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BigFix vs IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT vs Symantec Endpoint Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Mindshare comparison

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
IT Asset Management
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Bella Yakoby - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers third-party patching feature, good scalability, and enhance endpoint management capabilities
From the perspective of the team that's handling the environment, it's not so user-friendly compared to other solutions, the competitors. We hire new teams from time to time, and they are complaining, look, although BigFix is very robust and cross-platform, it's not so fun to work with. The user interface for the technical teams is not so advanced. It's not so intuitive compared to SCCM, compared to ManageEngine. And this is the fact that they have, with the teams, because they have the rejection. The look and feel of the system are old-fashioned. For new employees, it's less easy to find someone I don't need to educate on how to work with BigFix. Although it's easy, it's not as intuitive as the other solutions, and the functionality of the other solutions is less advanced. Let's summarize: The user interface has to be changed from the perspective of the teams that are managing the product. It's old school.
HarshalDeore - PeerSpot reviewer
A user-friendly solution that has a good user interface, but its technical support is not good enough
Around 20 to 25 staff members are needed to deploy and maintain the solution, including two managers, one architect, and other implementers. IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT does not adopt the latest technology. The solution can be integrated with our existing IT environment through some web services and connectors. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Hakeem_Abdulkareem - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution has given us visibility into compliance within our whole system and helped us ensure everything is updated
Symantec's application security module needs some improvement. You need to create a lot of fingerprints for application security. For instance, let's say I have different brands of ATMs in my environment, like Wincor and NCR. I use GRG to deploy an application control to whitelist some applications. I have to get the exact image of the different models of ATMs. When I tested in the past, some machines would not connect to the server without that. Only the approved software on the ATM should run. Anything outside that should not even come up at all. We did this so that an outside person doesn't introduce malicious software to the ATM. That's the essence of locking down with application control. Using Symantec for application control has been hectic, so I use Carbon Black to do the lockdown. Checking that data security will work fine with Carbon Black. Carbon Black worked fine. Setting up approval in Carbon Black works differently than Symantec. In Symantec, we first need the fingerprints of the applications running underneath. Before setting up Carbon Black, you first install the agent, allowing it to learn the environment. It will analyze all the software's behavior and provide recommendations for what should be allowed. It's more straightforward, whereas configuring application control in Symantec is a bit cumbersome.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One of the biggest benefits BigFix has had for our organization is the ease and efficiency to perform many different tasks, across pillars and platforms, all from one pane of glass."
"It has improved reliability upon delivery of software and has also helped reduce software expenses. The extensibility of BigFix helps to create custom solutions where we may have considered purchasing something instead."
"It is for multiple use cases. A lot of people are looking at it just for security, and that's really endpoint security. The endpoint management part of it in terms of being able to constantly do patching for Windows, Unix, macOS, Cloud, Raspberry, VMware, and all Linux flavors is important, and they are very good at that. They have support for virtually every OS on the market."
"Pre-packaged support for many third-party applications such as Adobe, Google, Mozilla, Sun (Java), WinZip, and others."
"The most valuable and essential features of BigFix are all of them, they are needed when serving the purpose of the desktop operation framework. We cannot run operations without patching or without having an appropriate mechanism for deploying software, et cetera. The features all serve their purpose for our use case."
"We rely on BigFix as part of our consulting engagements. It's more efficient from a visibility and discovery standpoint on the initial phase, the consulting engagement. It also increases our efficiencies on the remediation phase of our engagements."
"BigFix has drastically reduced the maintenance window period to patch and reboot servers."
"The most valuable point is when you deploy an application, you have to make sure that the application has been deployed to all computers and that is working perfectly. This solution works well at deployments."
"IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT is a user-friendly solution that has a good user interface."
"The most amazing qualities of Symantec Endpoint Protection is that it provides a total solution to all virus problems."
"I like the firewall and the intrusion prevention features, and just the basic anti-malware and anti-virus seems to be pretty effective as well."
"The solution is very stable."
"The installation was very easy."
"All Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) features, such as anti-malware, zero-day attack protection, and IPS features, are valuable."
"The fact that it has centralized management is the most valuable feature."
"ATP is really impressive, and with EDR, it is the best solution I have ever known."
"The most valuable feature of Symantec Endpoint Security is the protection of our systems."
 

Cons

"I remember doing restarts a few times. So, making sure that it is rock solid from an executable perspective is important."
"I would like the dashboard to be improved to show the problematic machines and good machines."
"We would like to see a different license plan, e.g. to include features from lifecycle with Patch Management, as an example."
"The remote software installation could be better."
"I would like to see more custom content."
"The solution could improve by adding support drivers for different systems and equipment. When you have a lot of different computers if they could fix how to install any updates, firmware, or drivers for different systems or servers it would be good."
"I would like to see for it to be a little easier for new users to be able to learn and create relevant statements. In my opinion, that's the hardest part for bringing on new people that haven't had BigFix experience. Being able to have easier ways to build relevance in ActionScript would be the biggest improvement I'd like to see."
"The only thing that I don't like about BigFix is that it does not support other devices such as printer firmware, router firmware, and things like that. I will be happy if I can control everything and get everything else in there, even if it is just a line item. They can do some enhancements to the Web UI. I am trying to get customers to be able to manage their environment by using Web UI, and it would be good if we can delete endpoints by using Web UI. We should also be able to generate Excel content or data tables from the Web UI without having to go to the console. It is small stuff, and it drives me crazy that I have to go to another console to do these things."
"The solution’s initial setup is complex and technical support is not good enough."
"They lack the visibility you get in a heuristical, artificial, AI type of product, like a next-gen antivirus."
"Any external device which is inserted into a computer should be subject to an auto-scan policy, to automatically scan it before accepting the device... They need to make it more user-friendly, so that when anyone puts in a USB stick it will be scanned, popping up any problems before it is used."
"I would like to see improvements in the anti-virus and the device control features."
"The Centralized Management could be improved."
"There was an administrative feature, which was available in the previous version, which has been removed. We would like that feature to be added again."
"The overall quality of the product needs to be improved because with the last session we had several issues with new versions. Also, the solution needs better protections."
"The solution should have more integration with other platforms."
"The agent shouldn't use up so many resources at the endpoint when scanning and protecting."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When purchasing, buying with other IBM tools provided us with a very good discount in pricing."
"The price of BigFix could be lower. However, I am always seeking a lower price."
"We have a subscription-based contract with BigFix."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing one out of ten."
"You get what we call the Platform Edition, which you get for free. The patch service is maybe $0.50 per workstation per month. Then there's the basic server cost, which is about $1.50 per server per month. You also get into Lifecycle which does power management, OSD remote control, and those types of things, and that might be about 10 times the price - which works out to about $13 per server and, maybe $5 per workstation per month."
"Its price is very reasonable."
"The price is reasonable, but our customers find it expensive."
"The cost is slightly high."
"IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT is an expensive solution."
"Its price should be reasonable."
"The licensing is okay. Symantec has a very granular licensing model, so you only buy what you need."
"The pricing is pretty much at the market standard... Symantec is not that cheap and it's not that expensive compared to CrowdStrike. I would put them in the 'middle block.'"
"It's pretty awesome price-wise. That's why we give it to most of our clients. It isn't very expensive. Compared to Cisco AMP, which is very expensive, its price is okay. It's also cheaper than Malwarebytes."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"This is not the cheapest product and I know others that are most cost-effective, although it is difficult to compare because it depends on the features."
"They're on the reasonable side. They are at mid-level. They're not too expensive as compared to their competitors. They're also not too cheap. In terms of price structure, hopefully, they could do a subscription."
"Symantec Endpoint Security is an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
44%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
No data available
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BigFix?
The most valuable features of the solution are Windows patching and the hardware and software inventory.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
The pricing is competitive, but not the most competitive.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
Implementing a business solution with BigFix has some issues, primarily concerning the time required for distribution...
What do you like most about IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT?
IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT is a user-friendly solution that has a good user interface.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT?
IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT is an expensive solution. The solution's licensing cost depends on the number of n...
What needs improvement with IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT?
The solution’s initial setup is complex and technical support is not good enough. IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT ...
Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior sol...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Endpoint Manager
Tivoli Asset Management for IT
Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
Migros Zurich, Tyr_ns AB, Port Otago Limited, BTC, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., AIG, Swedish Match, DTE Energy
Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: April 2025.
850,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.