HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Apr 3, 2022

We performed a comparison between HPE Blade system and HPE Synergy based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of HPE Bladesystem say the setup was a bit complex initially and could be simplified. While the deployment of HPE Synergy is very quick, some users find it complex and have issues with configurations.
  • Features: Bladesystem’s most valuable features, according to our reviewers, are ease of management, scalability and stability. Users say Bladesystem is very easy to use. However, the product is being discontinued, so this constitutes a downside. Other disadvantages include it being difficult to replicate virtual machines and issues with virtual connections. Synergy users say the solution has great data storage and is built very well. It is stable, versatile and scalable. The downsides include issues with the firmware, and that it is not very suitable for hybrid environments.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions feel the prices are affordable.

  • Service and Support: Bladesystem users say the level of technical support varies according to region and that it needs improvement in responding quickly to tickets. On the other hand, Synergy users find the technical support to be excellent.

Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, HPE Synergy is a better choice. Our reviewers find that Synergy offers better support, stability and scalability, and it is worth the complex setup.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE BladeSystem vs. HPE Synergy Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 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 solution uses less cabling and less space in the data center.""This has drastically reduced our datacenter space, has good cooling and power consumption.""It's very scalable.""The solution has high performance.""The solution is very fast and the power consumption is great.""No issues with scalability. ​We can scale by adding another enclosure.""The solution has good performance.""It is easy to scale if you have the licensing."

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"Its versatility, performance, and size are most valuable. It is very decent for its size. It has very good performance and very good specifications.""We're able to provision different applications, different demonstrations, add cloud-like speeds on-prem, which is unheard of in the industry.""It has had a positive effect on the efficiency of our IT infrastructure team. The manageability of it is so easy, we're able to install it quickly, and replacement parts are easy to get in and out quickly.""Orchestrating automations is great because you can connect to other tools with the REST API and automate components.""The Online firmware update for the virtual connects has minimized our downtime windows.""For me, this is the best frame server technology available in the market. We can compare it to Cisco UCS. It is robust and stable, and it is also easy to deploy and scale. Their support is the best.""Give us the ability to seamlessly migrate from one operating environment to another within minutes, which is invaluable.""The scalability is great."

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Cons
"If the hardware offered higher efficiency, that would be an ideal situation for our company.""There could be more management capability to work with integrations.""Non-disruptive firmware upgrades in all areas of blade technology.""OA updates and upgrades have to be made simpler.""We would like to see OneView software features as an additional feature.""HPE BladeSystems is an old technology that cannot fit all of the dynamic organizational needs of our company.""The solution could improve by having more automation, such as the automatic mapping feature that is available in the Synergy Blade series.""The servers are a little bit huge, so it would be great if they could renew the size."

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"I would be more comfortable if Ansible actually rolled back the data used for automating platforms. If it could be communicated to the upstream Ansible, I wouldn't need to go back and forth and validate the libraries as we upgrade the Ansible version.""I would like the ability to take the storage tray that is in a chassis and share it out to multiple chassis, not just the servers within the same chassis. This would be more efficient with resources.""I would like to see more nodes in a single chassis so we wouldn't have to purchase additional chassis.""Instead of having Synergy vertical, make it horizontal. It is easier to stick in when it is vertical.""The only issue that we had was our rack was too small. The product is heavy, so it took a lot to get it in there.""If it would be possible to connect clusters of five with other clusters, so that they could all share resources, that would change the game for us. It would make it a viable solution for us.""The update is problematic. When you want to update the firmware, or when you want to update software on Composer, it takes a lot of time. A lot.""A faster Composer module would be a good inclusion for the next release of this solution."

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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 →

  • "The Nutanix platform came in a little more expensive than the Synergy."
  • "The solution has reduced our IT infrastructure costs because we have had to buy less services than we used to."
  • "In our whole environment, the cost is in the millions. On this particular chassis, the annual cost is 12 blades times approximately $40,000."
  • "The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."
  • "We do a biannual renewal. I know how much that renewal is, but I don't know how much it breaks down to be just Synergy, since we have our VMware, all of our physical equipment, etc. all rolled up into one renewal, which is a little over $300,000 every two years. However, only a subset of that is the Synergy product."
  • "There was at least about a 20 percent savings in cost over our purchase based on the purchase price of the compute modules themselves versus what we've had to pay before. It was significantly less."
  • "Synergy has lowered our total cost of ownership significantly. I would say ballpark around 25 percent, maybe more."
  • "We bought everything outright to start with. We don't do much consumption-based stuff."
  • More HPE Synergy Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    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.
    Top Answer:It is a good product for hypervisors.
    Top Answer:You have to propose Synergy with your customer base.
    Top Answer:Using HPE Transporters instead of train switches would simplify network configuration by creating a flat network without zoning between servers and storage, fostering tighter integration.
    Ranking
    2nd
    out of 22 in Blade Servers
    Views
    3,923
    Comparisons
    2,897
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    420
    Rating
    8.9
    1st
    out of 22 in Blade Servers
    Views
    4,978
    Comparisons
    3,595
    Reviews
    17
    Average Words per Review
    380
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    HP ProLiant BL Series Servers, HP ProLiant BladeSystem, HP BladeSystem
    Learn More
    Overview
    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.

    HPE Synergy, the first platform built from the ground up for Composable Infrastructure, offers an experience that empowers IT to create and deliver new value instantly and continuously. It is a single infrastructure that reduces operational complexity for traditional workloads and increases operational velocity for the new breed of applications and services. Through a single interface, HPE Synergy composes physical and virtual compute, storage, and fabric pools into any configuration for any application. As an extensible platform, it easily enables a broad range of applications and operational models such as virtualization, hybrid cloud, and DevOps. With HPE Synergy, IT can become not just the internal service provider but the business partner to rapidly launch new applications that become the business.

    Sample Customers
    EMIS Health
    HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Insurance Company9%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Healthcare Company9%
    Retailer9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise61%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise63%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    Buyer's Guide
    HPE BladeSystem vs. HPE Synergy
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about HPE BladeSystem vs. HPE Synergy and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    HPE BladeSystem is ranked 2nd in Blade Servers with 21 reviews while HPE Synergy is ranked 1st in Blade Servers with 19 reviews. HPE BladeSystem is rated 8.6, while HPE Synergy is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of HPE BladeSystem writes "Good service, reliable, and remotely accessible through the iLO feature". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HPE Synergy writes "The composable infrastructure allows you to build and stack shared capacity". HPE BladeSystem is most compared with Cisco UCS B-Series, Dell PowerEdge M, Super Micro SuperBlade, HPE Superdome X and Pure Storage FlashBlade, whereas HPE Synergy is most compared with Dell PowerEdge M, Cisco UCS B-Series, HPE Apollo, HPE Superdome X and Lenovo Flex System. See our HPE BladeSystem vs. HPE Synergy report.

    See our list of best Blade Servers vendors.

    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.