Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform comparison

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

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Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 11.5%, up from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is 4.2%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is 16.9%, up from 16.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

Gaurav Chandola

Senior Associate Specialist at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 22, 2022

We can manage all aspects of our devices from a single console, easy to scale, and quick to deploy

Intune has many benefits from the Microsoft perspective. This solution can manage Windows 10 devices, app management, and provide security solutions. We don't need to worry about our network connection, and we'll be more secure with regular security patches and compliance. Since everything will be deployed through the internet and users will log in using the internet only, the risks have been mitigated. Security updates, security patching, and the application will be targeted from Intune. The location tracker will be available to track where the device is and the user's location. The user will be restricted from accessing certain applications using compliance policies. Conditional access policies will be based on the reason why the user needs access to the application. Microsoft Intune is one of the best products in the industry for managing Windows devices. The solution has more feature restrictions. The conditional access policies also eliminate the dependency on the on-prem network for the devices. The solution also manages our security settings and a lot of other beneficial features such as Microsoft Purview which gives us the compliance portion. We can manage all aspects of our device from a single console, including M365 services. This allows us to configure data classification types, such as public, private, internal, confidential, and highly confidential.

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Fernando Cezario

Level 2 Support at Tigs

Jan 25, 2024

Helpful for IT asset management and offer a good dashboard

I like the KACE software dashboard so much! It's convenient. I don't need to know technical details like file formats (PDF or whatever) for installation, even for applications like Adobe. Here's how I use it: Let's say I have a license for Adobe and I need to install it on a computer named Julian. I simply open a case, enter the name of the application (Adobe), open the dashboard, and search for the computer named Julian. Once I select the computer, it shows up in the dashboard. Now, in the same case, I can open a large batch of software, select the application (Adobe Acrobat again), and choose the computer named Julian. KACE then deploys the application with minimal errors, usually within one or two minutes. Julian even receives a notification on their computer that the installation process has begun. It's fantastic! Moreover, it helped so much streamline our IT asset management and inventory. Sometimes someone changes the computer assigned to someone else. For example, Juliano had a computer, and then Matos changed it to his own use. I wouldn't know about this change if it weren't for KACE. KACE automatically tracks this information and saves it for me, allowing me to call it up on the dashboard. For example, if I need to find Juliano's computer in the system, I don't need to search through endless spreadsheets. I just search for "Juliano" in KACE. KACE also lists other details like the last login user. So, if I see "Juliano" on KACE but a different user is logged in, that tells me something might be wrong. I find this functionality very helpful for IT asset management.

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Gogineni Venkatachowdary

Cloud Operations Center Analyst at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Oct 11, 2022

Allows us to make cluster configuration changes and integrate and deploy products

We deploy the production environment using the provisioning for Terraform. We provision the cluster we need. If we need three or four nodes, like provisioning for hardware, OS provisioning, and bootstrap provisioning, we will use Terraform. After Terraform, we have to do any configuration changes…

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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

"The solution is easy to use, simple to understand for those new to using it, and combined with the other Microsoft products it makes for an overall good package."

"The key benefit of Intune is its integration with the Microsoft ecosystem."

"The mobile device management is very useful."

"It is a very stable and scalable cloud-only solution."

"Conditional access has helped us tailor and enforce our security policies in the mobile space."

"One of the main features of the solution is it allows the management of many devices in different ways."

"The most valuable feature for us is the security, including risk analysis and patch management."

"Among the most valuable features are the Company Portal that is built into Intune, and the update rings so that we can manage what types of future updates the devices get."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The most valuable feature is the ability to monitor updates—the software versions—on machines so that we can keep everything compliant."

"I am impressed by the service desk ticketing and asset management."

"When vulnerabilities are exploited so much, it is nice to be able to quickly detect or deploy what is needed within our off-work hours or during work hours without a reboot."

"The Systems Deployment Appliance is magical when it comes to automating deployment... Not only can we have multiple images, specific to end-users' uses, but we have a plethora of post-installation tasks to install or configure the system, tasks that can be re-used for each system. You just have one basic base image, and then you use the post-install tasks to customize everything else. It is amazing."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to have an overview of all devices that are accessing our environment."

"It also does patch management. At the moment, I'm rolling out a new feature update, 20.8.2, and it's a great challenge because we have to deploy it to 1,200 computers in the home office. We want to do it without interrupting production, but KACE is reliable and it's easy to adapt it to my needs for how and when to deploy the feature update."

"The ability to build scripts right on the deployment center itself, as well as building groups that take those scripts/task chains has been absolutely invaluable and one of the most important parts of my whole environment."

"We're able to deploy software and push out fixes to endpoints faster than ever."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) pros

"Role-based access control and agentless architecture are the main features which may attract users."

"The biggest thing I liked about Ansible is the check mode so that we can verify, after we've pushed, that the config there is actually what we intended."

"Installing it is a PIP command. So, it's pretty easy. It is a one liner."

"It is very extensible. There are many plugins and modules out there that everybody helps create to interact with different cloud providers as well."

"Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is quite stable. If you set it up correctly with the right configurations and there are no hiccups during installation and deployment, it will be stable. I'd give stability a rating of eight out of ten."

"The initial setup is easy and takes a few hours to complete."

"We can automate a few host configurations using the product."

"It enabled me to take the old build manifest and automated everything. So when it came time to spin everything up, it was quick and simple. I could spin it up and test it out. And then, when it came time to roll production, it was a done deal. When we expanded to multiple data centers, it was same thing: Change a few IP addresses, change some names, and off we went."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform pros

Cons

"They should improve its compatibility with other operating systems such as iOS and Linux. It supports Linux but they still need to work on the iOS part."

"The most important thing is reporting. They should improve their reporting. They should give a free hand to users. In SCCM, I can create my own reports. For example, in SCCM, I can create an inventory report for my PC or for all PCs, but in Intune, we don't have an option to create any report. Microsoft claims that Intune is a successor of SCCM, but SCCM is more powerful than Intune. So, they should develop Intune more and make it equivalent to SCCM. Then, their product will be great in the market."

"Sometimes, updating a client policy is very difficult. This needs to be improved."

"Technical support is not that great."

"It should be easier to define policies and comply with those policies."

"While Intune works perfectly well, the only potential downside is that the deployment could be a bit complex for some users."

"Intune has some limitations when it comes to application updates for third-party applications. You can schedule an update, but when it's a package setup, you need to supercede and replace it each time."

"I rate Microsoft support four out of 10. Support is one area where Microsoft needs to improve a lot. I recently raised a ticket for a Microsoft Azure issue, and it took two and a half weeks for support to reply. They need to improve support across their entire catalog of products."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"There may be a good reason why some things are not easily able to be done, yet it needs work to compete with some of the other ticketing systems out there now."

"When we have to do a rebuild on these machines, although it is rare, I would like to be able to do more than 10 at a time. With the current limit, it slows me down because I have to set up 10, then the next 10, and so forth."

"Sometimes the information is not as real time as it's supposed to be."

"Easier integration would be beneficial."

"Imaging becomes a problem when you start to try to go beyond doing more than thirty or forty machines at a time. We initially tried to do that virtually and it just, it wouldn't work."

"The problem is that it's harder to directly emulate a lot of the stuff that the group policies do, using the KACE solution. With regular group policies, you just specify the various settings you want to change on the workstations, and then you specify the workstations and—while it's kind of an ugly mess—it does it. Whereas on KACE, you really have to know what you're doing with scripting to effectively script those exact same changes."

"The labeling process should be more streamlined. It should be easier to do. It gets confusing at times."

"KACE implemented the possibility of reducing the network speed of the KACE agent. You can set it so that it takes whatever network speed you want or you can set it to 5 Mb, to save network speed. You set it for all the computers, but it would be preferable to separate between VPN connections in our home office and the local area. It would be great to be able to set separate speeds for different VLANs."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) cons

"The solution requires some Linux knowledge."

"Performance has been an issue on larger environments, but it has gotten a lot better over the past two years."

"We would like support for the post-integration of this product before cloud frameworks because right now their approach is to avoid using on-premises activities and move everything to the cloud."

"Ansible is great, but there are not many modules. You can do about 80% to 90% of things by using commands, but more modules should be added. We cannot do some of the things in Ansible. In Red Hat, we have the YUM package manager, and there are certain options that we can pass through YUM. To install the Docker Community Edition, I'll write the yum install docker-ce command, but because the Docker Community Edition is not compatible with RHEL 8, I will have to use the nobest option, such as yum install docker-ce --nobest. The nobest option installs the most stable version that can be installed on a particular system. In Ansible, the nobest option is not there. So, it needs some improvements in terms of options. There should be more options, keywords, and modules."

"Ansible has just been upgraded, and the only issue that we are seeing at the moment is that the user interface can be slow. We're currently investigating the refresh period with Red Hat when you click a job and run a job. It seems that the buffer no longer runs in real-time. We haven't discovered whether that's partially an issue with our environment, but Red Hat has come back and said that they're working on a couple of bugs in the background. We've upgraded to that version in the last six months, and that's the only issue that we've seen."

"The product could do a better job at building infrastructure."

"Additional features could be added."

"What we need is model-driven, declarative software infrastructure management. However, things tend to break with new versions, requiring a lot of work to fix…The focus should be on improving the support for Ansible in the area of AI coding."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Intune comes with the licensing that is common for large organizations. However, Microsoft has recently released many add-ons that are very expensive, especially for large organizations or corporations."

"The pricing is not cheap, especially with inflation. They've had to increase their prices. It's not excessive, but alright."

"It's reasonable. They're not giving it away, but it's reasonable."

"If you ask the accountant or the finance department, they'll tell you that it is way too expensive, but when I look at the cost and compare it with the value you actually get, it's more than fair."

"In terms of the product price and licensing costs, my company finds the product to be reasonably priced."

"Every customer used to purchase licenses based on their needs."

"It is cheap, but as compared to Google, it is costly. Google is cheaper, but quality-wise, Microsoft Intune is better."

"Its licensing model is not complex, but it is very expensive compared to other solutions. They can bring more models and reduce the pricing. They should allow customers to select the features they want and price it accordingly."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"Based on other solutions that we had implemented, its pricing seems to be quite competitive. It is not inexpensive, but it is also not more expensive than any other solution. They have the standard licensing fees and support fees."

"The pricing is great. It's billed annually and it's very reasonable."

"Some of the other solutions were just astronomical in price compared with KACE and didn't necessarily have the ease of use either. So, we chose Quest KACE for its easy-to-use features and cost."

"n terms of pricing and licensing, my advice is that you need to assess what you need and then look at what they offer. It's easy to get caught up in the things that you want, but don't really need."

"Their pricing is per end-point device. There is an initial cost for the license for the server, which is pretty low, and then there is a per end-point device license, which is also fairly low. So, the pricing is still reasonable."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"We are also saving on the licensing fee, compared to other endpoint management solutions."

"The pricing and licensing are absolutely fair."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is pretty standard."

"Ansible Tower is free. Until they lower the cost, we are holding off on purchasing the product."

"We went with product because we have a subscription for Red Hat."

"Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is an expensive solution. There may be additional fees to use advanced features."

"Users have to pay a per-node cost of around $ 100 per node."

"Like many Red Hat products, they have a no-cost version of the web application (AWX, formerly Ansible Tower), but you are on your own to install and it is a little more complicated than just installing Ansible."

"Ansible is a lot more competitive than any of the others. Its setup was also straightforward. In fact, we just implemented Ansible on OpenShift, so that is how we are running the Ansible Automation Platform now."

"It is a little pricey but it is affordable. It is not that bad."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

University

12%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

30%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

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 ...

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...

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 ...

What do you like most about Quest KACE Systems Management?

KACE automatically tracks this information and saves it for me, allowing me to call it up on the dashboard. For examp...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest KACE Systems Management?

It is expensive in Brazil. Generally, it's considered expensive, especially compared to solutions like Spiceworks.

What needs improvement with Quest KACE Systems Management?

Easier integration would be beneficial.

What is the difference between Red Hat Satellite and Ansible?

Red Hat Satellite has proven to be a worthwhile investment for me. Both its patch management and license management h...

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 ...

What do you like most about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?

The most valuable features of the solution are automation and patching.

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Comparisons

Compared 17% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Intune Competitors

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 29% of the time

BigFix vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 8% of the time

Automox vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 4% of the time

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 3% of the time

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Competitors

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Compared 14% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Compared 6% of the time

BigFix vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Intune

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Download Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) product report

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) report

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Download Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform product report

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Dell KACE Systems Management

Ansible

Learn More

Microsoft

Quest Software

Red Hat

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."

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is a comprehensive endpoint and service desk management platform. It supports IT operations with functionalities such as ticketing, patch management, software deployment, and asset management.

KACE provides robust automation for managing software distribution and patch tasks. Organizations depend on it for security updates, system compliance, and centralized control over diverse devices. Integration with tools like Bomgar and ServiceNow enhances its remote support capabilities, while its intuitive interface streamlines IT processes, increasing productivity. Managing thousands of endpoints, it supports accreditation compliance and reports on system status and security.

What are the key features of Quest KACE SMA?

Automation: Streamlines software deployment and patch management.
Asset Management: Offers comprehensive inventory controls.
Integration: Compatible with Bomgar and ServiceNow for enhanced remote support.
System Deployment: SDA simplifies deployment across multiple machines.
Intuitive Interface: Facilitates IT task management from a single pane.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Increased Productivity: Simplifies IT tasks, optimizing resources.
Centralized Control: Manages a wide range of devices from one interface.
Security Compliance: Ensures systems are updated and compliant.
Enhanced Support: Improved remote support through integrations.
Reporting Capabilities: Provides insights into IT operations and status.

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is implemented across industries needing robust IT management solutions such as healthcare for compliance and security, education for asset tracking, and corporate enterprises for efficient IT operations. Its multifunctional nature caters to diverse industry requirements, enhancing communication and data management.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a powerful network automation solution that allows organizations to handle every aspect of their application launch process within a single product. It enables users to share their automations so that teams within an organization can collaborate on various projects with ease. Ansible Automation Platform is designed to be used by all employees involved in the network automation process.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform include:

Maximum benefit for reduced overhead. Ansible Automation Platform is an all-in-one solution that can enable users to do the jobs of multiple products with one. Users do not need to purchase multiple products to handle their network automation and application development needs. It is equipped with prefabricated content from more than one hundred companies that are partnered with it.

Scalable. Ansible Automation Platform is a highly scalable solution. It can easily be scaled up so that automations can be extended across the various devices that make up an organization’s network.

Flexibility. Ansible Automation Platform is highly flexible. It enables users to tackle any and all automation-related tasks.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Features

Automation analytics. Ansible Automation Platform comes equipped with an automation analytics feature. This feature enables organizations to measure the effects of their automations and plan how they are going to implement automations moving forward. It makes it easy for administrators to spot anomalies in their automations and resolve them before they can escalate and become major issues.

Integration suite. Ansible Automation Platform gives organizations access to a wide variety of integrations that enable them to connect to Ansible’s partners. Now users can augment their capabilities without needing to purchase additional solutions that will enable them to run features that are not normally a part of Ansible’s array of tools. The Ansible environment is built to handle the wide variety of integrations that their partners offer. In order to accomplish this it includes the APIs that users need in order to fully benefit from the integrations.

Centralized interface. Ansible Automation Platform comes with a centralized GUI interface that enables users to manage all of their network automation and application creation activities from a single location. Businesses can guarantee that their operations are going to be handled efficiently and according to a single standard. The management process is greatly simplified. All of the tools that users need are located in one place.

Reviews from Real Users

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its automation manager and its comprehensive centralized GUI-based management interface.

MD J., a solution architect at STBL, says, “The automation manager is very good and makes things easier for customers with multi-cloud platforms.”

Aankit G., a Consultant at Pi DATACENTERS, writes, “We like the GUI-based interface for the tower. Before, we only had a command-line interface to run all the Ansible tasks. Now, the Ansible tower provides the complete GUI functionality to run, manage, and create the templates and the Ansible jobs. This includes the code and YAML file we can create. The GUI interface is the added advantage of this solution, including some integration with the different plugins.”

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King

HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform