Microsoft Configuration Manager vs ServiceNow Discovery comparison

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3,918 views|2,988 comparisons
91% willing to recommend
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4,394 views|1,958 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Configuration Manager and ServiceNow Discovery based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Server Monitoring solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. ServiceNow Discovery Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,740 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It does the job and meets our needs. With everybody working remotely these days, we are using this solution to deploy everything. The deployment of PCs is easy.""The most valuable features are application deployment and task-sequenced imaging.""There have to be made some improvement in WSUS and control in other non-Microsoft products updates.""With the right administrator, application deployment can do wonders.""It's a stable product.""We are happy with the collaboration of SCCM with Patch My PC, which allows us to do patch work.""Microsoft has done a good job with authentication solutions, such as single sign-on, or open authentication.""The most valuable feature of this solution is its ability to deploy patches to nearly all applications."

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"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.""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 best thing about Discovery is maintaining all the CIs in one place. I can sort the data, export it to Excel for manipulation, and build reports like how many computers or servers we have and their capacity.""The product provides great scalability features.""The biggest advantage of ServiceNow is the value that it brings.""This solution provides excellent insights.""I like ServiceNow Discovery's overall structure and the way data comes in without creating a different dashboard or interface.""It does a good job of collecting the data that's necessary for data centers, and IT's operations."

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Cons
"Their compliance reporting is not accurate, and they admitted it on the phone when we had a call with them. We were trying to understand why their numbers didn't match on our compliance reports. It is not accurate and you cannot depend on the compliance reports. The numbers just don't match, and we can't figure out why. We called Microsoft and they said, "Yeah, that's a known issue." But there is no word that they're working on it.""It would be better if automation options were available. For example, in Nexthink or SysTrack, there is an analytical tool. Creating dashboards would be very easy if you implement the same thing in Microsoft. That report will be a daily cost to the customers and good revenue for our organization. The price also could be better. In the next release, we need to include some features like tables, dashboards, surveys, services, and metrics in the dashboard. Whatever we are implementing will be downloaded by a report. Apart from the report, we will telecast from the dashboard. It's very easy to compare, and it will be easy to telecast to the end-users.""This solution should be simpler, and more consistent across modules/sections.""I would like to see more automation.""The solution does not support remote devices so the CMG is still required.""The operations could be faster and you need some patience with this tool.""The tool's deployment is difficult. Microsoft needs to improve documentation with videos.""The analysis is something that can be integrated. Their report analysis can be improved a little bit due to the fact that most of the time complaints policies are saved by the admins. It's something that we need to look into and search for."

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"In a few instances, ServiceNow has failed to discover some basic things. Some other tools are better at network discovery than ServiceNow. I'm not talking about database servers or any other infrastructure—only networking. Cloud discovery could also be better.""It's an expensive platform.""The product could improve some of the visualization and architecture setups.""ServiceNow Discovery should improve its cloud capabilities.""I find it valuable to enhance IP address management. I've been in this field since around 2011, and my experience since then has revolved around automation, deployment, distribution, and comprehensive inventory management, all crucial for deploying various components, including patches. When we talk about patch management or vulnerability management, it's more complex than just applying patches; sometimes, you need to undergo significant upgrades or phase out old components for new ones, and this can turn into a substantial project, explaining why vulnerabilities persist. Now, the role of ServiceNow Discovery and security operations, or at one point, looking at vulnerability management in ServiceNow Discovery, is crucial. It allows you to identify vulnerabilities on assets and, with the addition of discovery, service mapping, and event management, you gain a business context for these vulnerabilities. It's not merely about knowing they exist on a server; it's about understanding which services are responsible for critical business processes or transactions, like payroll. This knowledge changes the approach and execution of vulnerability remediation.""Without improvement in the patters, applications can't be discovered""The initial setup could be made easier. We hired professionals to implement it, and they trained our employees for ongoing processes.""What needs improvement in ServiceNow Discovery is the reporting UI because I didn't find it as friendly compared to other tools. Other tools have better reporting UI than what's currently in ServiceNow Discovery. What I'd like to see in the next release of ServiceNow Discovery is more user-friendly out-of-the-box reporting that would be helpful for non-technical users. Some users such as managers would want to just do a few clicks to access the reports and shouldn't be required to do search queries, but right now, reporting in the tool isn't very user-friendly."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Pricing and licensing are horrible. You have to not look at dollar value to use SCCM. It's super-duper expensive but it works. The acquisition cost is expensive, it's labor-intensive. But it works."
  • "Pricing and licensing are a downside of SCCM. It's expensive. I'd have to confirm this, but I think they changed the licensing to core-based instead of socket-based. It's not cheap, because you have to buy the software, you have to buy SQL. Another thing we learned from talking to Microsoft is that they provide you a license for SQL if you run it on the same box as the primary server. If you run it outside that box, you have to buy SQL. Microsoft does recommend you running it on the same box because of performance. But then, in order to run SQL, SCCM, and everything on the same box, you better have some resources. It's an expensive solution. There's no doubt about it."
  • "Overall, I think it's fine. It's pretty much in-line because there are ways to offset it with the Office 365 licensing."
  • "SCCM comes with its own version of SQL Server. If you use that SQL Server with SCCM and don't use it for another applications than you get an SQL Server for free."
  • "The licensing is good because they have various options, depending on what you are looking for."
  • "Pricing is negotiable with Microsoft, depending upon which of their packages you choose."
  • "When you compare this solution with other tools in the market you might actually find a lot of variation in the pricing and that's why people opt for the other tools rather than Microsoft tools."
  • "Its price is okay because it is part of our licensing."
  • More Microsoft Configuration Manager Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "This solution is a paid option within the ServiceNow framework."
  • "It's a bit expensive compared to other products in the market, but it's worth the money you pay because it's far advanced in terms of features, automation, and capabilities compared to other products."
  • "There is a subscription for ServiceNow Discovery. It's expensive, but I think it's one of the best solutions on the market, so it's worth it."
  • "The price could be better. It's a bit on the pricey side."
  • "It is an expensive product with a price that depends on the models that you wish to purchase."
  • "It costs a lot. It is probably close to over a hundred thousand. It's an expensive platform, but you can't compare ServiceNow's Discovery functionality to other discovery tools. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison of ServiceNow to a configuration management tool to an asset management tool because it does those things, but it's not those things."
  • "You need a subscription to ServiceNow Discovery, so you can use its features. You can also use specific plugins with the tool, and some of the plugins are free. I don't have information on how much my company pays for the subscription to ServiceNow Discovery."
  • "The solution is very expensive."
  • More ServiceNow Discovery Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your… more »
    Top Answer:ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily and… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft Configuration Manager gives different tools in one solution.
    Top Answer:The product provides great scalability features.
    Top Answer:Though I am not much involved in the pricing part, I know that it is a bit costly. As per a general discussion I had with the stakeholders, I figured out that it is a costly tool. There is a need to… more »
    Top Answer:On the patent side, my company faced some issues with ServiceNow Discovery. In the subsequent releases of the product, ServiceNow promptly addressed the patent-related issues in the tool. More… more »
    Ranking
    2nd
    out of 42 in Server Monitoring
    Views
    3,918
    Comparisons
    2,988
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    458
    Rating
    8.4
    3rd
    out of 42 in Server Monitoring
    Views
    4,394
    Comparisons
    1,958
    Reviews
    24
    Average Words per Review
    576
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
    Learn More
    ServiceNow
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    Overview

    Microsoft Configuration Manager helps IT manage PCs and servers, keeping software up-to-date, setting configuration and security policies, and monitoring system status while giving employees access to corporate applications on the devices that they choose. When Configuration Manager is integrated with Microsoft Intune, you can manage corporate-connected PCs and Macs along with cloud-based mobile devices running Windows, iOS, and Android, all from a single management console.

    New features of Configuration Manager, such as the support of Windows 10 in-place upgrade, co-management with Microsoft Intune, Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise Servicing Dashboard, integration with Windows Update for Business, and more make deploying and managing Windows easier than ever before.

    ServiceNow Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

    Sample Customers
    Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
    York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Insurance Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company12%
    Government11%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company18%
    Retailer12%
    Educational Organization12%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Healthcare Company9%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise69%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise51%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise75%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. ServiceNow Discovery
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. ServiceNow Discovery and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,740 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Configuration Manager is ranked 2nd in Server Monitoring with 78 reviews while ServiceNow Discovery is ranked 3rd in Server Monitoring with 36 reviews. Microsoft Configuration Manager is rated 8.2, while ServiceNow Discovery is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Microsoft Configuration Manager writes "Seamless system updates, useful integration, and reliable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of ServiceNow Discovery writes "Valuable relationship building that discovers and auto-builds to make cleanup easy". Microsoft Configuration Manager is most compared with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, Microsoft Intune, BigFix and Jamf Pro, whereas ServiceNow Discovery is most compared with Tanium, AWS Cloud Map, ScienceLogic, Lansweeper and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor. See our Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. ServiceNow Discovery report.

    See our list of best Server Monitoring vendors.

    We monitor all Server Monitoring 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.