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AJITHH G - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Engineer at AppSmart
Reseller
Useful for monitoring, logging purposes, and mounting configurations
Pros and Cons
  • "The monitoring features are the most valuable. We have seen a major benefit from that so far."
  • "There could be more integration of SIM in the solution."

What is our primary use case?

We mainly use SCOM for logging purposes and mounting configurations. It alerts us when any services have a problem. It really depends on the products that are being used in the backend. There are different kinds of virtual machines and different kinds of environments like VMware and Hyper-V.

One customer deploys the solution on a hyper conversion input service, and two customers deploy the solution on-premises.

The solution could be used in any sized company. It's been used in the manufacturing, IT, and telecom sectors.

What is most valuable?

The monitoring features are the most valuable. We have seen a major benefit from that so far.

What needs improvement?

There could be more integration of SIM in the solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

Previous versions were not very stable. There were some issues while we were configuring the hierarchy.

Buyer's Guide
SCOM
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about SCOM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is of medium difficulty.

How are customer service and support?

Overall, support is not great but it's not bad. Microsoft's standard support is good. Sometimes, there aren't specific engineers who can help us with SCOM when we have an issue. A knowledge-based environment would help us more.

I would rate technical support 3.5 out of 5.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have also used ManageEngine OpManager to monitor the environment and Solar Wind. 

They don't support integration of multiple products. Considering the stability and scalability, Microsoft is a better option. It depends on the use cases.

How was the initial setup?

I would rate the initial setup 4.5 out of 5.

It's a complex process. When we deploy any other solution, it comes with a built-in SQL database. With SCOM, it was more of a complicated process.

If it doesn't have a hierarchy, then it takes about one hour. It's a standard installation. If there are hierarchies, like multiple site deployments, then it would take about three to five hours.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't know the exact cost because it's managed by our sales team, but Microsoft is on the higher side.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate SCOM as 8 out of 10. 

It depends on how the customer is using the product. My advice is that if you're interested in SCOM, you need to consider the environment, the business case, and what kind of business you are running.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Vocational Coordinator at UMMS
Real User
Logical free solution to leverage for management packs
Pros and Cons
  • "Being able to make and customize management packs and send out notifications is very valuable."
  • "Third-party tools have had to be created to make SCOM management pack creation more efficient and effective. However, this weighs down the application as it just adds a resource requirement, which is ballooning the size of the necessary storage and all that for essentially substandard components."

What is our primary use case?

We leverage every component of SCOM. The solution uses monitoring mechanisms to send alerts and notifications for down systems or problematic trouble issues. We use it for all of that. We have dashboards up, customized management packs, and monitors for both Windows and Linux. We use SNMP traps to pull in information forward network devices that are in the enterprise. We use it for everything.

What is most valuable?

Being able to make and customize management packs and send out notifications is very valuable. That's the bread and butter of the solution. That's what we use it for.

What needs improvement?

The SCOM dashboards have room for improvement. They've been improving them in iterations slowly and surely. Third-party tools have had to be created to make SCOM management pack creation more efficient and effective. However, this weighs down the application as it just adds a resource requirement, which is ballooning the size of the necessary storage and all that for essentially substandard components. I would suggest either using the dashboard and management packs to their full potential, so we don't have to go out to third-party vendors to install additional features, or allow them to be truncated during installation so that we're not wasting resources.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've worked with SCOM for about ten years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SCOM's stability is pretty solid. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SCOM has been scaling pretty nicely for us, which is what it's intended to do. We do have plans to increase usage. It's constantly evolving, developing utility. All new systems go onto it. It's not shrinking anytime soon.

How are customer service and support?

The tech support is good. Our company has Premier Plus in place. They're responsive.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

This is the only one I've used.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex. It requires Microsoft's support in many cases. It takes about a month or two to get SCOM up and running and fleshed out so that you have all the configurations. For example, when you're migrating from '12 to '19, you have to look at everything that's already in place and then try to migrate it. Whereas if you're starting fresh, then you have to start one at a time looking at each component and building it out. They're too different. 

What about the implementation team?

We deployed in-house, but we did leverage Microsoft.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is provided by Microsoft for free but there are operating costs. Those would be the many hours necessary to prune it. We have a contract for support. If that didn't exist, then the cost of the solution would include paying for support. Because it is a complex system, I will contact support for assistance. I also have the general resource requirements just to have the systems up. This includes several databases and front-end servers running. However, added together, all of these costs are minimal.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate any other options before landing on SCOM. The reason for this is that SCOM is a Microsoft solution and we have a significant Microsoft presence in our environment, it's actually provided gratis by Microsoft, so it was just a logical utility to leverage.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others looking into implementing this product is to make sure that you have a solid understanding of SQL commands, statements, databases, and Visual Studio. This will help you understand how to make the management packs more effective. I rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SCOM
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about SCOM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
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Philippe Roussel - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Manager at Inetum
Real User
Top 10
A stable solution with adjustable tuning issues that can be resolved
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution primarily drives system information, and I believe it works fine."
  • "Regarding certain issues in the solution, it can be difficult to generate reports if we have a program that is not user-friendly for reporting. While this is not necessarily negative, we may need to use another solution."

What is our primary use case?

We use this tool to patch laptops, conduct an inventory, and gather information about our systems. We use SCCM and another solution around SCCM to gain a complete view of our laptops and desktops.

What is most valuable?

We use the solution for deployment purposes, including deploying solutions, new products, applications, and patch solutions.

The solution primarily drives system information, and I believe it works fine.

What needs improvement?

Regarding certain issues in the solution, it can be difficult to generate reports if we have a program that is not user-friendly for reporting. While this is not necessarily negative, we may need to use another solution. We can explore alternatives through certain products from Azure, but it may still be difficult to generate reports without specific development.

In short, I feel the reporting feature of the solution needs to be better since it is very difficult to have a report of the best quality.

For how long have I used the solution?

We use the SCOM solution in our company and provide it to clients, if possible. Our role is to build a solution architecture for our clients. While SCOM is not our primary product, we have been using it for ten years, and it remains the latest solution to expedite our system information.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I think the solution is stable, but we had to meet with our engineer to address some tuning issues. When the solution gets appropriately tuned, it is a good solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have worked with four big international companies using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

My team uses Microsoft support to assist our clients, but we have a specific link with Microsoft to provide support for certain clients.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I work with solutions like Microsoft SCCM and Microsoft Intune.

How was the initial setup?

We use the solution in our work for a big company, but we are rarely involved in the setup of the solution. The company uses and upgrades the solution but is not typically involved in new installations.

I work for a big company and thus have access to a certain piece of system information that can be considered big and vast. Due to its size, we have separated the activities, primarily because there are many activities. Also, we have many engineers working on the solution.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend others to try this solution. Also, I rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Hussein Taha - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Enterprise System Administrator at Nafeza
Real User
We can monitor all the VMs in our environment and access full insight reports for all the VMs, but the solution is not stable
Pros and Cons
  • "SCOM has helped us to monitor all the VMs in our environment, especially the Windows servers."
  • "The GI is difficult to work with and the reporting servers are also difficult."

What is our primary use case?

SCOM is used as a monitoring solution for managing Windows-based IT infrastructures within our organization.

How has it helped my organization?

SCOM has helped us to monitor all the VMs in our environment, especially the Windows servers. This is our scoop, we monitor all the VMs that have OS Windows servers. The best part of SCOM is that we have a major comeback with it and can apply something that could act as a counteraction. Once an action appears, there is a counteraction in order to avoid any interruption to the service. This is the best way the solution has improved our organization.

What is most valuable?

The solution provides a full insight report for all the VMs in our environment. SCOM also tells us whether the VMs are healthy or not, as well as provides brief information about the management console in each site and the agents under these management consoles.

What needs improvement?

There is no room for update or enhancement in SCOM because Microsoft has retired it as an on-prem solution and moved it to the cloud. The current version will be the last on-prem given Microsoft's push to move all their solutions to the cloud.

The GI is difficult to work with and the reporting servers are also difficult. Another dimension that makes SCOM difficult is the number of components. The reporting server, the database, and the two components of the database (operational and warehouse) are all difficult to work with. This is why SCOM is a difficult solution to implement, configure, and troubleshoot.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is not very stable. Sometimes we find alerts in the event viewer that we don't understand. we have to spend hours trying to figure out what the events mean. Sometimes we have to request support from Microsoft engineers, who may take a long time to respond, and the case may take longer than expected to resolve.

I give the stability a six out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. We currently have six members, but we should add management consultants depending on our workload. We need to go through the Microsoft documents first. We need to calculate and prepare for our Virtual Machine (VM). We need to identify the storage, memory, and CPUs for our VM. This is important because we don't want to lose our solution or have bad performance. A bad performance will affect our environment. We also need to make sure the latency is less than 12 milliseconds. This is important because the management console needs to communicate with the database. If the latency is more than 12 milliseconds, it will affect the outcome of these records and the management console will be unhealthy.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously we used SIM by SolarWinds.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is difficult to implement and troubleshoot. Sometimes we need the prerequisites for a task, but we encounter issues that we don't understand or that are not reasonable.

The first time we deployed the solution, there were three of us, but now that we have more experience, we can do it on our own without the requirement of additional people. 

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

What was our ROI?

We have not seen a return on investment. We have a lot of latency issues with the solution that is related to the network coverage between the sites. We have ten data centers using a management console but our database is centralized in the capital of Cairo. 

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a six out of ten.

First-time users of SCOM need to be well prepared. There should not be too many management consoles. The SCOM gateway can be used as a way to transfer data to the management console, and the management console will have low latency so it can act as the management console for these sites. It will handle the queuing for the data through the centralized database. This is the best practice given to me by the Microsoft team because of an issue that occurred in our environment that took some time to be resolved.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Mohammed Badowi - PeerSpot reviewer
IT system manager at NBO
Real User
Feature rich, scalable and user-friendly, but open-source products are free and do the same thing
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a user-friendly product that requires almost no maintenance."
  • "It would be a much better product if Microsoft provided management packs with the product."

What is our primary use case?

We are using SCOM for service monitoring integrated with some third-party dashboard. It is our end-to-end service monitoring solution.  

What is most valuable?

The feature I like most about SCOM is that it is easy-to-use. I find it very user-friendly. I also like the knowledge base which it has. You can find the resolution to questions or issues directly within the SCOM itself. It will alert you with a recommendation of what you need to do at the same time. This sort of self-diagnosis or prompting is one of the great values you get from SCOM compared to other solutions.  

What needs improvement?

The dashboard is one place where the product can be improved. We finally needed to get a customized dashboard from the NOC (Network Operation Center) team. The dashboard that was included with the product just did not do what we wanted it to do.  

I am not sure, exactly, what should be included with future releases. There are already a lot of features there in the product. The main thing I can suggest is that Microsoft also provides management packs for monitoring third-party products with the product. If that were included with SCOM, that would make the product even greater. For example, to monitor an Oracle database, you need to look around to get a management pack separately. It could just be included instead.  

You can monitor any non-Microsoft product with Microsoft SCOM if you have the management pack for that product. You need to purchase that management pack. You can get them sometimes from Microsoft and other times from the third-party vendor.  

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) from Microsoft for almost five years.  

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

From the time we did the configuration, the product has been stable. It may be different in other cases. It really depends on the design you implement. If you want to add functionality, you can add it. It depends on the business. If you want Apache or you want a singular-server implementation you configure it as you need to. If it is configured correctly it should remain stable.  

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SCOM is scalable. We do not have an issue with the number of users or with the number of machines and the devices we are monitoring. It does not have any issues in that respect.  

We support the product with a system admin team which is the only group that deals with SCOM directly for maintenance issues. Right now, the team is only five people. Even there, these five people do not use the product on a daily basis. The configuration is something that you do one time if you do it correctly. There is monitoring, which is done by the NOC team and that is ongoing. 

In case some maintenance is required like a change in business requirements or addition of services, then the SCOM team will do it. This does not happen all the time. But monitoring is done by another team separate from the maintenance.  

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not had to use the Microsoft support since maybe four or five years ago. It was during the time we were doing the implementation. We had a few calls with them — maybe two or three calls — for some configuration-related questions. That was all. It was handled efficiently and we got the answers we needed. But we have not had to use the support team since.  

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have had the opportunity to use other products in this category. Not at the current organization, but in other organizations before this. One was WhatsUp Gold. If I were to compare these two solutions, SCOM has more advantages and is really the better product.  

How was the initial setup?

It is actually pretty simple to do the setup. I think it really can be implemented on the same day that you get it. You can do the complete installation and configuration in one day.  

But adding services, that takes time. It depends on the business and your scope, what you need to add, what you need to configure when it is added. I consider that as a separate part because it is not the fault of the product that you have additional requirements. The additions made for service monitoring depends on the customer, the requirements that they have, and what they need to add.  

What about the implementation team?

The installation was done by our company with an in-house team. We did not need help from the vendor or an integrator except for some basic questions.  

We do maintenance as required also in-house and we handle the upgrades from one version to another version. All those maintenance details are managed by the system admin team.  

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If you compare the pricing of SCOM to some solutions now available — like ManageEngine — I think it is a bit more expensive. But at that price, you get more in Microsoft System Center. SCOM is a bundled product, it is not only SCOM. You get a complete suite of Microsoft System Center products. There are five products in the bundle. There are no additional costs for SCOM itself and everything is included in the license. The only additional costs that you may have is in getting management packs.  

On the other hand, open-source solutions are available that are mature or maturing and they are very good. They may pose a better solution because they are free.  

What other advice do I have?

My advice to people who are looking for a solution like SCOM would actually be to advise them to move from licensed software to open-source. You can go to Nagios or most other open-source products and they do the same thing as SCOM. There is no need to pay additional money to get the same services.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate SCOM as a seven-out-of-ten. It is a good product, but so are the free open-source products it competes with.  

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Amar Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Monitoring Systems Engineer at Monster Worldwide
Real User
Helpful in monitoring web servers, database servers and alerts
Pros and Cons
  • "The ease of deployment, especially on Windows platforms, is valuable."
  • "The solution can be improved by expanding to cloud usage."

What is our primary use case?

It is used for monitoring on-premises servers, and we deploy it on-premises.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution helped monitor web servers, database servers and alerting, which is very useful.

What is most valuable?

The ease of deployment, especially on Windows platforms, is valuable.

What needs improvement?

The solution can be improved by expanding to cloud usage. Currently, a lot of people do not use SCOM because it is limited to strictly being on-premises, and many organizations are moving to the cloud.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for approximately 11 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. It has an excellent capacity to monitor 100 to 1,000 servers, based on how the SCOM servers are provisioned. You can easily scale up your monitoring capacity.

How are customer service and support?

I rate my experience with customer service and support a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, and only one person was required for deployment and maintenance.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. The solution is good but can be improved by adapting to a cloud environment. I advise users considering the solution to use it if they have on-premise servers and more of a Windows-based environment.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Managed Services - System engineer at Brennan IT Pty Ltd.
MSP
Top 20
Provides excellent auto-remediation features and is the cheapest product in the market
Pros and Cons
  • "The product’s auto-remediation feature helps with automation."
  • "Application monitoring must be improved."

What is our primary use case?

One of our customers is an Australian delivery company. They use SCOM to manage their servers, hardware, applications, NAS devices, hand devices, hypervisor, and virtualization environment. Another customer uses SCOM to monitor their clients. They have more than 3000 Windows and Linux servers.

What is most valuable?

The product’s auto-remediation feature helps with automation. It is very good at monitoring Microsoft Stack.

What needs improvement?

Application monitoring must be improved. The product must provide support for monitoring virtualization. It is a complex tool. It is not easy to configure it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability a seven out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the product’s scalability five out of ten. Scalability must be improved. The solution is suitable for enterprise businesses.

How was the initial setup?

I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. From planning to POST checks, the whole process takes one week.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is the cheapest product available in the market. I rate the pricing a one out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I work for a managed service provider. We provide services for SCOM. We provide in-house support and services to our customers. Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Lead specialist at OKCIUS (Pty) Ltd
Real User
Good reporting and flexible customization, but application monitoring needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "This solution helps our application teams by allowing them to drill further into issues and perform a root cause analysis."
  • "The end-user components, including the dashboards, the administration console, and the web console, need to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for infrastructure monitoring and application monitoring. Predominantly, it is for infrastructure monitoring in the Microsoft space.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution helps our application teams by allowing them to drill further into issues and perform a root cause analysis. This is possible because we first built out the monitoring platform and made sure that all of the components were being monitored. Then, we created a distributed application view, which is a drawing of all of the components being monitored for each application. This is what we then provide to the application teams. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the reporting, and the customization is quite flexible.

What needs improvement?

The end-user components, including the dashboards, the administration console, and the web console, need to be improved.

I would like to see more focus on application monitoring in the next release of this solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

Approximately seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is pretty good, although it depends on the infrastructure. We normally end up having issues with hypervisors and SQL servers, but it comes down to how those platforms are being administered, as well. From an application point of view, this solution is pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable and very good in terms of availability and performance capability. It is very flexible, but you need to have your training properly done beforehand. If so, then it will benefit you a lot. If you need to expand at a later stage then you can do that as well.

We currently have more than three thousand users that vary from managers to developers and engineers.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have never had to contact technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Personally, I have used an in-house solution and I have used SolarWinds before. It was not a case of switching because these were with different companies.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup depends on the size of the environment, but on average, it will be more complex than straightforward.

The complexity comes from understanding the various components that contribute to monitoring a specific item on the server. First, you have to understand the Management Pack. Then, you move on to the workflows, and this leads to understanding the rules and monitors. There are bits and pieces that you need to understand in order to make it work properly in your particular environment. This will further depend on things like whether you have restrictions in place, or whether the networking is good or bad. All of these things play a role.

While the deployment time varies depending on the environment, on average, deployment takes about five months.

What about the implementation team?

All of the companies that I have worked for have handled it internally.

One person is suitable for deployment, although this again depends on the company and the environment. If one person is in charge of the SQL environment and the hypervisors then they can do it alone. Obviously, if other departments are in charge of these things then they will need to be relied upon, but generally, it can be done with one person.

With respect to maintaining the solution, a team of three people, with two juniors and one senior, might be ideal.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If you have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, then this is part of the agreement.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to anybody looking to implement this product is to plan properly.

Overall, this is a good solution, but there is room for improvement in application monitoring and the dashboard.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SCOM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SCOM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.