We performed a comparison between Microsoft Configuration Manager and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Server Monitoring solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The most valuable feature of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is the availability of being able to manage the Microsoft estate. It handles many areas, such as asset management and tracking."
"Automation of operating system, application, and update deployments massively reduces IT operations effort."
"Provides great insight into the functionalities of the data scope."
"This solution has made life easy with respect to patching, compliance, and OSD."
"It has the ability to perform mass distribution."
"It gives us the ability to set up schedules, according to what our security requirements are, to automate the patching of our servers and desktops."
"It works well for the endpoints for the customer I'm consulting. It has a bunch of knobs, and you can tune it to do lots of things."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ability to deploy patches to nearly all applications."
"The component and cable monitoring are good. SolarWinds is more intuitive and user-friendly than AppDynamics. The AppDynamics console is more complex because it's a more feature-rich solution, so it's not easy for somebody to pick it up."
"Management Console - Managing service to each server enrolled in the Solarwinds is much easier. Using a web base console, you can control your service much convenient way. There is no need to login remotely. It save a lot of time and effort."
"This product can monitor application environments no matter where they reside and provides capabilities for deep insight into infrastructure."
"Manage Groups: The capability to group appropriate devices gives better visibility of sites, categories, or critical regions. The same can be used to represent a dashboard for higher management."
"Features like monitoring and infrastructure dependency mapping are valuable to us."
"The initial setup was relatively easy, and we didn't have to install anything. All we had to do was put on the devices we wanted to monitor."
"The most valuable feature is application monitoring."
"The solution can be deployed quickly."
"The product needs to improve scalability."
"It would be better if reporting were more user-friendly. I would like to see an upgrade in the reporting structure in the next release. At the moment, you have to use an SQL query or configure it to pull reports through the graphical user interface. Their updates could be more regular. I think Mircosoft updates it every six months. They are also moving many things to Intune, and Microsoft decided to move the deployment solution there. I think SCCM is getting old, and Intune is new."
"They should improve their anti-malware policies like the SCEP policies. For instance, you can't have different policies for different servers, there is only one policy in all the servers, and everything is covered under that. For example, say you want to scan one group of servers on Saturday, and then you want to scan another group of servers on Sunday, you can't do that. You have to scan all your servers, a regular scan or a full scan, on the same day and at the same time. That's definitely one thing they need to resolve. In the next release, it would actually be nice if they included Apple products. It will also help if you can use Intune again. Their compliance reporting feature could also be better. They can maybe work a bit on that for patching now. It would be better if SCCM came with the functions of Right Click Tools built-in. If SCCM would have all those functions already built-in, we won't have to go and spend $5,000, just as an add-in from another company to get those functions."
"SCCM can improve on third-party application support."
"In spite of us being a premier customer we find the support unsatisfactory."
"It would be nice to have everything in one place. Now they have Intune for the desktops and SCCM to handle their servers."
"The downside of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is it's an on-premise-based solution. With the pandemic coming on board the need to support users across the globe has increased. For a while, we would use the in-built Microsoft Teams screen sharing feature but the disadvantage of that is you cannot perform privileged access. Microsoft does not give you access to that. That's where you need cloud-based tools, such as BeyondTrust or Freshservice."
"The availability of technical support could improve."
"A lot of times, we have to do a lot of manual cleanups."
"The product needs to reduce its price."
"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."
"The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool."
"The stability, flexibility, and ease of use could be improved."
"I think they need to make reporting easier and more simple & dynamic."
"The tool’s report feature created issues for us. We needed to gain skills to use that feature. The tool’s customization is not easy since you have to reconfigure the whole system."
"This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities."
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Microsoft Configuration Manager is ranked 2nd in Server Monitoring with 78 reviews while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is ranked 10th in Server Monitoring with 38 reviews. Microsoft Configuration Manager is rated 8.2, while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Microsoft Configuration Manager writes "Seamless system updates, useful integration, and reliable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor writes "We use this product for base and application monitoring. ". Microsoft Configuration Manager is most compared with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, Microsoft Intune, BigFix and Tanium, whereas SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is most compared with Azure Monitor, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Prometheus and Nagios XI. See our Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report.
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