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

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 27, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Intune boosts ROI by reducing costs and improving efficiency with seamless device management and reduced reliance on other services.
Sentiment score
8.8
Quest KACE streamlines system management, boosting productivity and cost savings, with minimal training needed for quick adoption.
Sentiment score
7.3
Red Hat Ansible Automation expedites provisioning, reducing costs and burnout, while enhancing efficiency and scalability across hybrid environments.
Everything we've gained from it makes my job easier day after day, and I see value in it as an engineer.
Importantly, when someone leaves the company, it helps protect document access on their devices.
Applications are deployed through Intune, and we see fewer tickets for common issues because we can resolve them through the solution.
The return on investment is seen in the quick access to information, good inventory management, and efficient systems management.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Intune's customer support is mixed; premium tiers are quicker, but response times and complexity handling need improvement.
Sentiment score
8.3
Quest KACE SMA support is praised for fast, accurate responses, knowledgeable staff, and 24/7 availability through Premier Support.
Sentiment score
7.3
Red Hat Ansible provides valued community resources and variable official support, with high user ratings and some module limitations.
When a support ticket is submitted, it directly reaches someone with Intune support expertise.
When I contacted Microsoft, they had the same expertise, if not more, which is phenomenal because I felt heard and my problem was solved.
Sometimes, the support provided is excellent, and the representative is knowledgeable, while other times, the service needs improvement.
The customer service is very good, providing quick customer support in Spanish.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Microsoft Intune is highly scalable and flexible, easily supporting various business sizes with its cloud-based integration and licensing.
Sentiment score
8.0
Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is scalable, user-friendly, and efficiently manages devices in varying network sizes despite some training challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform scales well but requires adjustments for environments exceeding 500 servers, like clustering and provisioning.
The scalability of Microsoft Intune is ten out of ten.
Ideally, we want to automatically segregate devices based on user properties like primary use, but currently, dynamic groups seem limited to device properties.
It supports organizations with 200 endpoints and those with more than 15,000 endpoints.
The product is very scalable as it supports 10,000 thousand endpoints with just one appliance.
Ansible can face scalability issues, such as limitations when trying to scale up infrastructure.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Intune is stable and reliable, with minor issues; users generally rate it between seven to ten.
Sentiment score
7.4
Quest KACE SMA is reliable and stable, with quick support and performance improvements despite occasional infrastructure-related issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is praised for stability and reliability, with minor compatibility concerns easily adaptable.
Microsoft Intune has been very stable.
A couple of years ago, the performance was not as good as it is now, but there are noticeable backend improvements.
We've encountered problems with other services like Exchange, Intune has remained unaffected.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Intune needs improvements in reporting, device support, integration, user interface, and cost efficiency for better management.
Quest KACE System's scalability, interface design, automation, and support need improvement, complicating software patching and integration processes.
Red Hat Ansible requires improvements in scalability, user interface, module support, integration, documentation, and compatibility for enhanced usability.
There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now.
Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive.
Workspace ONE operates in real-time, whereas Intune has a noticeable delay when deploying policies or apps.
The user interface needs improvement as customers have mentioned they do not like the interface since it is not an SMA-based interface.
More library support for microservices architecture and Kubernetes would be helpful.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Intune is cost-effective, especially when bundled with Microsoft 365, offering competitive pricing and valuable features for enterprises.
Quest KACE SMA offers competitive per-device pricing with robust features, valued by larger deployments despite some cost concerns.
Enterprise buyers find Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform pricing influenced by nodes and endpoint choice between free and paid versions.
Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs.
The Intune suite and add-ons, such as batch management and remote help, are costly.
Microsoft Intune's costliness stems from licensing fees and the overhead associated with its management, user experience, and device remediation.
The pricing is in the middle range of the market, not too expensive but not the cheapest either.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration, robust security, and centralized management, enhancing compliance, scalability, and ease of use.
Quest KACE SMA enhances IT operations with integration, automation, and management tools, boosting productivity, security, and user experience.
Red Hat Ansible Automation excels in agentless automation, ease of use, scalability, role-based access, and extensive community support.
Intune excels in configuration and compliance management for Windows 10, ensuring devices receive timely updates and adhere to organizational standards.
Dynamic groups allow us to set conditions for automatic membership, eliminating the need for user intervention or manual review and ensuring a seamless workflow.
Windows Autopatch is the most valuable because it removes the burden of patch management.
The most valuable features include simplicity, which makes systems management easier and faster, especially for device management.
The automation capabilities streamline deployment processes, providing reliability and reducing manual intervention and errors.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Configuration Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
234
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Quest KACE Systems Manageme...
Ranking in Configuration Management
14th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Compliance (7th), Patch Management (10th)
Red Hat Ansible Automation ...
Ranking in Configuration Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (3rd), Network Automation (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 11.9%, up from 10.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is 4.5%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is 16.0%, down from 16.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Scott Tweed - PeerSpot reviewer
Low maintenance, reliable, and easy to create packages
I like how when you click on the device, it shows you everything that has changed as well as the software versioning. I am really enjoying the inventory aspect of it. The deployment process for both deploying and creating a package is straightforward. I believe the inventory in KACE is superior to SCCM's. I know with SCCM I could do things like remote console into machines via the agent's remote console, but that is not a feature that is provided in KACE. I know that at least in the Systems Management Appliance, I can't get to it. I'm not sure how distribution works, with distribution points. I'm not sure if KACE has that feature. You could use an SCCM to set up distribution points at remote sites so that they don't have to download patches or software from across the country. If you have a DP or something similar, they could pull it down.
Surya Chapagain - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to manage and simple to learn
We use Red Hat a lot. I open tickets for the Red Hat cases, however, with Ansible, I haven't opened any cases. My manager worked with them a bit. If we have a problem with some file and we need to get Red Hat to analyze the issue and the file is 100GBs, we'll have an issue since we need to provide a log file for them to analyze. If it is around 12GB or 13GB, we can easily upload it to the Red Hat portal. With more than 100GBs, it will fail. I heard it should cover up to 250GB for an upload, however, I find it fails. Therefore, Red Hat needs to provide a way to handle this.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
University
11%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
32%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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?
The pricing is in the middle range of the market, not too expensive but not the cheapest either.
What needs improvement with Quest KACE Systems Management?
The user interface needs improvement as customers have mentioned they do not like the interface since it is not an SM...
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.
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Dell KACE Systems Management
Ansible
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank
Find out what your peers are saying about Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.