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Systems Engineer at Unisity LLC
Real User
Top 5
We have experienced long-term reliability and seamless integration
Pros and Cons
  • "We have about 80 servers and have only lost maybe two power supplies. They just run forever."
  • "I'd give Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a rating of ten out of ten."
  • "The easiest thing to improve the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is to have a better road map for us."
  • "The easiest thing to improve the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is to have a better road map for us."

What is our primary use case?

We normally do rack for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, and we started buying the VX rails, which is based on the same platform too. 

Most of the time, we're doing this for more compute with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. We have a standard workload and usually run mostly bare metal on most of our platform, except when we do the VX rail, which then we use the ESXi VMware for that one. It is all Linux based. 

The nice benefit with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers was that we moved from an Intel platform, started buying more 7525s, more of the AMD-based processors because we can get higher four counts, more dense memory, so that's been our transition.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is that it's very common. 

We've seen a lot of reliability with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I just turned off a server that's been on for 11 years. That was a 410 that ran forever. From our point of view, they get good value in what they bought, and it continues to run, so we continue to buy them. It's a very stable, reliable product. The biggest benefit compared to HP is the iDRAC feature. HP has an iLO, but we've had more issues with that and its configuration than we have with the iDRAC and its configuration of the Dell server itself.

We've been impacted by data center issues with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, however, typically not from the server side. We have only lost maybe two power supplies out of about 80 servers. They just run forever.

What needs improvement?

The easiest thing to improve the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is to have a better road map for us. The challenges we have, because of the two-socket processor, are that there's a refresh cycle about every three years to move to the next product line. 

For us, this gets difficult based on how we do our procurement cycles, as sometimes it's a little too short. We'd prefer to have similar equipment, yet sometimes we end up having multi-generations of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers only due to the fact that we buy in year one and a half to two during the production cycle, and it just gets more complicated for us.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers since approximately 2000. I've used many different versions going back to 1750s, R900s. We have been using this platform for at least almost 20 years.

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June 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've seen excellent reliability with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I recently turned off a server that had been running for 11 years. We run the platform, and that was a 410 that ran forever. From our point of view, they get good value in what they bought, and it continues to keep running. We have about 80 servers and have only lost maybe two power supplies. They just run forever. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers definitely fit our needs. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The only issue with the VX rail was the confusion about the strategy going forward, but that was more related to Broadcom confusing the customers. We run a hyper-converged platform inside our system stack. We weren't really sure what would be supported going forward, but now that we can continue to purchase the rails, they seem to fit our model going forward. It's an easy scalable solution. We can also buy Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and deploy our own ESX and do whatever we want to do.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is great. I'd give them a ten out of ten on that.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Due to budget constraints in the last couple years when considering Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, the customer we work with specifically brought us some HP equipment, so I ended up with some DL380s. Eventually, they will be replaced when we buy more Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to get them out of our ecosystem.

We do work with other vendors too; however, predominantly, most of our equipment is Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. We have Dell on-site support for whatever we need. We haven't had many failures with the platform. We are still running some R930s that are about 10 years old, and we've had zero problems with them. They're 13th generation, while they're currently at 18th generation.

How was the initial setup?

Since we have such a history of deploying these, it's simple for us with intuitive setup. The iDRACs are very simple for us to get things up and running fast, and it fits into how we've built the architecture. The servers have been very standardized for so long. We have both single U and multi U servers based on what the requirement was or what the workload was.

What other advice do I have?

We are not using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for AI initiatives at the moment. We initially looked at doing that, so we bought GPU-ready nodes and used them in a different way. We use those for inference for VDI, however, we've moved away from that based on the way we do compute, and AI doesn't play a factor in what we do. We do more computational-type things.

I'd give Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a rating of ten out of ten. We haven't had any issues with it.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
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Chief Technology Officer at Achieve 1, LLC
Real User
Innovative use of edge technology facilitates real-time data insights and AI integration
Pros and Cons
  • "Customers share with us their experiences, highlighting reliability, ease of use, maintenance, and lifecycle management. They frequently mention that this equipment doesn't break, stating it works and functions reliably."
  • "I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers overall about a nine out of ten as nothing is truly perfect, leaving opportunities for improvement."
  • "The ways Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could improve relate more to the educational aspects of how customers can continue to leverage technology, which presents challenges."
  • "If I rated the support two years ago, it would have been a high eight or maybe a nine; in the last six months, it has likely dropped to a six or seven out of ten due to a lot of churn in Dell, particularly with their sales force and engineering teams."

What is our primary use case?

The use cases for implementing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are mainly in warehouses and manufacturing sites to ensure they can effectively utilize IoT devices. 

For instance, a customer has livestock that they brand with barcodes to maintain their health and monitor their consumption, and all these IoT devices are rolling throughout their facilities, gathering data in real-time for assessments. This technology at the edge is very helpful for them.

What is most valuable?

The features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers support AI initiatives by providing compute and storage at the edge, enabling the creation of a lot of real-time information and making that information available to AI capabilities, which helps drive outcomes more quickly. 

From a VAR perspective, the most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are our ability to implement the infrastructure and make it readily available for our customers. 

Customers share with us their experiences, highlighting reliability, ease of use, maintenance, and lifecycle management. They frequently mention that this equipment doesn't break, stating it works and functions reliably.

What needs improvement?

The ways Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could improve relate more to the educational aspects of how customers can continue to leverage technology, which presents challenges. I do not have a specific set of examples where I think Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could be better or more efficient; it really comes down to ensuring the end customer has a better grasp of what the technology can do for them.

For how long have I used the solution?

My company is a reseller, so we provide solutions for our customers.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When it comes to scalability with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I find it interesting that, in manufacturing, scalability often doesn't apply much as these are typically small but numerous sites. Thus, scalability means ensuring the collective information derived from all these edge sites can funnel through their main data center rather than within individual sites.

How are customer service and support?

We work with Dell support, and I have a highly competent, certified engineering team that works closely with them, making it a very mutually beneficial situation as we do a lot of hands-on work and code deliveries with our Dell partners. 

I would rate Dell support honestly as having improved; however, there's significant change within the Dell organization that we have felt, impacting the relationships we've built to escalate and address problem scenarios. 

If I rated the support two years ago, it would have been a high eight or maybe a nine; in the last six months, it has likely dropped to a six or seven out of ten due to a lot of churn in Dell, particularly with their sales force and engineering teams.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I honestly do not prefer any other competitors of Dell. Having been a customer for 25 years before joining the vendor side, I have experience with HP and Supermicro yet did not prefer those products. My prior issues with Dell equipment were manageable because I knew I could rely on support. Whereas with HP, I did not have that confidence, and Supermicro may seem cheaper but has atrocious lifecycle management and upkeep, which I prefer to avoid.

What other advice do I have?

They do have AI in these cases, and we are actually trying to interject ourselves more into those conversations. A lot of these manufacturers have a conservative mindset regarding technology, focusing on product, shipping, and logistics, which means IT sometimes becomes an afterthought. As a VAR, we try to influence them on leveraging their current data sets to ask how they can use their data to enable business outcomes, and this conversation is now progressing in their understanding of the power of that. AI plays a significant role in predictability concerning their stock, product sets, and inventory shortcomings, particularly in the manufacturing of livestock, regarding health and the ability to harvest that product.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers overall about a nine out of ten as nothing is truly perfect, leaving opportunities for improvement. It's a great solution for my customers, and it's the one we continue to sell.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
Country manager at Asta Innosys
Real User
Top 20
Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently
Pros and Cons
  • "It is pretty good at handling diverse applications. We have been using these servers for eight years. We have experienced good performance with them."
  • "Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are pretty good at handling diverse applications."
  • "I have used these servers in a government project along with Nutanix, and there is a security restriction. I do not know if it is from Dell's side or Nutanix's side. From the host, you cannot read the external hard drive data inside a VM."
  • "From the host, you cannot read the external hard drive data inside a VM. They have a security restriction on it."

What is our primary use case?

We are primarily using it for test development environments. We have VMs hosted on them, and we use them to run our internal applications, customer environments, dev setup, common projects, the development environment, and the UAT environment in the service.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are pretty good at handling diverse applications. We get good performance from it. 

How has it helped my organization?

We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload.

For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time.

We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.

What is most valuable?

We have been using these servers for eight years. We have experienced good performance with them. 

Dell PowerEdge's strength is that they have a lot of NIC cards, so we can set up web apps and everything else for development on a single server. We can easily replace hard disks which is quite good.

What needs improvement?

I have used these servers in a government project along with Nutanix, and there is a security restriction. I do not know if it is from Dell's side or Nutanix's side. From the host, you cannot read the external hard drive data inside a VM. They have a security restriction on it. I understand the security restriction, but there should be a policy where you can do it during the development stages and copy data. After it goes to production, the policy should be implemented, and the port should be closed.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for seven to eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not experienced any stability issues. The number of years we have been using these servers shows their reliability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

For a government project, I went from five nodes to eight nodes, and it was pretty easy to scale up.

How are customer service and support?

We did not directly go to Dell support because we were going through Nutanix. From what I have heard, I would rate Dell support an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The setup is easy. Management-wise also, it is pretty easy. We normally remote in from our lab. It is convenient and easy.

We partnered with Nutanix for this government project. They set up the base hardware infrastructure configurations. We built our VM applications on top of that. We had a couple of challenges. Data migration was a big challenge because of the sensitivity of the data. I had to sit inside the data center for twelve hours continuously because we had to take a different approach to transferring data. We could not directly transfer that data from the physical port into a VM. They told us that it was a security restriction that could not be relaxed at all. There should be an option when you migrate large data sets.

What was our ROI?

I cannot put a number to ROI because it is more of a development environment set up for us, not a production environment. The production environment using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is managed by the government entity itself. We are an application service provider and system integrator. We integrate our custom-built applications or COTS applications into the government infrastructure. Cost-wise, for the physical hardware, we cannot give an estimate because the data we use for development is small in the test environment.

From the fulfillment aspect, the government has a big set of data centers. Most of them have Dell EMC servers. We use the similar, if not the same, hardware to do our development tasks.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated a Lenovo IBM server seven or eight years ago. We chose Dell PowerEdge because of the storage aspect. We got a better storage and RAM option here, so we moved to Dell.

What other advice do I have?

In terms of our AI journey, we are an IT system integrator. We have built our own IoT platform. We have integrated AI into our IoT platform, and we also have partnered with another PC manufacturer for whom we have been testing hardware devices for the past 20 years or so. We have qualified their AI solutions on their devices.

Everything has a cost, but we have to see the benefits over a longer period of time and its effect on our operations and ultimately customer satisfaction. I do not look at the cost only from a financial perspective; I have to look at it from different angles. This helps ensure that it does not create problems for our customers and that the customer is satisfied. 

I would recommend focusing on performance and reliability rather than just cost.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers very high because we have been able to set up different environments in different VLANs and connect to all of them at the same time. Overall, I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
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VP of Digital Technology and Innovation
Real User
Global support and specialist assistance have enhanced complex enterprise applications
Pros and Cons
  • "They have superior customer support compared to Supermicro, which does not cater to enterprise-level needs."
  • "The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are their worldwide support, which is very accessible along with receiving assistance from professionals and specialists, and the continuous innovations that make it an amazing product in this era."
  • "The grade store disks sometimes break, indicating an area for improvement in longevity and reliability."
  • "The grade store disks sometimes break, indicating an area for improvement in longevity and reliability. They need to improve the durability of the disks."

What is our primary use case?

That is my primary use case for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are their worldwide support, which is very accessible along with receiving assistance from professionals and specialists, and the continuous innovations that make it an amazing product in this era. 

I find Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to be a very complex product that is useful in various purposes and across enterprise-level and data center applications, making it very valuable in any area.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers stands out over competitors due to their clean design and strong technology support.

What needs improvement?

The grade store disks sometimes break, indicating an area for improvement in longevity and reliability. They need to improve the durability of the disks.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers since around 2015, which was maybe the first or early generation of PowerEdge servers.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When discussing stability and reliability, we aim for Tier 3, requiring the right solutions and servers, which Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers can help us achieve.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very scalable and recently announced new HCI called APEX HCI, providing many advantages and flexible options that are understandable for customers.

How are customer service and support?

They have superior customer support compared to Supermicro, which does not cater to enterprise-level needs.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Supermicro and HP before selecting Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

What was our ROI?

While I can't recall specific numbers, our company has had discussions about the return on investment from using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. It takes time to realize those benefits.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

With over 15 years in this field, I can say that the setup costs, pricing, and licensing in terms of cost efficiency and OPEX, alongside working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, is very cost-efficient. They allow for improvements, changes, and upgrades which are understandable and clear.

What other advice do I have?

We are planning to implement Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers with GPUs this year, and we are currently working on that purchase. 

We are not using it for AI yet; we are just planning this year while working with Dell's representative office on it. We look for solutions suitable for AI and GPU, while previously we considered flash disks and CPUs for cloud platforms and RAID controllers as important for implementing HCI.

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

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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reviewer2707662 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
We get excellent support and configuration flexibility to do things based on the use case
Pros and Cons
  • "I find the flexibility of the build-out in Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers very valuable because we can do different things based on the use case. This flexibility is highlighted by being able to reduce CPU count, RAM count, and the number of drives depending on the site's importance."
  • "Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers scale very well with the growing needs of my company."
  • "Power consumption is probably on everyone's top of mind regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; they use a lot of power and create a lot of heat. Also, the noise levels are pretty high, though I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about it."
  • "Power consumption is probably on everyone's top of mind regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; they use a lot of power and create a lot of heat."

What is our primary use case?

We use them as cluster nodes for virtualization purposes.

What is most valuable?

I find the flexibility of the build-out in Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers very valuable because we can do different things based on the use case. This flexibility is highlighted by being able to reduce CPU count, RAM count, and the number of drives depending on the site's importance. Additionally, using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers exclusively provides a single source for replacements, assistance, and support. We have a good partnership with our distributor. We've got really good support with them.

What needs improvement?

Power consumption is probably on everyone's top of mind regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; they use a lot of power and create a lot of heat. Also, the noise levels are pretty high, though I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about it. It'd be nice to get the volume down so that we can use these a little bit more frequently in other use cases where there's maybe a nearby office environment.

One thing that might be a little bit of an improvement is the faceplates. It can't be that expensive to have the LCD screen on all faceplates. We've gotten into this situation where we didn't have the faceplates. We like them. We buy them, but they don't come with the LCD screen. We then have to rebuy those, so it would be nice to have that standardized across the fleet because it can't cost that much more.

For how long have I used the solution?

I personally have been using or working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

They have been rock solid for us; we haven't had power supply failures. The drives seem to be the area of most concern, but if we look at the MTBFs on them, they're above industry standard. We don't have a huge install base, so we're not really that good at evaluating that, but drive improvement is definitely something we could look at for the future. We talked to them about some opportunities to test some of their stuff in our lab environment.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our organization has more than 6,000 people. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers scale very well with the growing needs of my company. For our current use case, it's very good, and some of the improvements we've seen in storage density and power efficiency gains will only help us.

How are customer service and support?

It has been good. I'd rate them at least a nine out of ten. There was a little hiccup where they sent one of our drives to a location that doesn’t exist anymore, but we don't know exactly why it went there. We might have to check with our account holders that all of our addresses have been updated and get a bit more contact on some of the things that we don't really review as often as we possibly should.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Everything worked really smoothly. They're easy to rack, and I love the rack systems as they are very easy to use and to move. We do a lot of moving of equipment, and having that ability is really good. We encourage them to continue to keep their racking systems the same and include them in the purchase. That's really big and helpful.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

It was before my time, but even now, we're always looking because we have to make sure that we are not vendor locked and missing opportunities. HPE is another big example of something that we would look at. I'm not sure if we are looking at anything else, but we have been looking at the ruggedized version of Dell's product line, including both the XR and some new ones we saw at the conference, which we're going to maybe talk to our vendor about having some demos done for us.

In comparisons between HPE and Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, support really stands out; it's been a little more difficult because our enterprise side of the house is HPE primarily. I don't know if that's a function of HPE or our company's relationship, but Dell, being our sole source through our distributor, has provided us with very good support and response.

What other advice do I have?

The performance metric or benchmark we use to measure success is whether it works. If it's not working, then we have bigger problems. Dell has just been very helpful. We don't have a lot of maintenance that we have to worry about. We have the occasional failure of a drive, but the response time is incredible. We're pretty happy with the product.

My advice for any other company considering Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is that the proof is in the execution: just buy them. You can either go based on a salesman's word or just buy some and use them, and you're going to be pleasantly surprised.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten. They're on the right track. They're asking the right questions, and we'll keep working with them to try and make everything as good as it can be.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Product manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Achieves resilient performance with significant downtime reduction
Pros and Cons
  • "Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped reduce our downtime by a lot."
  • "The solution can be improved in terms of firmware backward supportability. With the sixteenth generation servers I am using, slightly older kernels and drivers are not supported."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution primarily for software-defined networking, and there are some AI workloads present as well. We started last year, but previously, it was mostly about software-defined networking and private clouds. We mainly used OpenStack. These are the main use cases I run with PowerEdge.

It's quite good at handling diverse applications. I don't have any complaints about that. It's very smooth.

How has it helped my organization?

We have not experienced any security incidents or vulnerabilities with PowerEdge Servers.

Dell PowerEdge has reduced operational overheads in terms of support and operations build.

What is most valuable?

I am a fan of its ability to handle the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. It's very demanding. I mostly use it with a CPU load of nearly eighty to ninety percent, with workloads where we take the maximum output from the servers on the cloud. It has been sustainable and reliable in terms of compute.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped reduce our downtime by a lot. The production downtimes are mostly planned. My system is designed in a resilient way, but with PowerEdge Servers, I don't need a one-to-one ratio redundancy, which leads to about eighty percent downtime reduction. It has also reduced operational overheads related to support and operations.

I like that it is stable. Things become very difficult over time when you increase the security. In Dell's case, it is very stable, and I like that it's very process-oriented.

The security is on par to the global standard. We always get market standard security. Upgrades run smoothly and seemlessly.

Their biggest strength is their stability under heavy workloads and their long term reliability. I don't think they have any weaknesses. 

What needs improvement?

The solution can be improved in terms of firmware backward supportability. With the sixteenth generation servers I am using, slightly older kernels and drivers are not supported. I have to use the latest OS because the drivers and particular support are not there. 

The rack port supportability for the latest PowerEdge servers is not great. Until the fourteenth generation, I never faced this issue. From the fifteenth and sixteenth generations, this issue has started occurring. 

These servers are not very adaptive to the multiple GPU model. I can insert at most two GPUs. While the Dell server in terms of compute is capable of handling multiples, the physical design does not allow more in terms of placement space.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used the solution for the last six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is quite good. I have no complaints about it as it is very smooth.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the solution is very easy. The process is seamless.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service was good in certain aspects, but I mostly had services where things became complex because of the software-defined networking applications. They use things differently, so I have to consult first and make arrangements. Designing and all those parts take time, so customer service can be improved in terms of timing.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Cisco, HP, and Supermicro in the past. PowerEdge was not originally selected for stability and hardware compatibility,

What about the implementation team?

We use Dell deployment services for the storage solutions, not for PowerEdge.

What was our ROI?

There is a return on investment because I have been using them for the last four or five years. ROI is there, but it's a complex assessment when considering the return on investment from the hardware. It's part of a complete solution where I would assess this aspect.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The total cost of ownership for support and operations has reduced significantly. In terms of stability, I seldom encounter support cases or operational costs. They have been stable and running for years without performance downtime or significant disc failures, providing me an edge in operational and support costs.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to anybody considering Dell PowerEdge is to check the new ranges which are more adaptive towards AI. The R750 and R760 are general-purpose servers, so they need to look into AI-specific servers where more GPUs can be incorporated. On PowerEdge Servers specifically, the benefits are clear. I would rate them nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
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Director, Information Technology at TEXAS PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE GUARANTY ASSOCIATION
Real User
Top 20
Unlock exceptional data management with unmatched resilience and support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution deserves a rating of 10 out of 10."
  • "The only challenge we have with the product is keeping it in line with VMware, knowing that VMware has now gone with a different provider."

What is our primary use case?

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to manage all of our data. We have a lot of data that comes in. We're from the insurance industry, so we've managed data for 30 plus years of claimants who need to file claims for insurance for their property and homes. That needs a system that's robust, reliable, and secure. We looked at high availability servers by getting Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

What is most valuable?

The benefits of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are its resilience, cost-effectiveness, and easy manageability. Our IT professionals are quite familiar with the technology, and we receive great customer support as well. We appreciate the resiliency because we can spread out our load of service between three hosts. That gives us redundancy if we need to do maintenance, or if we have an issue with any of the memory or hard drives in any of the servers. The storage itself is built with plenty of RAID, which means that data corruption and data loss are reduced significantly.

It has benefited us by eliminating downtime. Our servers have been resilient, and we've been able to do maintenance without any issues. We have truly not had any downtime on the infrastructure at all, whereas before we implemented this resilience, there were occasional downtimes that the organization needed to deal with.

What needs improvement?

The only challenge we have with the product is keeping it in line with VMware, knowing that VMware has now gone with a different provider. We're in this race with the software versus hardware compatibility. With Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we knew where we stood with some of the parts. 

Licensing is also an issue, as we don't know what the costs are, what licenses we have, and whether the pricing will change. There's no transparency in what's happening or how our support works with VMware. They could improve by coming back and managing, maintaining it with a periodic check. For instance, after installation, they could return a year later to verify we're still applying best practices.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this particular solution for about four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have been able to do maintenance without any issues. We have truly not had any downtime on the infrastructure at all, whereas before we implemented this resilience, there were occasional downtimes that the organization needed to deal with.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The system has provided operational success by eliminating downtime. The resilience is really the key part that we focused on. If we want to enhance our services, the support has been great. We bought our product with scaling involved, and we've been scaling it up anytime we've needed more storage. The price point for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is easily configurable. You can have a small business to an enterprise level, depending on what you want to build it with. This makes it easy because we can buy something and scale it up to a larger business if we grow.

How are customer service and support?

With Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, there is no one better in the industry for tech support service. I can vouch for having experiences working with other companies that have had different technologies and different support, and working with them is a completely different experience than working with Dell. That's what separates Dell from the other competitors. The Dell support is far better than anyone I've experienced.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were required by our organization to have three reviews of competitors, and Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers came out ahead. HPE was one of them, and the third may have been Cisco UCS options. It was all standard, standalone servers per solution. That led us to go into the virtual environment.

How was the initial setup?

It's easy to manage Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers because Dell makes it straightforward. The interfaces from the different storage and servers that we've used haven't changed too much. The deployment services we get in the beginning mean that we are onboarded quite effectively to the point that we can self-serve.

What other advice do I have?

The solution deserves a rating of 10 out of 10. It's really that good. The Dell support is far better than anyone I've experienced. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Hariraj Chauhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Regions Information Technology Security at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Robust and secure servers with excellent service
Pros and Cons
  • "We are very satisfied with Dell in terms of servers and service. We are happy with Dell servers. They are aligned with our services. They are robust."
  • "I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten."
  • "When interacting with customer support, it defaults to Arabic because of our region. However, most of the experts here are not familiar with Arabic. We would like English as an alternative language for easy interaction."
  • "After the expiration of support, it is sometimes challenging to find parts like hard drives, especially for obsolete models."

What is our primary use case?

We have a production setup in a factory for some of our services. The server can be a database server, file server, or even the Active Directory. We have multiple applications running on these servers, and we are very satisfied with these servers.

We are mostly using the 600 series.

How has it helped my organization?

Dell is certainly innovating. With the latest servers and technologies, I believe they are well aligned with the current need for AI solutions and the market demand.

We receive regular firmware updates ensuring security. We are quite satisfied with the updates and security. Dell also offers the Dell Assist feature which automatically keeps updating to the latest version available on the Dell website.

We have not experienced any security incidents or vulnerabilities with these servers.

These servers have been robust throughout their lifespan of five years, but I have observed that they work well even beyond that. Some companies continue using models that are expired because they have no reason to replace them based on the expiry date of the hardware.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have had a positive impact on our organization's sustainability goals. We are very satisfied with these servers as well as with their service. Good service has a big impact on the product as well. If you have a good product but do not get good service, it creates a negative experience. Both need to be there.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime by about 25%.

OpenManage console has an excellent user interface to configure and use servers effectively. It is a nice tool, but we are not utilizing it much. My understanding is that it is going to be discontinued.

What is most valuable?

We are very satisfied with Dell in terms of servers and service. We are happy with Dell servers. They are aligned with our services. They are robust. So far, we have found Dell to be the best vendor. Everything works fine and upgrades are also timely. They are also always innovating.

What needs improvement?

When interacting with customer support, it defaults to Arabic because of our region. However, most of the experts here are not familiar with Arabic. We would like English as an alternative language for easy interaction. 

Additionally, after the expiration of support, it is sometimes challenging to find parts like hard drives, especially for obsolete models. 

They are moving from OMSA to iDRAC, but iDRAC is complex, requiring additional plugin tools. These requirements make it a bit complicated. Other vendors are better in this aspect. They should provide a better way of access.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been with my company for nine years, and we have been using Dell PowerEdge Servers since then.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is robust and flexible. It continues to work with the same performance even after the end of support.

It works well and does not need much downtime for maintenance. There is a feature to update the server while it is running, so there is no need to restart. It improves production performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is quite easy to scale. It has impacted the flexibility of our operations in a good way.

How are customer service and support?

We are very satisfied with the professional support. The language support can be better. Other than that, it is good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have been using Dell for more than 15 years. We initially used IBM and then HP for a short period. HP had some service issues, which led us to move back to Dell. We chose Dell because of the service and robustness of the server.

How was the initial setup?

Deployment is quite easy with Dell because it has a life cycle feature. This single module helps in configuration from the initial phase. That is one of the best features.

What about the implementation team?

We have an in-house team for deployment. We mainly rely on partners for purchases, but we have technical experts within our organization.

What was our ROI?

The ROI of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is quite good. If rated out of five, I would say four.

It is hard to measure the total cost of ownership because we have a distributed environment. We have multiple offices and the budget is split.

What other advice do I have?

We are at an entry level in terms of using AI. We are looking into automating things and making our process more efficient. We have not run any AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge servers. Data security is our main concern when it comes to AI. For implementing AI, we need to consider the security and auditing aspects. 

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.