Perforce Puppet vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager comparison

Perforce and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. Perforce is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.5, while SolarWinds is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.2. Perforce holds a 0.6% mindshare in CM, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Perforce users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

Perforce Puppet and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager compete in IT management, with SolarWinds generally having the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and value, despite positive feedback on Puppet's pricing and support.

Features: Perforce Puppet automates infrastructure operations, aiding in consistent management across complex environments. It offers role-based access control, device state control, and a robust secure enrollment process. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager excels in real-time monitoring, configuration management, and security vulnerability detection, providing a holistic solution for network administrators.

Room for Improvement: Perforce Puppet could enhance its ease of deployment, user interface, and integration options with third-party tools. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager should focus on streamlining setup processes, enhancing compatibility with diverse network devices, and expanding its automation capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds offers a seamless deployment experience with extensive support, while Puppet may require more technical expertise initially but earns praise for its responsive customer service once set up.

Pricing and ROI: Perforce Puppet is initially more cost-effective, ideal for budget-conscious organizations seeking customizable automation without high upfront costs. SolarWinds, with a higher price point, is seen as delivering superior ROI through its extensive features, appealing to businesses in need of comprehensive network management.

To learn more, read our detailed Perforce Puppet vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Perforce Puppet vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

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 March 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 10.1%, up from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Perforce Puppet is 0.6%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is 1.3%, up from 1.1% 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.

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Erik Ableson

Owner at Infrageeks

A stable solution that is more suited for larger companies with mature CI/CD structures and image management processes

Puppet Enterprise is more suitable for clients working up much more structured deployment images they manage internally. Before choosing Puppet Enterprise, users should think seriously about what they're trying to accomplish and ensure they put the right pieces in place. Overall, I rate Puppet Enterprise an eight out of ten.

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Manish Ved

Lead Infrastructure Domain Architect (Systems) at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Network configuration is done well; great pricing

Our model of deployment is on-premises. I would advise other people looking into this solution to read its documentation and better understand what it does before they start using it. I would rate this solution as a whole a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has improve our organization through the remote management of non-domain joined devices."

"The Asset Management and Auto Pilot are valuable features."

"I rate Intune 10 out of 10."

"The solution’s most valuable feature is its ease of use."

"The automatic patch management feature in the Intune Suite is helpful."

"The biggest asset is the range of device management options available with Intune, whether it is a Windows device, a Linux device, a Mac device, or mobile devices."

"I like the tool's integration with Apple. Anyone who creates an ID in Intune will get an Apple ID."

"The stability is good."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"Anything that we manage through Puppet always runs perfectly."

"Puppet Enterprise has good functionalities."

"The versatility is great."

"Puppet3 and 4 series provides optimum deployment solutions for infrastructure and applications."

"Puppet Enterprise has reduced the time of production changes or environment changes."

"The most valuable features are the agent, high load balancing, and overall robustness and features."

"The main purpose for this automation tool would be: deploying, controlling, ordering change for the system and IT Infrastructure."

"Puppet Enterprise is a stable solution."

"The most valuable features the solution offers are compliance, reliability, and information about reliability."

"This solution has helped our organization by allowing us to store all the device configurations for the various network devices in NCM and making it easy for us to retrieve and look them over."

"SolarWinds NCM provides updates on the status of your network infrastructure. If any issues arise, such as a link failure or a device going offline, you will receive notifications and alerts. Additionally, if someone unplugs a cable, SolarWinds NCM will detect it. It also features a Topology Mapper that displays the connectivity of your network devices, giving you a visual representation of the network's structure. With SolarWinds NCM, you have a clear understanding of what's happening within your network and can generate comprehensive reports."

"It allows us to manage backups in big companies. It is also useful in managing the configuration changes."

"We push all our configurations to the servers with ease and the logs capture almost all the transactions needed for an internal audit."

"What's nice with NCM is you can set up policies that you can then check against the configs to ensure that your device configs adhere to a baseline or standard that you've set in place."

"The most valuable Real-time fault detection is beneficial as it enables the identification of changes made to a device's configuration through the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. This makes it easy to pinpoint which configurations were added or removed, potentially causing network issues. Such changes are saved in logs for future reference."

"The configuration compliance aspect of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager allows for easy comparison of configuration settings across branches, ensuring adherence to security guidelines and best practices. Automation capabilities have greatly impacted workflows, enabling tasks such as configuration backups, template deployment, and firmware upgrades to be automated, thereby streamlining processes and saving time. Compliance reporting features provide valuable insights into network compliance, offering pre-built security audit reports and customizable options to meet specific requirements."

More SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager pros

Cons

"Sometimes, customers compare it with AirWatch, but the concept of Intune is different from other solutions. It's an application management app. It gets a bit difficult to explain it to customers, but it's not a product limitation. It takes a presale document or presentation to explain it to customers."

"The current Intune reporting functionality could benefit from some improvements."

"There can be some added features, such as an improved dashboard. Any new feature that could be a benefit to our customers would be good."

"The UI is not user-friendly and has room for improvement."

"The Mac integration has room for improvement."

"There should be more support for macOS. Even though macOS is supported by Intune and Microsoft is working very hard to get more features into Intune to manage macOS, that's one thing they can give a lot more attention to."

"The information we receive at the device level needs improvement."

"They need to add more group policies. Intune currently does not have many group policies that you can deploy. Its reporting, which is very limited at the moment, also needs improvement. It will be great if they can add report customization. Its stability needs to be improved. Sometimes, when you register a device in Intune, it doesn't show up instantly on the engine portal on the admin side. They need to provide better support for complicated issues. They also have a long turnaround time."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"We would like Puppet to add more integration for applications."

"At the beginning the initial setup was kind of complex."

"The solution has really complex code, you have to understand the Ruby language. However, once you know the code then you can move ahead without any problems."

"There's a lot of scope for enhancement on the DevSecOps side. They should definitely include features for compliance, for both the Linux and Windows side of the devices, as well as for network devices. Compliance is something they need to work on."

"It's a bit of a pain point to make sure that everything works once we've upgraded it because Puppet has been evolving pretty fast."

"Puppet Enterprise should improve the general extensibility for places where they can't install it."

"Puppet Enterprise is more complex and difficult to configure."

"The network flow is a problem for this solution."

"Improvements are needed in the automatic network mapping function."

"The solution could have better integration."

"When it comes to the way of managing the network devices, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager should provide the simplest way that devices can relate to the server. For example, when we want to get the devices on board, we go by SSH to make the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager create the connectivity with the device. After that, we pull the configuration. It would be helpful if they could combine both so that everything will be done in one step."

"The interface of solar winds could be improved."

"Its look and feel can be improved. They can also put in more effort into building the THWACK community and use the information about various customer issues and requests to build the new releases."

"I'd like to see additional features like support for devices that don't use CLI for configuration backups, expanded inventory support for other vendors beyond Cisco, and compatibility with newer SD WAN devices. These enhancements would further improve the product's versatility and utility for users. we hope for future enhancements, especially in supporting security devices that lack CLI backup options."

"The network logs could be improved. When the error logs come across with those false positive alarms in the error logs."

More SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While Microsoft Intune boasts a wide range of features, its user-friendliness and bundled licensing cost are key considerations for me."

"Consider the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite rather than choosing specific sub-components, e.g. only Microsoft Intune."

"The Intune license model is costly."

"Intune is included with our F3 and E5 licenses."

"Microsoft offers some licensing where it's included at no extra cost when customers are already using the licenses. In such a case, it's a really good value. If you have to buy the licensing for it, it's probably on par with other solutions. It isn't substantially more or less expensive. The great thing is that it is included in some of Microsoft's licensed packages. So, some customers don't have to spend additional money for it. Typically, most providers that support Intune do charge a management fee of some sort or some fee. Certainly, we're no exception."

"I am satisfied with the pricing."

"It is not expensive."

"The product is relatively pricey, but considering its benefits, I'd say it's fair. The benefits outweigh the expensive licensing fees, especially for large organizations, but medium-sized and smaller businesses may be unable to afford it."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"The main thing that we noticed when we switched from the enterprise version to the community version was the difference in cost — the infrastructure is pretty expensive."

"Puppet Enterprise’s pricing is competitive."

"Depending on the size of the organization there is a point when the price of Puppet Enterprise should be lower. However, they provide really good functionality, features, and capabilities."

"Puppet Enterprise can be an expensive solution for smaller businesses."

"The pricing is good."

"The price of the solution is high compared to other solutions."

"With a minimal bundle, we pay about $3000 a year in licensing costs. If you have multiple devices in your network, you must buy the bundle, which is 100% identical for your infrastructure. If you have 15 devices, you need 15 licenses, for example. That's one bundle. You don't pay for anything over and above that."

"There is a license for the use of this solution and it is priced well, there is a lot of value for the money."

"There is a license needed to use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager."

"Additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee are inevitable."

"We have to pay additionally for its support and maintenance."

"Available at a moderate price"

More SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

53%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

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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What do you like most about Puppet Enterprise?

Puppet Enterprise is a stable solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Puppet Enterprise?

Puppet Enterprise can be an expensive solution for smaller businesses.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Puppet Enterprise?

Puppet Enterprise should improve the general extensibility for places where they can't install it.

See all answers

What do you like most about SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?

The configuration compliance aspect of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager allows for easy comparison of configu...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?

The pricing is okay. Overall, I would rate the pricing a three on a scale of one to ten, with ten being most expensiv...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?

The vendor recently introduced AI features to detect alerts. The AI features do not work well. It would be good if th...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

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No data available

Cisco DNA Center vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

Compared 29% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

Compared 12% of the time

IBM Tivoli NetCool vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

Compared 9% of the time

ManageEngine Network Configuration Management vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

Compared 7% of the time

VMware NSX vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

Compared 6% of the time

More SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

February 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

Perforce Puppet

February 2025

Download Perforce Puppet product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

February 2025

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager report

Download SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Puppet

SolarWinds NCM

Overview

Microsoft Intune provides centralized management of mobile devices and applications, ensuring security, compliance, and productivity through integration with Microsoft services like Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory.

Organizations use Intune for managing mobile devices and applications, enhancing security and compliance across platforms. With features like single sign-on, conditional access, and zero-touch deployment via Autopilot, it facilitates efficient operations. Intune's scalability, easy enrollment, and capabilities such as remote wipe support diverse device management, offering robust data protection and efficient operation. Despite its features, improvement areas include reporting, compatibility with non-Microsoft devices, and better support for macOS and Linux devices.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Seamless Integration: Works with Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory, and System Center for streamlined management.
Conditional Access: Enhances security with policies that restrict access based on conditions.
Autopilot: Provides zero-touch deployment for setting up new devices efficiently.
Mobile Device Management: Enables control over both personal and corporate devices.
Application Deployment: Facilitates app delivery across a range of devices.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Centralized Management: Reduces complexity by managing devices and applications in one place.
Security Enhancement: Protects data with features like remote wipe and compliance monitoring.
Improved Productivity: Enhances efficiency with seamless integration and automation features.
Device Scalability: Supports diverse device management for growing business needs.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and education, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure secure and compliant device management. Companies leverage its capabilities to deploy security policies and manage both corporate-owned and BYOD environments, facilitating a unified approach to data protection and compliance.

Microsoft

Perforce Puppet provides robust features for configuration management, compatible with Linux, Windows, and UNIX. It simplifies infrastructure management with automation and role-based access control, though it requires mastering command-line operations due to limited GUI.

Perforce Puppet utilizes a hub-spoke architecture to enhance automation across production environments, excelling in provisioning and configuration management for on-prem servers. Its infrastructure as code approach eases deployment and maintenance, supported by community resources for stabilization. Support for diverse devices makes it adaptable for complex configurations, but pricing and integration gaps, especially with Infosec tools, pose challenges for some.

What are the key features of Perforce Puppet?

Remote Package Installation: Centralized server management for remote installations
File Management: Streamlined file operations from a single point
Infrastructure as Code: Simplifies infrastructure maintenance
Scalability: Grows with organizational demands
Role-Based Access Control: Ensures secure user management
Device State Control: Efficient device integration and configuration

What benefits should users expect?

Automation Efficiency: Reduces manual tasks with hub-spoke architecture
Versatility: Supports multiple operating systems
Community Support: Backed by a stable and organized community
Configuration Simplicity: Simplifies and streamlines setup processes

Puppet is implemented across industries for managing production servers, especially in regulated environments. Its security compliance checks ensure adherence to required standards, while public configurations assist in device network integration. Industries benefit from its ability to streamline Linux server automation and explore expansion into Windows systems to meet cross-platform requirements.

Perforce

Before you monitor your network, configure it! A reliable and secure network starts with carefully planned, executed, and monitored network configuration and change management. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) saves time and improves network reliability and security by managing configurations, changes, and compliance for routers, switches, and other network devices from Cisco, Juniper, HP, Dell, Brocade, Aruba, Rukus, and more.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Los Alamos National Laboratory, GitHub, IP Commerce, Cedexis, Spiceworks, Server Density, Swisstopo, Chockstone, Constant Contact, NICS, Citrix

United Lincolnshire Hospitals, Air Rarotonga, NetSuite, Thai AirAsia, REA Group, 335th Signal Command, Agilisys, Marine Expeditionary Force

Buyer's Guide

Perforce Puppet vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

January 2025

Free Report: Perforce Puppet vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about Perforce Puppet vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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