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
"The product is easy to use.""It is less time-consuming to deploy the software.""From a return on investment perspective, Cisco UCS B-Series is worth the money.""The most valuable feature that the B-Series has is related to the structure and architecture of the solution because in these solutions, you are using fabric interconnect as an interconnect device. The beauty of fabric interconnect is that it can work as in-house mode.""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 most valuable feature is the ability to replace a server with another one, simply by applying the profile""The architecture of this solution is very valuable; it has five traffic interconnects, and uses a network highway so bandwidth is never an issue.""The platform has valuable features for management and good monitoring tools. It provides efficient insights."

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"It is a stable, dependable solution.""This has drastically reduced our datacenter space, has good cooling and power consumption.""Basically, in a cluster, it works really nicely, especially within a cluster environment. Also, it's easily configurable.""The virtual connect and network management port is a valuable feature.""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.""The interface and dashboard are excellent and user-friendly.""When it comes to the BladeSystem, what we love about it most is being able to actually manage it using OneView.""Its ease of management, consolidation, connectivity, power, and cooling are the most valuable features."

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Cons
"Cisco could improve the user-friendliness for less experienced users.""Its scalability could be better.""We have to have Java to manage the infrastructure. It would be great if we can manage the infrastructure through a web browser.""The configuration is a bit complex, as it requires very high technical expertise to apply it.""The solution’s technical support could be better.""Cisco is expensive and difficult to manage. The product is not intuitive. It also needs to improve storage management and upgrades.""The configuration is a little bit complicated and could be made simpler.""This model does not support virtualization of the switch."

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"​It is really stable, however the motherboard sometimes crashes.""The management side of this solution could be improved.""HPE has a replacement system called Synergy, though it’s a more high-end system than the old C7000.""The other similar solutions used different CLI commands than HPE BladeSystem. The HPE BladeSystem CLI commands should be the same as the other companies which would make it easier to manage. It would be better for the system administrators to manage HPE BladeSystem and other systems together. I wanted to configure this service with the CLI but the commands are different than the other solutions making it a bit more difficult.""It would be nice if the solution were cheaper.""The price of the solution has room for improvement.""The problem is that when want to expand with a new chassis, you have to do everything manually. It's not automatic.""The solution could improve by having more automation, such as the automatic mapping feature that is available in the Synergy Blade series."

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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.