutely impressive for the bigger form factor. We can go through terabytes of memory without a problem. This is something impressive for me as we can open the chassis, and see how it's engineered inside so that we can easily access all the components, and change components without hours and hours of dismantling it. It is a bottom-up engineered product.

PowerEdge Rack Servers' impact on our sustainability goals is important but hidden. Based in Switzerland, we have to abide by the Swiss sustainability laws, which now forbid heat waste. If we build a data center now, we have to recuperate the heating and do something with it. We're no longer allowed to blow out the energy. 

For example, we are building new data centers now that are collecting it, and there's a residential area around it, and we heat the houses through hot water heating. We are legally obliged to do that. The times when we put a chiller outside and blow energy out are gone. That's the core context. If, when we started with the PowerEdge already at the time, we were 100 kilowatts for one room, we moved the junk out and put the first PowerEdge Servers in, and the power consumption went down to 80. So we recovered 20 percent for more computing. That was already more than ten years ago. by now, we have gone down to less than 50 with the latest generation of PowerEdge. So we are going down in power consumption while at the same time providing more computing power to the users. This is very important because the infrastructure to recuperate the heat costs money as well. The less I consume, the less I have to pay to recuperate it afterward.

There are two valuable features for me. Number one, we are always at the edge of technology, Dell is a great partner, so going to Austin to the HBC Lab, so we can test machines and platforms before they go commercial so we can adapt our developments because we plug homemade cards into the Servers. We have to make sure they're compatible. That's the development side. 

On the operations side, the value of service is always underestimated in terms of debugging, availability of spare parts, and the fact that they don't explode weekly. The quality of the products, the monitoring, the managed enterprise, pro support, TechDirect, self-dispatch of spare parts, etcetera, all of this allows us to run in the order of 500 servers if you take other clusters together. It is a tenth of a human host of a full-time equivalent. This means that if you would scale up linearly, one person could take care of 3000 Servers. That's quite impactful. Google published three people for 1000. We are doing one person for 3000. That allows us to free human resources for other tasks. The last time somebody had to go to the data center for support was five months ago. We could do many functions remotely, so there was no hardware fault. We could do daily maintenance remotely through iDRAC. Its remote management capabilities are one in a lifetime. I don't know any other platforms that offer the same level of manageability.

The world market for CPUs is excited. We have new ideas popping up left and right like new accelerator cards because there are GPUs. Dell is already working with Kalray, for example, that builds accelerator cards. There are new FPGA cards available on the market that are not in the portfolio. The last time I looked was when buying the new 760 Servers because it changes every couple of months, and not all Intel CPUs were certified. The adoption speed of new CPU and GPU technologies has room for improvement. 

However, I know coming from the technical side this is a lot of work, and it's difficult. I know they are working on it and it's not something you do in five minutes. We have to stay fair. It would be nice but I know that now Intel and AMD come up with new CPUs twice a year. In the past, there was a new CPU generation every two years and now it's every six months. So the developers of servers and all the devices and programs are running to keep up with the speed itself.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 11 years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are scalable.

The support is efficient. We have access to the spare parts catalog, We can diagnose a file and send it to them, and within two hours we have somebody on the phone. They are reactive and the problems were solved in the first attempt. This allows us to pay a little bit more for the initial investment but over the lifetime of the equipment, we have zero manpower costs to keep them running. The total cost over the lifetime of the equipment, we are largely positive compared to other brands where we have to pay a team of ten people to manage the equipment.

During the deployment, the amount of rails turned out to be a disaster. We asked for two fewer rails and I had the whole team come over and install the rails for PowerEdge. I had a colleague, who did the Rack all by himself, he was so fascinated with it. From the mechanical aspect, it's extremely easy and solid. 

There is also the engineering of the chassis down to the rail and how to put it in was well thought out. It was not some rails that were purchased out of a catalog from Taiwan. 

I use OAK Management Enterprise to control the whole cluster. Once we plug in the cable, the service tag is realized, and the server is deployed by itself. From plugging in a new machine to installation ready if there are not too many firmware updates, it's ten minutes. It's easy, requires little manpower, and is fast. 

When we had to install five hundred servers in the rack, there was a discussion about whether we should call on the professional deployment services from Dell to do that, and then we decided not to. Because we are two people, we could install 25 servers in two hours. It was done in two weeks.

We do the implementation in-house.

We have the equipment itself, but Dell also provides the full software framework infrastructure around it. That is crucial in monitoring in terms of what's going on and also that one allows for example one person to have a view over thousands of machines. I have CloudIQ on my phone so I can see what my servers are doing. I can predict its failure so we can react before something explodes. We can react before things fail. That, of course, reduces downtime, and increases happiness, on the customer side. 

As scientists, we want as much data as possible. In the experiment equipment running, there are no official numbers, but we are in millions per hour. Therefore, half an hour of downtime is costly. Not everything will be down, but if the data is unusable because there's one piece missing, it's as if everything will be lost.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers ten out of ten. We never have problems and if there is an issue we get help, and the issue is resolved quickly. I never found myself sitting around, not knowing what to do or not getting help. With other full-brand vendors, I couldn't get a support person to look at an issue. These vendors always underestimated support and the follow-up with the customer afterward. In my experience, Dell is the best.

I also spend a lot of time on the advisory board for the Dell HPC Community. I spent time with the developers in most of the service. Ten years ago, the Servers had two power supplies and they were both on the same side. Now on the new ones, one of the power supplies has moved to the other side. That was something we injected seven years ago into the development process because it makes installations in the Rack much more efficient.

On-premises

We are an MSP that sells, deploys, installs, and maintains Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our customers who use them for storage and as their main server.

Our customers implement Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for better performance and lower prices. They have a lower price and the best performance. 

Dell is an established and trusted name for our customers. They have proven themselves as a leader in storage. 

PowerEdge cyber-resilient architecture approach to security is good. The updates come regularly and quickly when there is a zero-day occurrence. We trust that security is tight. 

PowerEdge does a good job handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads.

PowerEdge has minimal downtime. Out of 100 servers, we may have an issue with two servers per year.

The OpenManage console has improved productivity through ease of maintenance. It's easy to use and it's good for the team. We use it every day. 

Because the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable and work well, our customers can work around the clock, giving them the flexibility to do what they need.

From a technical perspective, the iDRAC system's most valuable feature is its performance, while from the customer's perspective, it is the other features. It's easy to manage. 

I want Dell to offer more virtualization platforms because the cost of VMware is getting too high.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for almost ten years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable.

We are able to plan for scalability based on the customer's requirements and have not had any issues with it.

We use Dell technical support two to three times a year. They are professional and always meet our SLA time. However, there are sometimes service delays on weekends.

Positive

We also sell HPE and Lenovo servers. When we buy a Dell PowerEdge server, most of the features are included in the price, but for the others, such as HPE iLO for connecting or IBM X servers, we must purchase add-ons.

The deployment of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is similar to that of other vendors in terms of complexity. It's easy.

We implement the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our customers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are reliable, ensuring customers see a return on investment as they don't need to extend warranties on their servers.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers ten out of ten. I also deal with Lenovo and HPE, and we must pay extra for support and add-on features. This is not the case with Dell PowerEdge. With Dell, it includes all the servers. 

It is very easy to sell Dell.

We are currently using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to run about ten virtual machines. Within these virtual machines, we have our ERP systems, remote access systems, and more. It is primarily used as a Hyper-V server for virtualization purposes.

The performance and scalability are the most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The servers perform excellently, and they are adaptable to the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. They provide the reliability needed to manage the consumption of RAM efficiently without needing to expand the rack.

I do not have anything specific in mind for improvements. The support provided is very good when we need it, and the identification of the server is excellent. Overall, there are no areas of significant improvement that I can suggest.

We have had experience with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for about two years.

The servers are reliable. We do not experience significant downtime, and they continue running effectively.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are highly scalable. We were able to resolve performance issues by managing RAM consumption without needing to physically expand the rack.

Customer service provides very good support, with an SLA of about one business day to respond to our tickets.

Neutral

We have always used Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. We had evaluated Lenovo solutions previously but chose to stick with Dell because of its reliability and support.

The initial setup is easy with the support of iDRAC services.

Our implementation team typically includes a system administrator or a support engineer.

The pricing can vary. Some customers find it cheaper due to contractual agreements, while others find it expensive, especially when scaling up. In Brazil, the parts for servers are particularly expensive.

Before choosing Dell, we evaluated Lenovo solutions. However, we preferred Dell due to its superior reliability and support.

I would recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for their reliability and support. Overall, I rate the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers ten out of ten. They are excellent.

On-premises