Compare Puppet Enterprise vs. Quest KACE Systems Management
 | BurhanShakil Systems Engineer at Harvard University |
 | Carsten Buscher IT Systems Administrator at a computer software company |
Find out what your peers are saying about Puppet Enterprise vs. Quest KACE Systems Management and other solutions. Updated: July 2021.
521,189 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
"The versatility is great."
"Anything that we manage through Puppet always runs perfectly."
"I am impressed by the service desk ticketing and asset management."
"KACE has made our life much easier since we got off the Microsoft solution. The Microsoft solution was a lot harder to image over different ports and stuff. They would only have this one place where we could do all the imaging. Now, we have a whole building where we can image from. This means that we can image from our storage area, where we have a place to do our imaging. We can also image right at our desks, which is a lot easier."
"The Systems Deployment Appliance is magical when it comes to automating deployment... Not only can we have multiple images, specific to end-users' uses, but we have a plethora of post-installation tasks to install or configure the system, tasks that can be re-used for each system. You just have one basic base image, and then you use the post-install tasks to customize everything else. It is amazing."
"We have our KACE agent deployed on all of our workstations and servers, and it provides us with reports on the hardware and software inventory for those."
"The solution provides us a single pane of glass with everything that we need for endpoint management of all devices. It definitely has made our endpoint management process much easier."
"I can reach people now that I couldn't have reached previously. We are saving about 25 percent in time."
"The scripting part increases IT productivity because of the specialized software in our environments for students' courses. You need to use software which is not programmed by developers. A lot of software for building houses or other things is developed by normal guys, who do not have much skill in programming. When you need to install this type of software, it is very difficult. You have to install registry keys, etc. For that, it is very good to use the scripting part of this solution. So, you can automate this part as well."
"The most valuable feature of KACE is the mass package deployment. There are a lot of endpoint management solutions in the market. The way KACE responds is with the installation management feature, which is done in a very intelligent way, as well as scripting. It's wow. It's really wow. On top of that, there is a mass undeployment feature as well."
Cons
"There's a lot of scope for enhancement on the DevSecOps side. They should definitely include features for compliance, for both the Linux and Windows side of the devices, as well as for network devices. Compliance is something they need to work on."
"It's a bit of a pain point to make sure that everything works once we've upgraded it because Puppet has been evolving pretty fast."
"I've had some issues with patch catalogue."
"They could make the booting solution easier for different things, e.g., easier to insert drivers. They could make it easier to create a new image and put it onto the server. Those would be some nice solutions. They could make it so that somebody who has no knowledge at all can do it. That would be really nice. Because every time, until I get it memorized, I still need to go back to the training, the manual, or Google it to figure it out again. If they would make it a lot easier, to where a nine-year-old could do it, that would be really cool. If they made it easier, I could have more people managing the images on the server, instead of just one or two people."
"I would sure like them to be able to copy and paste out of OneNote. That drives me nuts. You can't copy from OneNote into KACE."
"Scalability is my primary concern right now."
"The initial setup was complex. It is a Linux-based virtual server, where the customer cannot get into the back-end, so you can only follow their prompts. Then, there are specific things that have to be done in their implementation and upgrade phases that have to be done in a certain order or steps. If you don't get those steps right, the system doesn't work. I think that either simplifying that process or providing really good step-by-step documentation would be helpful."
"I still need better communication about which processes are really due and which processes are currently being processed. According to the initial setup service provider, there is still no real management or overview on KACE where you can really see 100 percent of what is going on as well as what is going to be processed next and whether I can influence the overall process. It could really help me if I knew, e.g. exactly in 10 minutes my colleague will be supplied with this or that software. I haven't found this yet. If they could add this, that would be cool. It is still missing and I haven't yet found something like this."
"It is a little bit difficult to use the license compliances because you need to decide when you are using the software catalog if you are using it with their license compliance or the normal software part. Under the inventory, you can use software as a menu link or software catalog. Most of my specialist software is not in the software catalog. When I try to import them, in my license compliances overview, there are cryptic names for this software that I have to import. That is not very good for the reports that I use. When I take them to my bosses, they see cryptic names of software that they don't understand. It would be much better for me if I could use software and the software catalog as well for the license compliances."
"There should be a mini toolbox, like the competitors of KACE have, with the small features for KACE administrators. That would make their lives easier. If you are troubleshooting a specific endpoint, remote control is available as is Wake-on-LAN. But if you want to execute some commands, you have to use a third-party tool, the PS tool. If they would integrate those small things, it would make KACE more powerful."
"The main thing that we noticed when we switched from the enterprise version to the community version was the difference in cost — the infrastructure is pretty expensive."
"We need it, so we have to pay the price. It is what it is. If you need a gallon of milk, then you have to pay the price for it. You don't want to buy the cheap stuff. You want to buy the stuff that is organic and good for your body, which doesn't have all this other junk in it. You want it clean for your body. Quest has done that for our deployment and management systems."
"The pricing and licensing are good. It's worth it."
"Licensing is done on a per device basis, so it's dependent on how many agents you've got installed."
"Its pricing model is good for what it offers. Nobody here gives me a hard time about renewing the contract every year. It might be a little cost prohibitive for a smaller company who has to stand up a virtual environment as well as have virtual environment licensing and the hardware. If you have a smaller environment, it might be cost prohibitive. If you only have a couple of hundred computers, you might be more willing to do those manually. In our environment, the cost savings of having KACE far outweigh the licensing costs. We are okay with its pricing model."
"We buy consulting fees from Software Factory, then we pay extra for it."
"We are a university. So, we have a very good price for the system. I think the price for the system is worth it because of the security patch management. The security patch management is very important for us. The price is very good for KACE SMA, the functionality you get, and the patch management."
"We are also saving on the licensing fee, compared to other endpoint management solutions."
"The pricing and licensing are absolutely fair."
More Quest KACE Systems Management Pricing and Cost Advice »
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Top Answer: Anything that we manage through Puppet always runs perfectly.
Top Answer: Puppet was a good product; we used it when we had 200 VMs. When we tried to add Windows servers to it, that's when we realized the price nearly doubled for us because we also have around 200 Windows… more »
Top Answer: The main thing that we noticed when we switched from the enterprise version to the community version was the difference in cost — the infrastructure is pretty expensive. We work in the education… more »
Top Answer: I can reach people now that I couldn't have reached previously. We are saving about 25 percent in time.
Top Answer: We buy consulting fees from Software Factory, then we pay extra for it.
Top Answer: I still need better communication about which processes are really due and which processes are currently being processed. According to the initial setup service provider, there is still no real… more »
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Average Words per Review
1,756
Rating
8.6
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Puppet
Dell KACE Systems Management
Puppet Data Center Automation helps sysadmins automate configuration and management of machines and the software running on them. With our software, businesses can make rapid, repeatable changes and automatically enforce the consistency of systems and devices, across physical and virtual machines, on prem or in the cloud.
The KACE Systems Management Appliance provides a growing organization with comprehensive management of network-connected devices, including servers, PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, tablets, printers, storage, networking gear and the Internet of Things (IoT). KACE can fulfill all of the organization's systems management needs, from initial deployment to ongoing management and retirement.
Learn more about Puppet Enterprise
Learn more about Quest KACE Systems Management
Los Alamos National Laboratory, GitHub, IP Commerce, Cedexis, Spiceworks, Server Density, Swisstopo, Chockstone, Constant Contact, NICS, Citrix
Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
Computer Software Company25%
Comms Service Provider14%
Government10%
Financial Services Firm10%
University17%
Financial Services Firm17%
Manufacturing Company8%
Security Firm8%
Computer Software Company24%
Comms Service Provider14%
Government7%
Manufacturing Company7%
Small Business67%
Midsize Enterprise11%
Large Enterprise22%
Small Business13%
Midsize Enterprise60%
Large Enterprise27%
Small Business4%
Midsize Enterprise19%
Large Enterprise77%
Find out what your peers are saying about Puppet Enterprise vs. Quest KACE Systems Management and other solutions. Updated: July 2021.
521,189 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Puppet Enterprise is ranked 10th in Configuration Management with 2 reviews while Quest KACE Systems Management is ranked 3rd in Configuration Management with 12 reviews. Puppet Enterprise is rated 8.6, while Quest KACE Systems Management is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Puppet Enterprise writes "A set-it-and-forget-it management solution". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Quest KACE Systems Management writes "We can see everything for the endpoint management of devices using a single interface". Puppet Enterprise is most compared with SCCM, Ansible, BigFix, UrbanCode Deploy and BMC TrueSight Orchestration, whereas Quest KACE Systems Management is most compared with SCCM, Microsoft Windows Server Update Services, BigFix, Ansible and GFI LanGuard. See our Puppet Enterprise vs. Quest KACE Systems Management 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.