Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

I'm using the server for Exchange and it gives me good performance.

I like the iDRAC feature.

I have also seen long life from each part and haven't had to call support, as far as I remember. I use competitors like HPE and we need spare parts every year. I have been using this server for 10 years and haven't faced any problems with the hardware or performance.

The BIOS interface could be improved; it is very poor. PowerEdge is very good overall, but if you compare the BIOS interface with HPE, it is not very good. HPE's is very advanced but Dell's is very simple.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for about 10 years.

The stability is about a seven out of 10.

It is scalable, but we are not planning to get more PowerEdge servers. We are planning to go with hyper-converged. We are looking to extend our environment and deploy a new DR site.

We have multiple locations and about 400 users.

Their support is excellent, but here I'm referring to all our Dell products, because I haven't had to contact them about PowerEdge.

Positive

I didn't have a previous solution, but I work with HPE servers at the same time. There is no major difference between them in performance or specifications. I prefer Dell for its warranty, which is very good here in Egypt. I am able to extend my warranty for one or two years.

For me, the setup was easy.

The only maintenance is cleaning it and adding hard disks.

I did it, as a system admin, with my team of three people: technical support and our help desk team.

Dell is somewhat more expensive than HPE.

In terms of money, if I compare a cloud system and an on-premises server like PowerEdge, if I rent the same type of product in the cloud for 10 years, it will cost more than if I get a PowerEdge server for five years.

If you invest in your network, it will be advantageous. 

We are a construction company operating worldwide, and we use PowerEdge servers for local storage at our construction sites. Each site has its own infrastructure, including a Dell server. When construction is completed at one place, we decommission the server and then recommission it to another location. There are many Dell servers in the company, somewhere around 3000-5000.

I used the solution to create a cluster consisting of three servers plus storage, and it automatically failed over using VMware. The OS on top of VMware is usually Windows, which is used for financial systems.

We leverage native Windows OS security features in our environment; we need third-party security tools to ensure the safety of our servers. 

Our infrastructure is extensive, so we rely on the reliability of the servers. If a server is down, we need to deploy the support team to fix any issue. 

We use the solution as a kind of high server, and they are our go-to servers for data forms. The overall integration of our workloads with PowerEdge Rack Servers is critical.

To protect from malware and other firmware attacks, we use McAfee and other antivirus software. We have our firewall and other layers of protection.  

Using the OpenManage console decreased the time it takes us to deploy new data centers. We use efficient division of labor and the technologies offered by the solution, so we can do in one hour what previously took us four hours. 

OpenManage very much improved our IT staff's productivity. We are part of a larger organization, and there is Dell service worldwide. As such, we can centrally control firmware updates and turn the power on and off to the servers. This feature works very well for us. 

Using the solution reduced our unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%. 

The iDRAC is an excellent service; it allows us to install and deploy our software remotely.

The OpenManage app is another excellent service, and VMware supports it. There is no problem with drivers because we can get all of them via VMware or Dell.

The solution is an excellent platform for handling the needs of high-performance workloads, it's a good server for high performance.

The solution's approach to security with signed firmware, drift detection, and BIOS recovery is robust and accessible. We can monitor the security landscape easily via OpenManage. 

The solution's energy consumption is excellent for managing the power supply, as it is very efficient thanks to built-in power factor correction. The power consumption depends upon the load; it increases with a high CPU load, and we manage this through Windows. We can also use OpenManage to fine-tune the power management.  

The major market players are HP and Dell, and we find Dell to be the more cost-effective server. We're also satisfied with its features; the security, management, remote management, and reliability are all favorable.  

Overall, the solution is excellent, though Dell could improve the monitoring.

The solution could be more friendly in terms of cost. 

I have worked at several companies using Dell PowerEdge Rack servers for over ten years. 

The solution is very stable and reliable. 

The solution is scalable; we can increase capacity by adding CPU and memory as required.

The customer service is good. We do a lot of remote work, so we sometimes contact them from sites to assist in making changes, doing updates, or installing remotely. 

I previously used HP servers, which are also good, but I switched due to the high cost.

The initial deployment is straightforward, and that improved over time. Our project management is pleased with the quick deployment; nowadays, we can even deploy remotely. Deployment takes no more than one hour.

Our deployment strategy is to work remotely; technicians install a rack on site, and I can deploy as soon as I get iDRAC.

Typically, we receive an ROI. By the time construction has finished on a site, the server will already have covered its cost and more.

The product is cheaper than HP servers, but the price could always be better. 

We considered public cloud servers, but PowerEdge wins in cost versus public cloud. We also have a vast number of files and operate a large number of sites. One of our requirements is to store files locally, so we need to place physical servers at our locations. That's why we went with the Dell Technologies solution.

The latency of PowerEdge versus public clouds was critical to us as end users don't want issues on the network. Some people prefer to go with the cloud no matter the cost, but the price is essential for us, and the PowerEdge servers are more affordable, especially over the long term. In the short term, going with the cloud could be cheaper. 

I rate the solution ten out of ten. 

We use the Dell OpenManage console for our PowerEdge Rack Servers, and it's easy to use.  

PowerEdge servers are a good choice, as many people use Dell services on the market, and we find Dell to be the most cost-effective server. In terms of long-term cost, we would choose this solution over a cloud solution every time, so I highly recommend this product.

I recommend a good server room or rack with air conditioning to provide a favorable physical environment for the servers. I also recommend a good network as we can use 10G nowadays, and a good network contributes to computation.

My division is backup. We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel to deploy backup systems to back up the entire area or region where we are setting it up. We actually use it as a media server for backup.

For this server, we bought several with a net of 30 terabytes to use with a memory of about 256 gigs.

We have benefited in performance, especially when installing the media server for the backup and performing backup for high performance and fast storage.

I like Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel. It is a good, high performance server. It is easy to manage, especially with the iDRAC. 

iDRAC is its most valuable feature. The management from the iDRAC port is useful for me because my server is located in Australia, and I need to manage it from Israel. Therefore, it is useful for troubleshooting.

There is flexibility to use a lot of storage on the server. It has the ability to have it as a RAID and support that. This is most useful for me in the case of a malfunction in one or two drives. It is like having a server and storage together, i.e., hyperconverged. We can manage this remotely.

In regards to security, I have noticed that we can implement Active Directory to the iDRAC. It is more secure that way. Then, everyone can access it as they please.

We use Intel Xeon Scalable processors in our PowerEdge Rack Servers. They have very much helped to improve the performance of our targeted workloads. 

I would like them to add more NVMe slots. That would be good. That way, it would have better performance, e.g., enough storage for better performance than a spinning disk.

There is some improvement needed in the site (with its arrangement) when trying to find some configuration or troubleshooting matches.

We just bought two Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a region. We installed them about a month ago.

It is very stable.

I am using it for backup, so it has to be reliable. Even in cases where there is downtime, we can then use the solution to retrieve data. 

Its scalability is great. I can add more storage and shelf to that server.

I have not yet needed the help of Dell support for PowerEdge Rack Servers. In the past, I have enjoyed my experience with Dell support for storage. I would rate them as eight out of 10.

Positive

Previously, we had an old HPE server that was backing up systems but taking a lot of time. Now, with the Intel Xeon and Dell server, it is a lot faster.

The HPE server was no longer supported, so we tried to check with some other vendors. Because of its flexibility to have more storage and scalability, we choose Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The deployment of PowerEdge Rack Servers was new for me since I used to work with HPE servers. The setup was a little bit different, but it was easy to catch up and do the installation.

It took several minutes to determine how to work with PowerEdge and configure the BIOS. The one thing that surprised me is the ability to configure the BIOS from the iDRAC, not going directly inside the BIOS in order to do so.

I deployed it.

We installed the servers, and they are currently working.

The pricing and licensing are fair.

We evaluated HPE, Dell, and IBM. We chose Dell PowerEdge mostly because of the price and extendability.

It is easy to manage and extendable. Compared to other vendors, the prices are much lower. Go for it.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as 10 out of 10.

It is used for data center service.

PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel are good for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads with classical use cases.

My company has thousands of customers. We are resellers as well as implement Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in our organization.

My organization provides software or application stacks for many organizations. So, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers add a lot of benefits for integration and testing purposes. It is also a solution for small-scale deployment at remote locations.

PowerEdge Rack Servers have affected the overall flexibility of our operations or business.

For labs, when you don't need a high SLA, HA, or other expensive support and maintenance fees, then it is very easy to deploy these servers. You pay CapEx but the usage for day two is easier.

It is easy to manage, maintain, and install.

The new stuff with AI, Hyperscale, and HPC for all sorts of general compute purposes makes it the best solution that you can have today.

PowerEdge Rack Servers’ approach to security with its signed firmware, drift detection, and BIOS recovery is very good. This is the natural behavior today in the market. All vendors provide it, including Dell.

It is very easy and seamless to use the Dell OpenManage console for the lifecycle management of PowerEdge Rack Servers. It is one of the best solutions in the market today to manage the lifecycle of services.

It is not good in terms of its energy consumption for a large-scale deployment. I probably would go for something more dense, like blades or any type of small scale hardware service solutions, to lower the heat and power consumption. However, for small environments, this solution is okay and easy to maintain.

I have been using PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel for 25 years.

PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel are easier to handle in regards to upgrade and maintenance than any other solutions. It saves us over 50% of our time.

Usually, it is a very good solution for small-scale environments and environments that have difficulty providing services since the maintenance of PowerEdgeRack Servers is easier relative to any other solutions. Therefore, if you go for small-scale deployments, then PowerEdge Rack Servers powered by Intel are very simple and cost-effective.

The technical support from Dell is good. If you have an issue, the tech support is better than Lenovo and about the same as HPE. 

I would rate Dell's technical support as 8.5 out of 10, which is very good. While the technical support is very good, they are not perfect. You need to wait, and sometimes you need to escalate, which is a process. At the end of the day, it is economies of scale.

Positive

The rack and stack takes a couple of hours, maybe less. The overall installation depends on the use case. In general, it takes about two to three days to have a full working solution.

Intel's Optane memory has helped save money when adding memory capacity, compared to adding the same amount of DRAM.

The use of Dell's OpenManage console has decreased the time it takes to deploy new data centers.

The overall pricing and licensing are fair according to the market.

Because it is pay-per-use, there is a large offering from the application and software. This is what the customer requires, and I need to provide whatever they want. If they want to use the cloud, i.e., hyperscales as a solution, then I need to provide an application that will run on top. For me, it is a no-brainer. It is whatever the customer wants. 

In general, going to the public cloud has its benefits since the CAPEX is low and the OPEX is pay-per-use. However, you need to arrange your application and software in a way that will modernize and utilize the cloud economically. This is the downside of things.

We are a big company, so we are always evaluating everything.

For general purpose small-scale deployments, it has easy rack and stack and maintenance. For edge locations, this is the best solution that the market currently has to offer. 

Today, we are looking at other solutions other than Intel, such as AMD, because of the cost as well as the quantity of the cores that you can get for the same amount of use or footprint. 

There are also other solutions that are more cost-effective, but you can currently only get them on the cloud, like AWS Graviton, which is based off of ARM processing units. Currently, ARM is being provided only on cloud services. I haven't seen anyone provide ARM on-prem. However, if somebody provides a cost-effective, on-prem ARM, then we will consider going for ARM processing units.

I always prefer Dell because it is easier to maintain.

It used to have a very good effect on IT staff's productivity. However, the problem has now moved from the infrastructure to the upper layer.

I like the R640 model the best. 

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as nine out of 10.

We made a renovation of our infrastructure, and the problem we're solving is our performance and it is collectivity in our infrastructure too.

We have a full-scale infrastructure for six countries and are able to centralize it. With this kind of product, we are solving a lot of problems, or issues that we had before with regards to performance. The centralization of the platform for the company helped immensely.

The go-to-market implementation was pretty fast. The go-to-market speed for us was pretty important at the time we had to implement that infrastructure. 

In terms of the performance of the servers, I'm already pretty comfortable with that.

When it comes to PowerEdge rack servers handling the evolving needs of workloads, I have support from Dell partners. They constantly assess improvements for us and other versions of items on products. I keep up to date with it via my partners.

We use Dell's Optane to obtain memory in the PowerEdge environment. It helped save money in that aspect, as far as adding memory capacity. We used to negotiate these kinds of platforms and renewal with our partners on a full scale. We have a lot of cost-saving with this infrastructure.

PowerEdge helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. We have an IT continuity plan that is actually based on the infrastructure we already have implemented with Dell.

They could improve the time between new versions of the product. They could move faster, or maybe offer a little bit more support from the partners.

We've been using the solution for four years.

We have 6,500 people across six countries using the platform.

We have good support from Dell and good support from our partners. That said, sometimes it takes a pretty long time to get an answer from Dell. However, we get pretty good support from those folks.

Positive

We had used HP solutions and others as well. We changed as I had some experience with this product and we had comfort in the security that Dell gives us as a platform. The cost and the go-to-market implementation alongside the partner support are the main drivers we looked at when changing.

I was involved in the setup of the product. It was both easy and difficult to set up. However, thanks to the partner, it was more easygoing. There were a lot of people and it was useful to have somebody help as well.

We have a pretty big platform. It took two and a half months to implement the solution. That said, for our needs, it was pretty fast. We had to deal with multiple locations and we migrated everything to just one. We centralized the entire platform.

We had a great partner and planner involved.

For us, it makes more sense to have an on-premise platform rather than a cloud due to the cost. The cost-saving we have in the on-premises platform still is the driver.

We did consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge Racks. We looked at servers for AWS, Azure, and others.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. We are quite satisfied.

It's a good scalable product. It's a good cost-saving product too. That aspect helps us as a company. In my experience, it's a pretty good implementation too. 

I'd advise new users to keep up with the timing of new deployments. That way, you can take advantage of new features. 

We primarily use the solution for virtualization.

The versatility has been great. We have several different configurations with different networking capabilities, different capacity, throughput, and configurations. I work on a dark site in a classified environment. I can't really comment too much beyond that.

PowerEdge is great for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads like VDI, AI, and SAP on multi-cloud. We're very happy with their performance. We're lucky enough to also have Dell and VMware. We call them a TAM specialist on-site. If we have any problems, they respond to them quickly.

Since we are in a classified environment, we appreciate the security specifications very much. It helps us as we have to do our own assessments and those security features help us to get our paperwork done.

We use Dell's Optane Memory in our PowerEdge environment. I’m not sure if it’s saved money, I’m really not on the financial side. We have a budget and then we go and shop for the best bang for the buck. Since we are using that feature, it does save us money. However, I can’t say how much.

We do use Dell's OpenManage console. It is easy to use this console for lifecycle management or PowerEdge servers. We use it primarily when we have a network issue or if we can't access the servers our usual way. It's very convenient as a secondary way to access it. As far as life cycle management, that's what we use when we need to do our upgrades, firmware, and the like. It's very valuable. It’s increased our IT staff's productivity, however, I can't tell by how much.

Using PowerEdge helped to reduce unplanned production downtime by 20% to 25%.

We'd want the solution to be faster, and of course, for them to bring down the price. 

I've probably been using PowerEdge Servers since 2010. 

Technical support is very good to excellent. We have a dedicated Dell support team, and they are very knowledgeable. If they don't know the answer and they almost always do, they'll get the answer right away. We're very satisfied with their help.

Positive

We are moving to VxRails. We are using it for virtualization, and for some file storage, and then we're going to be moving to VDI solutions as we get more VxRails that have GPU capability.

In the past, we used HP. We used Oracle hardware as well. Oracle has its own hard drives. They buy their servers and then put their logo on them and then resell that. Those are probably the two biggest companies that we've used in the past.

We switched to Dell due to the cost and feature sets. We liked the feature set of the Dell, however, the operating costs and maintenance costs, contracts, were a big selling factor. A lot of the hardware that we used to have was older as well. 

I used HP servers. They have a service like Dell OpenManage called iLO. It does the same thing. You can access the servers through the network to help with firmware upgrades. The HP hardware, at the time, was more expensive for maintenance and to buy new. When we went to VxRails and PowerEdge, it was a better deal, more bang for the buck, that's why we switched.

I was not a part of the initial setup.

I did not evaluate other servers from other vendors before choosing PowerEdge.

We did consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge. We use both.

We compared latency and costs when looking at PowerEdge versus the public cloud. At the time, the public cloud looked more attractive on paper. When we did testing, the latency and throughput were comparable. However, the Dell PowerEdge Servers that we had on-premises had a little bit better performance, as the cloud was quite a distance from where our data center is. It's comparable, however, when we looked at the overall cost of a public cloud, it was much more expensive to do a public cloud, and it was less expensive to do on-premises. Most of PowerEdge is mostly on-premises.

The first one I ever used, was an R710 PowerEdge server. We're using 740s now. We also use VxRail. I know those aren't specifically PowerEdge, however, we're moving from PowerEdge servers to VxRail.

I don't really do much on the data center side of things, so I can't really comment on the power consumption. That's not my focus.

We do not use Intel Xeon Scalable processors in our PowerEdge servers.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use it as our database solution and for ESXi hosting. We use the R7-30s, 7-40s, 8-40s, and 7-50s. Our whole company uses this solution and we have over 10,000 employees.

The solutions accelerated GPUs have helped to support demanding workloads and to reduce data processing time in our organization.

The PowerEdge system management frameworks have enabled us to progress towards automation. 

The Ormi product is the most valuable for me because it streamlines all the necessary information that can be viewed in one place. 

The iDRAC Telemetry that monitors PowerEdge system data and provides analytics could be a little bit more in-depth. Someone wanted more information on the RAM and the hard drives and we couldn't retrieve this information.

I have been using this solution for five years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. 

The technical support for this solution is very good and we can contact them at any time. I would rate them a ten out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment took a couple of minutes and involved five people who are system engineers. 

This is an expensive solution.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

The ones we just bought are going to be hypervisor servers, and we have an on-premises Exchange that is running on a PowerEdge server.

The hands-off demand of the servers and the fact that they're not constantly a thorn in my side has been a big factor. They're running, and I don't have to worry about them. That is the most valuable part about it.

There is no downtime with these servers, and the system management capabilities of PowerEdge have helped increase staff productivity.

PowerEdge has, without a doubt, helped to reduce data processing time in our company. Every time we get a new PowerEdge server, we definitely notice an impact on the SQL databases that are part of our ERP. I do have users come and tell me that they've noticed that things have sped up and that even simple file searches are faster.

Dell PowerEdge servers are powerful. They don't break, and I love that. In my career of over 30 years now, all the Dell servers we've ever used out of the box have never broken.

On top of that, when we had an air conditioning failure and I came in after a weekend, the temperature in the server room was 110 degrees. Inside the cases themselves, it was over 220 degrees. The only thing we lost was a backplane on one of the servers. This alone speaks for the durability of the Dell servers, and we've never gone away from Dell servers ever.

They are fantastic in terms of performance as well.

As for PowerEdge's approach to security, I would rate it very high. The tools provided by Dell update the BIOS and everything else, and the software is running on the server at all times. It is proactive and alerts me. It's taken a load off of my shoulders compared to how it was 20 years ago. I would have to go to their site and find out what was new. Now, I can just go to the computer or the server, and right there, it will tell me what needs to be done.

The security is pretty strong. When we use ethical hackers to hack us, the Dell servers are never the issue.

In terms of power consumption, I have no complaints at all about PowerEdge Rack Servers. My server room's APC, which is a battery backup system, is a full-mounted rack. It handles all the power coming from all our PowerEdge servers. We have never once had to scale it up at all in the almost 20 years that I've been working with them. It's moving technology in and out nonstop, and it shows you that these servers are fantastic. They don't really shift that much in power needs.

Dell needs to focus more on SMBs, helping us get the most out of our products. For example, at events, there should be very specific SMB sessions where there are Dell technicians, engineers, and Dell executives meeting with us and finding out what we need. Dell is big on promoting the fact that they're part of our team and that they want to be our partners, and I would like to see them actually partner with us. Do it less with the big Fortune 500 companies and do a little bit more with us SMBs.

I've been working this solution for the last 17 years.

For stability, there's really no other product that I would trust.

Dell's support, throughout the years that we've used it, is typically fantastic, but, again, because the PowerEdge servers are so durable and good, I haven't used them as much. When I've had to contact them for other issues, they've resolved the issues within a week, if not a day or two.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It's out-of-the-box, and I've never found a snag or anything like that in the process.

We deploy everything by hand; everything is manual.

It doesn't take that long, and we can even do it with our laptops and desktops. We do not do any ghosting or imaging, and a server usually takes me a day at the most, while I really take my time with it and get all the updates in.

We do it ourselves, or we have one consultant that we use if it's something that is out of our wheelhouse.

Every time I don't have to work on something and my servers are just running without an issue, that is a return on investment for me. The fact that my coworkers and owners are never complaining to me about things being down all the time is the biggest ROI there is.

I have no issues with the pricing and licensing costs. They are fine.

I looked at HP, and in a previous job, I've actually worked on HPs. I didn't love the HP servers. Even more so than the hardware, I couldn't stand HP's service and support. They're really bad.

When it comes to servers, Dell would be my first choice, and IBM would be my second choice.

We have one other server that is an IBM i-series server. (It used to be called AS/400.) If I were to compare it to the PowerEdge servers, there really is no comparison. It's a monster of a machine, and we have a lot more problems with that than we do with any of our Dell servers. Plus, it's finicky. The performance on it is questionable. You have to really baby it a lot more than the Dell servers, whereas the Dell servers are those that are the set-it-and-forget-it type. I work far more on issues with my applications that are running on the Dell servers than I ever do with the actual Dell servers themselves.

I would consider Dell and HP in the same area, whereas I look at IBM as being more specific. My only experience with IBM servers has to do with the AS/400 i-series Power9 line. Those are built specifically to house an ERP, whereas the Dell and HP servers are built to handle everything you need.

When it comes to the servers, I trust Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. They're who I'm going to stick with. I don't consider HP to be a realistic competitor.

If you are comparing Dell against anyone else, just get Dell PowerEdge. It's not even a question. The servers don't break, and they don't give you issues. Your applications are going to cause enough problems for you as it is, and you don't want the hardware they're sitting upon to also be another issue. After all, the servers were 220 degrees during an air conditioning outage and still churning and not causing problems!

If I were to rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers on a scale from one to ten, I would give them a nine.