IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT vs vCenter Configuration Manager comparison

IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT is designed to help track and manage your hardware and software IT assets, with particular emphasis on inventory, asset life-cycle management, and license management. Asset Management for IT includes inventory, asset tracking, asset reconciliation, financial management, contract management, procurement management, and, optionally, Service Level Agreement (SLA) management. This asset life-cycle functionality permits the tracking and management of IT assets through initial request, approval, procurement, contract, receipt, inventory, deployment, asset installs-moves-adds-changes (IMACs), and retirement.

vCenter Configuration Manager is a powerful configuration management tool that is designed to enable organizations to ensure that any environment that they use to conduct business is configured in the most effective possible way. It can automate configurations consistently across virtual, physical, and cloud environments. Additionally, it enables users to place critical functions into the hands of the solution thereby avoiding the possibility that human error will reduce a business’s operations. It also hardens operations against bad actors who look for holes in a user’s security compliance policies that they can exploit.

vCenter Configuration Manager Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy vCenter Configuration Manager include:

• Reduction of overhead costs. Configuration Manager makes it possible for users to operate with the highest possible level of effectiveness while at the same time reducing the overhead costs associated with their work. One way that it does so is by automating many tasks that would otherwise be expensive to train users to perform. This also saves users time working on basic tasks that they can then devote to other operations that need human intervention.

• Flexibility. Configuration Manager is a highly flexible solution. It is a platform-agnostic solution that can run consistently across VMware infrastructure and Windows, Linux, and UNIX operating systems. Users can use it on the operating system that best meets their business needs. Organizations can operate without having to invest in any particular operating system.

• Threat reduction. It enables users to reduce threats to their systems. Its approach to centralized configuration management makes it simple for users to keep control of their security setup. This means administrators can spend most of their time ensuring that an organization’s technology is safe instead of trying to figure out how to do so. Configuration Manager's ability to correlate configuration changes with issues that are detected by VMware’s vCenter Operations Manager significantly reduces the amount of time needed in order to resolve any issues that arise.

• Deep data collection and visibility. The secure and automatic data collection provides users with a wealth of data. This gives organizations the ability to see all aspects of their configuration environment. Administrators are able to track everything without worrying that they are missing information that is critical to their work.

• Scalability. Configuration Manager is a highly scalable product. Users can scale it so that their configuration management operations can effortlessly keep pace with the work that they are doing. They can maintain their security and operations without turning to another product or being forced to make expensive purchases in order to keep up.

vCenter Configuration Manager Features

• Centralized UI. Configuration Manager comes with a centralized UI that users can use to manage all of Configuration Manager’s tools. From a single location users can track and use the myriad tools that Configuration manager has to offer. It enables administrators to ensure that their configurations and patches are running consistently across all of their environments.

• Unified report generation tool. Configuration Manager’s reporting tool is constantly gathering data relating to an organization’s configurations. Users can now create reports that contain all of the most up-to-date configuration information. This enables them to conduct their operations with information that is wholly accurate.

• Configuration auditing tool. Configuration Manager has a scanner that conducts constant audits of an organization’s configurations. It searches for any errors or issues in the configurations. Users are notified when changes in the configurations take place so that they can track any issues and deal with them before they can escalate.

• Integration suite. Configuration Manager enables users to integrate their systems with many other VMware solutions. This means that users can both bolster their current capabilities and implement any features that they might feel are missing from their current setup.

• Hardware monitoring software. Configuration Manager leverages CIM SMASH technology to track the health of both their physical and virtual servers. It not only provides information when the hardware and VMware are running properly. This software also alerts users when any kind of failures occur in the physical hardware.

Reviews from Real Users

vCenter Configuration Manager is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its intuitive and simple design and its ability to scale according to the needs of its user.

Moses S., a project manager at Swakop Uranium, writes, “The platform is straightforward and user-friendly. A large knowledge base is not required to begin using it.”

Raju P., an Information Technology manager at Sikraft, says, “We can scale the solution as needed.”