Microsoft Configuration Manager and Chef compete in IT management solutions. Chef has the upper hand due to its advanced automation capabilities and cloud integration.
Features: Microsoft Configuration Manager is highly regarded for its scalability, asset management, and integration with Windows environments. Chef shines with its powerful automation features, comprehensive scripting abilities, and seamless integration with multiple cloud platforms. While both are comprehensive, Chef’s automation and cloud compatibility provide a strategic edge for complex deployments.
Room for Improvement: Microsoft Configuration Manager can improve in cloud integration, user-friendliness, and faster updates to support new tech trends. Chef could work on better documentation, easing the learning curve, and enhancing user support and resources. These points suggest Microsoft Configuration Manager needs to enhance compatibility and usability, while Chef should enhance support and user onboarding.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Configuration Manager is simpler to deploy in traditional IT environments with responsive customer service. Chef, while tricky to implement initially, benefits from strong community support and better customer service in agile environments. Microsoft Configuration Manager may suit more conventional setups, whereas Chef is optimal for dynamic, cloud-based environments.
Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Configuration Manager generally has a higher setup cost but offers significant ROI through extensive enterprise features. Chef is often perceived as expensive but justifies its cost with agility and automation, leading to robust long-term ROI. Users find Microsoft Configuration Manager cost-effective for large enterprises, while Chef provides substantial value for automation-intensive operations.
If my organization has sensitive data we don't want to leak, deploying the policies can present technical challenges and potential loopholes.
Autopilot allows bulk enrollment of devices, making it easy for end users, even those without technical expertise, to use their devices immediately.
Microsoft Intune is a comprehensive cloud-based service that allows you to remotely manage mobile devices and mobile applications without worrying about the security of your organization’s data. Device and app management can be used on company-owned devices as well as personal devices.
In an increasingly mobile workforce, Microsoft Intune keeps your sensitive data safe while on the move. Microsoft Intune makes it possible for your team members to work anywhere using their mobile devices. Microsoft Intune provides both the flexibility and the control needed for securing all your data on the cloud, no matter where the device with the data is located.
Microsoft Intune Device Management Key Features
With Microsoft Intune Device Management you can:
Mobile Application Management
Mobile application management in Intune is designed to protect your organization’s data at the application level.
With Microsoft Intune Application Management you can:
As part of Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite, Intune integrates with Microsoft Entra ID for access control and with Azure Information Protection for data protection. It also integrates with Microsoft 365 Applications.
Reviews from Real Users
Microsoft Intune stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to secure all devices under its management and the flexibility that the solution offers its users.
A computing services manager notes, "Its security is most valuable. It gives us a way to secure devices, not only those that are steady. We do have a few tablets and other devices, and it is a way for us to secure these devices and manage them. We know they're out there and what's their status. We can manage their life cycle and verify that they're updated properly."
The head of IT engineering at a financial services company writes, "The one feature we find most useful is the Mobile Application Manager. There are two types: we have the complete MDM and the Mobile Application Manager (MAM). We don't give our users phones, it is their own personal phone, and we need to allow them to have access to the company details on their phone. We need to create a balance between their own personal data and the company data. We deploy the Mobile Application Manager for them so that we won't be able to interfere with their own personal data."
Chef, is the leader in DevOps, driving collaboration through code to automate infrastructure, security, compliance and applications. Chef provides a single path to production making it faster and safer to add value to applications and meet the demands of the customer. Deployed broadly in production by the Global 5000 and used by more than half of the Fortune 500, Chef develops 100 percent of its software as open source under the Apache 2.0 license with no restrictions on its use. Chef Enterprise Automation Stack™, a commercial distribution, is developed solely from that open source code and unifies security, compliance, infrastructure and application automation with observability. Chef provides an unequaled developer experience for the Coded Enterprise by enabling users to express infrastructure, security policies and the application lifecycle as code, modernizing development, packaging and delivery of any application to any platform. For more information, visit http://chef.io and follow @chef.
Microsoft Configuration Manager helps IT manage PCs and servers, keeping software up-to-date, setting configuration and security policies, and monitoring system status while giving employees access to corporate applications on the devices that they choose. When Configuration Manager is integrated with Microsoft Intune, you can manage corporate-connected PCs and Macs along with cloud-based mobile devices running Windows, iOS, and Android, all from a single management console.
New features of Configuration Manager, such as the support of Windows 10 in-place upgrade, co-management with Microsoft Intune, Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise Servicing Dashboard, integration with Windows Update for Business, and more make deploying and managing Windows easier than ever before.
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