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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs VMware vCenter comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

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 Configuration Man...
Ranking in Server Monitoring
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (3rd), Patch Management (1st)
VMware vCenter
Ranking in Server Monitoring
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 6.8%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vCenter is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

MikeNelson2 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Siva Kuppala - PeerSpot reviewer
Performance monitoring tools help track resource usage, identify performance bottlenecks, and optimize the efficiency of virtual environments
It is like a single point of failure. In an environment, vCenter is deployed as a single instance, which represents a single point of failure. The concern here is that tasks such as provisioning, monitoring, and maintenance may be impacted until the server is restored. This only affects management; users are not impacted. But, again, management capabilities will be impacted. The entire system goes down until recovery is completed. You will not be able to provision new VDI. Also, vCenter requires a lot of additional resources for managing capabilities. It uses a significant amount of CPU, memory, and network bandwidth, which can sometimes slow down. Proper sizing is important for vCenter so that it does not impact end-users. vCentre licensing cost is on the higher side as well.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have found the scalability to be quite good."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to learn."
"I find the product valuable for deployment recovery and it has done much more than that."
"The solution effectively handles inventory management, deployment, and reporting."
"The most valuable features are Remote Connect, SUP, Cloud functionality, Report, Query, and third-party patching."
"It's a stable product."
"The tool's most valuable features include security updates and patch management, which are critical functions for maintaining security. The automated software distribution and the ability to manage deployments are also highly useful. Enforcing compliance with set policies on systems is another key functionality we leverage."
"It is a very good solution. It has a good interface and is easy to use. On top of that, it is very reliable in terms of distribution as well as getting the report."
"We use VMware vCenter for centralization and to manage all the VMs."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of migrating services from one host to another during maintenance."
"The initial setup is a very user-friendly process. Installation and configuration are easy."
"I integrated with VMware products, which makes integration easy."
"The most valuable features of VMware vCenter for our organization include its centralized management capabilities and the ability to handle virtual machines across multiple ESXi hosts efficiently."
"The integration of vCenter server with any software, whether from VMware or a third party, is smooth and straightforward."
"One feature I really like about VMware vCenter is its ability to change hosts easily. It is highly available and very useful for our operations."
"Some of the most valuable features of vCenter are LACP and vSphere Distributed Switches, as they simplify VLAN propagation between hosts and enable networking duplication and replication."
 

Cons

"This solution needs to be supported on all Operating systems."
"They should improve their anti-malware policies like the SCEP policies. For instance, you can't have different policies for different servers, there is only one policy in all the servers, and everything is covered under that. For example, say you want to scan one group of servers on Saturday, and then you want to scan another group of servers on Sunday, you can't do that. You have to scan all your servers, a regular scan or a full scan, on the same day and at the same time. That's definitely one thing they need to resolve. In the next release, it would actually be nice if they included Apple products. It will also help if you can use Intune again. Their compliance reporting feature could also be better. They can maybe work a bit on that for patching now. It would be better if SCCM came with the functions of Right Click Tools built-in. If SCCM would have all those functions already built-in, we won't have to go and spend $5,000, just as an add-in from another company to get those functions."
"The main thing is that SCCM has to become an appliance instead of a server. When I say appliance, it has to come preconfigured so that it is drop-shipped into the enterprise and then you activate the feature sets that you want. It should pull down all the latest binaries. Once that is all there, it should have a discovery tool which goes out and discovers the assets within an enterprise. If the server, workstation, and applications are all coming from the same vendor, why not have the vendor do this work for us and automate it as much as it possibly can?"
"Cloud-based improvements need to be better managed."
"SCCM should strive to enhance the accuracy of its reporting functions in order to avoid any issues with incorrect or inaccurate data."
"Built in PowerShell cmdlets would be a nice feature because managing clients remotely can be a pain without knowing the WMI calls to run."
"One area of improvement is regarding the patching of Office 365 products. We have some difficulties on this side, and it can be improved."
"The solution does not support remote devices so the CMG is still required."
"Efficiency and redundancy can be increased, minimizing or mitigating downtime."
"Areas for improvement with vCenter include changes in licensing models."
"The monitoring features are limited."
"Sometimes, vCenter management can be difficult if you forget the password. You can't change or recover the password easily. We then have to reinstall vCenter, which means reconfiguring everything. That's a challenge we've encountered."
"There is a feature called Fault Tolerance (FT), which has been part of vCenter servers since the product's inception. However, it has a lot of complexity, and when my team tested it, we found it difficult to manage. It also has some bugs. Consequently, we decided not to offer any fault tolerance features to our customers."
"One area where VMware vCenter has room for improvement is its transition to Broadcom. The change in licensing structure and pricing, particularly the shift from perpetual licenses to subscription-only models, is a significant drawback."
"The protocol interface or web page is not easy to use, and the personal portal is difficult to navigate."
"There needs to be improvement in the pricing model, as the host license is already very high, and customers should have more open options for creating automation scenarios out of the box."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of SCCM depends on the size of the organization. The price is competitive."
"Pricing is negotiable with Microsoft, depending upon which of their packages you choose."
"We have to pay for a license."
"We use the tool's free license. It is expensive."
"The solution operates on a licensing model that can be 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."
"Overall, I think it's fine. It's pretty much in-line because there are ways to offset it with the Office 365 licensing."
"The license price could be reduced for Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager They should make the price more affordable for smaller companies, most companies would be able to use the solution if it was priced better. There are more people on this cloud because you don't have to have either a server room or an on-premise server. You can have one IT person handle this without any local infrastructure."
"The tool used to be worth the money, but after Broadcom acquired it and changed the pricing structure to subscription-only, it became too expensive for us to continue using. Unfortunately, we haven't found any alternative solutions that meet our needs, so this is a significant drawback for us as we explore other options."
"The platform has reasonable pricing."
"VMware vCenter is not expensive."
"The product's three-year license package is inexpensive."
"The licensing model was a bit complex, but thanks to the vCenter product usage program, which VMware introduced, it's kind of easy for us to use a pay-as-you-go model."
"For the healthcare industry, the price is considerably higher than the education industry."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The pricing is significantly high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
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. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
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 efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
What do you like most about VMware vCenter?
The filtering capabilities also enhance scalability by optimizing resource allocation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware vCenter?
The pricing and setup cost are rated seven out of ten. It is mentioned that the price might be a little lower to increase customer adoption. The specific details of the financial cost were not prov...
What needs improvement with VMware vCenter?
The performance is well, however, i didnot use different products to say my opinion.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
1. Amazon 2. Apple 3. ATT 4. Bank of America 5. Cisco Systems 6. CocaCola 7. Dell 8. ebay 9. Facebook 10. Google 11. HP 12. IBM 13. Intel 14. JPMorgan Chase 15. LinkedIn 16. Microsoft 17. Netflix 18. Oracle 19. PayPal 20. SAP 21. Siemens 22. Tesla 23. Toyota 24. Twitter 25. Visa 26. Walmart 27. WeWork 28. World Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. VMware vCenter and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.