Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Reviews

I use this solution for software packages, security updates, upgrades, and asset management.

The Microsoft SCCM environment is much more robust than KACE, but obviously, Microsoft equipment or Microsoft software is very expensive, so we have decided to take a cheaper alternative. It was a Dell product and we have a Dell computer base, so it was easier. There is ease of use, and its pricing was a driving factor.

Sometimes the information is not as real time as it's supposed to be. In that scenario, they have to work with Microsoft and figure it out, because I think that's the challenge that we always come across. The information we get isn't always 100% accurate.

There could be a dynamic environment where you can select what products you're using, whether it's Dell or IBM or HPE, and it creates its own repository. When there's not much internet usage, it downloads those critical patches or firmware updates so you can push it. 

I think that kind of thing will make it much better, because I think Microsoft products are only geared toward Microsoft. I think because KACE is not a Dell product anymore, it can work as a vendor independent or vendor agnostic approach where you can select which products that you are using, which models that you are using, and based on that, it can tell you there is an update or firmware upgrade that's available for this particular product or this particular model. If I forget to research what's available on the internet and the latest firmware upgrade, the tool itself could go every night and fetch whatever is the important update or upgrades that is available, download it, and tell the admin, "In your environment, these are the things that you can upgrade." Some of the work can be automated.

I have been using this solution for about 10 years.

I would rate this solution 8 out 10.

We have to do a lot of things manually, which I don't like in a tool because  automation is the key to everything. The less human interaction that a tool can provide, the better the product will be.

We use this solution to manage our workstations and desktops. We can manage our hardware inventory and licenses, remotely install software, update software, and generate reports.

We do not use it to manage servers, only workstations.

We have a lot of different machines and devices in our environment. When I need to upgrade or install specific software applications, they can be deployed en masse and over a short period of time. It saves us a lot of time, which is the biggest help that KACE provides.

This product has helped our IT operations increase productivity. We have been able to create labels for machines and users, which has been useful. Also, we have been able to create rules in KACE that segregate software according to each area. Using this capability, our team management has improved as well as our customer relationships. 

This solution makes it easy to control assets and upgrade all types of software.

The mass deployment of software is easy to do.

KACE is very intuitive and easy to use. I am new to using the KACE Systems Management solution. Today, I was amalgamating software for the first time. It was easy to do. The employee that I was helping liked the way that it resolved the problem. It is also easy and fast to transfer my knowledge of KACE to another person.

This product provides good visibility into our machines, which is useful. It provides details about the software, hardware, and what is connected to it. It is very easy to use.

I would like them to implement VBScript language in KACE Systems Management. Currently, we can only use PowerShell.

We recently updated to the latest version, and we haven't yet seen all the features that it previously had.

I have been using Quest KACE Systems Management for between three and four years. It was deployed several years before I joined the company.

Stability-wise, it is fine. I have never seen this product crash or timeout.

If the server is working, then KACE Systems Management is fine.

We have four help desk staff who work with it. We don't manage servers with KACE; we just manage stations. We do not use it in our daily routine.

As our company and environment have grown, scalability has not been a problem. The scalability of the tool seems to be good. We currently manage 639 endpoints.

We use Quest Premier Support and contact them a lot. They have a Brazilian analyst who is very good to work with. He is skilled, has complete knowledge of the product, and has helped to resolve several problems that we have had in our environment. He never leaves us with big problems.

I would rate technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

I have worked with SCCM, which is quite like this product, but the KACE Systems Management interface is better. 

KACE Systems Management makes it easy to find information because it is intuitive. 

The pros of SCCM are that it has more integrations and APIs with Microsoft software. This is useful when it comes to managing an environment. Because it is a Microsoft product, it has more integrations than other competing software.

I was not involved in the initial deployment.

KACE saves us time when it comes to maintaining our machines. For example, we sometimes need to retrieve information from the operating system of our machines. Normally, this has to be done manually, and we move from station to station to complete the task. With KACE filtering the results, we can do it in 20 seconds.

The pricing is fair.

KACE is a useful product for us. As I am new to it, I don't have very many suggestions for improvement. Rather, it has been very good, useful software.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.

We use KACE SMA and KACE SDA. We use all but a few of the features that both appliances have to offer. We are in a VM environment with the KACE SMA, however, we use a physical appliance for the SDA.  

The ticketing system, real-time inventory, patching, software license, and imaging are commonly used. We also use this for scans - with this and aggressive patching we have been able to pass several outside pen tests. Scripts are used to push out software so the clients don't have to wait and it takes the pressure off of the technicians.

The solution has helped with real-time inventory, advertising and pushing out software, patching, and oval and SCAP scans. We can get the majority of what we need with this product and do not have to spend money on something else. 

In terms of imaging, we don't have to have an image for every model of Dell computer we have due to drivers. The SDA pulls and installs the correct drivers for each model. 

Post-installation tasks make it easy to add or remove software to images without having to download, change the image, and upload them back onto the server.

The streamlined processes and procedures are great. Automating processes is helpful. Patching is huge as it's set it and forget it for the most part. Real-time software and hardware inventory is great. 

We can track software licenses in one place. We can have a ticketing system and be able to create processes so that when one ticket closes, the next one is assigned in the process. 

Being able to add and remove software from images without having to recreate the image every time is helpful. 

Being able to create labels to group items we want to keep track of makes it very easy for us. 

The notifications (up to 60 days pre-renewal for contracts) are a great way to know when a renewal is coming instead of finding out last minute. 

The ticketing system works for us and we like using it. That said, some processes that seem like they should be simple either can't be done or are cumbersome in setting them up. I managed a different ticketing system previously and we were able to have certain questions come up for the client based on the category picked. It was easy to set up and use. Being able to auto have a KB article with questions needed for certain categories easily auto inserted into the ticket based on category was also an option. 

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.

I've been using the solution since 2010.

We had a few different solutions. We had an access database we were using for ticketing and inventory, and patching was manual. Imaging was with a product that required an image for every different model of computer we had.

The setup was straightforward.

We worked with a vendor team, and they were excellent.

We can do more with less staff. And, unfortunately, due to budgeting, we now have fewer staff.

The cost is reasonable. I would definitely take the JumpStart training that is offered as it helps to get you started.

We evaluated an in-house system, School Dude, and a ticketing system that is no longer in business.

We have used it as a help-desk ticketing system, a software deployment platform, a patch management platform, and a hardware inventory platform.

KACE is incredibly wide in terms of what it will do for you. In certain cases, it's too much for my small businesses. Most of the companies that I support are anywhere from ten to fifty people. Whereas, KACE is such a large piece of software. It has its advantages as well as disadvantages for my businesses. It's just too big.

I think KACE could be designed a little bit more intuitively in terms of administration. Their knowledge-based articles are very good. But one of the things Microsoft does well is that they bake in a lot of the instructions and make the UI design a little bit more intuitive. So if you're flowing through something, the need to go back to the manual with Microsoft and it is not as heavy as it is with KACE. It is not necessarily always a good thing, but I would say KACE feels like an old-school piece of software. You need to make sure you've got the manual open while you're utilizing it.

Now I am trying to get the right size solution for my small businesses.

I have been using this solution for around eighteen months, probably. We just upgraded to version thirteen from eleven.

They are nice and stable. I would rate it nine out of ten.

I can't say I have had many experiences in making it scalable. With my businesses, I have never had to grow from fifty to a thousand employees.

I have used their technical support before. They are good. You pay a lot of money for their support and updates, but they do assist you when necessary. I have had positive experiences with them.

For the size of the company that I typically support, it's hard for me to say yes. I think I'm trying to kill a fly with a shotgun while utilizing KACE.

Coming from a small business standpoint, they're really expensive for the number of users. But that's not necessarily a knock against them. They're producing a piece of software for a particular segment. I just do not think they necessarily designed their virtual appliance and their support for a ten-person company. They are expensive, but are they unjustifiably expensive? I can't say that.

In my opinion, what KACE does better than Intune is third-party patch management. I think that Microsoft Intune and KACE both have the same technical functionality. But Microsoft Intune takes quite a bit of scripting in third-party management. Intune is always a lot cheaper and offers a lot of their packages as well. You have to consider what you need and what you are paying for. I would say that's the big difference between the two so far for my particular use.

Do a lot of research and make sure it fits your use case. If you're a small business, the likelihood of it being worth it to you in my opinion is minimal. If you've got a large environment where you can dedicate technical resources for managing the KACE system, onboarding and offboarding users monthly, and supporting a good number of devices and applications then maybe it works. But for a small business, is the juice worth the squeeze? I don't know.

I would like to rate the solution nine out of ten.

My company had bought some new machines. We used the tool to do some basic settings to ship every machine the same way and undertake the Windows deployment. We did the scripted installation. The tool helped us deploy custom software for specific departments. We also did Windows updates with the product. 

We like the tool's most features. It is a straightforward tool that is easy to use. 

We had issues with the tool's support. We are a Dutch firm and everything has to be in Dutch. We were not able to do the alerts. You were required to tweak them a lot to get them in the language that you preferred. The solution's support depended on the person that you got online. Sometimes, the response was fast and other times you needed to wait a long time. The support also depended on the levels of support that you had requested. 

I have been working with the solution for 10-15 years. 

I would rate the product's stability an eight out of ten. 

The tool is perfectly scalable. 

When we setup the product, a technical engineer from Dell supported us. I am not sure if there is the same level of support these days. 

The product is reasonably priced. 

I would rate the product an eight out of ten. I find the product very useful and helpful. The tool has everything like Mobile Device Management that is needed to service a company. The tool has communities where you can seek help. You can visit their support site for technical support. You can also avail support through settings. 

We use KACE for patching. 

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

I've had some issues with patch catalogue, which seems to have expired. Quite a few people have reported that they are struggling with it.

I have been using Quest KACE Systems Management for three months now.

The program is very stable.

We only have three people using this program in our company, but I believe it is scalable. I don't think we will increase our usage soon, though.

The technical support is good.

The initial setup was quite complex and I really struggled. It took me around 15 minutes to complete the setup, because it was a trail-based version.

I rate this program an eight out of ten. I will recommend it to others because it is simple and understandable.

My primary use case of this solution is to help us obtain accreditation in the UK of Cyber Essentials Plus. It is a program that is sponsored by the UK government which encourages UK companies to obtain a certain level of cyber-security within their cyber environment. The Quest KACE product helps us get an overview of all IoT(Internet of Things) devices that are accessing our environment.

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

I think it should have the ability to have the applications automatically update. It would be really helpful if this would override what the user might choose to do.

The initial setup was straightforward. There were some excellent step-by-step instructions sent to us. The instructions were also accompanied by videos, which were very informative.

It was a very attractive price. This is a huge feature of this product. If you would "credit score" this product versus others out there on the market, this one has a very attractive price.

We also looked out VMware Airwatch and MobileIron. But, we chose KACE. It just made more sense for us.