We performed a comparison between AWS CloudFormation and SaltStack 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."The feature I like the most is that we can perform remote tasks. If we want to retire or wipe out personal data or corporate data from a device, we can use Microsoft Intune remotely, and with the click of a button, data is removed automatically. Nothing needs to be done from the end-user side."
"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."
"If you need only to load a specific profile and you don't have deep security functionalities, et cetera, Intune is very nice and good."
"If the product works, remote access will be a benefit. To this point we have not had reason to have confidence in achieving that access."
"The central administration con dashboard is very easy to use and provides very good oversight on all that needs to be monitored."
"Stable product that's easy to set up compared to other MDM products."
"The most valuable feature for us is the security, including risk analysis and patch management."
"Fortunately, now everything is streamlined into a single, unified platform."
"It is easy to work from the console and deploy new database services."
"The nested stacks would be one of the more valuable features."
"It allows defining the infrastructure as code using templates, which describe the desired state of the infrastructure."
"Its ability to treat infrastructure's code is valuable. It makes things automatable and reproducible."
"Since AWS CloudFormation integrates well with the AWS platform, it facilitates faster deployment. Building templates for AWS services within the solution is also straightforward, making the process easier."
"Versioning makes our work easy."
"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."
"CloudFormation gives us control of AWS and any Cloud infrastructure. It creates the whole stack for Cloud services technologies so it's easy to manage the whole system."
"SaltStack has given us the ability to deal with systems at scale and rectify issues at scale."
"It is a highly stable solution."
"I want to build automation that is intelligent, part of the fabric of our environment, and is somewhat self-sustaining. I think SaltStack can help me do this."
"The automation functionality has been most valuable. With a click of a button, we are able to automate provisioning, the build of new hardware and apply patches. These are all extremely important and differentiated tasks that can be automated in SaltStack."
"We monitor the configurations against CIS standards. We run CIS benchmarks and maintain configurations with higher CIS values for each server."
"The product’s most valuable feature is its ability to provide environmental security."
"The ability to programmatically describe the desired state of a single, or an entire fleet of servers, on-premises, and in a cloud environment."
"There are a lot of small use cases where we realized that some technical solution was missing in Microsoft in comparison to other products. For example, it lacks something similar to sensing or location-based rules and configurations."
"Data leak prevention can be integrated into it. Currently, it does not have data leak prevention."
"There are a few security features that are not available in Microsoft Intune, when compared to other products."
"No option to do end-to-en macOS management. Slow implementation of policies."
"The feature that allows us to import the business application from the configuration manager to Intune is not very good at this time."
"It would be great if Intune offered better data protection controls for BYOD Windows PCs."
"The main disadvantage seen today is regarding Linux clients. We have a lot of development resources that have Linux on their clients, and we can't manage them on the same platform, as we do with other clients such as macOS and Windows. So, it should have support for Linux clients. It should also have better support for macOS."
"Integration with Mac devices requires some improvement."
"They could improve the product's capability to handle circular dependencies more effectively."
"The solution needs to offer better support to other cloud vendors."
"Error-handling features can be improved."
"The speed of the replication process could improve. It can take some time to replicate that could use a speed increase."
"There is less support for on-premise environments."
"This tool is not intuitive and there are others that are easier to understand."
"One area where AWS CloudFormation could improve is by offering more flexibility in creating custom templates."
"There could be better error handling. It would be a good way to improve the solution."
"There is a little bit of pain when it comes to libraries and what is needed to run the product."
"A hardened set of tests would be much appreciated."
"Web UI."
"It is difficult to set up."
"This solution could be integrated with more hardware for an improved offering."
"Its configuration process could be better."
"SaltStack's features are minimal."
AWS CloudFormation is ranked 9th in Configuration Management with 23 reviews while SaltStack is ranked 14th in Configuration Management with 33 reviews. AWS CloudFormation is rated 8.2, while SaltStack is rated 8.2. 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 SaltStack writes "Orchestration tool that powers automation of processes with the click of a button". AWS CloudFormation is most compared with AWS Systems Manager, Spring Cloud, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat Satellite and Chef, whereas SaltStack is most compared with VMware Aria Automation, HashiCorp Terraform, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and BMC TrueSight Server Automation. See our AWS CloudFormation vs. SaltStack report.
See our list of best Configuration Management vendors.
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.
