SCCM vs. Altiris

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SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 2:38:24 PM

slyon

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I administer my 1,800 person company's SMS architecture, and we are merging soon with some other companies to form one 4,000 person company in 20+ countries.

As part of the integration we are are looking for a common systems mgmt solution.

We have narrowed down our list to Altiris and SCCM. We will be using them mostly for Patch Management, OS/Image Deployment, Asset Management, Remote Troubleshooting/Assistance, and possibly software license tracking and compatibility/linking into a future Help Desk solution.

Can anyone give me any sage advise on what you see the advantages/disadvantages of each product? Anyone with direct experience in both products that can give some examples/details?

I have looked into this a lot, and at this point have a slight lean toward Altiris, but am looking for new and different perspectives on this since I will have to live with what ever I decide upon!

Thanks all!

S

Post #: 1

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 2:43:38 PM

skissinger

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From: Sherry Kissinger
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Check out this doc updated as of May 08.

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(in reply to slyon)

Post #: 2

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 2:49:51 PM

slyon

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Hmm. Pretty pro-Altiris! Is that what you all use?

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Post #: 3

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 2:51:54 PM

hcortez463

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as you can see it was created by Altiris, so its pretty bias :)

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Post #: 4

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 3:16:21 PM

skissinger

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From: Sherry Kissinger
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I don't know how many people (actively) on this forum use Altiris. I've never seen it myself. All I can say is I don't think you'll find a better community dedicated to helping fellow admins like here w/ConfigMgr. But that again is my biased opinion--I've never searched out or lurked at Altiris forums.

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Post #: 5

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 4:18:39 PM

shadster

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i started in a company that had the previous version of altiris... and it was terrible!!!!
very NON user/admin friendly... I eventually talked them into ditching it for SMS, and then a month later SCCM came out... and they never looked back. they might have changed some of it in the newer versions... but "run away"

he is right about this forum though... Big help, and a priceless resource!

Good luck

(in reply to skissinger)

Post #: 6

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 5:33:22 PM

slyon

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Yeah, one thing I have in my SCCM "Pluses" column is the greater amount of support available - esp in this community and in the MSFT KB, etc.. Tried a few searches of the Altiris knowledge bank and always had some sort of "failure" to even get search results. And, tried to find a similar Altiris forum outside of Symantec's own and came up empty.

Still would love to hear more from folks! This is a tough decision...

Thanks again.

(in reply to shadster)

Post #: 7

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/10/2008 9:31:23 PM

jkovarik

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From: jarrod_kovarik@hotmail.com
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One thing that might help in making your decision is the cost of licenses.

If you are using MS CALS already then you do not need a client license for your machines whilst you will still need a license for each of the 4000 machines for Altiris. Either way, you will need server licenses on top of this. It will also depend on what your support arrangements with MS, but one fo the thigns that we found is that the 'support' costs of the Altiris software were fairly high and as we already had our MS SA there was no cost.

I am currently working in a place that is going from 5000 odd Altiris clients to SCCM. Cost is obviously one of the reasons, but after comparing the two you will find that they can do pretty much the same things - although some are native to SCCM that require scripts to work in Altiris and vice versa.

Hope this all helps.

(in reply to slyon)

Post #: 8

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/11/2008 1:41:39 AM

jnelson993

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Yeah, that doc is out of date and has a bunch of inaccuracies (5 to 1 server ratio between SMS and Altiris? Not! We've seen the opposite and are actively retiring Altiris in the enterprise. Can't inventory the registry...are they kidding? No AMT? Yeah huh).

Man, I better not get started. I'll end up posting another point by point rebuttal.:)

Anyway, our experience has been (and we've got gobs of experience in Altiris and SMS/SCCM including one of the top Altiris guys poached from HP) that with the exception of the non-Windows machines and some of the OS deployment stuff, SMS/SCCM has Altiris beat especially when it comes to stability, usability, scalability, programming interfaces and the community of support...the stuff that matters. Oh, and price. Don't get me wrong, it's not a crappy product by any means. I don't mean to imply that it sucks and should be avoided at all costs, but head to head it loses with SCCM unless you look at it from a non-Windows perspective (but even then, give it 2 years and I'll bet they support non-Windows too based on the stuff I saw at MMS-2008).

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Post #: 9

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/11/2008 7:56:39 AM

dstein

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My previous job as a consultant was to deploy SMS 2003 and Config Mgr for clients, but that job ended when they closed our local office so I went back to work for a former employer who uses Altiris 6. There are some notable differences, but like the others have already said: you need to compare the costs for licensing first. The features are mostly trade-offs. Altiris has some added web-based features but their remote tools (carbon copy) suck compared to SCCM. Most people think of SMS when they compare these products, not SCCM, which is unfortunate. I would rather be using SCCM myself. The interface is simply better and cleaner than Altiris, but that's somewhat subjective obviously. I got an MCTS for SCCM but there are zero jobs in this area that require it, so that wasn't an option for me. IMHO: If the costs are roughly equal, or even cheaper for going with SCCM, I would go that route.

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Post #: 10

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/11/2008 9:58:44 AM

gmaynard

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We are an SMS 2003 shop. We purchased Altiris's inventory DB about a year and a half ago, maybe a little more. Even with dedicated Altiris developers working here on location for a couple of months, and one of our developers working part-time on it for a year, we have never gotten it to work to our satisfaction. Apparently one of the biggest problems is integrating SMS and Altiris so that Altiris is using the SMS DB as the scanning source. Manually entered data seems to work fine, it is the automated parts that are buggy.

While I understand that you will not have the hybrid environment that we have, I cannot say that I am impressed with the development / support from Altiris. It appears that Altiris sold us vaporware and then proceeded to develop it on the fly for us. Having been to an inventory conference, other people appear that I spoke to appear to have had the same experience we've had with the Altiris inventory solution (and some of those others were dedicated Altiris shops).

However, I would contrast this experience with their mature OS deployment software. I have used it in the lab a good bit and have been very satisfied with it. Some advice I have received when discussing your topic with people from Altiris shops is that if you are going with Altiris, do not buy everything they have. Instead, go in ala cart and be very choosy about which modules you select.

(in reply to slyon)

Post #: 11

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/11/2008 12:32:24 PM

slyon

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Great input guys!

Thank you very much!

Steve

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Post #: 12

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/11/2008 2:35:50 PM

vborovian

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It really depends what you want to get out of it. If you have a big TSS group and are looking for integrated solution with ease of use on reporting (remember, quick visibility to you data can expedite the service and provide much more efficient environment) I would consider LANDesk! If you are solely driven by the cost, you need to look at the admin expense, the time spent in operating within the world, and determine which sites will need distribution points (for SCCM). Again, LANDesk can hendle most of the functions with a single server, yes, including imaging. Open your eyes, Altiris has the name (but Symantec is doing some funky things to it) and SCCM is just SMS with a better console yet still painful navigation.

(in reply to dstein)

Post #: 13

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/15/2008 8:53:21 AM

Spyder2114

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Just curious if you have looked at: www.kace.com and their appliance based solutions? With both Kbox (1000 and 2000) series you have a total Systems Management solution including to mention a few: Inventory, Software deployment, Patching, and Imaging. We currently utilize both products and could not be happier with the decision based on bang for the buck and ease of installation and use. I've heard horror stories of implementing Altiris and have experience with the budget hog HPOV, Kbox is neither. BTW tiier tech support and customer service are top notch.

< Message edited by Spyder2114 -- 9/15/2008 8:58:26 AM >

(in reply to slyon)

Post #: 14

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris - 9/15/2008 9:46:35 AM

palle

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I am from an independent consulting company in Europe. We threw Altiris away because it was full of bugs. The basic things did usually (that is, usually) work, but in every case you ended up in fighting with weirdest problems you could ever imagine. Almost always they were due to a bug or two in Altiris.

Now we work only with SCCM/MDT, and have much less headache

It's not perfect, but what is then?

(in reply to Spyder2114)

Post #: 15

SCCM vs. Altiris vs. LANdesk - 9/15/2008 3:14:19 PM

gcballard

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We're currently evaluating SCCM and LANdesk. Of course, we get SCCM for free with our EA (but for how long? The EA is expensive and things are rough now). We don't have a SQL Server 2005 box to install it on, so unfortunately that's an expense. Of course, if you run other MS products they push you to 2005 as well so sooner or later we'll have to deal with that anyway. But I primarily wanted to comment on what I have seen as I compare the two products.

The primary advantage that LANdesk has over SCCM (as I see it) is their use of targeted multicasting. They use this technology to push patches, images, etc. They can utilize a pre-designated node or use an election process with any system running the agent. Plus, it has an autoresume piece that if somebody shuts down that computer (say, receptionist @ 5:00) then it will (allegedly) seemless fail over to another node with no retransmission of data. This is possible because as the pieces are streamed to the distribution point (for lack of a better word) they are simulcast to all other clients that will need it. Sound cool? I think so. Does it work as advertised? No freakin' idea.

I see this as a compelling benefit for administrative purposes. I have gotten bogged down in deploying site servers just to support desktop services and found it to be a lot of work with ongoing maintenance. If there's any potential way to get around this, I'm all for it.

All this being said, I have no idea of pricing yet. I have requested some pricing for the management suite plus the security suite (for patching). I'm not sure if they can get it within a reasonable price or not.

P.S. If you've ever used NAL for ZENworks, they have something similar called Launchpad (just released last week). I'd love to be able to migrate to landesk just for that feature.

(in reply to vborovian)

Post #: 16

RE: SCCM vs. Altiris vs. LANdesk - 9/16/2008 8:45:20 AM

jquirk822

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Hi GCBallard,
The targeted multicasting you describe sounds like 1E's Nomad package, that does dynamic peer distribution selection for software distribution jobs. It's an add-on, but it's not expensive.

Broadly I've stopped using this kind of thing as I find that we can generally get away with peer distribution points for small remote sites now. If you couple this with 1E's excellent SMSWakeup product then it can prevent the peer distribution client from being shut down too... Obviously there's other (cheaper) ways of achieving the same thing. It sounds like you might have a massive infrastructure with lots of remote sites to worry about, so maybe something liek Nomad would be worth a look. It always shocks me when an organisation is willing to shell out $100s per seat for systems management functionality that they get bundled in with their EA. There'd have to be a massive functionality gap for me to be able to justify this to any CIO/CTO/IT Manager I've ever met. The budgetary constraints on SM are normally pretty tight anyway...

As to the SQL cost, your EA will likely not cover the ConfigMgr server product, so you'll need to buy that anyway (for any Primary servers you need) so to add SQL technology to this is a minimum expense.

(in reply to gcballard)

Post #: 17