System Center Reviews

System Center by Microsoft

Comments: For big companies and organizations this is one of the best for deploying and managing. Incident management and deploying systems over the network is very easy to monitor. Must have for any enterprise organization which have hundreds of services to manage. Deployment of systems and laptops is very easy handled through it.

Pros:

One of the best network management system which help my organization to grow and manage the network problem. There are lots of built-in reports to monitor. Great security features and easy to define roles. Top of the cherry is remote control and management. If you are able to learn UI then it is very easy to manage all products.

Cons:

There are some glitches while remote support. It is not a cheap one, products are expensive as compare to competitors. Bit slow as well in performance.

System Center allows for end-to-end device management and provides a wealth of actionable data.

Comments: System Center offers any business, regardless of its size and complexity a platform to manage endpoints consistently. For me, where it really shines is in the consolidation of various operational processes and the wealth of underlying data you get, which can easily be turned in useful and actionable information for not only technology teams, but the business.

Pros:

System Center gives us the ability to consistently deploy and manage both servers and workstations, as well as continuously monitor key indicators for executive reporting, like patch compliance, software deployment and inventory information, supporting risk and cost management decisions and empowering project teams to have a wealth of information about the environment at hand.

Cons:

System Center is very much a suite of components and adoption, as well as operational running, requires expertise, however this is a small price to pay for the capability of its integration of functionality and the data/useful information it provides.

System Center allows you to have a good vision of the IT equipment

Comments: it is difficult to keep software up to date without a dedicated product person

Pros:

System Center (now MECM) allows us to have machine compliance, and to keep our machines up to date

Cons:

System Center (now MECM) is a complete product, training will be required in order to master the product and deployment

This is one of the best software and OS deployment systems out there

Comments: Literally couldn't do my job without this application.

Pros:

I love how easy this product is to use. It is very intuitive and doesn't require any unnecessary steps to create a beautiful working operating system image.

Cons:

I wish there were more new features being added with the new versions. There is a very active and very large UserVoice out there for this app and it seems like their team only works on 1 or 2 at a time and there are HUNDREDS of requests out there for changes/adds/etc/

It is a fantastic and incredible tool for the administration of computers and servers

Pros:

- It can be unified with Active Directory and DHCP to locate any computer that is connected to the network. - You can deploy Windows desktop and Windows server updates automatically or manually. - You can implement any application or shortcut. - Most impressive is the ease with which you can implement operating systems through the network. - When you deploy an application, update or operating system, you can easily see the progress of the implementation. - Has a wide range of created reports. - Can generate Querys according to the need of the company. - SCCM has its own remote connection system that provides great help at the time of remote technical support. - You can set up an "SCCM server" or a "distribution point" in each location you need to avoid bandwidth consumption. - It has a great security to establish the differences between the roles of the different areas of the company that require the use of the tool. - You can use the LOG as they are very useful.

Cons:

- Microsoft System Center is a very expensive tool - It requires many pre requisites for the installation of the SCCM in a server. - The set-up requires many hours of work so that SCCM is 100% configured - The creation of additional reports is very complicated. - Generating Querys in SCCM does not have much documentation and is really difficult. - You really need to do a course to be able to use the tool. - Many errors of the tool are basic and do not show details. - It is complicated to verify the installation of Windows updates.

System Center by Microsoft Review

Comments: This product is great for companies and organizations that want to quick apply the fix, patches, and updates throughout thier server environment so they can maintain thier web traffic effectively and other business related issue they may want to revolve or enhance.

Pros:

One of the reasons why I tend use Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manage (SCCM) at ProfitSword is the ability to track network inventory, application installation and deploying updates and security patches across all of our Organization. what i like about SCCM is that it gives me the ability to take over our Microsoft SQL servers to implement security patches, and updates to our QA environment servers so we can quickly apply updates to our BI software and deploy the updates to production. Next best feature of system center is the ability to integrate with other Microsoft products to give us a fast and flexible updates to our servers at all times.

Cons:

One of the downside of SCCM is the average cost to run and maintain SCCM, which is usually not sold as bundle within Microsoft product, but it is a larger separate suite from Microsoft and it is primarily expensive since it is not a Enterprise product. I hope Microsoft to create an enterprise version of SCCM .

It's a great product and using it's full potential no doubt it´s a great Investment.

Comments: Peace of mind. Fantastic features and it's on the top of it's category.

Pros:

It's a great product and using it's full potential no doubt it´s a great Investment. I love the software delivery. Operative System deployment and software inventory. Super powerful and it worth the investment.

Cons:

One thing I specially don't like and I believe that is the reason why most of the companies buy this, it's how the software inventory is handled. When you scan a computer and set the scan to be repeated every day, obviously you need an exact number of equipment at any time. But when you change the name of a computer, you see two instead of one. There should be a better way to recycle computers without missing information.

Try managing 3000 devices without something like this.

Comments: We can manage 400 servers and 2500 desktops with ease.

Pros:

Automation and reporting for compliance. All Windows Updates are delivered and staged in a controlled and predictable fashion at scale. Machines obey the rules and report back compliance. This makes it easy to only worry about a few systems that are not well behaved. Same can be said of delivering applications, OS feature updates, and OS images. I can't imagine dealing with this many Windows systems without a tool like this.

Cons:

To deal with things at scale everything works with delays and over a period of time. This can sometimes make creating and testing changes difficult as it can take time for this to all work. All work is in the background and log analyzers are needed to understand what a client is doing if it is not working.

Fully Featured System Management Solution

Pros:

SCCM is a solid enterprise management solution for doing routine patching, monitoring, and reactive maintenance on enterprise PCs. The application is scalable in the sense that additional management servers can be created to address growth. Devices are monitored by agents that provide a basic heartbeat and basic device status information. Standard reports and queries are available out of the box.

Cons:

SCCM is a costly application both monetarily and in terms of the time overhead required to build, customize, and learn the application. Even though basic reports and queries templates exist, additional reports must be written from scratch. The software pre-requisites for installing SCCM are also substantial and more cost efficient with an existing MSDN subscription.

Great IT Management and Monitoring Tool

Pros:

It is a great management and monitoring tool that provides an opportunity to optimize IT assets. It provides different subscription plans, from small businesses, mid-market, to enterprise-level options.

Cons:

I did not find anything bad about this software, however, there is no free trial available.

Microsoft's complete package for Imaging, patching, app deployments, upgrades & more.

Comments: I feel that being a Microsoft product it is easier to integrate and maintain.
It is a complete package for maintaining OS, patching, security, apps, and images. Server and Workstations.
We have had few issues since setup. and I would recommend this even with a few drawbacks.

Pros:

We primary utilize this for Imaging (Win7 and 10), Patch deployments, Win10 Upgrade, App packaging and deployments. We previously used CA and RES AM so I have a lot of experience with these platforms. 1) Happy with the overall performance. Once SCCM is fully setup, it more a matter of maintenance. 2) App Packaging and deployment works well. Especially if you combine with the MS Powershell add-in. It does lack a few features Id really like to see. Some of these can also be found by finding useful 3rd party add-ins. 3) Reporting can be very thorough. The canned reports cover all the basics Ive needed. If you really want to dig in you can make your own reports. 4) Patching is straightforward. Since this is a MS product to MS OS there are no compatibility issues. Plus the SCUP product also from MS is still viable for 3rd party security updates from companies like Adobe. Comes in handy to deploy the latest Flash as an update, with the rest of the monthly updates.

Cons:

My main complaint is SCCM is slow. This is well known and unlikely to ever change. For example, MY second compliant is there are certain features and hooks that still are not in the product over its many years of life. For example you simply cannot stop or delete a job from the [deployment] list. You need to trace back to the app group, patch group, and/or collection, then find and delete the deployment. Lastly, I do have to say Im not fond of MS Cust Service on this. We have had some big issues and the resolution was slow to get to. Example, a situation where the Win10 Upgrades feature was broken, eventually there was a general bulletin, and their own Tech Support failed to notify us of this before that. Took 6 weeks to resolve.

System Center gives you all the tools you need to manage your enviroment.

Comments: The System Center Suite enables you to manage your environment from servers, backups, private cloud, endpoints, and even helps you manage it from a ticket/service management point of view.You can find all the tools you need to set up a decent service offering here. The overall functionality of the tools are really good and there is a reason this is a Industry standard go to application suite.

Pros:

The System Center Suite contains all the tools and software you need to run an IT department. You can either deploy only the products you need or deploy everything and link them all to work for you.

Cons:

Some of the suite products does take some time to get deployed and tweaked for your environment.

Microsoft System Center Service Manager

Comments: Little know Microsoft ships an enterprise class ITSM Help Desk tool with its System Center suite. It is built around the ITIL frame work and covers incident, problem, change, release, knowledge, asset and service management. It is really well thought out, if you think like Microsoft. It is not the easiest tool to navigate nor to customize. If you invest yourself it is capable of a serious amount of automation. I have a love hate relationship with it. Once you get it working it is really good, but it doesn't have the fullest amount of documentation and requires you to do a lot of self learning. For us it is worth the price. It is included in an enterprise agreement.

Pros:

It is full featured and tracks all of the ticket types we want to

Cons:

Complex, not well documented

We have used SCCM for 6 years to image computers and track requests for service.

Comments: Imaging computers, service request tracking, tier zero through three tech support, and accountability for time spent in effort.

Pros:

It can be integrated with other tools and resources used by our help desk people. It tracks the time spent on a given project, and the recording allows up to do a yearly review of where our time was spent, and identify big fixes that will make us more efficient.

Cons:

The base coding is old and clunky. It was compiled at the end of the last century. The shell around it is current, but limited do to this.

System Center

Comments: Excellent software for managing Infrastructure and workstations

Pros:

Microsoft have collaborated a good set of software. Allowing management of multiple systems within the system center group of software. It is easy to use and manage.

Cons:

If problems arise troubleshooting can be a problem. There are a lot of logs to look through, and in experience, MS support is required

Very Versatile

Pros:

Microsoft System Center is a platform for datacenter management. I have worked with several companies using this resource. It streamlines processes to save both time and money. It is a great tool.

Cons:

Unfortunately, this software can be expensive and therefore cumbersome to even a medium sized business.

Cool set of tools to manage both Cloud and On-Prem infrastructure

Comments: It brought order to our IT infrastructure

Pros:

System Center allows you to manage your IT infrastructure based both on-premise and in Azure. You can manage virtual machines (both VMWare and Hyper-V), public and private clouds, control configuration, update and monitor your environment.

Cons:

Some tools, like SCCM, can be a bit complex when you start working with these. Documentation is huge and it can be hard to find required information for non-experienced users

SCCM for Microsoft Systems

Comments: Image management and operating system set up with SCCM. We also do windows updates and application installations with SCCM. We have distribution points in our remote locations.

Pros:

Distribution points very useful and working good. DP's reduce network load.

Cons:

Support for non-Microsoft products is not very good.

System Center - WDS on Overdrive?

Comments: I would recommend System Center to any business or district with a large amount of Windows workstations. It works great for our staff who need to be able to install any application on their machine that they need.

Pros:

System Center is an excellent piece of software provided by Microsoft that runs as a virtual server in our rack. It has been extremely helpful in streamlining our process in which we push out applications. In addition, System Center also allows us to publish our own "app store" that allows our faculty to download what they want on their machines without needing admin access. It also handles all WDS functionality on top of everything else.

Cons:

It is very difficult to set up compared to a simple WDS server. We are still not configured fully after a couple months of tweaking with it. Perhaps we are doing something wrong, but it seems as confusing to configure as a domain controller.

System Center User Experience

Comments: Is a solution for device inventory.

Pros:

Devices are easy find. Users too. It comes with many good report.

Cons:

Reports are not too easy to modify. My opinion take a time to master this tool.

Huge product with tons of features that most users have no idea about.....

Comments: I have used System Center Configuration manager mostly for imaging and application deployment. When it is working, it is excellent. When not, it is a major headache.

Pros:

System Center has a veritable smorgasbord of tools that can be used for managing your IT infrastructure. Has support for virtual machines. SCCM (when configured correctly) is an excellent, though costly imaging solution and application deployment software.

Cons:

Tools are extremely complex for new users, and finding what you need in the documentation, online forums, etc. can be a daunting task.

my review for System Center

Pros:

can deploy any batch or application or a package on all machines in my domain without the need of being in front of this machine.

Cons:

reporting results is not reliable and not accurate.

Challenging to get set up

Comments: I was using System Center to configure some automated configurations for a K12 school system, including machine imaging and configuration. I spent many hours going through the setup process using some popular forum posts regarding the setup, unfortunately, I ended up giving up on the setup.

Pros:

I certainly was drawn to System Center for the functionality it could provide, and the feature set it included.

Cons:

The one drawback I experienced with System Center was the difficulty I had in getting it set up. Unfortunately some of the online forum guides were either not for the version I had, or the end goal was different from my goals. I was never able to get System Center set up the way I wanted and ended up giving up on it.

SCCM Great Way to Image A Computer

Pros:

I really like the ability to image a computer remotely. I also like the ability to see who was the last person to log into a computer, it really helps with tracking down a rogue computer.

Cons:

The learning curve with SCCM is pretty high and can take a while to learn how to use it.

We use the system center for deploying software to our corporate computers/users.

Comments: Automated updates of software, eliminating need to use outside or unsafe links for downloading and installation.

Pros:

New software and updates are pushed automatically through this system, with minimal action needed on the part of the user.

Cons:

Software or system updates can become "stuck" and will not install, requiring intervention from our IS department, or running repair software.