Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE BladeSystem comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco UCS B-Series and HPE BladeSystem based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Blade Servers solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE BladeSystem Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Since its UCS release in 2009, Cisco has extended the core functionality with Central, a tool for managing multiple domains""The ratio in terms of the number of units and the number of servers that we can get each chassis is quite good.""The GUI makes is simple to use and deploy.""The most valuable features are monitoring and processing, which can handle a lot of throughput and are more powerful than the HPE series.""The hardware is easily swappable and, utilizing the boot from SAN option, you can always keep your server intact due to the service profiles.""The Boot from SAN function is good because using OTV, we can boot the device from any remote location.""From a return on investment perspective, Cisco UCS B-Series is worth the money.""The feature that I found the most value is the abstract and stateless capacities."

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"Modularity is a key feature that provides energy saving .""No issues with scalability. ​We can scale by adding another enclosure.""The interface and dashboard are excellent and user-friendly.""The solution uses less cabling and less space in the data center.""HPE BladeSystem provides good commuting performance.""They have served different needs for us from virtualized web servers to dedicated databases and application servers.""The solution has high performance.""I have noticed that the solution does provide a very good ROI for companies."

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Cons
"The solution is expensive.""There are patches that cannot be implemented without any downtime or reboot required.""The solution is difficult to set up.""There is a delay in the product's reporting and the rebooting system compared to servers from other vendors.""The price of this product is too high. They should work to make it more affordable.""The pricing could be less.""Next generation support for VMware needs to be introduced as it does not support eighth-generation VMware.""The cost of the solution has room for improvement."

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"I am not sure if iLO is included or if there is a separate license. If it is not included, it should be included in the license. It is such a valuable feature especially because people are working remotely.""This product needs a wider range of firmware compatibility matrix from the oldest to the newest blade server.""Really look at it closely, but really look at the Synergy product as well. That seems to me like that's the next evolution of the BladeSystem.""The scalability is limited because you only have a 16-server by chassis.""We have not needed to contact support because we have not had an issue. However, the partner support we had could improve. There are some disadvantages compared to Dell. The questions that are asked from the support are too lengthy, this causes a delay in support.""The connectivity speed could be improved.""HPE BladeSystem could improve the communication between the server and the storage.""I would like OneView to go over the current limit of 40 instances."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It makes much more sense for individual licenses for distributed environments"
  • "Make sure you work with a vendor partner than can get you a substantial discount off of list pricing."
  • "The type of service level purchase will determine the level of support response that you receive from Cisco."
  • "The price of this solution is a little bit higher, but given that this system is Cisco, it feels more secure and dependable."
  • "Cisco products are at the high end in terms of cost, but everything is included with the licensing fees."
  • "The pricing for Cisco is less than for the HP Proliant series."
  • "The pricing for Cisco products is always high."
  • "Pricing with Cisco is very high."
  • More Cisco UCS B-Series Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Their licensing program is pretty simple."
  • "With regards to the prices, they need to adapt to the current needs of the country."
  • "The prices for the HPE Virtual Connect Modules are expensive compared to other I/O Modules available."
  • "Add OneView and ILO advanced to the base product. Don’t adjust the price, but just include them."
  • "​The price could be cheaper."
  • "The chassis itself, with no blade server inside, so expensive. The C7000 model costs around $100,000."
  • "It is not expensive, really, in this class of server products."
  • "It is expensive. There are no additional costs. We are able to get good discounts anyway from HPE, but if the price can come down, we'll be happy."
  • More HPE BladeSystem Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The platform has valuable features for management and good monitoring tools. It provides efficient insights.
    Top Answer:The product is expensive. We encounter a licensing issue as well. It could be subscription-based.
    Top Answer:There is a delay in the product's reporting and the rebooting system compared to servers from other vendors like Dell and HP.
    Top Answer:For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and stable. It turns out Bladesystem was the winner. Bladesystem is excellent because it… more »
    Top Answer:Remote management features are valuable.
    Ranking
    3rd
    out of 22 in Blade Servers
    Views
    2,109
    Comparisons
    1,576
    Reviews
    20
    Average Words per Review
    442
    Rating
    8.6
    2nd
    out of 22 in Blade Servers
    Views
    3,923
    Comparisons
    2,897
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    420
    Rating
    8.9
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    UCS B-Series, Unified Computing System B-Series
    HP ProLiant BL Series Servers, HP ProLiant BladeSystem, HP BladeSystem
    Learn More
    Overview
    Based on Intel Xeon processor E7 and E5 product families, Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers work with virtualized and non-virtualized applications to increase: Performance, Energy efficiency, Flexibility and Administrator productivity.
    HP ProLiant BladeSystem share power, cooling, network, and storage infrastructure via the blade enclosure. Since equipment is not needed for each server, you get a dramatic reduction in power distribution units, power cables, LAN and SAN switches, connectors, adapters, and cables. And you can add the newest-generation technologies by simply changing individual components.
    Sample Customers
    Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Anonymous Banking Group, Artoni Transporti, Bellevue, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Hertz, Houston Methodist, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co.KG, Outscale, Sony Corporation, Talbots
    EMIS Health
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Manufacturing Company17%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Computer Software Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Insurance Company9%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise68%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise61%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE BladeSystem
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE BladeSystem and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco UCS B-Series is ranked 3rd in Blade Servers with 62 reviews while HPE BladeSystem is ranked 2nd in Blade Servers with 133 reviews. Cisco UCS B-Series is rated 8.6, while HPE BladeSystem is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco UCS B-Series writes "Robust hardware and efficient management of hardware, creating group policies, such as scrub policies and maintenance policies". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HPE BladeSystem writes "Very reliable, expands well, and is pretty simple to set up". Cisco UCS B-Series is most compared with HPE Synergy, Dell PowerEdge M, Super Micro SuperBlade, Pure Storage FlashBlade and Lenovo Flex System, whereas HPE BladeSystem is most compared with HPE Synergy, Dell PowerEdge M, Super Micro SuperBlade, HPE Superdome X and Pure Storage FlashBlade. See our Cisco UCS B-Series vs. HPE BladeSystem report.

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    We monitor all Blade Servers reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.