Nov 23, 2021
SCCM is ok when you have a bigger environment.
Microsoft Configuration Manager and BigFix compete in the system management solutions category. Microsoft Configuration Manager often appears to have an advantage due to its strong integration and patch management capabilities, especially within Microsoft-specific environments.
Features: Microsoft Configuration Manager provides capabilities for application deployment, patch management, and operating system deployment, praised for its centralized management console and ease of integration with other Microsoft products. BigFix offers multi-platform support, real-time patch management, and a single console for deploying software, recognized for its flexibility and efficiency in various operating systems.
Room for Improvement: Microsoft Configuration Manager could enhance integration with non-Microsoft environments, improve automation processes, and simplify its setup for new users. BigFix may benefit from pricing adjustments, enhancements in user interface elements, and smoother third-party integrations to maintain competitiveness.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Configuration Manager provides hybrid deployment options and extensive online support but faces criticism for inconsistent technical support response times. BigFix is known for solid customer service and thorough documentation, aiding users with clear setup guidance.
Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Configuration Manager can be costly, particularly for smaller businesses, yet the investment is justified for enterprises due to its automation and integration benefits. BigFix is competitively priced, especially when acquired with IBM bundles, and is noted for cost-saving benefits in server maintenance and effective patch management.
Everything we've gained from it makes my job easier day after day, and I see value in it as an engineer.
Microsoft Intune not only saves costs by reducing the number of personnel needed but also offers a comprehensive solution for managing laptops, applications, security, individual access, and enrollment.
With Microsoft Intune, tasks such as device provisioning, policy deployment, application delivery, and compliance enforcement require less manual effort than in more traditional management models.
With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these processes are automated and managed, reducing the time required by roughly 40 to 50 percent.
When a support ticket is submitted, it directly reaches someone with Intune support expertise.
When I contacted Microsoft, they had the same expertise, if not more, which is phenomenal because I felt heard and my problem was solved.
Sometimes, the support provided is excellent, and the representative is knowledgeable, while other times, the service needs improvement.
On a scale from one to ten, with ten being the highest quality, enterprise support provides timely responses, typically within four to eight hours.
Technical support from HCL is satisfactory unless there are customization requirements.
Whenever we need any kind of support, the BigFix team is present and available.
Their response time and first-level support quality need improvement.
For technical support from Microsoft, I would rate them a nine.
The scalability of Microsoft Intune is ten out of ten.
Ideally, we want to automatically segregate devices based on user properties like primary use, but currently, dynamic groups seem limited to device properties.
It supports organizations with 200 endpoints and those with more than 15,000 endpoints.
It supports approximately two to three hundred thousand endpoints, demonstrating significant scalability capabilities.
BigFix requires some minimum configuration requirements.
In our organization, which has grown by adding more endpoints, remote users, and hybrid devices, Microsoft Configuration Manager has managed to handle the increased workload without requiring major changes on our side.
The product is suitable for our size, handling 800 devices.
We have not experienced downtime, bugs, or glitches.
It appears Microsoft Intune undergoes changes without informing customers.
In my experience, Microsoft Intune is a stable platform as it is a cloud-based service, and updates are regularly delivered by Microsoft.
There were misconfigurations by our team rather than issues with the product itself.
Features like unlocking devices sometimes fail, and the support offered for other operating systems is insufficient.
There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now.
Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive.
Building a management console is quick and simple, taking only one to two hours for setup.
The problem was related to the hardware configuration and hardware specifications.
In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application control to allow or disallow certain applications from being executed on endpoints.
A better command line interface for Microsoft Configuration Manager would be an additional feature I would to see in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
I can suggest that Microsoft Configuration Manager should get the Autopilot feature because Autopilot is the main part of Intune, and nowadays everybody is using Autopilot.
Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager is a powerful and reliable platform.
Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs.
The Intune suite and add-ons, such as batch management and remote help, are costly.
It costs approximately forty euros per user per month.
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to SolarWinds, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
I rate the price for BigFix as medium, neither low nor high.
The cost is reasonable considering the enterprise-level features, but it scales depending on the number of managed devices and the inclusion of Intune for co-management.
The setup cost is considered sufficient.
The pricing for Microsoft Configuration Manager is okay for me.
Intune excels in configuration and compliance management for Windows 10, ensuring devices receive timely updates and adhere to organizational standards.
Dynamic groups allow us to set conditions for automatic membership, eliminating the need for user intervention or manual review and ensuring a seamless workflow.
Windows Autopatch is the most valuable because it removes the burden of patch management.
Patching is the most preferable feature that users choose BigFix for, making it a very important component.
The BigFix features that have proven most effective include inventory, software delivery, software distribution, software catalog, and both software and hardware management.
I use this mainly to capture inventory for IBM products, and as BigFix was part of IBM, it gets easily integrated with IBM solutions.
If I want to get a fetch report for anything, such as hardware-related issues or group policy-related issues, I need to fetch the report by using SCCM's scripting language and remediation part.
The most valuable features I find in Microsoft Configuration Manager are mostly patching, deploying software, deploying images, and running custom scripts.
In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Intune | 4.6% |
| Microsoft Configuration Manager | 7.2% |
| BigFix | 4.5% |
| Other | 83.7% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 192 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 62 |
| Large Enterprise | 186 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 30 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 12 |
| Large Enterprise | 68 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 20 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 13 |
| Large Enterprise | 69 |
Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service designed for device management, security, and compliance. It supports automation and facilitates endpoint management for Windows, iOS, and Android devices, ensuring data protection and efficient policy enforcement.
Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration with tools like Windows Autopilot to automate device setup and deployment. Integrated with Azure Active Directory, it enhances policy management while providing robust reporting and analytics tools for compliance tracking. Despite its intuitive interface aimed at simplifying navigation and device security management, there are challenges such as compatibility issues with Linux and Mac, limited policy support for Android, and demands for better third-party integration. It's widely used for both corporate-owned devices and BYOD scenarios in dynamic IT environments.
What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?In industries such as finance and healthcare, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure data protection and compliance with regulatory standards. Manufacturing sectors utilize Intune for managing a distributed workforce across global locations, while educational institutions employ it to secure and manage devices in learning environments supporting both students and faculty.
OVERVIEW:
HCL BigFix is a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) and automation platform that delivers secure, resilient operations by reducing risk, cost, and operational complexity across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments through a centralized control plane.
Built on a single-agent, multi-platform architecture, HCL BigFix unifies infrastructure security, endpoint management, remediation, and digital employee experience automation within a single platform, enabling IT Operations and Security teams to manage more than 155 million endpoints. As AI-driven vulnerability discovery accelerates through frontier models such as Mythos, HCL BigFix helps organizations reduce exposure with near real-time remediation, automated compliance enforcement, and continuous risk reduction. It integrates with leading vulnerability management solutions, including Tenable, Qualys, and Rapid7, and leverages 600,000+ out-of-the-box remediation Fixlets, 50,000+ compliance checks, and a proven >98% first-pass patch success rate to help organizations close the gap between vulnerability detection and remediation.
What are BigFix's key features?
Automated Patch & Vulnerability Remediation: Automates patch deployment and vulnerability remediation across workstations, servers, virtual machines, and cloud workloads using 600,000+ out-of-the-box remediation Fixlets.
Compliance Enforcement: Supports continuous compliance through 50,000+ compliance checks, automated policy enforcement, and prebuilt remediation content.
Enterprise Scalability: Manages and secures more than 155 million endpoints across over 120 operating system variants.
Centralized Endpoint Management: Delivers unified visibility and control across distributed environments through a resilient single-agent architecture.
Digital Employee Experience: Powered by AEX, HCL BigFix's agentic AI platform, enabling proactive monitoring, self-healing workflows, intelligent automation, and natural-language interaction.
What are potential benefits and ROI factors?
Reduced Cyber Risk: Near real-time remediation shortens exposure windows as AI-driven vulnerability discovery compresses exploitation timelines.
Lower Operational Costs: Consolidates endpoint management, security, and automation into a single platform, reducing tool sprawl and administrative overhead.
Operational Resilience: Maintains continuous compliance and policy enforcement across distributed environments.
Improved IT Efficiency: Automates routine endpoint operations and vulnerability remediation, reducing manual effort and accelerating response times.
Higher End-User Productivity: Resolves endpoint issues proactively to minimize disruption and improve employee experience.
Organizations across government, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, and other regulated industries use BigFix for endpoint management, patching, compliance, software distribution, and vulnerability remediation. Support for standards including SCAP 1.3 and NIAP makes BigFix well suited for highly regulated and public-sector environments.
Microsoft Configuration Manager streamlines IT management with features such as software deployment, patch management, and automation, centralizing operations for Windows environments. Integration with Microsoft products allows efficient oversight of workstations and servers.
Microsoft Configuration Manager provides comprehensive IT management, offering software deployment, patch management, and application pushing. Automation reduces manual tasks, ensuring consistency across systems. Centralized management enables standardized OS deployments, application updates, and configuration integrity. Integration with Microsoft products facilitates seamless operations, while hardware and software inventory, compliance reporting, and remote control functions enhance IT management. Users seek improvements in application deployment for those without deep scripting knowledge and desire better WSUS control, PowerShell and Intune integration, Linux compatibility, and user interface enhancements. Performance improvements are requested for remote user management and third-party application support.
What features enhance Microsoft Configuration Manager?Microsoft Configuration Manager is widely implemented in organizations to manage Windows workstations and servers. It is essential for deploying operating systems and applications, managing software updates, and conducting hardware and software inventories. The tool is crucial for endpoint and configuration management, ensuring compliance, and automating processes like patching and vulnerability management. Industries such as finance, healthcare, and education rely on Microsoft Configuration Manager to keep systems secure and operational, adapting it to address their specific needs and challenges in maintaining diversified IT environments.
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