Microsoft Configuration Manager vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

Microsoft and VMware are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.1, while VMware is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.8. Microsoft holds a 13.2% mindshare in CM, compared to VMware’s 5.7% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of VMware users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

Microsoft Configuration Manager and VMware Aria Automation compete in the IT management category, focusing on deployment, automation, and integration capabilities. Based on feature richness and automation capabilities, VMware Aria Automation may have an upper hand for organizations with diverse environment needs.

Features: Microsoft Configuration Manager offers software and application deployment, OS deployment, and mobile management integration. It provides detailed hardware and software inventory capabilities while ensuring compliance and configuration integrity. VMware Aria Automation specializes in powerful orchestration, multi-cloud management, and self-service provisioning, emphasizing robust automation across environments.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Configuration Manager could benefit from simplified application deployment for non-scripting professionals, better resource efficiency, and enhanced Linux integration. Users also seek more reliable compliance reporting and a simplified user experience. VMware Aria Automation requires clearer documentation, better initial setup guidance, and improved integration with other VMware and third-party platforms. Challenges in hybrid cloud management, scalability, and cost-effectiveness are noted.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Configuration Manager provides on-premises, hybrid, and cloud-based deployment options, supported by a mix of online resources and varied customer support experiences. While some users face initial support challenges, escalation usually resolves issues. VMware Aria Automation deploys primarily on-premises or in private clouds, with extensive documentation available. Users experience initial setup challenges but find technical assistance detailed when engaged properly.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Configuration Manager is often considered expensive, particularly in enterprise environments, though possibly cost-effective for smaller businesses with enterprise agreements. ROI is seen through increased productivity and software savings. VMware Aria Automation is perceived as costly, especially post-Broadcom acquisition. Its expensive nature is offset by powerful features justifying the investment in environments needing advanced automation and orchestration, contributing to operational efficiency and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. VMware Aria Automation Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. VMware Aria Automation

January 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 10.1%, up from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 13.2%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 5.7%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi

Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Everything has worked better since we started using it

Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.

Read full review

MikeNelson2

IT Infrastructure Coordinator at NSW Government

Deployment recovery works well but requires configuration improvements

While I do not use the product frequently, many issues were due to configuration rather than the product itself. I cannot give an exact recommendation as it is not my area of responsibility. The team that uses it finds it adequate. It is presently good enough for us not to investigate other options. Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.

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Le Quang Long

Cloud Engineer at BIDV - Ngân hàng TMCP Đầu tư & Phát triển Việt Nam

Significantly streamlined operations with good automation that helps with simplifying workflows

It helps me build a big catalog and provide it to my end users. It helps us automate the workflow of creating many VMs and the TensorFlow key method. I do not meet many people to operate it live beforehand. It operates for both of my products, but as a product, it is complicated to integrate and automate with other products.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I like that we can implement conditional access."

"We can implement a MAM policy in this Intune and protect the device through mobile application development without touching it. The interface is easy to use and understand."

"Intune's most valuable features are the device, compliance, and configuration policies."

"The best part of Intune is device control. If we need to block a user from opening something in their organization's system, we can do it from Intune. If we want to restrict the movement of an organization's data to prevent users from copying the data into Outlook, WhatsApp, or their personal Gmail, we can limit that via Intune. It secures all corporate data."

"The cloud base is perfect for me."

"The technical support of Microsoft Intune is good."

"I can reach devices or computers over the internet. I don't need to worry about the network connectivity between the offices. I can manage any device. That is the most important part."

"It has a useful device management feature."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"There have to be made some improvement in WSUS and control in other non-Microsoft products updates."

"The most valuable feature is the scalability."

"You can remote control or RDP. That has been the most valuable because we can go into one console and can get to anything we want. Instead of going to all these different consoles, we centralized everything."

"The solution doesn't require any maintenance from our end because it is a cloud-based solution and Microsoft takes care of everything."

"The most valuable features are application deployment and task-sequenced imaging."

"Microsoft Configuration Manager helps with patch management."

"The solution is highly scalable."

"It's helped us solve problems surrounding patching, installing, and reporting different patches, etc., on the virtual machines."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pros

"We have faster delivery times through its automation."

"The most valuable features are that it's multi-tenant and the ability for scale."

"The most valuable features are the Catalog View and the access control business group. Access provisioning is probably the main use case for us, so we can separate access to different Catalog items among the different business groups and have that tied back to our AD LDAP systems."

"The automation part is most valuable. Because it is a VMware product, the automation capabilities that come with vRA are pretty extensive. We can integrate and build a lot of features on top of it, which makes it extremely useful for us."

"It helps us automate the workflow of creating many VMs and the TensorFlow key method."

"The DevOps for infrastructure capabilities has saved time for our developers by automating processes and reducing provisioning time. Task time has been reduced by 40 percent."

"In terms of scalability, vRA has connections to a lot of different systems. It's very flexible and an impressive product."

"The automation of the redundant tasks and the implementation of ServiceNow are huge for us..."

More VMware Aria Automation pros

Cons

"In the past, I raised some tickets for the enhancement feature, which was missing in Intune."

"What would make this product better is adding more security policies and features in the next upgrade."

"Historically, Group Policy has simplified the management of various items, such as printer and drive mappings and while Intune offers workarounds, it lacks native support for these functionalities. This is an area I believe needs improvement."

"Intune's server management could be better. If it could incorporate more features from System Center into Intune's Configuration Manager, it would be beneficial."

"The pricing could be improved."

"More integration with monitoring tools is needed."

"I think there should be a better tracking of the cell phones used on the Intune."

"Intune could be enhanced by automating application upgrades, similar to how it automates operating system upgrades."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"The tool's deployment is difficult. Microsoft needs to improve documentation with videos."

"The solution can be improved by speeding up the synchronizing of the policies on the devices."

"The tool's deployment is complex and depends on the architecture you want to implement."

"It would be of benefit if Configuration Manager could be connected/integrated with multiple Microsoft Intune subscriptions rather than just one (the current limit)."

"The database should be made to be more stable and robust, but not so much the configuration."

"The ability to integrate MDM would be great."

"SCCM should strive to enhance the accuracy of its reporting functions in order to avoid any issues with incorrect or inaccurate data."

"Could do with some cosmetic improvements on the user interface."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager cons

"I don't find the solution to be intuitive and user- friendly. The GUI is really complicated. Tracking down logs and errors is very hard. Then, it takes a specialized JavaScript person to build. Also, I'm not sure how the upgrades are going now, but they definitely need to evolve the upgrade process. Finally, the logs are very generalized. Giving more of an indicator of what's actually going wrong, rather than just a generic error code, would help."

"We are migrating from vRA version 7 to 8, but the migration is really hectic and time-consuming. There are no straightforward paths to migrate. We are doing an entirely new deployment to go to vRA version 8.0, then somehow get all of the VMs to vRA 8.0. Therefore, it would have been great if VMware had some solutions to upgrade from vRA 7 to 8 seamlessly. This includes the management of all the objects or VMs from the older version. Unfortunately, it is not there."

"It has a learning curve."

"Upgrades are always a pain."

"Web UI."

"The basic support is not there for Google Cloud and Azure. They are unable to provision nor do cost controls. Google is still left out. It is great that they have done AWS, but we are a retailer which means nothing to us because it is a competitor. Azure is good, but Google is where a lot of our development environments are."

"The stability on the 6.2 version is very bad. It crashes. VMware tech support knows the IIS component is a bit buggy."

"The most important thing that we missed in vRanger was the possibility to mount several images instantaneously and present it so we can run it immediately."

More VMware Aria Automation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate Intune five out of 10 for pricing. It's expensive."

"While I can't provide insights from a business perspective, it's worth noting that the pricing may differ significantly, and the discount we received might not be reflective of standard business rates."

"Microsoft Intune has a user-based subscription model. You can go for a monthly or a yearly payment."

"I liked the tool's pricing until P2 came into effect. I am unsure about the current value versus the cost of the new licensing model."

"If you're ever going to buy an Office 365 environment, then pricing is reasonable given all that it does, but if you're not, then you might find the pricing expensive."

"Microsoft licenses are costly."

"Its price is quite okay. I wish they provide certain additional features with the same license."

"The product is offered as part of a Microsoft standard bundle. The pricing can be competitive to Airwatch, and Maas360."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"For enterprises, there is an annual license required to use this solution. The price of the solution could be cheaper. However, this is mostly because of the exchange rate from the dollar to the Nigerian currency."

"The price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is expensive."

"Its licensing is quite complicated because we are getting the license not only for SCCM but for the full Microsoft package. We don't need to pay for a separate license. We need to have one license that includes everything we need, such as Windows, Microsoft 365, SCCM, encryption, and so on. So, we don't have a specific price for it. Perhaps, it is good that it includes the full suite of licensing of Microsoft. It is expensive, but we are getting a lot of features."

"I rate the price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager an eight out of ten."

"The solution is expensive. Microsoft Configuration Manager would likely be considered high-priced for small businesses because they may not fully utilize all of its features and capabilities."

"When you compare this solution with other tools in the market you might actually find a lot of variation in the pricing and that's why people opt for the other tools rather than Microsoft tools."

"The price model is different for every client."

"Overall, I think it's fine. It's pretty much in-line because there are ways to offset it with the Office 365 licensing."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

"They should provide one license for all the sub-products."

"From a budget point of view, the pricing is a bit on the higher side."

"The cost of the solution is reasonable for us. Although it is relatively high, we prioritize stability and integration over cost."

"As far as value is concerned, it has been essential to our environment. We have been able to deploy VMs quickly and the developers have their own sandbox, so they can spin up and destroy VMs at their own will."

"It is pricey for what you get."

"It made the provisioning of the virtual machines easier and faster. We can react more quickly to customers' demands."

"We do plan to see ROI with any new implementation of new technologies being implemented within our environment."

"I would rate it high because, compared to other solutions, VMware’s pricing is quite expensive. VMware products have become significantly more costly in recent years, leading to higher costs."

More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

27%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?

Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...

See all answers

What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...

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How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...

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How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that ...

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How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?

ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. Wh...

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What do you like most about SCCM?

One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages effi...

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What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?

vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything y...

See all answers

Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?

When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A fre...

See all answers

Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?

I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of compa...

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Comparisons

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 15% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Intune Competitors

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 13% of the time

Tanium vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 8% of the time

BigFix vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 6% of the time

Kaseya VSA vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Configuration Manager Competitors

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 18% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 15% of the time

VMware Cloud Director vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 11% of the time

Morpheus vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Turbonomic vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 2% of the time

More VMware Aria Automation Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

February 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Configuration Manager

February 2025

Download Microsoft Configuration Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation

January 2025

Download VMware Aria Automation product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )

VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack

Overview

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:

Ensure devices and apps are compliant with your security requirements.
Rapidly deploy and authenticate apps on all company devices.
Remotely access devices to troubleshoot issues or to remove data from them.
Generate reports for all devices in the system.
Monitor the way users access and share information to protect company information.
Set rules and configure settings on personal and organization-owned devices to access data and networks.
Create user groups and device groups, allowing you to rapidly access many users and devices simultaneously.

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:

Configure apps to run with specific settings enabled.
Update existing apps that are already on the device.
See reports on which apps are used and monitor their usage.
Selectively wipe organization data from apps.
Add mobile apps to user groups and devices.

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."

Microsoft

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.

Microsoft

VMware Aria Automation is a cloud management tool that allows companies to simplify their cloud experience through a modern automation platform. The solution is designed to deliver self-service clouds, multi-cloud automation with governance, and DevOps-based security and infrastructure management. It helps organizations improve IT agility, efficiency, and productivity through its various features.

VMware Aria Automation has multiple use cases that include the following:

Self-service multi-cloud: VMware Aria Automation can be used to deliver consistent self-service consumption. Another use case in this area is for delivering infrastructure across VMware Clouds as well as public clouds.
Multi-cloud governance: The solution can be used to manage cost, performance, networking, configuration, and security at scale for multi-cloud environments. VMware Aria Automation offers all this with an everything-as-code approach.
DevOps for infrastructure: Through VMware Aria Automation, companies can enable a powerful infrastructure as code platform with support for iterative development and infrastructure pipelining.
Kubernetes automation: Users can utilize VMware Aria Automation to automate the management of Kubernetes clusters and namespaces with support for vSphere with Tanzu.
Security operations: VMware Aria Automation facilitates event-driven automation to deliver full-service IT system compliance enforcement and vulnerability remediation.

VMware Aria Automation Features

VMware Aria Automation has various features that allow users to easily perform operations. Some of the solution's capacities include:

VMware Cloud agnostic template: This feature allows organizations to use a single cloud template to deploy with Infrastructure as a Code. Deployment options include VMware Cloud as well as major public cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and more.
Extensibility and customization: This VMware Aria Automation feature allows users to get full extensibility and customization. This can be achieved through Aria Automation Orchestrator, Action-Based Extensibility (ABX), and built-in integrations with common third-party tools.
Self-service multi-cloud: This feature enables users to request and provision infrastructure resources. It can be done across clouds using a unified and consistent Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) consumption layer, idempotent REST API, and self-service catalog.
Centralized policies and governance: VMware Aria Automation offers a feature for users to manage multiple clouds with templatized cloud and policy definition, automated remediation, and cloud environment visibility.
Configuration management: Through this feature of the product, day 1 and 2 control can be achieved for virtualized and cloud environments. This can be done with intuitive configuration automation, compliance enforcement, and vulnerability remediation.
Infrastructure pipelining: Through this feature, organizations can access user-friendly release automation pipelines. They can be specifically tailored for CI/CD in infrastructure use cases.

VMware Aria Automation Benefits

VMware Aria Automation offers its users various benefits. Some of the biggest advantages that the solution brings to companies that utilize it include:

VMware Aria Automation provides faster time to market for companies through offloading manual tasks with advanced workflows and agile templating.
The solution offers high levels of security and control.
This product is suitable for beginners, as it offers a self-service consumption experience for users.
VMware Aria Automation accelerates innovation through Infrastructure as Code and DevOps principles.
The product provides users with flexibility, as it is compatible with the most popular public cloud solutions.
The solution offers fast deployment because of all natively integrated functions.

Reviews from Real Users

Awais J., CTO/CEO at a tech services company, likes VMware Aria Automation because it saves a lot of time, provides more visibility, and has extensive automation capabilities.

An IT consultant at a government rates VMware Aria Automation highly because the product gives you flexibility to analyze and consume resources.

VMware

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad

Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. VMware Aria Automation

January 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. VMware Aria Automation

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. VMware Aria Automation and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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