We performed a comparison between BMC Helix Discovery and ServiceNow Discovery based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two IT Asset Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."I've used other discovery tools, but I found BMC Helix Discovery to be more UI-friendly, and that's the most valuable feature of the solution."
"The solution is definitely useful."
"The speed at which it's able to collect a wide-range of information, then make it useful for you, like asset management, knowledge management, and incident management."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is easy to install and deploy."
"I like the artificial intelligence and machine learning that it uses in the solution. Because once the solution discovers all the assets, all the infrastructure, and all the dependencies between services, it learns how it works. So, it learns to predict when a problem is going to happen. It becomes predictive in an autonomous way."
"It is agentless, which means you don't have to install anything on all the different pieces of hardware that you are looking to discover."
"The most valuable feature of BMC Helix Discovery is it operates well. It is well known and has gained recognition for its software."
"The most valuable feature is Windows proxy. We now need to install an additional link proxy server in Windows. The proxy is available as an outpost in the Elastic store. That is the advanced feature is added. There are many other features which can be used once we discover them. One time I was scanning the servers and all, going to data from additional based on the additional features, including advanced data like score upper display data successfully discover servers. There are many things good things that can be implemented using it while we haven’t installed those yet."
"It's pretty robust, and it's agentless for the most part. So, you don't need to deploy agents, which makes it a lot easier to stand up."
"The process involving the original setup of the solution is excellent."
"Discovery enables us to get an accurate inventory that's updated daily. It eliminates human error and the need for people to update configuration changes manually. We have not implemented them yet but plan to set up alerts on CIs that are being audited to see if there are any changes."
"ServiceNow's Discovery feature is quite significant because it allows for service mapping and integrates with VIN management. It involves adding a business context to servers, routers, switches, and data centers. This means understanding not only what's installed on these systems and how they function together but also recognizing their significance in terms of business applications from the business's perspective and how they impact business processes and capabilities. So when we delve into these aspects and connect them to the essential components, it can help you engage in more meaningful discussions to enhance capacity management practices. In essence, it contributes to the overall IT portfolio, almost functioning as a business platform. This platform is accessible to users who leverage the data to initiate incidents, implement changes, and resolve problems. Consequently, consolidating all configuration items or assets into a unified platform makes sense, especially considering you already have Discovery in place. If the cost is reasonable, the other two components might not provide much value, except for their user-friendliness, which is often less important to leaders compared to the desired outcomes."
"The most valuable feature of ServiceNow Discovery is its performance."
"The product provides great scalability features."
"The service management and operations management modules are valuable."
"The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB."
"I would like to see the ability to scan some of the newer cloud platforms. I know that BMC has them on the roadmap, and they are coming soon, but they can't come fast enough. Being able to scan more of GCloud, Alibaba Cloud, or whatever the public clouds that our customers are buying, we need to make sure that Discovery can find them as well."
"It would be nice to see more updates to the solution."
"The product falls short compared to storage discovery mechanisms offered by Tenable or ServiceNow ITOM. In the market, there are various applications available that provide different sets of features. Its drawback is that it doesn't give the database configuration customers need out of the box. Additionally, the classification of storage virtualization is relatively lacking. Therefore, there is room for improvement, particularly in the database areas."
"The product is not fully automated."
"An area that can be improved is the IoT."
"The monitoring tools could be more stable."
"The license model could be more flexible and cheaper pricing."
"Management of its own application infrastructure and integrations with other BMC tools."
"The service mapping component is less developed than it is in other solutions, and is in need of improvement."
"The current limitation requires having mid servers or discovery servers in each data center for proper discovery, hindering the ability to discover assets across continents such as Asia Pacific and Europe."
"ServiceNow Discovery could improve the interface. The navigation bar could improve. It would be helpful to have a landing page to go to find all the elements in one place."
"Debugging is a bit tough in ServiceNow Discovery, so debugging should be made very easy."
"The solution needs to improve the cost of the solution. There are a few different solutions and they do act the same and have the same types of capabilities, however, the cost is quite high."
"We would like more flexibility with the licensing. Discovery is bundled with ServiceNow's ITOM license. It was more affordable when it was sold separately, but we bought a package license to get more functionality out of the CMDB. We'd prefer to buy only the pieces we need instead of taking things we don't want or solutions that aren't yet mature enough to use."
"In my opinion, it's quite slow compared to other tools, like Device42. Also, there are predefined fields in Device42 that are not available in ServiceNow. These are the basic things I think can be improved here."
"The solution is too high priced."
BMC Helix Discovery is ranked 2nd in IT Asset Management with 20 reviews while ServiceNow Discovery is ranked 6th in IT Asset Management with 38 reviews. BMC Helix Discovery is rated 8.6, while ServiceNow Discovery is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of BMC Helix Discovery writes "Definitely useful but the old technology makes customizations very difficult". On the other hand, the top reviewer of ServiceNow Discovery writes "Valuable relationship building that discovers and auto-builds to make cleanup easy". BMC Helix Discovery is most compared with ServiceNow, Device42, BMC Remedy , Qualys VMDR and Lansweeper, whereas ServiceNow Discovery is most compared with Tanium, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Lansweeper, ScienceLogic and Device42. See our BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery report.
See our list of best IT Asset Management vendors.
We monitor all IT Asset 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.
Hello Mohsin,
Unfortunately, I don't have experience with ServiceNow Discovery. But I have been using BMC Helix Discovery for more than five years. It is a really fast and user-friendly system. There is no need for an agent when installing the solution. I recommend this solution.
Hi Mohsin,
Not only BMC Helix or ServiceNow Discovery, but a few other Discovery tools are also available in the market and every discovery tool has a unique feature, hence as per me, choosing a discovery tool for your organization should be based on the organization's needs and infrastructure.
I suggest you go for proper requirement assessment sessions, i.e. infrastructure architecture, existing implemented tools, their features, use, possibilities & integrations, kind of devices in scope to discover, focused data center discovery, focused client-side discovery, or both. What I mean to say is do not choose any tool for its features but choose the one best suitable for your organization that can provide the best output with less investment after a proper assessment of the organization's requirements and expectations from a tool.
I know my reply to your query is not the exact answer you looked for but yes, this is what I would suggest to you on the basis of my experience. As far as tool comparison is concerned, you can find it in many places with the help of search engines but I think once you know what you want then reading tool features on the tool's official website will help you more to choose the best suitable Discovery tool for your organization.
Thanks,
Madhurima