SCOM Reviews

Name: SCOM
Brand: Microsoft
Rating: 3.9 (81 reviews)

Vendor: Microsoft

3.9 out of 5

81 reviews
86% willing to recommend

4,772 followers

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What is SCOM?

SCOM (System Center Operations Manager) is a cross-platform data center monitoring and reporting tool that checks the status of various objects defined within the environment, such as server hardware, system services, etc. The solution allows data center administrators to deploy, configure, manage, and monitor the operations, services, devices and applications of multiple enterprise IT systems via a single pane of glass. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes.

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SCOM is the #3 ranked solution in top Event Monitoring solutions and #8 ranked solution in best Network Monitoring Tools. PeerSpot users give SCOM an average rating of 7.8 out of 10. SCOM is most commonly compared to Dynatrace: SCOM vs Dynatrace. SCOM is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 69% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 16% of all views.

Helped 815,854 peers since 2012

Featured reviews

MarcMermuys

ICT System Administrator at College of Europe

We use SCOM to integrate and monitor systems like Active Directory with alerting and threshold settings. Its user interface could be more intuitive, and a SaaS Azure version would improve accessibility. We also use SolarWinds and Defender portal for monitoring.

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GaneshRp

Senior Manager - Monitoring & Observability at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

One of the good features is the inbuilt reporting in SCOM. It has a reporting tool where you can fetch the performance data and have historical data. By default, SCOM has a data warehouse, so all the data is collected and stored there, and you can use it for future analysis. That is one of the features. And apart from that, we have the web console. You don't need to have the thick client installed on your laptop. You can just go to the web console URL and see the HTML dashboards and live alerts. You can even see the live data and live performance data, the graphical view of the current performance of your application.

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Starlen Sass

Information Technology Consultant at University of the Witwatersrand

I use SCOM for performance monitoring on the Windows environments, role-based access for SharePoint, software deployment, and reporting on any issues in the logs The solution's reporting engine has given me detailed information on which applications or services I've either failed or about to fail…

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SCOM mindshare

Product category:

As of November 2024, the mindshare of SCOM in the Event Monitoring category stands at 7.2%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Event Monitoring

Key learnings from peers

Last updated Nov 17, 2024

Valuable Features

SCOM excels in monitoring Windows environments, integrating seamlessly with Microsoft applications. It offers robust reporting, customizable dashboards, and flexibility in management packs, enabling effortless monitoring of servers, networks, and applications. Automatic alerts and notifications enhance proactive monitoring. SCOM's user-friendly interface and extensive community support make it a preferred choice for large-scale deployments. Its integration with Azure and automated remediation feature further elevate its monitoring capabilities.

"SCOM provides alerting capabilities and threshold settings, which are helpful for monitoring."
"SCOM integrates several systems and offers correlation features, like setting up everything around Active Directory or DNS."
"The inbuilt management pack that Microsoft provides is really helpful. I know it's a mature product, and they keep upgrading the management pack."

Room for Improvement

SCOM requires improvement in license cost, reducing event volumes for incident systems, and simplifying management packs. Users find dashboards and reporting inadequate, non-Microsoft product monitoring weak, and setup processes complex. The solution's heavy footprint, user interface, and interoperability with cloud technologies need enhancement. Greater focus is required on cross-platform support, user-friendly dashboards, and application performance management. Better documentation, more intuitive alert systems, and integration with third-party tools are also needed to improve overall functionality.

"SCOM is not as straightforward in terms of user interface or general experience, which could be improved."
"SCOM is not as straightforward in terms of user interface or general experience, which could be improved."
"In future releases, I would like to see APM solutions and dashboards like Grafana."

ROI

SCOM aids organizations by minimizing downtime through efficient infrastructure monitoring, meeting Service Level Agreements, and reducing penalties from customers. Some see positive ROI when using SCOM with other Microsoft System Center products, while others focus on the capability to proactively handle disruptions and inform users. Licensing costs are low when integrated into existing System Center suites. Despite challenges such as latency, many benefit from informed decisions on server management and auditing reports.

Pricing

Enterprise buyers find SCOM's pricing reasonable, particularly when included in a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement or the System Center suite. Licensing is streamlined, offering Standard and Datacenter options. Many report low costs due to existing agreements, with development environments sometimes free under MSDN licenses. While compared as costlier than open-source solutions, SCOM provides extensive features across multiple products. Organizations note special pricing for sectors like education and variance depending on regional and customer-specific agreements.

"The platform is cost-effective due to our existing Microsoft support."
"It is the cheapest product available in the market."
"SCOM's pricing is average."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily use SCOM for monitoring Windows and Linux systems, hardware, network devices, applications, and services across infrastructures. It plays a key role in server performance monitoring, reporting, and ensuring system health within the Microsoft ecosystem. SCOM manages monitoring tasks such as deployment, performance metrics, and service availability, integrating with various management packs to cover applications like Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory, and databases, providing notifications and alerts for any issues.

Service and Support

Users rate customer service and technical support for SCOM highly, particularly if they have a Microsoft Premier Support agreement. Microsoft provides knowledgeable, responsive technical support, handling complex issues efficiently. While some users find support inconsistent, others appreciate prompt escalation for urgent problems. Non-official resources, like community forums and blogs, offer valuable insights. Satisfaction levels vary, but Microsoft is largely appreciated for its comprehensive service and resource availability for SCOM support.

Deployment

SCOM's initial setup is perceived as both straightforward and complex. Many find it simple when prerequisites are met and documentation is followed, making deployment manageable. However, some note complexities in configuring alerts and management packs, requiring careful preparation and resources. Challenges arise with integration, scalability, and custom configurations, demanding significant time and expertise, especially for larger environments. Proper tuning and customization are crucial for effective functionality, and experience varies depending on prior knowledge and organizational size.

Scalability

SCOM is praised for its scalability, easily supporting additional servers and users. It efficiently manages numerous devices and adapts to expanding infrastructures. Challenges might exist with non-Microsoft environments, but SCOM's architecture allows for flexibility in scaling. Users have scaled SCOM to manage thousands of nodes without major issues, though some have noted room for improvement. Training is essential for optimizing scalability features, and specific hardware or configuration might affect scaling capabilities.

Stability

SCOM's stability varies, with earlier versions experiencing console crashes and DB issues. Later versions like 2012 R2 and 2019 are praised for consistency and robustness, provided they're configured correctly. Proper resource allocation, maintenance, and scaling are crucial to maintaining performance. Users note occasional glitches during updates and server restarts. Those who experienced problems often relate them to infrastructure rather than inherent software flaws. Stability ratings frequently fall between eight to ten out of ten.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

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Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Retailer

University

Educational Organization

Real Estate/Law Firm

Construction Company

Non Profit

Wholesaler/Distributor

Media Company

Hospitality Company

Comms Service Provider

Transportation Company

Legal Firm

Logistics Company

Outsourcing Company

Pharma/Biotech Company

Performing Arts

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Consumer Goods Company

Security Firm

Compare SCOM with alternative products

Learn more about SCOM

SCOM Features

SCOM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Application monitoring
Database monitoring
Threshold alerts
IT Asset Discovery
Predictive capabilities
Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting
Application performance management console
Server availability and performance monitoring
Collaboration tools
Virtualization monitoring
Patch management
Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications
Application dependency mapping and thresholding

SCOM Benefits

There are several benefits to implementing SCOM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Management and monitoring of Windows as well as Unix/Linux platforms
Remotely connect to Windows machines and perform administrative tasks from the console itself
Custom dashboard creation to help monitor the datacenter with ease
Agent based monitoring
Integrates well with other Microsoft products
Easy to use and reliable

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the SCOM solution.

A Manager at a financial services firm says, “The feature I like most about SCOM is that it is easy-to-use. I find it very user-friendly. I also like the knowledge base which it has. You can find the resolution to questions or issues directly within the SCOM itself. It will alert you with a recommendation of what you need to do at the same time. This sort of self-diagnosis or prompting is one of the great values you get from SCOM compared to other solutions.”

PeerSpot user Zahari Z., Information Technology Auditor at a financial services firm, mentions, “Availability monitoring is the feature I have found most valuable, as well as the capacity and ability to send notifications. There is a mechanism to set up a notification from the SCOM and whenever there is a drop in the availability the notification alerts not only for availability but for other issues as well. You can align thresholds according to the speed of your environment and you can have a threshold related notification, which is one of the useful features.”

Bill W., Sr. Systems Engineer at Arapahoe County Government, comments, “ I like some of their newer features, such as maintenance schedules, because SCOM records SLA and SLO time. When we patch, things are automatically put into maintenance mode so that the numbers for our systems being down, do not count against us.”

A Project Manager at a tech services company explains, “The feature I have found most valuable is the book feature. While we run the Sprint one we can add some setups for multiple sprints.”

A Systems Engineer at an educational organization states, “Because it's Windows-based, it actually reports quite well. It reports everything you can think of on the Windows server and allows you to monitor anything. It's excellent for those in the Windows world as it's very good at it.”

SCOM was previously known as System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012.