We performed a comparison between AWS CloudFormation and SolarWinds Network Configuration 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."The biggest thing for us is enforcing logins only from devices that are managed by Intune."
"The Microsoft Windows Autopilot and Defender policies are the most valuable features of this solution."
"With on-premises Active Directory, the main challenge was that we had no control when a user was working from home. We didn't know what exactly a user was doing and whether the AV was up to date or not. Intune provides better control of their machines."
"I like the tool's integration with Apple. Anyone who creates an ID in Intune will get an Apple ID."
"I believe that the solution is actually in Gartner's top quadrant at the moment for mobile device management."
"We can manage and standardize security across your environment, identify problems, receive alerts, and so on. That's its purpose, and that's also why it's so good."
"The key benefit of Intune is its integration with the Microsoft ecosystem."
"The Asset Management and Auto Pilot are valuable features."
"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."
"The CloudFormation template can be reused to create multiple stacks, reducing duplications and improving our infrastructure."
"Its ability to treat infrastructure's code is valuable. It makes things automatable and reproducible."
"With CloudFormation, there is no need to use complicated coding."
"AWS Cloud automation reduces the time needed to create AWS resources."
"Automations make it pretty easy to provision AWS, development, or deployment environments."
"Scripting does what we need to reinstall something from scratch."
"The solution has helped with automation. I don't have to worry about provisioning machines and ensuring everything is set up. AWS CloudFormation takes care of the entire infrastructure for me."
"The solution's view is very nice, and they have a great customized dashboard."
"The configuration compliance aspect of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager allows for easy comparison of configuration settings across branches, ensuring adherence to security guidelines and best practices. Automation capabilities have greatly impacted workflows, enabling tasks such as configuration backups, template deployment, and firmware upgrades to be automated, thereby streamlining processes and saving time. Compliance reporting features provide valuable insights into network compliance, offering pre-built security audit reports and customizable options to meet specific requirements."
"This solution has helped our organization by allowing us to store all the device configurations for the various network devices in NCM and making it easy for us to retrieve and look them over."
"I use it for monitoring the entire network for the company. We oversee nodes down, we oversee devices heading up to crossing the threshold for CPU usage. We oversee power so power backups on the switches, we oversee if they're down or if they're failing. We oversee any node down or any router from any vendor."
"We push all our configurations to the servers with ease and the logs capture almost all the transactions needed for an internal audit."
"SolarWinds NCM provides updates on the status of your network infrastructure. If any issues arise, such as a link failure or a device going offline, you will receive notifications and alerts. Additionally, if someone unplugs a cable, SolarWinds NCM will detect it. It also features a Topology Mapper that displays the connectivity of your network devices, giving you a visual representation of the network's structure. With SolarWinds NCM, you have a clear understanding of what's happening within your network and can generate comprehensive reports."
"It allows us to manage backups in big companies. It is also useful in managing the configuration changes."
"Compared to other vendors, like NetBrain, managing the solution is easy. They made it very user-friendly."
"In the next release, I would like a feature to be able to properly lock down the device. For example, if an attacker or somebody steals the phone, you can be sure that the pin cannot be broken."
"Microsoft Intune lacks the ability to provide seamless remote assistance or remote control."
"Integration with Mac devices requires some improvement."
"It would be good if, in addition to the minimal patching and compliance, we could also use Intune for application deployment. For instance, if a device is not patched, Intune should have the ability to push not only a Microsoft patch but also other patches, such as a browser patch."
"Lacks the ability to deploy more ways of management, managing devices and processing the policies."
"Data leak prevention can be integrated into it. Currently, it does not have data leak prevention."
"I expect Microsoft Intune to have more features in the cloud because there are two major functionalities that we need to be added. This is software metering and license management. These functionalities, for now, must be on-premise. For this purpose, we have set up a SQL Server and I hope that in near future this option will be in the cloud in Microsoft Intune."
"The add-ons must be integrated into the solution."
"There could be better error handling. It would be a good way to improve the solution."
"One area where AWS CloudFormation could improve is by offering more flexibility in creating custom templates."
"Including certain examples of templates would be advantageous."
"Provisioning a large environment or a large number of services takes a bit more time than with Terraform."
"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."
"This tool is not intuitive and there are others that are easier to understand."
"Creating the inline policies is not great."
"They could improve the product's capability to handle circular dependencies more effectively."
"For each device, when you open the network performance monitor, it will give you all of the information about the device, but many of the natural configuration management features are not on that page."
"Its look and feel can be improved. They can also put in more effort into building the THWACK community and use the information about various customer issues and requests to build the new releases."
"I'd like to see additional features like support for devices that don't use CLI for configuration backups, expanded inventory support for other vendors beyond Cisco, and compatibility with newer SD WAN devices. These enhancements would further improve the product's versatility and utility for users. we hope for future enhancements, especially in supporting security devices that lack CLI backup options."
"The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates."
"When it comes to the way of managing the network devices, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager should provide the simplest way that devices can relate to the server. For example, when we want to get the devices on board, we go by SSH to make the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager create the connectivity with the device. After that, we pull the configuration. It would be helpful if they could combine both so that everything will be done in one step."
"The network logs could be improved. When the error logs come across with those false positive alarms in the error logs."
"The solution could improve by being more secure."
"Improvements are needed in the automatic network mapping function."
More SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Pricing and Cost Advice →
AWS CloudFormation is ranked 9th in Configuration Management with 25 reviews while SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is ranked 11th in Configuration Management with 22 reviews. AWS CloudFormation is rated 8.2, while SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager 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 SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager writes "Network configuration is done well; great pricing". AWS CloudFormation is most compared with AWS Systems Manager, Spring Cloud, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat Satellite and Chef, whereas SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is most compared with Cisco DNA Center, Cisco Prime, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, OpenText Network Node Manager i and VMware NSX. See our AWS CloudFormation vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration 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.
