Spiceworks and Cisco UCS Manager compete in the IT management and infrastructure category. Spiceworks has the upper hand for startups and SMBs due to its cost-effective nature, while Cisco UCS Manager is preferred for large enterprises with its advanced hardware management capabilities.
Features: Spiceworks provides a comprehensive help desk system and inventory management tailored for SMBs. Its freeware model and strong community support make it an attractive choice for startups. Cisco UCS Manager offers extensive hardware management with strong integration capabilities, catering to complex networking and compute environments. Users benefit from its advanced control and flexibility in configuring hardware.
Room for Improvement: Spiceworks requires better network scanning and reporting features. Its community dependency can hinder direct official intervention, and performance may degrade with larger data sets. Cisco UCS Manager faces critiques for its complex deployment and expensive licensing. Users desire enhanced firmware upgrade processes, improved user interfaces, and simpler integration capabilities.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Spiceworks supports both on-premises and public cloud deployment, providing flexibility. Its community-driven support lacks formal structure. Cisco UCS Manager is deployed on-premises, needing substantial IT resources. Its highly rated customer and technical support may incur additional costs.
Pricing and ROI: Spiceworks, with its zero-cost model, offers high ROI by eliminating upfront expenses and leveraging community support. Its free features are suitable for simple IT infrastructures, making it appealing to budget-conscious businesses. Cisco UCS Manager's higher pricing reflects its extensive features and management capabilities. Though its ROI is affected by costs, the product offers significant long-term benefits for those requiring advanced infrastructure solutions.
I can manage all LAN uplinks and fiber channel storage uplinks directly from UCS Manager.
Cisco UCS Manager provides cost savings by reducing the time support staff spend on long deployments.
With Intersight, service requests are automatically generated, enhancing the user experience and providing timely resolutions.
For a severity one case, a call ensures immediate assistance and resolution of the matter.
Regarding Cisco tech, they are pretty good.
I can install the hypervisor, such as VMware, and add the servers into the cluster seamlessly.
I would rate the scalability at nine out of ten, probably.
If there's a really complex problem, I would probably give it a ten since it gets escalated quickly.
We would benefit from advancements in AI that offer firmware recommendations automatically, reducing the need for human intervention and vendor communication.
It doesn't work straight out of the UCS, so someone who knows what they're doing is needed immediately, and it can be quite confusing.
While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the tabs would enhance user experience.
Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offers like buying three servers and getting one free, along with UCSC and fabric included for free.
As long as they can afford it, there is a setup cost involved.
It supports ease of deployment, allowing for quick mass deployments in the data center, saving time and resources by doing so from a remote location.
Whenever there's a failure of any component, it's very easy to swap because you just disassociate that profile, remove the faulty blade, connect the new blade, and associate that profile, maintaining the same MAC address and worldwide port name.
One of the valuable features is the user interface base, specifically the C user interface.
Additionally, it is free software.
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