Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

PowerEdge analytics helped to decrease production downtime.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Positive

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are partners with Dell.

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

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

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

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

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

We use this solution as a host for clusters. We use 750, 740s, and 730s.

PowerEdge is able to run the latest high-demand applications for our use case. They host our clusters and facilitate the building of environments. 

We also like the iDRAC feature for monitoring system data and providing analytics. The newer iDRAC is a lot better than the older versions. 

The management features of this solution have been most useful.

We have experienced some challenges with iDRAC when upgrading firmware.

We have been using this solution for a couple of decades. 

I would rate the support for this solution a seven out of ten. 

Neutral

The initial setup was straightforward. 

Implementation was done as a combination of the vendor and our internal reps.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

We use this solution for general computing and for ESX hosts for our virtual environment. 

We are a partner who sells PowerEdge to many different customers, and we also use it in our own environment. The solution can be customized based on a customer's needs and allows us to build whatever we need in our own environment at that particular moment.

The system management capabilities of PowerEdge helped increase stack productivity. The solution's accelerated GPUs helped support demanding workloads for some of our customer's environments. PowerEdge helped to reduce data processing time in our company which has made us work faster. 

iDRAC is the most valuable feature because of the ease of use and management, and everything that it provides is super useful. The security features that PowerEdge provides, including firmware threat detection is good.

We do not currently use this solution's CloudIQ functionality for predictive analytics but we would like to use it in the future.

I have used this solution for five years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This solution is scalable. The way this solution is able to scale is impressive. Depending on how you build your PowerEdge server, it can serve the lowest end of customers up to the highest, depending on what their needs are. Whatever a customer is trying to accomplish, can usually be customized for their environment.

The quality of support for this solution varies. Sometimes you get agents who are amazing and other times you get agents who take a long time to resolve your query. I would rate support for this solution a six and a half out of ten. 

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment took one to two hours.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

On-premises

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.

We use the Dell EMC R730 Rack Server. We use it for virtualization and we have some servers and some desktop virtual machines running on it. We mostly use it for testing purposes. We also use the Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Server to do QA testing for those applications. We create temporary virtual machines for this.

Virtualization is one of our main use cases. Hosting web applications is another. We also use the Dell server for standard architecture like Microsoft Excel and Office applications,

We use Dell EMC PowerEdge R730 as a server for testing our software products. We had not benchmarked anything before we purchased this, but we went through the specs during that time and did some configuration. We purchased Dell EMC PowerEdge R730 with 256GB RAM and built-in dual CPUs. We just sought this configuration from the local Dell EMC account via our account manager.

Since we use this for testing our products, we do not use it for any business process requirements. We are not hosting on it, we are just using it for testing purposes. 

We were not able to scale up the server to the number of reels that we were looking for, so our plan got stalled there. Now we are once again revisiting our plan for that after two years.

There are better processors available with multiple cores than the Dell EMC PowerEdge. Our current requirement is that we should be able to generate a load of five hundred or one thousand Windows 10 desktop VMs on a single server. We prefer to use an optimal sizing on the RAM, the storage disc, and the CPUs. That's our current requirement. Virtualization is the biggest benefit for our organization. 

We are able to virtualize a lot of applications and user desktops with the Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Server.

The main criteria I look for in all vendors are:

1. On-site service for the hardware. 
2. The warranty period, i.e. how long the warranty is. 
3. The ability of the product itself, i.e. the specs and the lifecycle of the product.
4. The hardware should be cutting edge.

I would like to see the lifecycle at seven to ten years. I want to work on the latest CPUs as much as possible, i.e. maintaining cutting edge standards, but still optimally priced.

We needed a benchmarking HP server, but since we are a small company, we went to hardware resellers. Dell EMC had some programs for SMBs and we were able to have direct interaction with them in India. We were able to get a very reasonable price for the same product which otherwise through the reseller network was extremely costly.

We found that arrangement from Dell EMC to be slightly better than compared to other vendors and why we did not choose them.

I would like to see better IOPS, i.e. the disc speed. That is the main limitation for scaling up the number of users.

Nowadays, there are web servers that have greater endurance in the lifecycle than the Dell EMC PowerEdge, so that's what I would like to see improved most.

If Dell EMC can provide us with more IOPS, a higher disc size using the SSDs, and better battery endurance in terms of the lifecycle, i.e. three to seven years, I would be satisfied. With the Dell EMC PowerEdge Server, there is a limitation on the hardware life cycles.

Another place Dell EMC could improve is with GPUs. If we can get more benchmarking done, some optimization, and more scalability for certain apps, it would be better. 

Dell EMC could improve the sizing and scaling performance that we can get with the server, including some better optimization that we can scale up. Another need for improvement is to consider the implementation of other forms of desktop virtualization.

One to three years.

It is quite stable. We didn't have a single downtime of failure. Nor have we ever experienced any downtime in electrical components or the hardware. In this way, the server is reliable.

The Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Server did not scale to our expectations.

I do not recall if we needed to use Dell EMC technical support often. We did when we wanted to expand the memory and it was satisfactory.

We were already familiar with the hardware so it was straightforward to set up the web server for our requirements.

I would rate the Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten. It was satisfactory, but we were not able to scale it to the level that we expected.

Maybe we should have contacted their support or put in greater effort to find out about sizing guidelines, or maybe there is a limitation regarding the kind of scale that we are looking for.

I would advise someone considering this solution to search for the use case that is the closest match to your business. We should have referred to that before making a purchase.

We primarily use the solution for a variety of use cases. These include holding technologies such as VMware, databases, web application servers, and copies, in some cases. 

The Dell EMC PowerEdge offers best performance per price

Their support is very good and very effective. 

The price of the system is very fair. 

The design of the hardware is very good - especially the management system. 

Overall, PowerEdge is a very good system. 

The performance has been excellent so far.

The initial setup is very easy to manage.

The shipment or delivery times could be improved. Sometimes we have to wait six Weeks before we get the server. It could even be longer. Sometimes it is many days for my customers

I've been using the solution for six years or so. It's been a while at this point. I've definitely worked with the solution over the last 12 months as well.

The solution is stable. the performance is good and very reliable. We haven't had any issues so far. 

The scalability is good. The system has many options for scalability. If a company needs to expand, it can do so with relative ease.

In our case, our clients are mostly small to medium in size.

Technical support has been very helpful and responsive. They are knowledgeable. We're quite satisfied with their level of support. They are a good service and very supportive.

The initial setup is not overly complex or difficult. We found it to be easy. It's straightforward. A company should have no trouble whatsoever.

The deployment only took a few short hours. It's pretty quick.

I cannot recall the amount of staff it requires for deployment and maintenance. It's my understanding that only one engineer is required.

We are an integrator. We can implement the solution for our clients as required. In a year, we may implement four or five projects.

The solution offers very good, very fair pricing. It's reasonable. It's not overly expensive.

I do not have any knowledge of our clients evaluating other options before choosing this product.

We are Dell partners. We work with various versions of the solution. These include the 14 Generation, 13 Generation, and 11 Generation. We aren't currently in the process of buying a new server.

I'd recommend the solution. I'd rate it at a perfect ten out of ten. It's been very good for us. We haven't had issues. 

On-premises

We use this solution for our virtual servers.

The maintenance for this solution could be improved. 

I have been using this solution for five years. 

This is a stable solution. 

It took one hour to set up this solution. We have 20 staff members using it. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Private Cloud

Other

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. 

On-premises