We performed a comparison between AWS CloudFormation and AWS Systems Manager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Configuration Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."For the price, the features included with Microsoft are appealing."
"Intune's feature that I have found most valuable is its auto-pilot feature."
"Its protection policies are most valuable. It protects mobile devices as well as individual apps. It is pretty scalable, and its documentation is also pretty good. It is also pretty straightforward to deploy."
"Intune provides full visibility into all active mobile device users. If their devices are noncompliant with our security policies, I have the flexibility to update them remotely."
"The device profiling which uses the official Outlook email enabled us to control the screenshot feature and prevent copying outside of the organization's application."
"The reporting and analytics features in Microsoft Intune have been a lifesaver."
"It is a stable solution."
"The solution is scalable. We currently have tens of thousands of users within our organization using the solution."
"Its ability to treat infrastructure's code is valuable. It makes things automatable and reproducible."
"Scripting does what we need to reinstall something from scratch."
"AWS CloudFormation has automated the resource-building process, thereby removing the scope of human errors. We can tag the resources which help the billing process."
"It allows defining the infrastructure as code using templates, which describe the desired state of the infrastructure."
"The nested stacks would be one of the more valuable features."
"I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. We use it every day."
"It is easy to work from the console and deploy new database services."
"There is a cost-benefit to using CloudFormation that comes about because of the automation that it provides."
"Systems Manager has a feature where it analyzes the logs and gives us a performance overview in the form of a graph. We know when it's taking up more resources and when there are spikes, so we can predict the usability."
"The solution is user-friendly"
"With AWS Systems Manager, our company can patch our systems directly from it, so we don't need to patch our systems manually."
"The solution's ability to scale is good."
"Has a variety of automation options."
"AWS provides Auto Scaling groups."
"When we do the automation in the cloud, we use the SSM agent. This helps us to test our automation and documents, and monitor the cloud."
"When somebody has a customized application or their own company's application, we cannot deploy that application."
"There could be more wizard-driven policy development or creation. Some of the policies can get quite complex. If they have a wizard that assists the administrators in creating the policy, that will be a great job."
"What would make this product better is adding more security policies and features in the next upgrade."
"They need to integrate more with security options."
"We only have major classifications for iOS and Android, but there are different brands that have different cycles of updates. If they can fine-tune it to make it more brand-specific, that would be even better."
"It would help if administrators could pinpoint the exact location of a stolen device to help law enforcement retrieve it and apprehend the suspect."
"There is no catalog for mobile access management (MAM) security."
"The product needs to upgrade itself when the server is overloaded."
"GUI could be improved by adding graphical components."
"The conditions that can be added in AWS CloudFormation are not as powerful as any programming language."
"AWS CloudFormation allows you to use the code templates written in JSON and YAML, but not directly in Python. Adding this feature would be beneficial."
"For a beginner, it's kind of difficult to set up. So, the user does need some knowledge in order to do it."
"If you are a developer or a more technical person, it's very difficult to learn the complete syntax or because CloudFormation includes a new way to write infrastructure code."
"As soon as they manage to parametrize the whole thing and to implement parameters at all levels, it will become automatically a lot more flexible."
"The solution needs to offer better support to other cloud vendors."
"What could be improved in AWS CloudFormation is its user interface, in terms of graphical design, I prefer WYSIWYG."
"We formerly used third-party products to analyze the log, give us information, and find bottlenecks. Systems Manager could provide more tools that conduct this analysis, so we don't have to do it ourselves."
"The AWS UIs are not the most intuitive. Also, the usability needs room for improvement."
"The current challenge is that we can't pull any incidents from other accounts."
"Additional features can be added as per customer requirements."
"Lacks sufficient integrations."
"The fact that AWS Systems Manager takes time to complete the patching process, makes it an area where improvements are required."
"AWS does not have EKS cluster backup."
AWS CloudFormation is ranked 8th in Configuration Management with 28 reviews while AWS Systems Manager is ranked 6th in Configuration Management with 7 reviews. AWS CloudFormation is rated 8.4, while AWS Systems Manager is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of AWS CloudFormation writes "Pretty easy setup with great automations for provisioning that save time and money". On the other hand, the top reviewer of AWS Systems Manager writes "Offers a variety of automation options; simplifies governance and administration ". AWS CloudFormation is most compared with Spring Cloud, Red Hat Satellite, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Microsoft Configuration Manager and Chef, whereas AWS Systems Manager is most compared with Microsoft Configuration Manager, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat Satellite, BigFix and Chef. See our AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Systems Manager report.
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We monitor all Configuration Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
