We performed a comparison between Microsoft Configuration Manager and SaltStack 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."I can see that the patch management process is much improved with the bundled patch management option available in Microsoft Intune compared to the KPI deployment required by the other deployment solutions."
"Stable product that's easy to set up compared to other MDM products."
"It supports end-users who tend to lock their devices quite frequently. Its conditional access policy helps us keep the users logged into their devices."
"The tool's most valuable feature is Autopilot."
"It is quite policy-enabled, so you can build pretty much any policy to manage remote endpoints."
"The main advantage is that Intune performs its intended functions effectively."
"We use a local Active Directory, but we weren't able to manage all our on-site systems without a solution like Intune, and we needed to deploy software like VPNs and other things. It's seamless now to to this through Intune."
"Intune provides full visibility into all active mobile device users. If their devices are noncompliant with our security policies, I have the flexibility to update them remotely."
"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."
"Software deployment and WSUS are most valuable."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is patch management."
"It's helped us solve problems surrounding patching, installing, and reporting different patches, etc., on the virtual machines."
"This solution has made life easy with respect to patching, compliance, and OSD."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to learn."
"The product is very stable compared to older versions."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is it's incredibly simple to configure and execute changes in bulk, allowing for seamless deployment. With this solution, you can easily track the status of all modifications and send them with ease, making it a comprehensive and efficient solution for any necessary adjustments."
"It is a highly stable solution."
"We monitor the configurations against CIS standards. We run CIS benchmarks and maintain configurations with higher CIS values for each server."
"I want to build automation that is intelligent, part of the fabric of our environment, and is somewhat self-sustaining. I think SaltStack can help me do this."
"The ability to programmatically describe the desired state of a single, or an entire fleet of servers, on-premises, and in a cloud environment."
"The product’s most valuable feature is its ability to provide environmental security."
"SaltStack has given us the ability to deal with systems at scale and rectify issues at scale."
"The automation functionality has been most valuable. With a click of a button, we are able to automate provisioning, the build of new hardware and apply patches. These are all extremely important and differentiated tasks that can be automated in SaltStack."
"The scalability could be improved, and like most other MDM products, Intune is good but not 100% there yet."
"The solution could improve its flexibility."
"The reports that are generated aren't so great. They don't give a lot of meaning so far, but that could be down to user knowledge than the actual reporting side of things. I'm not a big user of it, but I was a bigger user of MaaS360, and we used to be able to run weekly and monthly reports. In the case of any deviations. we'd get a warning immediately. That's not so easy to do or to get in place for Intune. This could be just a user issue, but when I compare both, that's the only thing that's lacking for me."
"For an existing customer who has an SCCM, it would need to be upgraded to an MECM first before I can introduce Microsoft Intune."
"It would be beneficial to have a more straightforward understanding of Intune's capabilities, presented in a simplified manner."
"The Mac integration has room for improvement."
"Microsoft Intune needs to improve the initial login process."
"Microsoft Intune is not user-friendly to manage and has room for improvement."
"Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager could improve the integration."
"As far as load balancing across, they don't have that support yet, so that you can actually build multiple primaries and have it load balance across. They don't have any of that functionality yet. That would be a nice feature, to scale that way."
"On some hardware, we'd like an easier way to get peripherals attached."
"The database should be made to be more stable and robust, but not so much the configuration."
"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."
"The ability to integrate MDM would be great."
"Its client interface should be more accessible, and the notifications should be more customizable from the console. It should be more user friendly and have some kind of customized notifications so that we can use it on the client side. These are the reasons why we restricted its use only for the server environment and didn't use it on the client side."
"The reports are too busy. They could be simpler. I'm a technician, so I don't care how pretty the reports look. They should be easy to read. I'm designing this for production folks. They need to read the reports quickly when they're patching in the middle of the night."
"SaltStack's features are minimal."
"There is a little bit of pain when it comes to libraries and what is needed to run the product."
"Web UI."
"It is difficult to set up."
"A hardened set of tests would be much appreciated."
"This solution could be integrated with more hardware for an improved offering."
"Its configuration process could be better."
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Microsoft Configuration Manager is ranked 2nd in Configuration Management with 78 reviews while SaltStack is ranked 14th in Configuration Management with 33 reviews. Microsoft Configuration Manager is rated 8.2, while SaltStack is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Microsoft Configuration Manager writes "Seamless system updates, useful integration, and reliable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SaltStack writes "Orchestration tool that powers automation of processes with the click of a button". Microsoft Configuration Manager is most compared with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, BigFix, Tanium and AWS Systems Manager, whereas SaltStack is most compared with VMware Aria Automation, HashiCorp Terraform, Red Hat Satellite, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Automic Workload Automation. See our Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. SaltStack report.
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