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Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) pros and cons

Vendor: Quest Software
4.4 out of 5
462 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) enhances operational efficiency by enabling efficient deployment of software and images while also supporting asset management and service desk ticketing. It excels in scripting for custom installations and mass management of devices. However, limitations in simultaneous imaging, software asset automation, and patch management, particularly for non-Microsoft software, pose scalability challenges. Aggressive sales tactics and inadequate communication affect user experience despite strong support services.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance facilitates efficient and remote machine imaging and software deployment, enhancing IT productivity and operational flexibility.
It offers comprehensive hardware and software inventory management, giving detailed insights and reports that assist in effective asset management and compliance.
System Deployment Appliance of Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance automates and streamlines the deployment process, saving significant time and reducing manual efforts in setting up new devices.
Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance incorporates advanced scripting capabilities that simplify the installation of complex software, particularly useful in specialized educational environments.
The integrated service desk features customizable ticketing and asset management tools that improve service management and response times.

CONS

Imaging becomes problematic when managing more than thirty or forty machines simultaneously.
Patch management and application updates require improvement for automation and efficiency.
Initial setup is complex, with a challenging implementation and upgrade process.
Scalability concerns and limitations on rebuilding and managing multiple machines.
Customer support is inconsistent, with variations depending on the support personnel available.
 

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Pros review quotes

TH
Apr 21, 2021
The scripting part increases IT productivity because of the specialized software in our environments for students' courses. You need to use software which is not programmed by developers. A lot of software for building houses or other things is developed by normal guys, who do not have much skill in programming. When you need to install this type of software, it is very difficult. You have to install registry keys, etc. For that, it is very good to use the scripting part of this solution. So, you can automate this part as well.
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ChrisHead - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 24, 2021
The big pros of Quest KACE Systems Management are its simple interface, and simple, direct management. It's very easy to maintain and manage the device, and it's easy to get it up and running. You can have it up and running in an hour...
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reviewer1677819 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 22, 2021
The single pane of glass for managing devices is helpful because it allows me to perform updates and control things without having to disturb the doctors or nurses.
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Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
November 2024
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reviewer1506942 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 10, 2021
KACE has made our life much easier since we got off the Microsoft solution. The Microsoft solution was a lot harder to image over different ports and stuff. They would only have this one place where we could do all the imaging. Now, we have a whole building where we can image from. This means that we can image from our storage area, where we have a place to do our imaging. We can also image right at our desks, which is a lot easier.
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TW
May 26, 2021
The scripting is a very valuable feature, as it saves us time on pushing certain things out to the users, such as software and patches.
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reviewer1508673 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 13, 2022
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.
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SW
Oct 13, 2021
Using this solution saves us lots of time, especially when it comes to performing updates.
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reviewer1512810 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 17, 2021
We have our KACE agent deployed on all of our workstations and servers, and it provides us with reports on the hardware and software inventory for those.
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MW
Apr 26, 2021
The most valuable feature of KACE is the mass package deployment. There are a lot of endpoint management solutions in the market. The way KACE responds is with the installation management feature, which is done in a very intelligent way, as well as scripting. It's wow. It's really wow. On top of that, there is a mass undeployment feature as well.
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CB
Jun 1, 2021
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.
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Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Cons review quotes

TH
Apr 21, 2021
It is a little bit difficult to use the license compliances because you need to decide when you are using the software catalog if you are using it with their license compliance or the normal software part. Under the inventory, you can use software as a menu link or software catalog. Most of my specialist software is not in the software catalog. When I try to import them, in my license compliances overview, there are cryptic names for this software that I have to import. That is not very good for the reports that I use. When I take them to my bosses, they see cryptic names of software that they don't understand. It would be much better for me if I could use software and the software catalog as well for the license compliances.
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ChrisHead - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 24, 2021
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.
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reviewer1677819 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 22, 2021
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.
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Buyer's Guide
Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
November 2024
Free Report: Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Reviews and More
Learn what your peers think about Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
DOWNLOAD NOW
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1506942 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 10, 2021
They could make the booting solution easier for different things, e.g., easier to insert drivers. They could make it easier to create a new image and put it onto the server. Those would be some nice solutions. They could make it so that somebody who has no knowledge at all can do it. That would be really nice. Because every time, until I get it memorized, I still need to go back to the training, the manual, or Google it to figure it out again. If they would make it a lot easier, to where a nine-year-old could do it, that would be really cool. If they made it easier, I could have more people managing the images on the server, instead of just one or two people.
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TW
May 26, 2021
The KACE Go Mobile App crashes a lot, and it always has. I would love to see that get fixed because it's very convenient when it does work properly, but most of the time it does not.
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reviewer1508673 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 13, 2022
I would sure like them to be able to copy and paste out of OneNote. That drives me nuts. You can't copy from OneNote into KACE.
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SW
Oct 13, 2021
The software asset management functionality is an area that needs to be improved. It could be more automated because when connections need to be made, such as when I connected Adobe and my malware removed, the process was pretty much manual.
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reviewer1512810 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 17, 2021
Scalability is my primary concern right now.
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MW
Apr 26, 2021
There should be a mini toolbox, like the competitors of KACE have, with the small features for KACE administrators. That would make their lives easier. If you are troubleshooting a specific endpoint, remote control is available as is Wake-on-LAN. But if you want to execute some commands, you have to use a third-party tool, the PS tool. If they would integrate those small things, it would make KACE more powerful.
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CB
Jun 1, 2021
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.
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Show 10 more reviews (out of 38)

Product Categories

Product Categories
Configuration Management
Endpoint Compliance
Patch Management

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Product Categories

Product Categories
Configuration Management
Endpoint Compliance
Patch Management

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons
Microsoft Intune vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Logo
Microsoft Intune vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Logo
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Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Logo
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
BigFix vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Logo
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AWS Systems Manager vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Logo
AWS Systems Manager vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
Puppet Enterprise vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Logo
Puppet Enterprise vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Logo
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