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
"It is less time-consuming to deploy the software.""The solution is stable...The solution is scalable.""From a return on investment perspective, Cisco UCS B-Series is worth the money.""The most beneficial feature is UCS Manager. It's the best way to manage hardware, creating group policies, like scrub policies and maintenance policies.""The most valuable features are monitoring and processing, which can handle a lot of throughput and are more powerful than the HPE series.""The scalability is good because it comes with Fabric Interconnects, and you can directly add more blades as you go. Therefore, scalability is not a problem.""The solution is very unified and the technical team is very supportive, no help is needed from outside vendors.""I like that it's very manageable very easy to use and configure. I am not an expert, but the graphic user interface is quite simple very easy to use. It's a complete solution."

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"The benefit is the density and the capability for global harmonization on the hardware, because all the hardware chassis are the same. We can also purchase the same network cards too, chassis by chassis, so it gives us a global solution.""The most valuable feature of HPE BladeSystem is simplified management.""The interface and dashboard are excellent and user-friendly.""Uptime and service are valuable for us. When we have an issue, uptime and being able to get an emergency replacement or actual service is the most important thing for us.""They have served different needs for us from virtualized web servers to dedicated databases and application servers.""They are reliable, and they hardly break down. They are fast, and they serve us very well.""The technical support is good.""The product is quite stable. Its performance is reliable."

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Cons
"The license is expensive. Cisco should decrease the delay in the delivery of their products.""The configuration is a little bit complicated and could be made simpler.""The integration is an area where Cisco UCS B-Series needs to provide users with more details.""For future improvements, it would be a benefit if the solution could integrate better with products such as Oracle.""Right now, the market is rapidly transitioning to solid-state media and the Cisco options tend to be less varied and more expensive than a broader slate of products from HP, Dell or IBM.""It is more expensive than the competitors.""The GUI is not the greatest.""USC Central seems a bit confusing for technicians."

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"The servers are a little bit huge, so it would be great if they could renew the size.""The response time in terms of getting technical support assistance could be improved.""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.""It will be discontinued so we will have to change to another product shortly.""I would like to see the upgrade path a little bit smoother.""We would like to see OneView software features as an additional feature.""The solution could improve by having more automation, such as the automatic mapping feature that is available in the Synergy Blade series.""It is lacking in the ability to replicate virtual machines more easily."

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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.