Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

Our Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers cater to a multitude of purposes. They host a sprawling network of virtual machines, serving as the bedrock for our vibrant development department. These virtual machines, provisioned through Hewlett Packard Build Power, have proven to be dependable companions on the development journey. We prioritize reliability by meticulously maintaining updates, scheduling machine restarts, and thoughtfully automating numerous key processes in-house. This approach has yielded highly satisfactory results, fostering a robust and reliable development environment.

To gain complete autonomy and internal control over our IT infrastructure, we opted for the deployment of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. This strategic decision empowers us to manage our entire computing ecosystem effectively, minimizing reliance on external service providers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have improved our organizational infrastructure, fostering a paradigm shift towards centralized operation. This strategic decision has yielded a multitude of benefits, primarily the consolidation of hardware and the seamless integration of diverse applications and solutions onto a unified platform. Furthermore, the inherent security enhancements provided by these servers have demonstrably bolstered our digital defenses, while their exceptional reliability empowers us to dynamically scale resources and seamlessly navigate peak loads, a critical advantage in today's dynamic business landscape.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have truly played a pivotal role in propelling our organization's sustainability initiatives forward. Before their implementation, our IT infrastructure resembled a sprawling archipelago of individual machines, each dedicated to a specific application silo. In my previous stints at other companies, I've witnessed firsthand the unwieldy sprawl of server landscapes, sometimes ballooning to a staggering 80 machines! Thankfully, the PowerEdge series was meticulously crafted with server consolidation in mind, enabling us to streamline our entire IT ecosystem into a sleek and efficient operation.

In the bygone era of IT, each application resided in solitary confinement, tethered to its own dedicated machine. This antiquated approach not only squandered space but also devoured energy like a famished dragon. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, however, have ushered in a paradigm shift, centralizing the once-sprawling landscape of applications onto a single, unified hardware platform. This agile infrastructure transcends the limitations of its predecessors, allowing virtual machines to migrate seamlessly between servers in response to fluctuating workloads. This results in unparalleled flexibility, liberated from the constraints of the past.

I've been consistently impressed by the exceptional build quality of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. Having tried solutions from HP and other manufacturers, Dell's service stands out as demonstrably superior. Both internally and with external clients, it consistently exceeds expectations and optimizes our operations. This unwavering reliability is the cornerstone of our continued partnership with Dell. Moreover, the exceptional craftsmanship extends beyond service. These servers have proven to be remarkably dependable, experiencing minimal malfunctions. While routine hard drive replacements are to be expected based on internal components, the overall hardware integrity has been truly outstanding.

Dell can optimize the size of its rack servers, offering a minimized physical footprint without compromising performance or security. This focus on space-efficient design will enable us to achieve greater efficiency and agility in our IT infrastructure.

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

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are renowned for their unwavering stability and steadfast reliability. Their robust construction and cutting-edge technology ensure exceptional uptime and unwavering performance, even under demanding workloads. These servers stand as an unyielding foundation for your critical applications, delivering peace of mind and unwavering confidence in our IT infrastructure.

When it comes to scalability, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers leave no room for doubt. Their ability to seamlessly accommodate expanding workloads and data demands is truly unparalleled. I wouldn't hesitate to rate them a perfect ten out of ten in this crucial aspect.

My experience with PowerEdge technical support has been nothing short of exceptional. I'm thoroughly impressed by the level of service they provide. The rapidity of response is remarkable, with knowledgeable technicians readily available to assist depending on our specific service agreement. The expertise they possess is unparalleled, consistently exceeding my expectations. I am extremely satisfied with their service.

While I'm fresh to this organization, Dell seems like a well-established partner here. In my previous role, my company utilized HP for years, but unfortunately, issues with quality and service ultimately necessitated a shift. HP's support infrastructure simply didn't measure up to our exacting needs, prompting the transition to Dell, which played a significant role in the decision.

It's abundantly clear that the specific licensing requirements will be dictated by the intricacies of the machinery we deploy. It's an integral component of the operational process, and while I'm unable to delve into the intricacies of pricing due to my unfamiliarity with the specific costs, I can confidently assert that from a corporate vantage point, the paramount concern is to secure the most cost-effective solution, especially when managing a sprawling infrastructure.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have consistently earned my highest praise, achieving a perfect ten out of ten in my book. Across all the companies I've had the pleasure of working for, where Dell was the hardware of choice, my experience has been one of unwavering satisfaction. This positive track record is precisely why the strategic decision was made to migrate away from other manufacturers and establish Dell as our trusted partner. While I may not hold the reins of decision-making, if the choice were mine, I would wholeheartedly advocate for maintaining our commitment to the physical realm. From my perspective, there's something inherently reassuring about having the equipment physically present, allowing me to take direct ownership of its care and maintenance, and experience the tangible presence of our technological backbone. Even in the face of the allure of the cloud, Dell would remain my unwavering choice.

The general direction seems to be towards increased machine efficiency. To remain competitive, Dell likely has followed suit and implemented resource-saving measures. This is a significant influence, and likely a driving force behind many companies migrating away from traditional servers, or in the case of PowerEdge, embracing the Azure Cloud platform. Ultimately, energy conservation appears to be a key motivator in this shift.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in a hyperconverged environment for object storage and some VMs, just like a classic server.

By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we were looking for good performance and cost-effectiveness. We wanted the best cost-performance ratio in relation to our use cases. For example, if we want to increase our object clusters, we would look for servers with a high disk density and not necessarily with a huge amount of CPUs and RAM. In other cases, we would be looking for a better CPU and RAM performance but with a lesser number of disks. It depends on the use cases.

We have been working with Dell servers for many years. Like everyone, there is more and more RAM, and there are better-performing CPUs. Storage is more and more condensed and powerful, so the applications are becoming faster, and we can respond better. The only downside is that we are not coding as well as before because the hardware compensates for the customization of the code.

I have spoken to the data center regarding the energy consumption, and we are average in terms of energy consumption. If I compare it with other companies, we have the same average. For example, I made a study of an installation of a power supply at 1100 watts and between 750 and 1100 watts, and it is the same as what we can find elsewhere. Having said that, if tomorrow we could achieve the same performance with only 400 watts, then there would be a gap. It depends on the usage or the disks that we would have, but it is not disproportionate to what we need it for.

We require these servers to complete a job, and they complete the job. When we reach a limit, we increase it, and we scale it again and again. There could always be a better product that could meet the requirements even better, but as usual, each to their own specialty. If tomorrow, we could put 75 tera disks on the servers, we would be even happier. That would mean smaller and less energy-consuming servers.

They are overall within the global average in comparison to others. We recently had an RSE implementation and we are looking to reduce energy consumption. When we talk about energy consumption, we also talk about cooling because it is generally linked together. Anything that heats up more will consume more, so we would need more. There is also the issue of space in the data center. If a 2U server can potentially do the same work as a 4U server, it will be an area for improvement for implementation.

For years now, we have had these servers with a supply and components that are resilient. and that functions well. So, instead of just the servers, it is the applications, the development, and the storage that help us to reduce any unplanned production downtime.

The overall development of technology has affected our operations. Along with many other components, the servers have contributed to making everything more flexible for our operations.

The server itself is valuable. It does what we ask it to do.

It is hard to make a comparison without any technical factsheets for the other servers to compare with but like everyone else, it is about the pricing. They already upgrade regularly, so I do not have any improvement areas. We rely on the required standalone configuration.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers with my client for a very long time.

They are easy to build, and we have no particular restrictions.

I have not interacted with their support for the PowerEdge servers. It is the administrator who deals with the support.

We use Dell PowerEdge servers, and we also use HPE servers. We have a wide range. We also have servers from other brands.

The main difference is the pricing. At some point, we receive a call for tenders, and we increase the number of our servers. Generally, it is more or less the same in terms of the range, but in the end, the one that offers the best deal wins. It is always the same thing.

We have a wide range of servers and a wide range of disks, and there are times when our needs evolve. So, it is according to those moments, and there are times when Dell offers some great promotions that are potentially better than those from other manufacturers, and sometimes, it is the other way around. It depends on how we want to implement them, and it also depends on the price.

There are no problems to report related to their implementation.

We do it all in-house. Because we order quite a substantial amount, we have playbooks and many other things to do it. We have reached a certain level of maturity to implement rapidly. When there are new models, we make modifications with the playbooks, and that is it. We can do it. The base is essentially the same. There are no revolutionary changes between the new models.

With regards to the licenses, I do not have a definite idea about all the licenses available out there, but I do know that there are more and more manufacturers who offer licenses.

We take a package. We do not take a license for the software and then everything that comes on top and one for the base. The thing that is becoming more and more important for us, which is better with Dell than with other manufacturers, is the administration. We are now being asked to separate the administration networks as much as possible, whereas, for a while, there was a trend for virtualizing the administration and production ports. That is becoming a stumbling block now. The new regulations require us to separate the administration from the production.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten. There are not any issues that we are seeing, but the price can always be improved. It is always the same thing.

We do media transcoding. We mainly use servers with quite a lot of CPUs to be able to do transcoding. We need servers that provide us with a lot of power.

By implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we wanted to transcode media in a fairly quick way. We can have media for only about a quarter of an hour. From the moment the media gets to us to the moment it is gone, we only have about a quarter of an hour, so we need a lot of power to be able to achieve something in a minimum amount of time.

Overall, we are very happy with the fact that we managed to get servers with last-generation CPUs. Besides that, like everyone else, we are trying a bit to reduce our energy bills. There is a big effort to be made on that front.

In terms of resiliency, our servers tend to be fairly far in our infrastructure. We have a couple of layers of firewall upfront. We also have proxy and reverse proxy, so the range of attack is fairly weak, and behind that, we have Linux. We shield with firewalls and other safety measures.

Overall, we are quite happy with it in terms of energy consumption. We have a fairly low consumption.

We hardly upgrade our servers to handle the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. As a matter of fact, when we build a platform, it is for a very specific need, and it is made to last three to five years. After that, the platform disappears, and the servers also leave with that. We buy new servers according to the new platform. We have less upgrading on the servers because they are already adapted to our needs.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. The servers that we have rarely break down, so, overall, we can change quite a lot of components on the run. We can manage to have a production that is running almost 99.99% of the time.

The OpenManage console has affected our IT staff’s productivity quite a bit. When new equipment arrives, we only have to put it in racks at the data center and all of the installation and management is done remotely, so we no longer need to spend a certain amount of time in the data center.

Using PowerEdge Rack Servers has affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business. We do have the ability to intervene on them, which is important. It is obviously easier than having a server where when we have a problem, we must go to the data center, or we must call someone to come and help. We might even have to stop the server, and that is quite annoying.

The calculation potential with modern CPUs is valuable. We have the capacity to increase the number of CPUs per machine, and there are also energy savings.

We have not had or come across any major problems. With regards to prices and support, they have always been very responsive, but we know that when we need more storage, we can easily find something much cheaper elsewhere. The equipment is very good, but the price is a bit too high. In addition, their support for parts can be better.

In our organization, it must have been a good 20 years. They have been using Dell pretty much from the start of the company. I have been with the company for six years, but we still unearth some old servers from time to time.

They are stable.

We don't scale a lot, we buy as and when needed.

Their support is very good. I would rate them an eight out of ten. They can be more reactive when sending parts. The support service is very reactive when answering us, but they need a bit of time to send us the parts. We tend to only ask for the parts. We replace them ourselves. We do not request a technician as well. We have also had a case where a part arrived at the wrong address.

Like many people, we do not only use Dell products. We also use a bit of HPE. I have a preference for Dell, but we still have some old servers from other manufacturers lying around. We have some old equipment, but everything that is recent is either Dell or HPE. We changed the old servers simply because they were at the end of their life.

I am involved in the implementation of these servers. The implementation is simple.

We know that we need half a day in the data center to do everything regarding the racks. Once that is done, we can also split the tasks because, although the servers are in the same bay, we do not want to be on top of each other when working. So, we can work in parallel during the installation of a certain number of servers without any difficulty. If you do not have a console, it is quite limiting because, with a screen at the back of a server, you are limited to working on only one server at a time.

We generally do everything related to PowerEdge ourselves.

Overall, we have seen an ROI. The ROI is in terms of productivity at the infrastructure service level. We do not have to regularly change parts, and by being able to do all of the administration remotely, we gain quite a substantial amount of time.

As far as licenses are concerned, we have very few servers. We no longer need the licenses. It depends directly on the manufacturers or the people who develop the software. Instead of taking them with the servers, because we are not always sure of the specific use for a specific server, we get the licenses afterward.

With regards to the rates, there are times when Dell is not able to match the prices of other manufacturers who offer us something cheaper. For storage, it can vary, and the cost can be twice as much.

We mainly work with Dell and HPE. To evaluate the options, we take into account how easy it is to operate the server. In my opinion, Dell is unrivaled on that front. We are not a very big company, so we are very careful with the costs of our servers.

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

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for data storage, data processing, and computations.

We must manage the data, and we have safety restrictions. It is imposed on us to not use the cloud. We do everything locally.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are convenient. When we have a problem, we have a hotline that is efficient. They are also reliable.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers fit our resiliency needs. If we want to make them very resilient, we have presales engineers who are also technical. They are competent and able to help us.

The servers are fine in terms of energy consumption, but until now, we have not been very concerned about that.

They are aligned with our sustainability goals. This is very important for us when we buy a server. Previously, we used to get a five-year guarantee, and now, it is a seven-year guarantee, but we still have some servers working fine after ten years. We do replace them from time to time, but we do not have any problem with reliability. As far as the environment is concerned, we know that when we buy a machine, it will last a long time.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. They are very reliable, and we usually function by doubling up. We use a couple of servers, and we move our VM from one server to another between two buildings. Because the servers never, or very rarely, break down, we have a very resilient architecture.

The OpenManage console has not really affected our IT staff’s productivity.

The maintenance and remote monitoring are valuable.

The problem that we have had is not a technical one but an economic one. In other words, we are working with national markets, and HP Enterprise is cheaper. Dell could have made an effort there.

For example, two or three years ago, we spoke to a salesperson or a presales engineer about replacing our infrastructure with file servers, but the price that we were offered was very high.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for about 15 years.

They are stable. There is no downtime or breakdowns.

We are a small research laboratory, but we have a few teams working together. We might gather all of the IT equipment together and buy extensions and all that.

As far as scalability is concerned, it is not a problem. It is very scalable but very expensive. For our needs, it is very overpriced. I am on campus, and there are several units, but we have to merge by 2025 and put everything back together and work with people whom I only ever met at the canteen. We shall see then if all of that is actually very scalable and if we can put it all together.

It is different for PowerEdge. It is a bit different for the PCs. For the servers, support is very good indeed. I would rate them an eight out of ten. We do not know why, but there was a time when the support did not respond quickly enough or go from one level to another. We do need the expertise if we happen to have something that does not work correctly, but it is sporadic. This kind of problem can appear all of a sudden and be gone six months later. All is working well. There are no problems with customer service.

We were working with both Dell and HPE. We preferred Dell. I prefer not to do any counter-advertising, but HPE was not working out very well with regard to customer services, getting a quote, or even anything technical. We prefer Dell products, but we would prefer the prices of the servers to be a bit lower.

We did not have many issues with HPE at a technical level, but we have had some issues when communicating with them, even at the presales level. We could not even connect to their server to get a quote. It was so complicated. There were references that we did not understand. If we have to install a particular disk, we must buy some specific accessory or another, whereas, with Dell, if we want something, we just tell them, and we get the configuration.

In addition, for Dell’s website, we can use any browser, whereas with HPE, it is Chrome one day and something else another day. We use Firefox, and it does not work. We use something else, and it does not work either. Dell is very open.

Other than these two brands, I do not have knowledge of any other brand. We have had integrators for homemade servers, but that was a long time ago. It is usually Dell or HPE. Dell has about ¾th of the market.

I am involved in the deployment of these servers. I work in a research laboratory. We are about 100 people, but we are a part of the Paris Observatory. It is like a university with about 800 people. We all work daily together with the IT teams.

I am responsible for handling presales with the technical and salespeople from Dell or HPE. We are not in charge of the orders. We handle the equipment and install the machines, and we organize the rollout of the infrastructure, VMs, and all that. Afterwards, we also handle interfacing with users.

The initial setup is rather simple. We do not have any real problems, and even when we have had a problem, it was fairly quickly resolved.

In terms of implementation strategy, when you are a small company, there is no big strategy like big companies. We get there, we install it, and it works. There is no strategy.

We implement them ourselves. We have integrators but more for some third-party solutions. We have taken a license for safeguarding software on the campus. For that, we work with other companies, but for all of the equipment and for Dell infrastructure, we do not need help. It works very well, and there are no problems. We know that it is simple.

We are not salespeople, so it is difficult to comment on the return on investment, but when we buy a Dell server, we get value for money. We know that we will not have any problem, and it will work fine. We will install VMs and everything required. When I request a credit, my manager knows that the server will work for many years. We will not be having any issues, and I will not be asking for more money. We sometimes change some old machines, but that is only because the new ones are less energy-consuming, and we will be able to put more VMs on just one server, so, ecologically, we will use less energy. Sometimes, that is the only reason why we would change an old server. It still works, but it uses more energy than the new ones.

They are expensive. As far as the licenses are concerned, we are fine. It is more about the price of the equipment.

Some colleagues in other universities have done a comparison, and for a similar configuration, there was at least a 10% to 20% discount with HPE in comparison to the prices from Dell.

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

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack servers for virtualization. We have these servers for the computing side, and then we have Dell Storage for the storage side.

By implementing this solution, we wanted speed and resilience. Everything is working well.

Resilience is not only linked to the servers. It is also linked to the software applications that we put on them, so we need to look at the services on PowerEdge. We have virtualization, and we install different products, such as firewalls, and implement access control. We use software for that, and it is working well with Dell PowerEdge.

In terms of energy consumption, we use them without energy limitations. We always use them at full capacity. They are always working at full capacity, so we use the machines at their maximum. The consumption is quite substantial, but we are not in the saving mode in our data centers. If the servers use less energy, that would be great, but they must provide a lot of power.

For handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, we have Full Flash, and as far as the processors are concerned, they work fine.

These servers are efficient. We do have some old ones. We just got rid of the old range, but we still have some from the 10th, 11th, and 12th Generation.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have not helped to reduce unplanned production downtime because that is not really linked to the servers. We do have quite a lot of them, so they are redundant. We have some load balancing, and we are using software solutions. For us, the PowerEdge servers or any other type of servers either help with computing or are used for storage. The rest is managed through software.

The OpenManage console has affected our IT staff’s productivity. We do use it, but mainly for setting up alerts.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have impacted the overall flexibility of our operations or business. Scalability is easy.

We use remote access a lot. They are fairly simple to use.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in the data center. We put the racks in bays. They can improve the compactness so that we can put more of them.

We do not have much of a problem with the noise, but they are still as noisy as before, even after they have improved them.

The customer service on certain parts can be better, but nowadays, we do not get many issues. As far as we are concerned, it is a clean environment. It is a data center environment, so it has air conditioning. The servers do not face many restrictions. They do not have any dust.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for approximately 20 years. I work in the data center, so it has been a long time.

The stability is fine. They are stable if they have been updated with the updates. As far as we are concerned, there is no downtime on the platform. Of course, we have to restart some servers, but because they are load-balanced, it does not at all impact our production. We just put them in maintenance mode, and we use the VMware solution.

With our method, it is simple for us. We can increase the computing and we can increase the storage because there are two different platforms. The hard disks are not in the computing servers. They are separated. If I want to add some computing, I buy more servers. If I want to add to the storage, I add to the storage bays with ESXi (in our case).

We have known them for a long time. It is just a matter of knowing what to do for things to happen quickly, such as providing the serial numbers and rack data. We are used to it. It is going well. It is just about knowing the method, that is it.

I would rate their support an eight out of ten. There can be some kind of notice for when there is a change in disk capacity. It might not mean much to change a disk, but for us, it can sometimes be an issue because of our environment. We would prefer to have the exact same product on the same servers. That is it.

We use the HPE range and the Dell range. We use both types of servers.

We used Supermicro a little bit in the beginning, but that was a long time ago. Nowadays, we use only two manufacturers: Dell and HPE.

We were well prepared, and we have the same type of servers in the bays. The wiring is marked, and we know that environment very well.

We buy from a reseller, and then we roll them out internally ourselves.

We did not evaluate other solutions. There is not a lot of choice.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten because they are very good. The last generations are very good.