We performed a comparison between AWS CloudFormation and AWS Systems Manager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Configuration Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."It is a helpful tool to manage BYOD policies."
"The most valuable feature is probably mobile device management. Small businesses are coming under greater scrutiny and requirements for compliance as time goes on. We don't have to worry about a VPN because we can manage these devices, control company data, and lock users out. If needed, we can remotely wipe devices and deadman-switch them."
"The stability is good."
"In terms of technical support, you will get an immediate response."
"The solution is easy to use, simple to understand for those new to using it, and combined with the other Microsoft products it makes for an overall good package."
"I would say the biggest benefit is the single-pane view. There's no jumping around multiple UI's to do your overall management."
"The technical support of Microsoft Intune is good."
"The main advantage is that Intune performs its intended functions effectively."
"The integration of the solution is very good."
"The nested stacks would be one of the more valuable features."
"With CloudFormation, there is no need to use complicated coding."
"CloudFormation gives us control of AWS and any Cloud infrastructure. It creates the whole stack for Cloud services technologies so it's easy to manage the whole system."
"Its ability to treat infrastructure's code is valuable. It makes things automatable and reproducible."
"The CloudFormation template can be reused to create multiple stacks, reducing duplications and improving our infrastructure."
"Automations make it pretty easy to provision AWS, development, or deployment environments."
"Since AWS CloudFormation integrates well with the AWS platform, it facilitates faster deployment. Building templates for AWS services within the solution is also straightforward, making the process easier."
"Has a variety of automation options."
"When we do the automation in the cloud, we use the SSM agent. This helps us to test our automation and documents, and monitor the cloud."
"With AWS Systems Manager, our company can patch our systems directly from it, so we don't need to patch our systems manually."
"Systems Manager has a feature where it analyzes the logs and gives us a performance overview in the form of a graph. We know when it's taking up more resources and when there are spikes, so we can predict the usability."
"The solution is user-friendly"
"The solution's ability to scale is good."
"AWS provides Auto Scaling groups."
"The initial setup is a little bit complex."
"Enhancements for managing MacOS more comprehensively would be beneficial."
"A new Intune feature allows application packaging, but it incurs additional licensing costs for a significant number of applications."
"I have a lot of Apple products in my environment. It would be nice to have an improved integration of Apple products with Microsoft Intune without Jam."
"It should be easier to define policies and comply with those policies."
"The add-ons must be integrated into the solution."
"It would be great if Intune offered better data protection controls for BYOD Windows PCs."
"The solution could improve by having better integration with Apple."
"The speed of the replication process could improve. It can take some time to replicate that could use a speed increase."
"It would help all users if AWS improved the auto-generation of the CloudFormation file."
"The product should be made cloud-agnostic, allowing users to deploy the same environment with minimal tweaks across different cloud platforms, similar to Terraform. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have the ability to manage templates outside of the AWS environment."
"This tool is not intuitive and there are others that are easier to understand."
"The solution needs to offer better support to other cloud vendors."
"AWS CloudFormation allows you to use the code templates written in JSON and YAML, but not directly in Python. Adding this feature would be beneficial."
"Creating the inline policies is not great."
"They could improve the product's capability to handle circular dependencies more effectively."
"AWS does not have EKS cluster backup."
"We formerly used third-party products to analyze the log, give us information, and find bottlenecks. Systems Manager could provide more tools that conduct this analysis, so we don't have to do it ourselves."
"The current challenge is that we can't pull any incidents from other accounts."
"The fact that AWS Systems Manager takes time to complete the patching process, makes it an area where improvements are required."
"Lacks sufficient integrations."
"The AWS UIs are not the most intuitive. Also, the usability needs room for improvement."
"Additional features can be added as per customer requirements."
AWS CloudFormation is ranked 8th in Configuration Management with 28 reviews while AWS Systems Manager is ranked 6th in Configuration Management with 7 reviews. AWS CloudFormation is rated 8.4, while AWS Systems Manager is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of AWS CloudFormation writes "Pretty easy setup with great automations for provisioning that save time and money". On the other hand, the top reviewer of AWS Systems Manager writes "Offers a variety of automation options; simplifies governance and administration ". AWS CloudFormation is most compared with Spring Cloud, Red Hat Satellite, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Microsoft Configuration Manager and Chef, whereas AWS Systems Manager is most compared with Microsoft Configuration Manager, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat Satellite, BigFix and Chef. See our AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Systems Manager report.
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