Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

Virtual Environment and performance enhancements for SQL applications and for future VDI implementations.

Performance has been observed once servers have been operational and power consumption has been reduced as well due to the new technology.

The solution has always had very good performance.

The availability/scalability is excellent.

Their technical support is always helpful. They have a very good support timeline that lasts not just a year or two, but even five years down the line. It's a long-term arrangement.

The solution is highly scalable, with a two-socket server, CPU support, and the M.E.N SST. 

It can support VDI.

You can combine these servers. Therefore, not only do they work with virtual environments, you can have them as a Data Analytics server. They can handle a lot of heavy processes. They are one of the main big servers that can handle a lot of things. For example, I'm replacing four servers with three servers, which means I can also reduce the licenses. Instead of buying two licenses, you're buying one license. The lines are reduced to half, and you have a few open managed application that will tell you the health of the server. 

The content and insights with Dell are great. Whenever something happens to your server and you have the support, they will give you a notification. Whether it's CPU or RAM or the power supply, whatever the issue, they will tell you. You always have a proactive notification on all the servers.

Security and BIOS are very good. Previously, BIOS was just a plus for the team to have on the server. Now, BIOS is more into Cyber Security and has the intelligence to recognize what is being loaded before going to the main OS. There's artificial intelligence integrated into these servers and the insights are one of the main reasons that they'll provide you with a good service, and offer you some visibility on the server. You feel safe. The server won't let you down. With the notifications, you can always handle things before they become a bigger problem. 

The company needs to invest in more marketing exposure. Users need to know that Dell servers compete with HP Servers. in the region, the Middle East, many more companies work with HP. They could change this.

The solution could still use some more analytics.

It would be helpful if we had the power of an open managed application. It should be more hands-on in terms of how are you going to manage your server. In order to do that, you need more visibility into the health of the server itself.

I've been dealing with this solution for around a year. I used to have HP servers, as well, however, now I'm working with Dell again.

The solution is extremely scalable, and it's easy to do so as it has a two-socket server and CPU support, etc. It offers quite high performance for easy scaling down the road.

You don't just buy a server for one service. You buy a server to take advantage of several services in your environment, and so, it helps that it can scale.

I've personally never worked with technical support directly, however, it is my understanding that technical support is excellent. They offer long timelines, so you don't just have technical support for, for example, the first year or two. They continue to work with you even years down the line. They're very fast and responsive and their head in Lebanon is very good. 

Support is one of the main reasons we considered as well, as we know that if we have any critical issues, we won't have problems getting the answers we need. We get the answers we require either the same day or 24 hours. It's great.

We did use a different solution, HP, and now we are returning to Dell. Part of what played a major factor is the support for AMD CPU's. Since Dell EMC supports the AMD, there also were internal considerations as well to take them on.

HP is one of the main competitors in the Middle East. They compete head-to-head with Dell EMC also, and HP servers have some things that are better than Dell EMC. Dell has older technology. They're catching up, however, with artificial intelligence, analytics, and reporting, they're catching up.

They are pretty close in style and substance. Therefore, whichever gives me a better price will be the one I choose.

The initial setup was very, very easy. 

There's nothing to work with on the server itself. 

You just handle the configuration, and you do some EFI configuration. In the last stage, you're going to install the operating system so that it is a fast service. It depends on the disks you put in. At the server level, so it doesn't have that much configuration. It's just installing Windows and any operating system. Then you build over that.

Except for the Bios updates and the drivers and the compatibility issues, you don't have any problem with compatibility.

There are certain components on other solutions that I need to check with Dell. Dell was very good before and always is in the performance, availability and support. That said, our region in Lebanon, had some problems with the distributors and the people who are licensed to sell Dell products. It's been about five years now, and it's now official that everybody can partner again with Dell. You don't have to be an experienced partner, per se. 

Before, it was being controlled by one partner. Nobody is able to bring in Dell, and this partner had control for all the prices of all the support and everything. However, after merging with EMC and after having so many partners, its become more exposed to the market. Many partners that were struggling to sell Dell EMC servers and storage, as well as laptops and everything, are able to do so. 

This is the main reason why we have returned to Dell. We know about them. They offer very good servers and they are one of the leaders in the market. Dell and HP are leaders now in the servers. For this season, we reconsidered having their Rack Servers. This is the only reason we're going now to Dell servers. 

With Dell, if a company is considering their work environments and they're considering Data Analytics and Big Data, etc., yes, why not to go for the Dell server. They have an extremely scalable infrastructure designed for Big Data and they have the processes and ERP system that needs a lot of power. The Rack Servers, the PowerUp servers, are very good. They are recommended by many people worldwide.

I'd recommend organizations consider these servers. Dell also has a full portfolio of products that work together in harmony. Whatever you need, Dell likely has a solution for you.

Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

We are a Dell partner, and we're kind of like a hybrid type of partner that sells new products and also maintains a large stock of inventory. We build servers, storage, and solutions for clients and data centers. In terms of a specific use case, we build a lot of VMware vSAN in this solution. 

Their management tools are the most valuable. Our customers like the flexibility of being able to scale up and out. It is very easy for them to scale and add additional nodes and servers to their storage solutions, such as the ATI solution.

It has very good quality and a great deployment model. Its warranty is also very good, and it is very stable. Their fixes have been quick if they have those.

After purchasing the product, customers have not been getting the support that they need in the early stages of getting set up. They can provide customers a little bit more education as to what they get with certain warranty levels. The data is there if the customers dig, but a lot of times, the customers don't dig. 

Some of the other server models come out a little bit quicker than Dell. It would be good if Dell is quicker to market on new, larger drives when they become available. Sometimes, we do get hit on that against a couple of competitors. Dell vets them a little bit longer than like the super micros to keep their stability and quality level up, but they lose a little bit of ground to a super micro. It would be good if they can release features and models as soon and as fast as they can. It would help them to stay more competitive.

We've been selling these servers for 19 years.

These units are very robust. They're rock solid.

There is absolutely no problem with scalability. These machines are built to be able to scale up.

They've been dynamite. I would rate them a ten out of ten.

It has a great deployment model.

I would advise to just do your homework and make sure that you get the warranty and support levels that you're going to need. Understand what you will get and whether you need software support along with it. 

We do a cost analysis for our clients based upon the total cost of ownership. We do that for every deal. That's a very smart process to follow for any tech solution because some people think that if they just put a solution, it will solve all of their problems, which is not necessarily the case.

I would rate PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten. We love these servers. These are quality products, and I would personally purchase them for my own business. 

We are a reseller. Our customers use this solution for governing the system and for some specific applications. They are going towards the hyper-convergence infrastructure or HCI in Egypt. Our customers have on-premises and cloud deployments.

It is user friendly and easy to configure.

System security can be improved. They can add more power and security for ESXi version 7.

My company has been using the Dell PowerEdge servers for about ten years.

It is stable.

It is scalable. It can be scaled with storage, such as with EMC storage. Our plans are for three years. If a customer needs the solution, we proceed to secure a deal and plan for three years so that the customer doesn't suffer because of scalability issues. Our customers are government departments as well as private businesses.

They are good. The visibility of Dell is very strong in Egypt, especially in the north where most of the engineers are. We also have a distributor. They're very supportive and help us in training and sizing.

It is easy to set up because the Lifecycle Controller is very friendly, especially when you use the GUI for initialization. The system and the RAID controller take time, but in general, it is very easy to set up. You can check the Lifecycle.

We do it ourselves because we are a reseller, and we have a technical team to deploy it.

The server is a one-time purchase, but the support is on a subscription basis.

Dell has a new product every quarter, so its portfolio is very large. 

I would recommend this solution. I would rate Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten.

Currently, I work for a company partnered with Dell EMC; I used to work for another company, also partnered with Dell EMC.

I would like to see a virtual view of the solution after creating and configuring it.

I have been using this solution for almost five years.

Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers are both scalable and stable.

I have never contacted technical support before.

The initial setup is very good, not complex at all.

The price of this solution is reasonable. It's very comparable to similar solutions. 

It's virtually the same product as UCS MSP. I don't see many differences between them.

The pre-sales HP team in Egypt is more helpful than EMC's team. Overall, I think HP is more flexible than EMC. 

I don't really have any advice to give: it's only applications installed on a server, that's it.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.

I use Dell R740 servers series as the main compute server to host IT workloads.

It's an excellent choice and it's integrated well with Dell-VMWare virtualization OS (ESXi).

Dell R series are very good engineered servers. Reliability and durability are the key to choose this product. This is a cornerstone to build a highly available IT system.

The reconstructive compatibility with VMware ESXi is the most valuable.

The only thing that could be improved is documentation. The product is highly customizable with a lot of options for each component. These options are not easily understood. It would be great to offer more user-friendly interface/Documentation to build up the system. 

I have been using this solution for four years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. We can scale it by adding nodes, but some software and licenses are required for that. We have around 60 users using it on a daily basis

I never contacted them. We are usually able to resolve any issues within the company.

Yes, I installed and administered HP Proliant servers. It was a good product in my experience.

I switched because we got a competitive price.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We have three team members for its deployment and regular maintenance.

It's easy to install and configure with suitable server administrator.

iDrac management solution is included with the server. It provides suitable zero-cost solution for monitoring and managing your hardware.

Yes we evaluate all possible alternatives like:

HP and Lenovo

I would recommend this solution for rack servers. It is perfect.

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

All of my server's requirements are currently using the Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers.

There are certain aspects, features, and functionality on the motherboard that need improvement. 

If they had some software components that would have helped because I don't like creating electronic waste. We don't like upgrading for the sake of upgrading.

With that process, we tend to lose the newer features which would have come in during that time.

If they could have done something during that time where the new features could have been included, or improved upon the existing ones then it would have been brilliant.

In the next release, I would like to see some means by which they could improve the functionality on the motherboard. It would be a very large help and increase the life of these products.

I have been using Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers for 14 to 15 years.

We are using the latest version purchased from HP.

It's a very stable solution. 

We have many servers still running with this solution because our new one has not yet been commissioned. 

We have the exchange server, ERP that is running on it, file sense servers, and the security server is running.

We plan to continue using this solution in the future.

Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers is scalable.

We have 160 users in our organization.

Technical support has been brilliant. 

They have supported us for several years, but it's now out of support because we are currently implementing a hardware refresh.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The deployment time varies depending on the application being deployed. For example, the exchange took me a couple of days to get it up and running, and on a straightforward file sense server, it was less than three hours to get it up and running.

The security server also took a couple of hours to get it up and running.

We have four members to deploy and maintain this solution. They are made up of engineers, managers, and admins.

It's not a very expensive solution.

We were in a scenario of having every application running on physical servers.

We are now moving to an in-house virtual environment. We are using VMware so that one server can do a multitude of jobs at the same time. Hence the hardware refresh.

We are moving towards virtual experiences, using VMware.

This solution has absolutely fulfilled our needs well.

We are still running, this solution, we are upgrading only because of the features and abilities that it doesn't have. It's run now for 14 to 15 years.

It's a brilliant product.

I would recommend this solution to others looking into using this solution.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We use it for main servers, database servers, and application servers. 

Virtualization and distributed power management are good and valuable features.

It would be easier if the remote connection to the server could be done through the USB port. From the server, we should be able to connect to a laptop or a management workstation through a USB port.

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

It is very stable.

It is scalable. I have extended it using virtualization technologies. We have 5 servers and around 1000 users.

I am satisfied with their technical support.

I had a little bit of difficulty in the beginning when we used provisioning with automated tasks almost ten years ago, but after that, it was very straightforward.

Dell had authorized a vendor in my country. I took some advice and assistance from them. They were okay. 

For its maintenance, some tasks are handled by our administrator internally and some tasks are handled by the vendor.

Dell's solution was cheaper than HP's solution.

I also use similar solutions from HP. Based on my usage, I have found them quite similar. They are at the same level.

I would recommend this solution to others, but they have to see their overall system, that is, the interfaces, fabric, reports, network path, etc. They have to see the compatibility metrics between different parts. I had some difficulties in the beginning when I was supposed to change to the right certified device.

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

The user interface is the solution's most valuable aspect.

The implementation process is quite good.

The pricing of the solution is fair.

I can't think of any features that are lacking on the solution. It works well for our clients for the most part.

It would be nice if the rack servers had an HCI solution as an option.

We've been using the solution for the past two years now.

The stability is good. It also lasts a relatively long time. Our customers are typically looking for something that will hold up for about five years, and this solution does that. It's not buggy. There aren't glitches. It doesn't crash or break down.

You can easily scale the solution up and down. Our customers want a solution that can work with for half a decade at least, so they need something flexible, and this solution delivers.

We deal with customers of all sizes, from small to large organizations. This solution works well for each of them.

The technical support is okay. We have an internal team, however, they are by no means experts. We need Dell to fill in the blanks and sometimes that can't help us the way we hoped they would. It might be helpful if the Dell site had more information so that we could just go there.

We use a variety of Dell options including FX and XE, among others. Which we use is dependant on the client requirements.

The initial setup is not complex. It's quite easy to set everything up, in fact. All of the underlying technology is the same on Dell, so we don't have an issue handling the implementation on the Dell servers for our customers.

We can handle the aspects of the installation ourselves, as it's pretty straightforward.

We are a service provider and a reseller. We use various versions of the solution. The deployment models also vary as it depends on customer requirements. We deal with a lot of hyper-converged solutions.

I'd recommend the solution. We've had no issues with it at all.

Overall, I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.