ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP [EOL] Reviews

We are one of the first users of the cloud base. Mainly it's to manage Windows 10 endpoints. The main challenge for us back then was we had Intune. However, it's not granular enough to some extent, and it doesn't do third-party application updates. 

We use Desktop Central to do the third-party application updates and also to deploy the configurations, which will be quite difficult to be done on Intune to some extent since, sometimes, we need to do a registry hack, et cetera. Therefore, doing it on Intune will be a big challenge. Since our environment is very dispersed across the globe, we use Desktop Central.

The endpoint management is great. They wouldn't be able to do everything that Intune can do, or even AirWatch, et cetera; however, it can manage the Windows 10 endpoints very well. 

It's very good for managing cloud endpoints in particular. Our machines are Azure AD joined, which means they're 100% cloud-based, and under that current situation, Intune can't do everything, and Desktop Central complements Intune.

The setup is straightforward. 

Support is very helpful and responsive. 

It's stable. 

The solution can scale. 

There have been a few bugs.

I would hope there would be a direct integration to the various cloud solutions, like Intune. Right now, ManageEngine is a separate solution. It doesn't integrate with Intune, AirWatch, or MobileIron in the cloud. It doesn't have this integration with the respective cloud solutions, and if it could have this kind of integration, it would be better. I wouldn't deploy ManageEngine as a standalone since it works better as a compliment rather than an entire solution.

I've been using the solution for two years. 

It is a stable product. 

The management and deployment parts are stable. I do not find a lot of bugs. There were maybe one or two bugs, and last year, there were some security issues with the product. If I were to re-recommend the product, then that's something that I would look into. It's becoming a very popular tool, so we need to be assured that it will remain stable.

As a cloud solution, it is quite scalable. 

Previously, we had 3,000 people using it. 

It took me some time to learn the tool. However, the support is awesome. Whenever I've met with some problem, I will ask the support. They will usually either give me a quick answer, or if not, they do always get back to me pretty promptly. I would say it's one of the best support that I have faced.

We were on NCCM; however, when we get to the cloud, NCCM is not sufficient. Therefore, we got Intune. That said, Intune wasn't enough. It doesn't have a lot of features that we need. That's why we went ahead with Desktop Central. Desktop Central complements Intune, and we use both to manage all our assets.

The solution is straightforward to set up. 

The deployment only took a month or two. 

We do not need a big technical team to maintain the solution. I am the one who maintains it, and I handle the tasks alone. 

I did not use a consultant or an integrator.

I did it on my own since the tool was quite easy to use. We went through the pre-sales team. Pre-sales did show us a few features, however, most of the tasks were done by myself. I didn't have to buy any professional services or anything like that.

While I cannot remember the exact cost, we chose the highest license level. We pay monthly per device. 

I'd rate it three out of five in terms of affordability. They are not the cheapest, however, with what they offer, it is a good value. 

I'd recommend the solution to others.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

Our use cases for ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP are for configurations, updates, patching, and automating the patching. It is easier based on the rings that we want to update. It is much easier to update the deployment settings so any critical patches can get automatically updated. Certain patches can go through a particular sequence or test and be approved and also for software configurations or self-service portals for certain software or software license management. We also use it for MDM. MDM plays a good role with modern management and other aspects. That's a really good feature. Also the system tools are easy to manage and to maintain on any computer.

The other good aspects of it are its system tools. It comes with system tools which are really helpful for easily managing and maintaining the computers. We can schedule system activities, defragment activities, or any other sort of system maintenance activities quite easily. And then the other elements with the tool are deployment. So for any bare metal deployment where we have Dell or HP, we can have a golden image that can be deployed to multiple machines in bulk. That's another aspect of it.

One important element I would like to highlight is about the endpoint security aspects of it. We do have a good visibility and transparency on the vulnerability, threats and patches, any zero day updates. We can mitigate such risks quite easily with vulnerability management as part of the endpoint security, and the solution does have device controls. So any USB or any devices that may be be vulnerable can be protected. We have device controllability in the application solution.

It also has application controls. So any white listing, black listing or gray listing audit or enforcement mode can be easily achieved with the application manager. And I reckon we have two more. One is on the browser security, because a lot of vulnerabilities are happening based on plugins, add-ons, extensions, browser extensions, and other things. It also allows for managing multiple browsers in one go and keeping it up to date and making sure it's all protected. The bit locker management is the other element that's part of the solution.

So the whole suite is handy.

I have it both on-premises and cloud because as part of my day to day job, I need to demonstrate both based on the customer needs and requirements. So we have the SaaS solution and also we have it as an on-premises solution. The on-premises solution is preferred mostly by very security conscious organizations, but the majority are also opting for maximum security. The majority are going for SaaS based endpoint management and security solutions.

One important thing it does is protect the customers' security forte - making sure all the work station server applications are up to date and patched to mitigate any risk. That's one key element. The other one is about reducing the efforts involved. Say a customer, or we, spend quite some time doing this task, the effort has been reduced quite a lot and the efficiency improved significantly, and it saves a lot of money. The rate of return on investment is quite high with this.

The features that I have found most valuable are the threats and patches element of it. We have done quite a lot of testing compared to other vendors with identifying the vulnerabilities. This means a lot more accuracy in terms of the patches and making sure it's all up to date. It also identifies any sort of misconfigurations and zero day updates and if there is a fix, we can easily update it. Even if there is no fix, if there is some sort of manual resolution that is available based on certain vendors' updates, that is also available and quite handy. So engineers don't have to spend a lot of time identifying a resolution for a certain vulnerability. That is quite handy.

Another important element is the cool features with the repository. We use quite a lot of script. So the application comes with configuration management. So by default it has quite a lot of templates which make the job much easier. On top of that, if we need any custom scripts, we can put it all in a single repository and access them when we need it to use them.

The tool is pretty intuitive and it's not too cumbersome. It's not too complicated. Anyone with a basic knowledge can easily get on with it and get their hands dirty.

I am an advocate of the solution, but at the same time, I'm also a devil's advocate. Although they say it is an enterprise solution, we don't have 24/seven human support. All we have is only 24/five support available from the vendor. But in terms of 24/seven, they do have a community support and an online chat bot and other things, but the human support is only available from them 24/five. That is one area that the vendor can improve.

In the next release or next update, they literally started supporting quite a lot of environments, so they do support all flavors of Windows, Macs, Linux and other platforms. I would like to see more in the SaaS tool. The one that is missing is the software deployment for Linux platforms. And I reckon that's already in the next release, but if they can speed it up that would be good.

I am one of the distributors for ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP for the New Zealand market and not just a partner distributor, I'm also a user for the solution because we use it for internal purposes, as well.

As an application by default, it's not a hundred percent bulletproof. Some vulnerabilities will always be there, but what I like about the application is that it is all transparent per ManageEngine''s security policy. It is pretty much transparent, available to all customers and any reported vulnerabilities get addressed accordingly. They also have the bug bounty program and the ManageEngine's security team is quite responsive in terms of any reported vulnerabilities with the tool. I've seen there are certain issues that got fixed in less than 24 hours towards any critical vulnerability.

ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is pretty easy to scale if it's on premises. We know about a real deployment in South Africa where they are managing about 53,000 devices in one single application server. That is one of the deployments I've heard in the solution for the desktop central endpoint management and security. But in terms of cloud, there is no limit at all - the scalability is quite easy. There is scalability on the SaaS based solution, too. There is no limit at all. So based on customers' needs, spending ability, and their requirements, they can scale it up.

Our clients definitely have plans to increase their usage in the future. I represent New Zealand as a Product Manager, so I see quite a lot of uptake in terms of security solutions, particularly from all segments, all verticals of our industry. I see the good aspects of ManageEngines. They provide free endpoint security management and security solutions for up to 25 devices. A lot of small businesses are quite comfortable and covered with the free solution. It has all the features. There is no restriction in terms of features as such.

But with respect to any organizations who have more than 25 devices that need to be managed, they are more than happy to pay for it because the investment that they're making, and the returns that they're getting, are significantly high and the value for purchases is quite huge. We are having a lot more conversations with a lot of customers across the mid-segment, big enterprises, a lot of government agencies, councils, central government agencies, and even the security agencies. We have quite a lot of inquiries around this tool. They are using it quite a lot.

Customer service is very knowledgeable. There is no doubt about it because ManageEngine's workforce has been built based to be 80 to 90% engineers and architects, mostly from technical. There is an area for improvement in terms of their customer service approach, when it comes to different zones or different types of customers they are dealing with. But they're quite prompt and they're very responsive and knowledgeable.

As a software distributor, we ourselves use quite a few other solutions as well, which are still on the cards for us to weigh. ManageEngine is quite easy to deal with and very easy and simple to manage compared to the other tools that require a lot more technical competency to manage and lot more time to be spent on them. So in that way, ManageEngine is very simple. We also take into consideration that although it is in one of the sweet spots where cost per device make ManageEngine ideal for enterprise, it may not be ideal for the MSP market because we don't have any kind of MSP monthly billing and things like that. They do have MSP solutions, but it's still not too welcomed by our MSP market because of the billing and pricing aspects.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's pretty easy. The deployment is quite simple. The application comes with a single packaged installation file by default with a post press database and a packaged installation. All you need to do is download the application and install it in the right spec server. You just need to have all the firewall configurations updated accordingly and the product is ready to go within an hour. And if it is SaaS based, it's much easier. It literally takes about five to 10 minutes to have the application spun up in our Australia data center or in US or in Europe based on the customers' data center cluster. It's literally less than an hour and a customer can start having their rings secured.

The number of people involved in the deployment depends on the organization. For us, it's literally just me. You can manage the aspects of it because once I update all the appropriate automation policies and stuff, then it is really simple to manage. But there are certain customers who work with a larger team. They have multiple policies that are designed for each and every department and business unit and business functions. So, for deployment, if a customer wanted to have it in their SQL environment, all they need is probably an initial assistance from a database administrator and some firewall assistance from network admin or firewall administrator and an application, a champion or an application or owner who can install the application and they can start using it right away. 

Literally in less than hour we can get the application up and running, if not even less time. If it's cloud it literally takes about 10, 15 minutes. If it is on premise, a similar time but if you have to customize the configuration based on multiple department functions, rings and other things, then it might take a bit longer to do the last mile configuration optimization based on each and every department's function.

Our customers have definitely seen some good returns on investment from using ManageEngine.

ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is very, very reasonable compared to the market based on multiple solutions that we review. ManageEngine sits in the easy to afford category for any organization, it's not too expensive and it's pretty affordable based on the organization's needs and demands.

There is just the annual subscription fee. The annual subscription comes with the default annual maintenance and support contract services. But there are some other people who don't have as much resources. They might seek out professional or implementation services if the customer needed additional services, and those are charged accordingly based on the scope of work involved and any training that's required. But most of the customers are quite comfortable and they get it all done by themselves.

My advice to anyone considering ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is to choose your data center right. It is easy to get carried away without knowing where we are setting up. By default, ManageEngine applies some intelligence based on the location IP address. It recommends the right data center to pick it up, but that's one important element. Another thing is that any customers who are using ManageEngine solution services can also subscribe to our cloud availability services, the status page. So we get to know if there is any maintenance and also keep an eye on the roadmap. We get to know what's happening, what's coming. If any major release is coming, the team keeps everyone updated.

The customer community support forum is quite responsive and very helpful, everyone helping each other. Different organizations put their challenges and some of their best practices out there so that other organizations with similar challenges can benefit. This a good aspect. I recommend to please be a part of the global community and we can help each other.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP the rating 8.5 to nine. The reason I'm not giving a 10 out of 10 is in terms of the pricing or the MSP customization and the RMM elements of it. If they had the pricing right for MSP, to make it monthly or very specific to the MSP market in Australia and new zone regions, then they would fulfill the whole cycle requirement.

This is a product that we have deployed and managed for clients with Microsoft environments, and we have also used it in-house.

I also use Manage Engine as an end-user. It is a robust and easy-to-use solution that can be used across many domains.

The interface is intuitive, easy to use, and has a low learning curve.

The trials give a good staging and opportunity for evaluation.

This really a great tool that works well both on-premises and in the cloud, with a nifty feature for demilitarized zone deployments.

The great thing about Manage Engine is that it is a suite of products that integrate well, building a robust ecosystem for individual use and for Managed Service Providers.

Some of the great features include DMZ deployments and Unified Endpoint Protection.

Not a product feature per se, but the support team across the different products is very helpful. We have had good interactions with them.

Since this is a suite of products, I do not depend on any single point on any one product.

In the Cloud platform, I very much like the alarms and how they easily centralize management.

In the Network and Server Management service, the remote capabilities of OpManager simplify management and it's a tool that our system administrator really relied on during covid restrictions, both for us and our clients.

Inventory Management is a challenge everywhere and the ITAM tool (Asset Explorer) is a fantastic tool.

There are great webinars and support training for partners and end-users.

The partnership models and subscriptions can be improved, as regional master resellers sometimes hog the space. But, the international teams are very helpful across their different domains from analytics to asset and infrastructure.

We have been using ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP for five years.

This is a very stable solution. I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.

This product is highly scalable. In terms of scalability, I would rate it a nine out of ten.

ManageEngine has great customer support.

We have experience with SolarWinds. It has a steep Learning curve and the price is a bit high. However, we still use it, support it, and resell it.

It is an easy and intutive setup.

Our in-house team was responsible for the deployment.

We have had a good ROI with this solution.

This product has an easy setup, good support, and a good price.

We evaluated Lepide, SolarWinds, and JumpCloud.

I haven't used this in a Linux environment so I cannot say how it compares with other Management Tools in that domain. But, assuming it's the same intuitive intelligence, this is a good product for MSPs.

It easily integrates with other tools and we are currently seeing how it works on cloud environments Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.

This is a product I will easily recommend and it is our leading solution for reselling and for Managed Services.

ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has different features and it uses one agent to execute the features of the application. In this case, the remote control, distribution software, deployment, patch management, and configuration in different systems. ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has multi-platforms. They have recently implemented new features, such as endpoint security that incorporates vulnerability management and browser security.

I have found ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has many different network issues. Additionally, they need to incorporate more features, they are lacking add-ons.

I have been using ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP for approximately three years.

The issue with ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is the support because this company has support from India and it is difficult to understand their English. It would be better if they had support in different languages.

I have used other solutions, such as Tanium.

ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is a less expensive solution than competitors in Latin America.

This application has a web console, and this console show only the features acquired by the customer when they purchased the application. For example, ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has three versions, Professional, Enterprise, and UEM. The UEM is the most complete solution. However, when the customer needs a vulnerability manager, the customer has to purchase this feature. It's not incorporated in the more complete version, and the customer needs to pay to enable this feature.

I work in ManageEngine for three years and implemented ManageEngine Desktop Central for different customers from Mexico to Chile. I am implementing different solutions for ManageEngine. I have implemented ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP to approximately 20 customers.

I rate ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP a seven out of ten.

We had two Portuguese customers using ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP, and this solution was chosen because they needed a solution that deploys operating systems and to apply patches in their infrastructure.

One of our clients had approximately 600 computers and ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP made it much easier to install or reinstall operating systems with that amount of computers in their infrastructure. It was impossible for the IT team to install and reinstall or to change the operating system on all of the 600 computers. This solution managed to solve that problem for them.

The most valuable feature was the patching system to apply Windows or other programs and the ability to install operating systems in computers using the network. Additionally, it is easy to use.

The solution is able to install updates and manage them, such as when to deploy the patches to the operating system. The patches were used for the servers and the colleague's computers.

Since this is an on-premise solution we had to update it a couple of times, and because we needed to use a command line to the server, it was not very easy, at least at that time to update the solution. The cloud version of this solution does not have this problem, but on the premise version, it was fairly cumbersome to apply to the Desktop Central server. This process could be made easier. This was the only issue I found with my colleague.

I have used ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP within the last 12 months.

We had a couple of issues with ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP, but they were fully solved by installing a patch. This application and overall performance are good.

We have a single server to install operating systems and patches around about 600 computers. Before the solution was deployed, the requirements were calculated and it scales well. It's very important to choose the right requirements and to know how many computers are going to be used and processed with the solution before the deployment. The scalability is good.

We also contacted the support team from the Desktop Central in this case ManageEngine. I don't remember well what was the issue, but it was solved very well in a couple of days. The application worked as intended. We didn't have any other types of problems.

The technical support is very helpful and they were fairly fast to help us. Some of these issues happened when were deploying the application. We were training the customer at the time which caused some doubts about the solution, we didn't know how to answer. We went through support and they were very helpful and very fast to answer all our questions.

The complete deployment of this solution takes approximately one week. We have to install this solution and desktop service.

After we do the installation of the solution. We have to create an image with the operating system that we wanted. We have saved those images in the storage, and we're using the network booting process, preboot execution environment(PXE). We installed this image on those computers. 

We have thought most of the customers using three to four computer. We used two servers and two laptop computers from two colleagues of that company.

We have two people involved in the implementation and demonstration of the solution.

After the deployment, there is some maintenance that is necessary. Mainly to install and keep the solution updated on the Desktops Central server. Additionally, to keep up with the latest features and the latest patches for the application of the solution itself.

When we sold the solution to one customer, we found out the customer found out that one of their requirements was not being solved because the license only applies to five computers.  We all thought at the time the current license that the customer bought covers the 600 computers because of this problem, the license model could be explained better and could be further improved. 

It was something that the customer thought he was buying and we did as well. When we start to work with the solution, we found out that only five machines or 10 machines had that license, and not the 600. The price ended up being a bit expensive because it didn't cover the entire part of computers that the company originally thought.

My advice to others before installing or deploying the solution is to keep in mind it is very important to make sure that the license covers all the customer needs and to know what are the requirements. The customer needs to choose the correct license, hardware, and software for their environment.

I rate ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP an eight out of ten.

We are using ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP to connect remotely to the user's systems and create users using AD.

We are in the process of upgrading the solution to the cloud.

ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has helped the way our organization functions. For example, if we need the user to reset or unlock their account, we can ask the user to reset or unlock the account on their side or register the other users for the self-service portal. This has reduced the number of calls we receive from users wanting their accounts to be reset, they can do it themselves.

The solution is easy to understand. For example, when you remoting to the user's system, you don't have that option to only log in. On this product, you are connecting to the user's computer, it prompts you for what you want to do. You can select that you want to assist the user. The user on the other side will receive a prompt stating that there is someone trying to connect to your system, they can accept or decline the connection. Overall, the solution is easy to connect to the user's system.

You can't go straight to the system and do whatever you want. You must first receive authorization from the user before connecting to the system.

When there is a new user at a store, for example, you have to create it in the ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP AD but the process could be better. They call us with the user's information but if it was possible for them to populate the information when they log the user on IM, and when clicking on ADManager in the system, the information could populate there. We would then only have to add a little more information which would save time.

If you are clicking on the OU of the store, you should be able to choose which store you want to add that user to, and the information should populate right through. There are some features that are not going through. For example, if the user is a cashier or a sales person and as soon as you set the information it can populate automatically. This would limit the need for additional inputting or configuring the information user.

I have used ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP within the past 12 months.

The solution is stable.

ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is scalable and is easy to do.

We have a lot of people using the solution. We plan to use this solution more in the future.

My company did use a solution previously.

The first time the installation was done it was confusing because I was not used to that product. However, after two to three days, I understood a little bit and then became very easy. It was difficult too because we were using AD separately from the server and but it is included in the one product, it's not separated anymore.

In my group, there are nine of us, and I am a service desk analyst. Since we were the first ones who receive the training we were creating the users on our site for our company. They sent us some documents to check before they trained us so that if we have any problems we can follow the documents. We started on Monday and they sent us the documents on Friday. The process did not take too long.

I rate ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP a ten out of ten.

My primary use case of this solution is for patch management policies, buying policies for users, and doing unique control and find for controlling assets.

This product's most valuable feature is batch management. This feature looks after threats and abilities, making sure the environment is safe. It has additional features like scanning vulnerabilities and making sure all the updates are implemented. What makes Desktop Central better than its competitors is the simplicity of its UI, which means you can build a huge enterprise in four to five days. You can also cover Microsoft and third-party in updates and management.

An area that could be improved is the licensing model for the OS deployment. In the next release, I would like to see some adaptation to Microsoft security policies. If Desktop Central could adapt these security policies and make sure they are being applied to clients and servers and so on, that would add a lot of value.

The stability is sometimes negatively affected by updates.

This product is very easy to scale. If you want to scale up, you need to buy a license file, and the system will take care of it. Scalability can be served with the enterprise, and you can get great value from the product.

The support team is responsive, but there is room for improvement.

The initial setup was very straightforward and simple, requiring only one person to cover it, and took five to six days. The dashboard provides simple training videos which allow you to master the product.

Having this product in place saves us time and money and reduces the number of people we need in each branch since everything is centralized. It also ensures that our system will be automated, updated, and tested without human intervention. The big ROI is that I'm getting a secure environment, which saves time and effort on dealing with disasters.

This product is very cheap compared to others. There are a lot of add-ons available, which means the product is very flexible.

I like this product, it's easy to manage, and it looks good. It also gives better values when it works with other management products, like the integrations control software, self-services, and so on. In my opinion, you need four to five people to manage the product. I would advise other users only to go with MSP if you are a service provider - other customers only need Desktop Central. I would rate this product as eight out of ten.