Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We primarily use the solution for compute servers. We use them as compute servers to run our virtual machines on-load, mainly on VMware.

The R6 series has been very valuable as it's more cost-effective and it has a lot of features. Based on the requirements, we found the R6 Series would be best suited for our customers. Reliability-wise, it's also great.

PowerEdge is for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, including VDI, AI, and SAP. We did run PowerEdge servers with virtual workloads, especially on VDI. We realized that SSD is necessary, especially with VMware vSphere platforms as the IO requirements are quite high.

In terms of security, there’s been no issue from our side. In terms of BIOS, it is secure and we can go and log into BIOS to change certain settings.

PowerEdge is good for energy consumption. PowerEdge Servers run on optimal voltage. Compared to other competitors or other brands, the power rating is great.

We use iDRAC for many years already. It's an item we need to buy. We’ve had no problems so far. We use it for monitoring purposes to configure SNMP and the servers.

PowerEdge analytics helped to decrease production downtime.

The data points I’d draw attention to for potential customers depend on how much the customer is going to spend. If there is a certain budget, we would plan around their budget. In terms of analytics, most of the time, our monitoring service is able to collect the data metrics already, so having PowerEdge analytics is a complement to our existing monitoring system. While it's good to have, it depends of course on the customer's budget. If their budget is small, we will take away analytics to save costs.

PowerEdge helped to reduce our customer’s data processing time. In fact, they were getting a lot of data from here, from their data processing. We also partner with some Big Data Analytics which run data points. In terms of PowerEdge, it's running fine except for certain power failures from time to time. In terms of how much they’ve reduced the data processing producing power, I don't have the metrics to comment on.

PowerEdge systems management frameworks enable us to progress towards full automation when it comes to managing PowerEdge. We find it very useful in terms of automation, the setup, and configuration, as it does offer setup and proper checks. With the servers, we just need to set our black bar and then push down the setup and configurations box into PowerEdge and we run after that.

We do encounter power supply failures from time to time, however, in terms of operations, the production uptime, the production is not affected, and the SLA is still within the stipulated time.

In the future, we hope that the noise level will be lower.

I've used the solution for quite a long while. Likely, it's been more than 10 years.

We've had no issues with scaling so far. We have been using PowerEdge for years and we are able to scale well. For networking, we need to build the network to scale, and it hasn't been a problem.

Dell support is responsive. They dispatch an engineer on-site to help us within their SLA plan. They are very good so far.

That said, we would appreciate it if the engineer came down with the parts beforehand so they can resolve hardware issues on the spot.

Positive

We deployed many series of PowerEdge for many years. We also used other vendors, including HP and Cisco among others. I would say that in terms of reliability, they are a bit better than Dell in terms of power supplies. 

The deployment time depends on the size of the setup. So far, we haven't had any problems with the setup.

We engage with vendors to do the setup as unboxing PowerEdge and mounting them onto racks. This is especially true if we are talking about hundreds of servers.

Dell can actually do everything in their staging environment, in their warehouse, before shipping everything to customers. We've been quite satisfied with Dell's level of service so far.

The product meets our requirements. Cost-wise, certain configurations in PowerEdge maybe cost a bit extra. Especially the SSD drives.

The cost will increase if we go with the rack-and-stack approach.

We are partners with Dell.

We use the R series, namely R620, 630, then after that 720, 730, and with the XD series as well. We deploy them in data centers. Inside the data centers, there are systems as well as cloud systems; typically the deployment is hybrid.

We don’t use Dell's cloud view for predictive analytics.

I can’t speak to PowerEdge's accelerated tuning in terms of helping to support demanding workloads. We have not used GPU yet.

I'd advise new users to go ahead and assess PowerEdge. Of course, companies need to get their representative to send some metrics, especially the MTBF or certain components on Dell products. We realize that the power supply may be a weak link when running high loads constantly. In terms of other components, there are no issues. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We mostly use Power Servers for our R&D lab where we deploy the labs for developers and other testers to do their high-end testing and more.

The burden on the IT team has been reduced thanks to this solution, the monitoring, and other features. The deployment and giving access to the end-users have been easy. Overall, the amount of work that the IT team has to invest in came down drastically.

There are a lot of features. To be specific, the amount of virtual memory that we can use and the scalability are something that I like much. If you ask me what is the best feature, I would say the scalability. I don't have to invest in the new servers when I can scale this one. That is something which helped us a lot.

PowerEdge is great for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. I'd rate it an eight out of ten.

I would rate PowerEdge’s approach to security with its signed Firmware, drift detection, and BIOS at a ten out of ten. Everything is easy to upgrade. It's easy to maintain and easy to work with.

In terms of energy consumption, it's consuming less than the previous servers.

We use PowerEdge for artificial intelligence applications. Our developers and QA use it and our developers develop the AI feature products.

Using artificial intelligence does solve problems for us in terms of using the servers for our developers.

The PowerEdge Eye Track telemetry for monitoring system data and providing analytics helps us get the job done and makes it easier in terms of monitoring.

PowerEdge has accelerated us in order to help support our demanding workloads.

The solution should give us an option to add on new hardware features. For example, the new hardware, specifically the SoCs that come in, and the NB RAMs that are coming, should have that feature as well. The existing ones are okay, however, the older version that we currently use, which is two years old, doesn't have that feature. 

I've been in the company for the last six years, and we were using the product even before that.

The solution is very stable and serves its purpose.

Technical support is very good. We had issues with the hardware replacement that was to be done on PowerEdge. They made sure that they stood by their four spare replacements.

Positive

I was involved in the initial setup of this solution. It was easy.

I was using the Power Servers for the last 14 years and it was transferred from the day I started working on the servers. It was always easy to set up for me and easy to train my employees. However, I don't do that anymore, my staff does it for me. However, it remains easy to set up.

I can't comment much on the licensing as it is not directly from Dell. It's our partner's pricing that we have to depend on. Pricing is competitive compared to others in the market.

I'm not sure which model we use, it's been three years.

We do not use the cloud and new predictive analytics.

I'd advise other potential users to go for it and evaluate it with the other vendors. However, in my experience, PowerEdge stands out.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

We used PowerEdge as our main servers for all things virtual and as our file servers as well. We had a lot of VPN users as most of the company is remote. There wasn't as much lag time when dealing with file transfer, specifically in the office. Using the PowerEdge Servers and the Dell switch stack interchangeably skyrocketed the firm in the office.

The monitoring system is really helpful. I'm a one-man team, and I run systems and IT for a pretty big company. The ease of use of being able to flip through a browser tab was the most valuable feature for me.

As for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads, PowerEdge has a lot more flexibility for scaling. It has everything that you would want for a business that's growing.

In terms of PowerEdge's approach to security with its firmware and drift detection, there have been no issues with any updates or security breaches.

The company had to move to a new building, and one of the main concerns was energy consumption. As far as I know, there were a lot of eco settings present to make sure that the PowerEdge Rack Servers used the proper amount of energy.

I've had zero downtime in the three and a half years I've been in the company. Prior to my time, I do know that the uptimes of the systems were very long. From all the records and logs of the previous IT administrator, I can see that there were no issues with the servers.

The servers get slower at the end of their life cycle. The technology needs to evolve.

Also, when you have separate servers and have to add connections between them, they slow down.

I used this solution for about a year and a half since I joined the company. The company was using it at least since 2015.

There hasn't been a whole lot of downtime and zero issues with stability.

There's expandability, and you can scale with PowerEdge Rack Servers.

About 80% to 85% of our workforce is remote, and they all use laptops. About half of that comes back to the server through a VPN. There are only about 60 people in the office using the solution on-premises.

I've had no issues with technical support, and they've been very quick and responsive. I've had to call them, maybe three times in the last three years. I would give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

PowerEdge Rack Servers are pretty standard servers. You put them on the rack, you plug them in, and you set up the settings.

We weren't paying very much, but it was at the end of the lifecycle. We're now using the VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure, and the pricing was very similar for the same amount of power but with easier automation.

Make sure that it fits your company now and your company in the future because if you don't build for scalability, you will get caught by a foot and have to buy more stuff.

I would recommend PowerEdge Rack servers to smaller organizations and not to larger ones like ours.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate PowerEdge Rack servers at nine.

We use this solution for our on-premises infrastructure to mainly provide office support and data storage.

We use it for data storage and it allows for easy access to the data on-premises. It has helped increase staff productivity.

PowerEdge is one of the top solutions when it comes to the security features that it provides including firmware, drift protection, and systems management.

It's a pretty nice system. You can log in to iDRAC, you can look at the logs, the temperature, etc. Essentially, all of the metrics of the server are there, so you can get a complete view and immediately know what's going on.

One of the things that I've noticed is that over time, the system degrades, meaning that little things don't work. For example, the hard drive would need to be replaced or iDRAC would not be functioning properly. We may have to flash the firmware. It is not like some other hardware where it just runs without issues for four or five years. With Dell, generally, there are little hiccups here and there.

I've used PowerEdge Rack Servers on and off for about 20 years.

It's very stable. I would give it a ten out of ten. The system is pretty redundant, so we never really have any downtime.

We have about 250 users. It's used 90% in the company, in terms of our infrastructure. We do not plan to increase usage because we're moving more things to the cloud. We're trying to reduce our server footprint on-premises.

Dell's technical support is pretty good. I'd give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

We've always switched between Dell and HP, depending on the current state and the cost. The reason for switching is primarily the cost involved.

The initial setup is not intuitive. The first one took a while, but after that, we were done within an hour.

When deploying the PowerEdge solution, we were able to use the automated server and OS deployment features, but I had to talk to Dell support. They had to walk me through it. However, once you do it once, it becomes very easy.

We implemented it ourselves with help from Dell's technical support.

For deployment and maintenance, we need one person.

When you compare public cloud solutions to PowerEdge in terms of cost, initially the cost of Dell servers or Dell technology was really high. However, right now it's on par and maybe even cheaper when we use Dell hardware. If we don't swap it out in three years and stretch it to four or five years, then we can get even more of an ROI versus cloud cost.

We've always chosen HP or Dell depending on the year, the product, and any promotions offered by the respective companies. We generally use Dell laptops, so by default we often go with Dell servers as part of the ecosystem.

I highly recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; they are solid. If you do your due diligence and do your homework or your janitorial work, they'll never break.

I would give this solution a ten on a scale from one to ten.

I use a mixture of versions of this solution including R440 and R430.  I also use FX2S for the blade chassis and FC630 and 640 for the actual blade servers.

We use the blade solution as a host cluster environment for virtualization of multiple servers and the standalone R440 and 430 for best practice when we don't want to necessarily complete virtualization. We use physical servers in different locations in order to have different firewall contexts, so we can push data across. We use the physical servers as simulated distant ends in a test environment out at the actual sites.

This solution has helped us reduce our rack footprint. It reduced our power consumption including size and weight. For example, we could increase the number of systems we were deploying in Iraq if we needed to. 

The solution decreased the time it takes to deploy systems due to needing less hardware. When we started to manage all of our servers in a cluster, it increased our oversight management. Ease of management with a smaller hardware footprint has equaled faster deployment.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the fact that it is a reliable server and does the job we implemented it to do. 

We are leaning away from this particular product because Dell's VxRail solution makes us buy four nodes at a time which is not scalable. Other solutions such as Cisco offer more innovation on this front. 

The switching for this solution is lagging behind other products. Cisco has built the best iOS that other solutions need to match. Dell has recently done an overhaul to allow networking switches but it still can't scale the way we need it to. 

I have been using this solution for seven years. 

This is a stable solution. 

Blade servers are not scalable anymore.

The initial setup is not complex but it is counterintuitive, specifically the chassis. The FX2S chassis holds up to four half widths blades and has a pre-built two-module network card and eight ports that mirror each other.  

The PCIe slots on the back of the chassis are hardwired and challenging to set up.

We did not use the automated server of OS deployment features. We installed the hardware and then installed the software manually. We are a dark site. Dell could be a little bit more friendly to dark site management. There's a huge customer base out there that just cannot utilize a lot of their solutions in a classified environment.

The pricing for this solution is reasonable. We pay a basic premium with a military premium on top of that. 

This solution has met my needs. We have not run with the latest versions of this solution due to security concerns. 

This solution has helped me to view the health and status of our environment in a user-friendly way. The TPM features have helped us a lot because, from a configuration management standpoint, there are trusted platform modules that operate consistently.

For anyone considering this solution, I would recommend looking into all the finer details to understand how it could be integrated. Ensure every facet of the solution is going to meet your needs.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. 

Our primary use case includes running workloads such as on-premises Active Directory, with a managed hybrid approach on Microsoft Azure and on-premises.

The solution has helped by ensuring no major security incidents or vulnerabilities, and has supported our sustainability goals through energy consumption management. It has also provided reliable uptime with planned downtimes for updates.

Its approach to user security measures is valuable. We haven't experienced any major issues, and the solution has been working really well.

I've been in this company for the last three years, and the solution has been used since before my arrival.

We do not have many issues with downtime; there are windows for planned updates or upgrades.

Dell's customer support is very good, especially since we have premium support for next-day hardware service.

Positive

The return on investment is notable as we've been using the same servers without incurring ongoing operational expenses often associated with the cloud.

The cost of ownership is differentiated by the absence of operational expenses typical with cloud services.

Our storage is on Dell and nearly all our use cases are on the Dell servers. We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for almost everything. 

My company chose Dell because they were looking for something that is easy to manage, stable, and something we can trust. 

PowerEdge servers are great for high-performance workloads. We get excellent performance every time we use them.  

PowerEdge's management interface is easy to use. It's also a platform that we can trust.

I have been at the company and working with PowerEdge for three years. I know the company has been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for years but I don't know precisely how long. 

PowerEdge is a stable solution. If it wasn't we wouldn't use it. 

I rate Dell support eight out of 10. While we are generally satisfied with their service, we'd like more connections between meetings and proactive support. We had a session about two weeks ago, where we talked about areas they need to improve. 

Positive

We also use HP servers. 

The price is worth it for what you get from it. It's worth the cost. 

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers eight out of 10. 

We are using the solution for our virtualization environments. We are using a VMware environment and some hypervisor environments, and we are using this for that purpose.

With virtualization, you have a lot of freedom to manage the environment. We have a lot of requests coming in, a lot of machines to build, as well as some dev servers, test servers, et cetera. There is also the protection of all the systems. Compared to the cloud, if you have your own bare metal in your own office, that's cheap. That's one of the real advantages.

We can manage and configure all the storage systems ourselves. We have a lot more liberty there. When we add more things like storage servers, we can manage the backup. We are on the safer side since we have our own infrastructure and we have a good backup mechanism. It's more easy and more convenient for a system admin to manage these environments. 

Poweredge has helped our organization. The model we're using is great. We had issues with an older model, however, this new one has been good. We have some production environments in our system. We shifted those to the new systems, and so far, I'm happy with the performance. 

The power is cyber resilience is good. So far, with the security upgrades, it's quite good. 

We have three or four servers and so far, it's going very well. 

It's helped us reduce unplanned downtime. We have PowerEdge in collaboration with VMware. That's going well so far. We can utilize various features, like, B Motion, et cetera, to manage zero downtime. 

I'd need to research the product more. Maybe it needs a little bit more support. We have storage and would like to manage more backups without adding extra storage devices. Maybe it's already there. I need to look at it more. Some hypervisors don't seem to have any extra storage. However, it may already be there, and I haven't found it yet.

I've used the solution for almost two years. 

It's great. It's stable so far. I have not experienced any issues with stability, so I would definitely say it's good.

From a scalability point of view, we are using the servers in cluster mode. It's great so far. We can migrate workloads and do whatever we want to do, including updates, with zero downtime.

Dell support is great, with us, at least. We have direct contact with Dell, so whenever we have a question, they are always there. 

Everyone is great. They really care about their customers. They have offices in Pakistan, the Netherlands, and Germany. They really try to understand the Pakistani market. 

Positive

We did not previously use a different server. I've always used Dell. 

We've reduced downtime. The cost is also a big factor. When you have good servers in-house with power backups, you are able to save quite a lot of money compared to the cloud. 

We have a customer relationship with Dell. We have a good account manager that can help in terms of pricing. 

Three or four months ago, we ordered a new Dell PowerEdge. I do not recall evaluating other options. 

We have more control and are saving money as compared to the cloud, which helps with long-term planning. The last Dell PowerEdge is in our local office. I've given our team the servers to do with them as they want. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

I can't wait to learn more about their technology. 

Foreign Language:(German)

Leicht zu verwalten und konfigurieren, mit einer guten Vor-Ort-Widerstandsfähigkeit.

Was ist unser Hauptanwendungsfall?

Wir verwenden die Lösung für unsere Virtualisierungsumgebungen. Wir verwenden eine VMware-Umgebung und einige Hypervisor-Umgebungen, und zu diesem Zweck setzen wir diese Lösung ein.

Inwiefern wurde meine Organisation dadurch unterstützt?

Mit der Virtualisierung hat man sehr viel Freiheit bei der Verwaltung der Umgebung. Es kommen viele Anfragen herein, viele Maschinen müssen gebaut werden, sowie einige Entwicklungsserver, Testserver und so weiter. Auch der Schutz aller Systeme ist wichtig. Im Vergleich zur Cloud ist ein eigenes Bare-Metal-System im eigenen Büro günstiger. Das ist wirklich ein großer Vorteil.

Was ist am wertvollsten?

Wir können alle Speichersysteme selbst verwalten und konfigurieren. Dadurch haben wir viel mehr Freiheiten. Wenn wir weitere Dinge wie Speicherserver hinzufügen, können wir die Datensicherung verwalten. Wir sind auf der sicheren Seite, da wir unsere eigene Infrastruktur haben und über einen guten Sicherungsmechanismus verfügen. Es ist einfacher und bequemer für einen Systemadministrator, diese Umgebungen zu verwalten.

Poweredge ist für unsere Organisation sehr hilfreich. Das Modell, das wir verwenden, ist großartig. Wir hatten Probleme mit einem älteren Modell, aber dieses neue Modell ist gut. Wir haben einige Produktionsumgebungen in unserem System. Diese haben wir auf die neuen Systeme umgestellt, und bisher bin ich mit der Leistung zufrieden.

Die Widerstandsfähigkeit gegenüber Cyberangriffen ist gut. Soweit, mit den Sicherheits-Upgrades, ist es ziemlich gut.

Wir haben drei oder vier Server, und bis jetzt läuft es sehr gut.

Es hat uns geholfen, ungeplante Ausfallzeiten zu reduzieren. Wir verwenden PowerEdge in Zusammenarbeit mit VMware. Das klappt bisher sehr gut. Wir können verschiedene Funktionen wie zum Beispiel B Motion usw. nutzen, um Ausfallzeiten zu vermeiden.

Was muss verbessert werden?

Ich müsste das Produkt genauer erforschen. Vielleicht braucht es ein bisschen mehr Support. Wir haben einen Speicherplatz und würden gerne mehr Backups ohne zusätzliche Speichergeräte verwalten. Vielleicht gibt es das schon. Ich muss mehr darüber nachforschen. Einige Hypervisoren scheinen keinen zusätzlichen Speicherplatz zu haben. Vielleicht gibt es sie aber auch schon, und ich habe sie nur noch nicht gefunden.

Wie lange verwende ich die Lösung schon?

Ich verwende die Lösung seit fast zwei Jahren.

Was halte ich von der Stabilität der Lösung?

Es ist großartig. Bis jetzt läuft es stabil. Ich habe keine Probleme mit der Stabilität, so würde ich definitiv sagen, es ist gut.

Was halte ich von der Skalierbarkeit der Lösung?

Aus Sicht der Skalierbarkeit verwenden wir die Server im Clustermodus. Bis jetzt läuft das sehr gut. Wir können unsere Workloads migrieren und alles tun, was wir tun wollen, einschließlich Updates, und das ohne Ausfallzeiten.

Wie funktioniert der Kundendienst und der Support?

Der Support von Dell ist großartig, zumindest bei uns. Wir haben direkten Kontakt mit Dell, und wenn wir eine Frage haben, sind sie immer da.

Alle sind großartig. Sie kümmern sich wirklich um ihre Kunden. Sie haben Büros in Pakistan, den Niederlanden und Deutschland. Sie versuchen wirklich, den pakistanischen Markt zu verstehen.

Wie bewerten Sie den Kundendienst und den Support?

Positiv

Welche Lösung habe ich zuvor verwendet und warum habe ich gewechselt?

Wir haben vorher keinen anderen Server verwendet. Ich habe immer Dell verwendet.

Wie hoch war der ROI?

Wir haben die Ausfallzeiten reduziert. Die Kosten spielen ebenfalls eine große Rolle. Wenn Sie gute Server vor Ort mit Stromunterstützung haben, können Sie im Vergleich zur Cloud erheblich Geld sparen.

Welche Erfahrungen habe ich mit den Preisen, den Einrichtungskosten und der Lizenzierung gemacht?

Wir haben eine Kundenbeziehung zu Dell. Wir haben einen guten Kundenbetreuer, der uns bei der Preisgestaltung helfen kann.

Welche anderen Lösungen habe ich geprüft?

Vor drei oder vier Monaten haben wir einen neuen Dell PowerEdge bestellt. Ich kann mich nicht daran erinnern, andere Lösungen geprüft zu haben.

Was kann ich sonst noch raten?

Wir haben mehr Kontrolle und sparen im Vergleich zur Cloud Geld, was uns bei der langfristigen Planung hilft. Der letzte Dell PowerEdge steht in unserem lokalen Büro. Ich habe unserem Team die Server zur Verfügung gestellt, so dass sie damit machen können, was sie wollen.

Ich würde die Lösung mit neun von zehn Punkten bewerten.

Ich kann es kaum erwarten, mehr über ihre Technologie zu erfahren.