Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

Our primary use cases for this solution include having our ESXi installed on the system on Dell PowerEdge R-Series, and we have VMs, Windows VMs, and Linux VMs.

We have a lot of Dell-oriented products. The company uses it extensively.

It's a very popular platform and everything is publicly available. 

From using Dell PowerEdge R-Series, I've seen benefits in that it's a very popular platform, so we have a lot of information online. If we have something, we don't need to wait for support; we can just Google everything and it's online.

The response from our end-users give us feedback that is positive. 

The upside of Dell solutions over its competitors lie in their support; they are spread across multiple vendors in Israel, and we are really pleased with the support we're getting from the Dell provider we're working with. The Dell provider that we work with is One Teldor.

To make it a better solution, we need more automation. I might be lacking knowledge, and there may be automation solutions available for regular day-to-day usage, such as running the VMs on Dell PowerEdge R-Series. If there were an automation solution for things such as cleanups, automatic reviewing of the data source and storage data, and providing more insights on what's needed, that would be necessary. I'm referring to automation scanning of the system and providing insights on how to improve the system.

Over the years, we've needed more RAM storage, requiring us to purchase more solutions. We need them to allow for more extension of RAM.

I am working in the company for eight years and since I've been there, Dell PowerEdge R-Series solutions have been there for a very long time. The company has used it for maybe 15 years.

I find the stability and reliability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series to be high; on a scale of one to ten, I'd say a nine.

An example where Dell PowerEdge R-Series made a noticeable improvement is that we have a problem with the system being limited in storage and RAM. 

Over the years, we are developing stuff that requires more RAM usage or storage, and we cannot expand the current VMs on the current Dell PowerEdge R-Series, so we need to purchase additional solutions aside from it. For instance, we've purchased the Storage MD recently to expand the storage size, and regarding RAM, we're just limiting the people on what they can do on the local VMs.

We're a global company. In Tel Aviv, we have 34 employees, and globally, we have almost 300 employees. 

If I would give the customer support a rating on a scale of one to ten, I'd give them an 8.5 as there's always room for improvement. They should improve on pricing with better discounts.

Positive

Since I've been in the company, we've only used Dell PowerEdge R-Series and their products.

Usually, we replace the old Dell PowerEdge R-Series with a new one. We have a VMware solution for three ESXi; we're not expanding for more ESXi, we're just replacing older machines with new versions of Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that they are average to the market. They're not too cheap, however, also not too expensive compared to other solutions.

When I mention other solutions, I refer to those offered by other companies. We have offers from HPE, but the vendor wasn't available too much, and we were afraid to switch because of the service we got from HPE, so we stayed with Dell. Besides HPE servers, we considered migrating everything to the cloud, but because of the prices for having the developer systems on cloud, we decided to stay for the development stage on-prem while migrating the production to the Azure environment.

We used to work with the Tower, however, now we have the Rack. The Rack servers we're using are R740 and R7 something.

There's no special feature I particularly prefer about Dell PowerEdge R-Series; we're just very oriented with Dell devices. We have the servers, laptops, screens, everything Dell oriented. I'm just going with what was before I came to the company. I'm guessing the previous person in my position worked with Dell, probably because he had a connection, got good prices, and the vendor was very helpful, so we continue working with Dell.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this solution a nine.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that I'm basically the HPC administrator, so my role is installing and taking care of applications on the HPC platform. We basically do rack maintenance and handle the software and application installations and maintenance on Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers.

While I'm not exactly clear about the features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series that are most valuable since it has been quite recent since I've used it, the Dell solutions have been helpful. The solutions from Dell PowerEdge R-Series are quite quick and targeted in the sense that they are more precise to the problem we're facing. The response times are also quite quick. In our organization, the team which is actually taking care of the HPC solutions consists of around six of us. The company as a whole is quite huge; it's a university with around 2,000 plus employees.

The solutions from Dell PowerEdge R-Series were targeted and quite quick, which was helpful. However, I think the approach towards the solutions could be improved. I realized during the session that we had a lot of back and forth before we finally arrived at the solutions. If this could have been made quicker or if there was a more convenient platform for discussions, it would have been much easier for us. I know another solution could be having a Dell engineer visit to look at the equipment, but if there was a quicker method, such as a video call to scan through the equipment and see what's happening, that might have worked better.

From my one instance with Dell PowerEdge R-Series, I find it targeted and quick, which makes me happy with its approach. For cases concerning applications or network arrangements, those can be solved quickly by sharing error reports. However, if it's something related to hardware, it could be improved; if there was a platform or solution that hastened that process, it would have been better.

I have been working in the current field for about a year and six months.

Regarding the stability and reliability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series, they have been quite reliable based on my experience and the support has been pretty good.

Currently, as we are expanding our resources, I think this will also include more customers and large scale resource utilization. Therefore, I would say that Dell PowerEdge R-Series will scale with our increasing hardware needs as with software support. I expect that when we scale this to a larger platform, it will be more helpful, especially since we will encounter more frequent cases, and based on the response time we experienced, I believe it will be equally helpful.

We haven't had many of these issues lately. I would rate Dell support around eight because they have been quite quick in their response and providing solutions. One of the cases was when one of the servers had a fault in it, and we couldn't figure out what the issue was. It was a GPU machine generating a lot of noise and heat. We tried everything that we could do from our side, but it really didn't work out. Later, we asked for Dell support, and then we figured it out. It took some back and forth discussions, but it ultimately turned out that one of the fans was at fault.

Positive

Before we used Dell solutions, I think we had been using HP machines, but this was in a different workplace and a different country altogether. I wouldn't be able to comment on the pros and cons of the previous HP solution because I had a different role there and wasn't closely involved with the hardware.

The team which is taking care of the HPC solutions consists of around six people.

With just this one instance, it was quite helpful, so I would say we have seen a return on our investment into Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

For the prices we offered for Dell PowerEdge R-Series support, I find the kind of response and assistance provided by Dell solutions to be quite excellent. I don't know if Dell PowerEdge R-Series plays a role in our AI initiatives because it's usually the customers who work with AI platforms and they have their own specific needs. Currently, we haven't heard any issues or requests from the AI team. I received feedback from Dell solutions once they reached out to us with an online feedback report. I have rated Dell PowerEdge R-Series an eight out of ten.

The main use case for the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is SAP hosting, as we are using it for SAP under Linux. This is specifically within the pharmacy sector, as we work in the pharma industry.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned downtimes, as our downtime is nearly zero, with approximately 99.5% availability in a five-year period.

The best features of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are the service, the availability of the equipment, and the relational price quality. 

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very useful for our organization's sustainability goals, as the system is running flawlessly. We have experienced trouble with the memory unit and a hard disk, but this occurs in all servers at the end of their useful life. In the five years, we had a few minor problems, but they were always addressed by Dell in Argentina.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer good flexibility and expandability to our business. The migration was very easy since the SAP consultants handled the migration of the databases and the ERP, SAP. We contracted them, and it was flawless, managing to conduct the migration of the two servers over a weekend.

They need improvement in spare part availability in Argentina, but the servers are very good from a hardware point of view.

I have overall eight to ten years of experience with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I have used the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers within the last 12 months.

We have experienced trouble with the memory unit and a hard disk, but this occurs in all servers at the end of their useful life. 

It offers good flexibility and expandability.

We do not utilize cloud solutions. We run everything on-premise and work with specific software for the pharma industry. We operate only client-server within our facilities.

We have a support contract with a Dell distributor in Cordoba. I would rate them a seven out of ten due to the unavailability of spare parts readily in Argentina.

We conducted internal research on servers within the company. We evaluate offers in Argentina and consider Dell a good option due to the price and availability of the equipment.

The initial setup of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers was contracted to an external company for the migration of data from the old servers to the new servers. We needed to install SAP on the new servers. This was flawless due to the fact that we bought the servers with pre-installed Linux.

We have not formally calculated the ROI with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. A new manager has indicated we need to calculate it. We performed a crude calculation of ROI comparing IBM and Dell and found that the cost of support and extended warranty of IBM is too costly compared to Dell. Thus, in this instance, our crude ROI calculation shows that Dell is the better option.

We have a contract with the OEM of the equipment for licenses, so we possess all OEM licenses for the Dell software. We have licenses for Linux and VMware software, with a special price and an annual contract for updates of Linux and VMware. Additionally, we have an Oracle database on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

We have received an offer from IBM to replace the servers with new IBM servers. We received a very good offer from IBM for some amount of money for the servers, but we prefer to stay with Dell. IBM's service contract is very costly.

We have not run any AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers locally. We have a test drive in the cloud. The principal reason we haven't run AI workloads yet is that we are trying to find the right direction to incorporate AI into our business model. Currently, we focus on the distribution of medical and pharma products to pharmacies, meaning the only way to incorporate AI is possibly in the management of the warehouse. I believe the demand for medicine is inelastic, making forecasting sales very difficult in the market. This reflects the market in Argentina, not other global markets. However, I personally see the only way to incorporate AI in our business is through warehouse management, considering the market's seasonality. Medicine deliveries vary in summer versus winter, as more medications are needed for influenza in winter, while summer requires more medication for sun exposure complications.

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

Our use case includes internal workloads, as we do have a virtual infrastructure based on VMware.

Dell does not yet play a role in our organization's AI initiatives; this is the first time I heard about AI-driven workloads on-premise, something we had not thought about before.

For supporting our growth or operations, Dell PowerEdge R-Series helps us to have our virtual workloads on them, which is the same question as with HP.

The most valuable feature, which is part of the decision to go with Dell, was a cost decision; we could have gone with Cisco or HP as well, but Dell has a very good product portfolio and a very broad product environment.

I think now there are no pros and cons versus HP because all systems are very similar; they provide computing power, resilience, and security features. The pro now is having a Dell ecosystem, as we use Dell clients, Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, and Dell support, which is why we are married to Dell.

The benefits my organization sees from having these Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers are the same as we would have seen with HP servers, as we have computing power and storage.

If there is something I would like to see fixed, even if it's small, it seems that the orchestration of many Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers is very complicated; using Dell Server Administration software could be easier for managing many Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers for about 25 years, which includes 20 years of direct experience with them.

When it comes to evaluating the stability of the solution, I think about reliability and that kind of aspect.

Reliability is a very good point at Dell; in my experience, the durability and reliability of the products are very good, as we still have systems that are 10 years or older and are still running.

I feel the solution is very easy, scalable, and very good for our organization's long-term plans.

I do see Dell products growing with our future needs.

I evaluate the support overall as good.

The reasons are that it is responsive, fast, and problems are solved in time.

I would rate the support around an eight or a nine; everything works as expected, so the integer I would give is 10.

Positive

From Dell, we previously used Compaq.

I have been around for a while in the business and can share that we used Compaq before switching to Dell.

I am responsible for the deployment of Dell PowerEdge R-Series rack servers.

Regarding pricing and licensing, I think it's fair and similar to the competitors; you have to negotiate with partners and vendors, so I believe the pricing is fair.

The most valuable feature, which is part of the decision to go with Dell, was a cost decision; we could have gone with Cisco or HP as well, but Dell has a very good product portfolio and a very broad product environment.

My advice for others evaluating the product would be that if you are looking for a stable system, good support, and performance, then going with Dell ensures you are safe.

Overall, I would rate the product as a very good product, giving it a 10, as I do not have any complaints about it.

When integrating Dell PowerEdge R-Series into our monitoring system, we measure the performance of the systems, including the CPU, using PRTG as our benchmark. I have given this review an overall rating of 10.

I have used Dell PowerEdge R-Series R730s for builders in the past, primarily for game-related machines, and we also use them for Perforce. As a game company that makes games, we primarily use them to run automated processes, build worlds, and similar tasks. Perforce is software that stores the entire game in a database.

The feature I appreciate most about Dell PowerEdge R-Series is iDRAC, which allows me to connect to the server without having to attach a screen to it. I can connect to the server from almost anywhere as long as I have an IP address, which is absolutely amazing because I don't have to go to the server room to physically work on the server unless it's completely dead and I need to restart it or something else is wrong with it. That's definitely my favorite part of Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

The stability and reliability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series have always been good with minimum downtime. There might have been one or two cases per year where it doesn't go as expected, but that barely happens.

At my current company, I have not yet needed to use their customer service, but at my previous company, I did a few times and that was acceptable.

I would say at the time, speaking from three or four years ago, I would rate the customer service as a seven because they solved the problem.

I only started working on the server side three or four years ago, and we usually used Windows 10 on those machines at the time because of a specific use case, but it was always good. We installed them within an hour easily, especially with imaging ready so we could image whenever we wanted, and it would take approximately an hour or so. Later on when we changed to virtualization servers, it was basically instant because we had the snapshot, and it got so good that at a specific point, I wasn't involved in installing anymore. We just let our tech team install it because they could kill it, make a new one, put it in their build farm, and that was great because it saved me so much time.

The stability and reliability of Dell PowerEdge R-Series have always been good with minimum downtime. There might have been one or two cases per year where it doesn't go as expected, but that barely happens.

For my current company, we still need to address scalability, but in my previous company, we went from Dell PowerEdge servers to a combination of Dell PowerEdge with NVIDIA's new video card for virtualization. Together with that, we were able to remove approximately 30 or 40 old Dell servers and replace them with three or four extremely fast, strong virtualization servers instead. That was definitely a great change because it saved us a lot of space, a lot of power, and provided flexibility for future expansion. In my current company, I haven't had the situation yet, so I can't really comment on that because we made sure we built the machines in a way where we wouldn't run into those issues. It is always possible to grow.

At my current company, I have not yet needed to use their customer service, but at my previous company, I did a few times and that was acceptable.

I would say at the time, speaking from three or four years ago, I would rate the customer service as a seven because they solved the problem.

Positive

I only started working on the server side three or four years ago, and we usually used Windows 10 on those machines at the time because of a specific use case, but it was always good. We installed them within an hour easily, especially with imaging ready so we could image whenever we wanted, and it would take approximately an hour or so. Later on when we changed to virtualization servers, it was basically instant because we had the snapshot, and it got so good that at a specific point, I wasn't involved in installing anymore. We just let our tech team install it because they could kill it, make a new one, put it in their build farm, and that was great because it saved me so much time.

I unfortunately don't know about the pricing because I'm not always involved with that; my current lead is involved with that more.

For my current company, we still need to address scalability, but in my previous company, we went from Dell PowerEdge servers to a combination of Dell PowerEdge with NVIDIA's new video card for virtualization. Together with that, we were able to remove approximately 30 or 40 old Dell servers and replace them with three or four extremely fast, strong virtualization servers instead. That was definitely a great change because it saved us a lot of space, a lot of power, and provided flexibility for future expansion. In my current company, I haven't had the situation yet, so I can't really comment on that because we made sure we built the machines in a way where we wouldn't run into those issues. It is always possible to grow.

I unfortunately don't know about the pricing because I'm not always involved with that; my current lead is involved with that more.

I know there are other solutions, but every company I've worked at has always used Dell, so I'm accustomed to using Dell machines in a general sense. That's also why I love iDRAC and the functionality I mentioned earlier, because it's very accessible with Dell machines. I don't know any better alternatives.

We're using the Dell PowerEdge R-Series R730 or the R740.

The current company I'm working at is approximately 150 people in our local office, but we are a global entity, so we must be above 10,000 employees.

I have used both Intel and AMD processors in Dell PowerEdge R-Series, and in my previous company, we used some Threadrippers for some of the machines, but it was mostly Intel, and the specific models I don't fully remember.

It depends on what you're looking for because if you're looking for AMD Threadripper, it's going to beat the Intel ones because AMD Threadrippers are usually super fast. In that case, I definitely prefer the Threadrippers.

The current company doesn't have many Dell machines, only a few, but we use Intel in them.

I've grown in positions; I used to be a support person, and now I'm more of a server person, so I try to fix issues myself because it's usually easier and you learn a lot from it. Sometimes you are stuck and do need support. In my current company, I haven't done much with the servers yet because they're running and doing their job, so I haven't had many opportunities to fix things when something is broken because it hasn't happened much.

We're happy with Dell, and we are in talks with Dell, as my lead is in talks with Dell to get more machines or something similar.

I gave this review a rating of eight overall.

Currently, we have some database loads on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I can name the database as Sequel. We are just getting into running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The feature I appreciate the most about Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is their reliability; they are very reliable servers. In terms of customization, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very highly customizable and we appreciate that feature.My impression of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers' impact on our organization's sustainability goals is good; they are helping out. Using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has helped me to reduce unplanned production downtime by 100%. We used to use Lenovo and IBM servers, and with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I would say we have at least 20% better reliability and more uptime.In terms of stability, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very stable, with no lagging or crashing.

I don't have any dislikes about the solution. The pricing for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers would be absolutely better. Regarding energy consumption, we haven't really focused on that; it's not our primary goal, so I can't provide any information on that.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our server infrastructure, and I have been using them over the last 20 years.

Regarding scalability, it's excellent with 100% effectiveness.

The quality of support from IBM and Lenovo is good; they are helpful, easy to reach, and providing value, so it's worth getting extra support.

Positive

We used to use Lenovo and IBM servers.

The initial deployment of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers was easy from my point of view; I've been doing this for 20 years. The first time I deployed it, it took me a few hours to put it in working condition.

I handled this deployment myself; it was just me.

To be honest, we're more concerned about providing the right solution for the organization rather than controlling costs associated with technology lifecycle management, so cost isn't as important.

I have tried using alternatives to Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in my career overall. I can name IBM and Lenovo as the solutions I have used.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are usually reasonably priced; they're not the cheapest, but I think it's worth a shot and worth checking out. To my colleagues considering purchasing a Dell PowerEdge Rack Server instead of a hyperscaler, I'd say that even though the hyperscaler is trendier and a lot of people go there, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers still offer a lot of work and can provide significant value to the organization. I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of ten.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for more than a year, and I also have one for personal use. I use it with Hyper-V as a server to make virtual machines. Beyond that, I use it with Active Directory, print server, and backup server functionality. It is mainly used for everything related to virtualization.

The iDRAC is a feature I find very useful because every time I needed to do certain things, by using iDRAC everything was gathered together. I am on my own site, so I have not really had the opportunity to test it remotely, but on-site, I have everything at my fingertips. In terms of usefulness, that is where I struggled the least when I needed more information. I always found everything I needed when I went through iDRAC. As long as it works, I stick with it.

It mainly improves organization when there is a failure because I need it in terms of speed. On the server side, most of the time I have to start the application and search. On iDRAC, I find things much more easily. As I use it more and more, I go faster over time. It is not necessarily me who configures everything at the various clients. The difference is that each server, each client, will set up their own favorites and taskbar icons. Whereas with iDRAC, I do not modify it, everything is in its original state, so we know where to find things, and it is not arranged according to each client's preferences.

I do not know what could be improved in general for Dell PowerEdge R-Series right now. I may not have enough hindsight to know the features I am missing or that I would like to have in future versions. That is also why I do not have any ideas at the moment. Later on, I might get back with suggestions next year when I need it.

Otherwise, I have not had any negative points so far. I was trying to find an option in iDRAC and re-downloaded it from the Dell site. The option still was not there. I felt as though I had not changed the version. Maybe it is on the website itself where it shows that there is this or that option, or maybe it was a plugin I was missing, but I do not remember the name.

For example, I have an old R230, and I have a problem with a fan. I cannot determine that the fan needs attention without putting the alarm on this fan. This puts the whole server in an error state, even though the problem does not come from the fan because it has been replaced. It is really on the motherboard side, and investing in a motherboard on a server that is a bit old is a bit wasteful. If I could have directly in iDRAC, in the options where the alarms are, really disabled everything that was alarms, that would have prevented the fans from running at full speed. From an admin point of view, I could have disabled it and said that the others were working, or even at a pinch, if three are needed at minimum, it is not a big deal to move it to four. You would still have the same cooling system. That is the only flaw I have to this day.

There was a leased PC product, unfortunately. However, when I called support, I know that for the warranty, the technician came very quickly. I think that if that had been for a server, it would be the same because I do not think they have different services with different field technicians. When I needed to go through support, it was quite fast and the appointment was kept.

Positive

I wanted to start up my local language model locally and I am waiting to solve my server problem so I can deploy it. I wanted to try running my local language model with retrieval-augmented generation, and unfortunately, I have to wait. I will try it on it, even if it is on old hardware that will respond much more slowly. I am still going to test this solution, even if it is on old hardware.

Because it is modular, depending on what is needed, I can scale up more or less depending on the various companies. There is quite a wide range. For all Dell products, having worked with all three brands—HPE, Lenovo, and Dell—at the business level, the leasing solutions they offer allow companies to adapt according to what they can do and invest in a fleet where about 25% of PCs are replaced each year. That is still a budget to put out. On the server side, each time they are replaced, we always manage to find solutions that are modular according to their needs.

In my case, where companies do not necessarily have an IT team present every day, having tools Dell Support installed keeps everything up-to-date. Once all the tools, for example Dell Support, are installed, the support for everything related to updates, once it is installed, when Windows Update runs automatically, you are going to get the updates when Dell releases them. This keeps everything up each time, and if I am not there, it will run. There are some things that are critical where Microsoft automatically triggers their reboot, and that sometimes causes some yelling, but it still allows updates to be done. That is a tool that is pretty good for a company that does not necessarily have an on-site IT department.

Based on what I see in the field, it is where I have the fewest problems, so that already was major. My preference goes that way. For other hardware, when I need to reimage workstations, with Dell I go directly with the Dell-made PXE via the download. I really start again from scratch. It is still easier to reimage back to factory state than to go through the other two. With Dell, it just goes by itself.

For me, it is more for my clients because the less time I spend fixing problems that should not exist, the more I can sit down and really focus on real, concrete problems. When it is really user problems that normally we should not have, that matters.

Depending on how you order your server, you do not keep the server for ten years, although some will keep it for ten years. Mainly I try to keep it for about five years, and that is a good average. I try to see over five years whether the company will need to replace it. Mine must be ten or fifteen years old. That is why, for small and medium enterprises, if I aim for five years when ordering it, I will try to get one that is a bit more powerful so that if they grow, they still have something in reserve. I did not change it because something was lacking. Each time it has changed, it is really based on the number of years.

I gave it a nine because I have not had any issues as such. That is because, with the download, they said there was the option in the package that was not there anymore. Maybe it was because they had not updated the website. My overall rating for this product is 9.

Everything from bare metal to ESXi host, any kind of hypervisor is what I've used Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for. 

Currently, we are using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for AI initiatives; one of our projects I cannot discuss, however, it has been really good. Everything about it, including the Redfish hooks and the automation, is very easy and streamlined for the AIs regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The iDRAC is the most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; the out-of-band management is absolutely fantastic, especially when you institute roles that prevent access to the data center, and being able to do it remotely is fantastic. 

Initial setup, troubleshooting, repair, and maintenance have benefited the organizations I work with since everything has been more streamlined, especially when you add OME into it. Whether it's connected to the internet or not, the on-prem versions still function fantastically.

For the internal SD card of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I would add driver packs so that when you're trying to image bare metal, you don't have to worry about trying to find all the drivers you need to install whatever OS it could be, specifically in our environments in the fed space, since trying to use USB devices is difficult, so adding things on the USB stick and plugging them in for drivers is most of the time not possible.

I've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for probably eight years now.

The resiliency and stability of the products are fantastic. We have devices that have been around until end-of-life, but we're still using them for things, so stability has been great with very minimal issues. When issues occur, it's usually a hard drive failure, which is expected, so I think it's excellent.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very flexible, whether you're doing a vSAN ready node or whatever may be your hyperscale of choice, because they scale easily, and adding them into whatever environment you have is straightforward.

Customer support is usually really good for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. My only complaint would be if you're calling the specific fed line, sometimes they don't transfer you, and they want to get information that you can't give them before they do, even if you call the dedicated fed line, which is not always consistent, depending on the time of day.

The support is actually a big part of it when evaluating other solutions. The warranty support and keeping your hard drive for the fed space is key. Typically, the contacts we have on-site are very knowledgeable, they come in within a day and usually have it fixed and taken care of if there are issues. Even when they don't need something replaced, they usually suggest helpful troubleshooting steps, and it's usually really good support.

Positive

It's really easy to deploy. It's pretty straightforward. Whether you're having it automated through OME and it's pushing your configs or you're doing it just directly connecting into your iDRAC. Out of all the devices I've used in the industry, it's probably the easiest I've used. 

I actually work for a value-added reseller, and I support many federal customers, which means my organization is a giant. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten.