Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We implement Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our clients. Their use cases differ depending on their needs. Some use them for storage, others for data protection, etc.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers help speed up our client's production time to market.

I would rate the power consumption of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten. The performance is great for our clients.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers help improve our client's unplanned downtime fivefold.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are resilient and provide great flexibility.

The most valuable feature is the storage, which is offered in different varieties with many options depending on the use cases, including unstructured data. 

The price has room for improvement. Given the market size, it isn't easy to compete with all the other vendors if the pricing is high.

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

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable.

The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is amazing.

The deployment is straightforward.

We implement Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our clients, and if required, we consult with Dell.

The return on investment depends on each client's use case. The most common reason for a return comes from the time savings they get from using the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers ten out of ten.

We use Dell PowerEdge for virtualization purposes, particularly with VMware.

The new hardware, including Dell PowerEdge, has contributed to reducing unplanned production downtime.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are incredibly valuable because they are both user-friendly and powerful for managing hardware.

I am generally very satisfied with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. However, there is room for improvement in technical support.

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

We have not had any issues with the stability of the servers.

The servers are scalable, especially in terms of adding extra disks. It is a straightforward process; if you need more storage space, you can easily scale up by adding additional disks to meet your requirements.

Tech support is generally good, but there can be challenges, especially when dealing with support from India. Language differences can sometimes make communication difficult, but having a proficient English speaker or a good interpreter usually helps resolve issues effectively.

My company used a mix of Dell and HP hardware before, but now we exclusively use Dell. I find Dell's servers more powerful and user-friendly for remote management.

Deployment was relatively straightforward for us. The most labor-intensive part was the physical setup in the data center, handled by the data center team. After that, the installation of AHI was a breeze, making the overall process quite manageable.

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

We rely on Dell PowerEdge servers for our data centers, transitioning from VMware to Hyper-V Azure Stack. These servers support various functions, including backup, database management, and handling highly virtualized workloads.  

A significant benefit we have experienced with Dell PowerEdge is the flexibility it offers in customizing our services. The servers are designed to fit our specific requirements, allowing us to build and configure them according to our needs. 

This flexibility has been valuable, as we have been able to achieve everything we have asked from the PowerEdge line to support our organization's IT infrastructure. 

For our organization, energy efficiency is crucial, and Dell PowerEdge servers align well with our commitment to green IT. Dell works with customers to prioritize power-efficient hardware, and we have noticed savings when renewing parts of our infrastructure. 

The virtualization layer, coupled with Dell's efforts, has contributed significantly to improved energy efficiency, allowing us to achieve more performance for the same energy consumption. Additionally, PowerEdge servers significantly contribute to our sustainability goals by delivering high performance and efficiency.

I find the stability of PowerEdge to be its most valuable feature. Managing it is straightforward, and the scalability aligns well with the needs of our organization.

One area where PowerEdge could improve, and it might not be unique to Dell, is the challenge of keeping technology consistent over the years. Due to the natural growth of IT, there are differences in processors, memory, and technology advancements each year. When expanding our environment, it becomes a challenge to match the technology of the same line. A more seamless bridge between old and new hardware could simplify administration and enhance the overall user experience.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for almost over ten years.

PowerEdge handles the evolving needs of high-performance workloads quite well. Its flexibility allows us to attain the required performance and integrate new technologies seamlessly. The scalability within our current environment ensures that we don't hit the limits of the platform easily, eliminating the need to transition to another platform for now.

Dell's tech support has been good overall. While we rarely need assistance, finding the right entry point into their support system can be a bit challenging. However, when required, our account manager and available resources help navigate the process effectively.

We have seen a substantial return on investment with Dell PowerEdge. The servers' stability, ease of management, and standardized operations have reduced staffing needs and operational costs. Considering factors like energy efficiency and pricing, it has been a valuable investment for our organization.

I find the pricing for Dell PowerEdge reasonable for our company. However, licensing, in general, can be challenging to manage effectively. It would be beneficial for companies like Dell to reconsider their approach to licensing certain aspects of their equipment.

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

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for servers and backup.

The product has improved our business. There are fewer complications than what we had before with other brands.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is simpler to use when compared with HPE. The product provides more features than what we expected six years ago.

The solution must increase the space provided. It is still an issue. The terabytes are never enough.

I have been using the solution for six years.

The support is getting better. Before, we had to call and explain what was going on. Now, the support has a website. I rate the support a seven or eight out of ten.

Neutral

We were using HPE before. Many schools were already doing business with Dell. So, we tried it. We also have Dell's laptops and desktops.

The deployment is not difficult at all.

The tool's pricing is very good.

The server does consume energy. The energy consumption is less than what it was three years ago. We still have the same capacity. We don't have many high-performance workloads. We have AutoCAD and SolidWorks. These are two programs that need a lot of CPU. The rest is file surfing and document printing. We are planning to use the OpenManage console.

Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

My organization uses the product as a simple server.

We implemented the product for its simplicity and scalability. We wanted a simple system that we could scale up if needed. Currently, we only have a few servers. It's easy to change them. The components can be changed around.

The simplicity of the bars is valuable. We can pull out elements and change them ourselves. It saves us time. We do not open the machine much. It leads to less maintenance efforts. We can also use components of other brands. It is easy to use.

The product must provide more options to add GPUs to the machines. It's always a challenge. If we don't think about it when buying the machine, we cannot do it afterward.

I have been using the solution for 20 years. We use R730 and R630.

The support is good. The support was better ten years ago. Now, we have to do more things ourselves. Ten years ago, the team focused on solving the issues first instead of finding who was to blame.

Positive

We used HPE some time ago. The machines are the same, but the support provided by Dell is better.

The initial setup was easy.

The product's pricing is not good. It's always a winning factor for other solutions. It is not the most affordable tool.

I hope PowerEdge's Cyber Resilient Architecture approach is sufficient. Once, we had a problem because the rack was not updated. It's annoying that I didn't get informed by Dell that we had to update it. Communication should be better for security reasons.

I never thought about energy consumption, but we all must decrease our power consumption. It was never an issue for us, though. The tool is efficient for what we use it for. It is scalable till the end. The product lasts for seven years. We can use the machine for a long time.

The solution has helped reduce unplanned production downtime. We have a cluster. If one fails, the other one takes over. The OpenManage console has affected our IT staff’s productivity. We use it a lot. It's a good tool to access our service. The tool saves 25% of our time.

Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

We use multiple models of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. We're currently using the more hypervisor-focused models with AMD CPUs but from different generations.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers mostly for hypervisors and also for single application usage.

We've had some supply and support challenges with other manufacturers, and Dell could deliver for us, and the cooperation with the Dell team works really well for us. The accounting team knows a lot. They can help us out with our challenges. They can help us fill our needs.

Through Dell's OpenManage software, we can track our power usage, but we can also track what components use how much power in the system. It helps us at least get the intelligence we need to get the reports out to the business and to our partners.

In regards to energy consumption for the whole company, it's only a small percentage. But if we look at just IT, then the surface does consume a sizable amount. And whether that's renewable or fossil energy, it's still impacting.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are able to handle high performance well. We're using high-performance systems and they fill our needs. 

We are able to save days' worth of time depending on the number of services we are deploying.

The flexibility of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is good because they come in smaller spec sizes to larger spec sizes. If we need it for a stand-alone system, we can get a really small system. For our Hypervisor, we can get the larger spec systems to carry a higher workload.

The most valuable feature is the ease of use. It's very easy to get new systems in the data center and to get them ready for production.

I'm currently not running into specific cases that I'd say we could improve. Of course, the most important features are security and sustainability. Those are subjects that Dell does a lot of work on. The whole industry works a lot on it, but everyone also sets goals of being sustainable. Working together on those subjects, I'd say could help us achieve those goals together. Sustainability and the data center is a hot topic. I work for the airport and we want to be the most sustainable airport in the world. So starting with our IT stack could benefit.

The most important for us is once someone gets access to a system that we don't want them to have access to, it probably won't be physical access. What will a system do to detect besides all the software we have in place? And right now, I'm not really aware of what the PowerEdge stack does for us in those scenarios, but that's an interesting use case. I would like more resilience because, for all companies, cybersecurity is important. Once something goes wrong, then we'll see the whole business go along. Within the IT department, we have to be ahead of that.

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

In terms of a real IT company, we're small. So for us, our needs can be easily filled with the current scalability that Dell can deliver to us.

We've had some small communication errors with support agents going on holiday and not doing a good handover of a case, but that's just one thing. The rest of our experiences with technical support are great.

Positive

We used exclusively Lenovo and IBM in the past. For some reason, we switched to Dell. It may have been pricing, but also support. 

The initial installation is easy. Through Dell software, we can create baselines. And with those baselines, we can automate the first steps of deployment. Stuff we would normally have to go into the data center, physically connect to a server, and do by hand, can now just be done after two simple steps.

Normally, deploying new hardware would sometimes take a couple of days, including getting it already for the business. Now especially on the tedious first steps of installation, we save time.

We have had good life cycles. While they may not directly generate a return on investment, they fulfill their intended purpose and have demonstrated long-term viability.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack ten out of ten.

We use them to host a car parking system. 

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers with pre-installed Microsoft Windows Server. It is just easier when they come already loaded. There is less for us to do.

We host our application on them. They are great for running our applications. We recently had to upgrade the specs of some of the servers due to the demands on the system. For example, where it used to be Dell R350 with hard drives, we are now expected to go with SSDs, but it deals with our applications very well.

We do not necessarily use a lot of its security and other features. We take it out of the box, put our application on it, and then just run it or install it on a device if needed.

With Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we now have more resilience. Previously, we used a PowerPC as a server. By using a dedicated PowerEdge Rack Server, there is resilience when using, for example, a RAID array.

Our in-house application runs directly on it. That is a big critical element, but the impact of these servers on our IT infrastructure is no different from another server.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime by about 20%.

The ease of setting them up is valuable. It is easy to set them up. 

Training needs to be improved. I feel we are not getting the best benefit out of the PowerEdge servers at the moment because we do not have in-depth knowledge on how to fully configure them. The PowerEdge servers are fine. It is our training that needs to be improved.

Their support can be better. Getting to the right person for support is a challenge.

We have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for eight or nine years.

I have never seen any major issues with stability. They are stable.

Once we have deployed a server, we do not increase any specs on it, so we do not have too much experience with scalability. If we do need an improved or enhanced server, we will get that straight from Dell. We would not enhance RAM, SSD, or anything else on our own.

There are about eight people who may configure them. Once these servers go to the site, there are more people using them, but I do not know how many.

Their support is usually very good, but getting to the right person is a challenge. They are good once we get to the right person or once somebody is dedicated to helping us, but getting to that point in the first place is a bit annoying. 

Neutral

My predecessor was already using them, so I carried on ordering them. We do not have any experience with anything similar. We just stick with what we know. The only alternative that we use is a tower PC as a server. It is just a standard PC.

We did not consider public cloud servers before choosing PowerEdge servers. Our platform at the moment is not native to the cloud. It has a heavy data demand and bandwidth requirement, so the cloud was not necessarily within the scope of our product at the time. However, we are developing a cloud-native solution. That might be something we can consider moving forward.

We went for PowerEdge servers because of the price and specs. It is something that has been used by our team before I even joined it, so we continue to use it. The support from Dell is usually very good as well. So, it is a combination of price, specs, and support that makes us keep using Dell.

It is easy to set them up. We could realize their benefits within a few months of deployment.

I am involved in their deployment as an assistant and not as the main person. Most times, it is straightforward, but it also depends on the spec that we get with different solid-state drives or hard drives. Sometimes, the RAID sets can be a bit more complex.

With regards to getting the server into a state where we can deploy our application, it takes a few hours. In a few hours, we can deploy the Windows operating system, do the RAID setup, and then it is ready for our in-house solution.

It is usually a one-man job. I might provide some assistance, but typically, it is a one-man job.

We have potentially seen an ROI, but I would not be able to give a figure. We deploy our solutions onto those servers, and effectively, that is no longer our equipment, so we do not necessarily see what is going on with them. 

They are fairly priced.

I would recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I would advise having a good relationship with Dell, and they will support you above and beyond.

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