BMC Helix Discovery Reviews

I'm using it for the customer. I've been looking for BMC Helix Discovery. It's majorly for some kind of customization or development kind of thing that we have to do.

The solution has brought a huge difference to the organisation.

The most valuable feature is Windows proxy. We now need to install an additional link proxy server in Windows. The proxy is available as an outpost in the Elastic store. That is the advanced feature is added.

There are many other features which can be used once we discover them. One time I was scanning the servers and all, going to data from additional based on the additional features, including advanced data like score upper display data successfully discover servers. There are many things good things that can be implemented using it while we haven’t installed those yet.

The improvement which we require is to delete the Internet service. Till some of the features are coming, like, internally side. If you are taking one server to model, there are a lot of usages like three structures per diagram is coming, and we have to do the man lot of manual work. Instead of that, whatever our requirement, we should be able to provide the servers and get the structure. So this is what we want to implement with such data. 

It is not a very stable solution. I rate the stability a seven out of ten. 

It is a scalable solution. I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

The initial setup is easy except for some parts which requires expertise. The whole deployment have to be taken care of by us in the On-premises version. The pay on call monitor, taking notes all have to installed by us in the on-prem version. 

Operating cost is actually high compared to other products, actually. It's a little expensive only, but it's very good than other products.

I will rate BMC Helix Discovery an eight out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is to discover all devices connected to the network. We use it for computer systems, laptops, printers, switches, IP phones, and servers.

We are using it for creating reports about discovered OS versions and installed patches.

We connected ADDM with the CMDB of BMC ITSM, and we use this data in BMC asset management.

Every week, we create different types of reports about the latest changes and track them. 

The process is very simple as it is easy to use. The IT security department uses it for troubleshooting security issues.

BMC Helix Discovery has improved our work. For example, with the solution, software and assets are now clear. It is very simple to sort assets and make reports to manage current conditions.

Weekly reports to management really make our life simple. Every change in assets of our organization can be trackable, and we can track any change and fix it.

Unfortunately, we don't use Discovery cloud services, and I couldn't rate how it works. However, it is good that BMC Discovery can discover multi-cloud environments. Likely, we will use it next year.

The security is invaluable. The security features are great.

The security policy of the appliance and system architecture is configured at the highest level. The appliance credentials used to log in are stored in the credential vault, and this security feature is very valuable for security reasons.

Another valuable feature is that the content of the vault is secured using 256-bit AES encryption in CBC mode.

The Sync feature syncs found assets with CMDB and BMC Remedy Asset Management. 

There are a lot of supported protocols and device lists.

We would like updates more often.

The virtual appliance with agentless discovery is very good and simple and doesn't need any improvement.

It will be better if the Nutanix architecture is more detailed.

I want to note the high stability and smooth operation of this system. New patches and updates are always coming and help to improve the performance of the system in a real way.

I don't know what else could be improved in this system. I am always satisfied with this product's full functionality and timely updates.

I've used the solution from 2016 - for about seven years.

I didn't use a different solution previously.

I did not evaluate other options. 

I sell the product as a part of the pre-sales team in my organization.

The most valuable feature of the solution is its application dependency mapping.

The product is not fully automated. The solution should add a little more automation for vertical mapping.

I have been using the solution for seven to eight years.

The solution is one of the best products in the market when it comes to stability.

The solution is scalable. I rate the scalability an eight to nine out of ten.

The licensing fee is very low.

I have sold service management tools like BMC Helix and ServiceNow.

The product can be deployed as an on-premise solution or cloud solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.

The modeling, service mapping. The start anywhere application mapping approach is actually a really good solution for those who use map services.

The CMDB could be improved. Getting data from the CMDB is the greatest challenge. 

Also, integration with the system, the platform itself, can be difficult. For best results, you need to integrate with internal vendors. 

I have been using this solution for roughly six years. 

BMC provides great support. As managed service support, they are gold. It's not the product itself, it's the managed service. They make this product; they can do whatever you want. They can build everything — it's perfect.

BMC is available for a reasonable price compared to ServiceNow — it's half the price. 

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.

I use BMC Helix Discovery to search for devices on a network and monitor networks.

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is easy to install and deploy. In general, BMC Helix Discovery works properly. The solution helps solve problems, so I have never witnessed any high-end problems.

I faced some minor problems with the product, but BMC updates Helix Discovery every month, which makes the product work very well.

The solution's scalability is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are needed.

I have been using BMC Helix Discovery for a year and a half. My company has a partnership with BMC Helix Discovery.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

My company provides support services for BMC Helix Discovery. My company has deployed BMC Helix Discovery in twenty different companies.

My company can be considered as an enterprise-sized business.

My company provides support services for BMC Helix Discovery. Though my company has dealt with various cases related to BMC products, we have specifically dealt with any scenarios related to BMC Helix Discovery.

I rate the support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I don't know if my company used another tool before BMC Helix Discovery.

BMC Helix Discovery is easy to install.

I rate the initial setup a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. The solution can also deployed on the cloud.

The deployment phase takes a lot of time if you use the cluster version of the solution. The deployment process takes around half a day if you download the product on one server. In general, using the product's cluster version, which includes three machines simultaneously, takes a day and a half.

I don't know about the prices attached to BMC Helix Discovery since it is an area dealt with by managers.

I don't know if my company was involved in any evaluation process before selecting BMC Helix Discovery. I came to know about ITSM tools in detail only after joining my current company.

My company loves using the solution.

Big companies usually want to learn about their inventories, so they use BMC Helix Discovery. There are other software products or ITSM tools similar to BMC Helix Discovery in the market to deal with inventory. In BMC Remedy ITSM, you can raise two support tickets at once. BMC is a software in which all its products are linked and work together.

I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.

BMC Helix Discovery is used for data center discovery. Clients also look for client-side discovery, so desktop discovery is supported, as well as printer discovery and on-premises discovery, but the solution is more focused on data center discovery, where you discover all kinds of assets, including mapping and dependencies.

I've used other discovery tools, but I found BMC Helix Discovery to be more UI-friendly, and that's the most valuable feature of the solution.

What would make BMC Helix Discovery better is if it had more client-side discovery features, for example, printers and desktops. Right now, it's focused more on data center discovery, so if it had additional features focused on the client-side discovery, that would be great.

In the next release of BMC Helix Discovery, I'd like more client-side discovery features such as desktop discovery, printer discovery, and other IP-based client-side discovery features. The solution can discover desktops and printers, but there's still room for improvement on the client side.

I've been using BMC Helix Discovery for more than eight years.

BMC Helix Discovery is a stable solution.

BMC Helix Discovery is a scalable solution, though sometimes you need techniques for different integrations because some work out of the box while some require an integration flow but API's support makes it easy most of the integrations.

I've contacted BMC Helix Discovery support many times, whenever there's an issue in the client environment and I need help from the BMC support team. The support is good, and I would rate it nine out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup for BMC Helix Discovery was easy. It didn't take much time because it had a clear format, so in one day, you can prepare the discovery environment, though it would also depend on the data and the requirements.

You need a license to use BMC Helix Discovery. The license is paid yearly, though I have no idea how much it costs.

BMC Helix Discovery was mostly deployed on-premises, and the rest was deployed on AWS.

My company deploys BMC Helix Discovery, ServiceNow Discovery, and other tools. 

I'm an integrator for BMC Helix Discovery.

I'd recommend BMC Helix Discovery to others because I've been working with it for the last eight years and my experience with it has been good. It's worth the money if you're using it just for discovery purposes.

I would rate BMC Helix Discovery nine out of ten because I'm able to implement it and discover assets with it and transfer those assets to CMDB. It's also very user-friendly and has several out-of-the-box features such as reporting and generating queries which I like. You don't need to know queries to be able to pick or generate a query. Currently, several dashboards are in process for BMC Helix Discovery, and it has installation facilities and CPIs, so my rating for it is a nine. I won't give it a ten because there's no perfect solution.

The use cases for BMC Helix Discovery would depend on the specific business needs of our customers. So, it varies based on their requirements. The typical BMC-ServiceNow scenario is when BMC Discovery collects data and passes it to ServiceNow CMDB to support IT and Business processes managed there.

BMC Helix Discovery can be a valuable part of the overall architecture responsible for discovering CIs and sharing the CMDB data with other systems, especially when the organization already works with the BMC platform. However, if the IT and Business practices/processes are managed in a platform like ServiceNow, then the discovery solution directly in this platform offers a more straightforward solution (one CMDB data model, no integrations needed, seamless connection to enterprise disciplines like Digital Portfolio Management).

Next to a horizontal discovery, there is also a capability of dependency modeling enabling us to see relationships between CIs.

There is still room for improvement in terms of stability and scalability. 

I have been aware of BMC (Helix) Discovery's existence since its appearance on the BMC platform. I have been working with ServiceNow for the last eight years so I'm rather using ServiceNow Discovery.

Since I am on the system integrator side, we are using the latest versions of the products.

The stability of this solution is above average but not perfect.

It is a scalable solution. The number of users depends on the specific customers we are working with. BMC Helix Discovery seems to work well for small to mid-size organizations.

From my perspective, the initial setup is quite easy.

The deployment of BMC Helix Discovery varies from customer to customer. I see it as a product that can be part of the solution from an architectural perspective.

First and foremost, it's important to understand the whole landscape of the implementation in the enterprise environment. Whether it's for ITSM or business management, you need to be aware of the target landscape and other systems in place and how the systems are interconnected. Integration of data into the system is crucial, so it's essential to assess how easy it is to integrate the data. 

Overall, this should be one of the key architectural principles to consider as any integration represents an increased complexity. There might be benefits of decentralized solutions in terms of multiple systems cooperating to provide their best value together, but there is also a huge advantage of having an enterprise platform as the real "one system of records" and "one system of action" when the provided solution is robust, scalable and modular (e.g. ServiceNow). It is also a matter of knowledge management - what knowledge do you need (and can afford) to maintain? Two platforms = two sets of knowledge.

I am using the latest version, which is 20. 

We use the solution to explore the infrastructure, servers and network devices, in respect of the database, services and storage devices and the topology into the devices.

A valuable feature concerns the ability to integrate with different solutions. BMC Helix Discovery can integrate with BMC Helix ITSM and ServiceNow ITSM. ServiceNow is another solution, and so BMC Helix Discovery provides the information and data about the devices. It is important to have visibility of the complete infrastructure in one's organization. 

While I consider the solution to be good, it should better be able to integrate with other solutions. 

The solution does not offer 100 percent availability, but 99 to 99.5 percent. 

It would be nice to see more updates to the solution. Every two months it delivers new features which contain new infrastructure and configurations. 

I have been using BMC Helix Discovery for a long time, eight years. 

The solution can be scaled without a problem to match the growth of one's organization. This can be done easily, as the resources can be rolled to the infrastructure solution. 

There are two types of support, that of the vendor and the other being full time. We are prioritized and receive the support only in English. The other support, which is global, involves the partner and is conducted in one's local language. The support can be provided with ease and customers state their preference as being in the local language. 

In brief, the support is provided quickly. It varies with the priority level of the request. 

The initial setup is easy.

While it varies with the number of discovered devices, implementation of the solution lasts two weeks. 

It takes, perhaps, a couple of weeks to discover 200 devices. In a month, one can use the complete solution and have the benefit of its use. 

The primary functionality of the solution ranks well against other solutions in its ability to discover the topology of devices, the connection into them and its relationship with different services.

We can use the solution both on-premises and on-cloud. 

I would recommend this solution to others. It provides beneficial information. 

I rate BMX Helix Discovery as a nine out of ten, as it is a good solution, but it should have better integrative capabilities with others.