



Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Microsoft, HashiCorp and others in Configuration Management.
Everything we've gained from it makes my job easier day after day, and I see value in it as an engineer.
Microsoft Intune not only saves costs by reducing the number of personnel needed but also offers a comprehensive solution for managing laptops, applications, security, individual access, and enrollment.
With Microsoft Intune, tasks such as device provisioning, policy deployment, application delivery, and compliance enforcement require less manual effort than in more traditional management models.
The return has been far more hours saved than spent.
We have seen significant improvement in the time and the way we make changes to the infrastructure.
I have seen a return on investment with Chef because we definitely need fewer employees to manage infrastructure.
With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these processes are automated and managed, reducing the time required by roughly 40 to 50 percent.
The work that previously took two months now takes 10 to 15 minutes.
When a support ticket is submitted, it directly reaches someone with Intune support expertise.
When I contacted Microsoft, they had the same expertise, if not more, which is phenomenal because I felt heard and my problem was solved.
Sometimes, the support provided is excellent, and the representative is knowledgeable, while other times, the service needs improvement.
We usually work with the Chef teams and community support, who are always willing to assist.
Their response time and first-level support quality need improvement.
For technical support from Microsoft, I would rate them a nine.
The Ansible sales and technical support services need significant improvement.
I have not escalated any questions to the Red Hat support team regarding Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, as their modules are professional and complete.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has a large community with many written blogs and resources available, making it easy to maintain.
The scalability of Microsoft Intune is ten out of ten.
Ideally, we want to automatically segregate devices based on user properties like primary use, but currently, dynamic groups seem limited to device properties.
It supports organizations with 200 endpoints and those with more than 15,000 endpoints.
We leverage both to achieve the best option possible for scaling.
Chef's scalability is evident as the public sector organization I work at serves a population of 5 million, and we have had no problems with scaling.
In our organization, which has grown by adding more endpoints, remote users, and hybrid devices, Microsoft Configuration Manager has managed to handle the increased workload without requiring major changes on our side.
The product is suitable for our size, handling 800 devices.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is easily maintainable and highly scalable.
Ansible can face scalability issues, such as limitations when trying to scale up infrastructure.
We have not experienced downtime, bugs, or glitches.
It appears Microsoft Intune undergoes changes without informing customers.
In my experience, Microsoft Intune is a stable platform as it is a cloud-based service, and updates are regularly delivered by Microsoft.
It is a good tool to work with, offering a strong developer experience and community support.
Chef is stable.
In my experience, Chef is quite stable most of the time.
There were misconfigurations by our team rather than issues with the product itself.
The stability of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is excellent, deserving a 10 out of 10 rating.
Features like unlocking devices sometimes fail, and the support offered for other operating systems is insufficient.
There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now.
Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive.
On support, I think there should be more focus on how we can achieve AI automations in answering questions for beginners and addressing deep concerns without general manual management.
To improve Chef, making an interface with another language such as Python or Java that is well understood, as capable as Ruby, and even more widely adopted would demystify it a bit.
The learning curve is steep due to Chef's Ruby-based DSL and the complex components of cookbooks and recipes, which can be challenging for new users, especially those without programming backgrounds.
A better command line interface for Microsoft Configuration Manager would be an additional feature I would to see in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
I can suggest that Microsoft Configuration Manager should get the Autopilot feature because Autopilot is the main part of Intune, and nowadays everybody is using Autopilot.
Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager is a powerful and reliable platform.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very easy to use with Jinja templating capabilities that make it really straightforward.
The dashboarding capabilities should be improved by bringing CMP (Cloud Management Platform) into Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform could improve by creating modules for upcoming AI and ML tech stacks.
Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs.
The Intune suite and add-ons, such as batch management and remote help, are costly.
It costs approximately forty euros per user per month.
Licensing looks reasonable compared to the manual work of managing whole data centers with even 10,000 servers.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we sidestepped it by using Cinc because none of the functionality that is exclusive to the paid version was actually in use in the organization.
The cost is reasonable considering the enterprise-level features, but it scales depending on the number of managed devices and the inclusion of Intune for co-management.
The setup cost is considered sufficient.
The pricing for Microsoft Configuration Manager is okay for me.
The pricing is high, and since I'm not using all functionalities, it would be better if the price depended on the functionalities used.
The cost of combining Red Hat Developer Hub and Ansible is extremely high, which presents a significant challenge with the Red Hat product.
There is no pricing and no licensing required, as Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is always free to use.
Intune excels in configuration and compliance management for Windows 10, ensuring devices receive timely updates and adhere to organizational standards.
Dynamic groups allow us to set conditions for automatic membership, eliminating the need for user intervention or manual review and ensuring a seamless workflow.
Windows Autopatch is the most valuable because it removes the burden of patch management.
Security is a key aspect that Chef can automate, monitor new features that are available, and even do patches without you getting involved.
When you have infrastructure as code and you already have everything apart from the environment-specific config, which you can specify in variables, then it is not only more repeatable and reliable, it is faster.
Using Chef for automating infrastructure and applications in my organization has helped us reduce manual tasks by more than forty percent, thereby saving significant revenue for the client.
If I want to get a fetch report for anything, such as hardware-related issues or group policy-related issues, I need to fetch the report by using SCCM's scripting language and remediation part.
The most valuable features I find in Microsoft Configuration Manager are mostly patching, deploying software, deploying images, and running custom scripts.
In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management.
The agentless architecture of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, using the SSH key, makes it passwordless and allows us to push configurations with one click, creating a major advantage.
For 200 to 300 servers, the maintenance took about one to two months. New patches would arrive and we would have to repeat the process. Now, it is a one-night work or a 10 to 15 minutes task.
The automation capabilities streamline deployment processes, providing reliability and reducing manual intervention and errors.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform | 11.9% |
| Microsoft Intune | 6.9% |
| Microsoft Configuration Manager | 8.8% |
| Chef | 3.4% |
| Other | 69.0% |



| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 124 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 54 |
| Large Enterprise | 167 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 3 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 19 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 20 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 13 |
| Large Enterprise | 66 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 25 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 8 |
| Large Enterprise | 48 |
Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service designed for device management, security, and compliance. It supports automation and facilitates endpoint management for Windows, iOS, and Android devices, ensuring data protection and efficient policy enforcement.
Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration with tools like Windows Autopilot to automate device setup and deployment. Integrated with Azure Active Directory, it enhances policy management while providing robust reporting and analytics tools for compliance tracking. Despite its intuitive interface aimed at simplifying navigation and device security management, there are challenges such as compatibility issues with Linux and Mac, limited policy support for Android, and demands for better third-party integration. It's widely used for both corporate-owned devices and BYOD scenarios in dynamic IT environments.
What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?In industries such as finance and healthcare, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure data protection and compliance with regulatory standards. Manufacturing sectors utilize Intune for managing a distributed workforce across global locations, while educational institutions employ it to secure and manage devices in learning environments supporting both students and faculty.
Chef, is the leader in DevOps, driving collaboration through code to automate infrastructure, security, compliance and applications. Chef provides a single path to production making it faster and safer to add value to applications and meet the demands of the customer. Deployed broadly in production by the Global 5000 and used by more than half of the Fortune 500, Chef develops 100 percent of its software as open source under the Apache 2.0 license with no restrictions on its use. Chef Enterprise Automation Stack™, a commercial distribution, is developed solely from that open source code and unifies security, compliance, infrastructure and application automation with observability. Chef provides an unequaled developer experience for the Coded Enterprise by enabling users to express infrastructure, security policies and the application lifecycle as code, modernizing development, packaging and delivery of any application to any platform. For more information, visit http://chef.io and follow @chef.
Microsoft Configuration Manager streamlines IT management with features such as software deployment, patch management, and automation, centralizing operations for Windows environments. Integration with Microsoft products allows efficient oversight of workstations and servers.
Microsoft Configuration Manager provides comprehensive IT management, offering software deployment, patch management, and application pushing. Automation reduces manual tasks, ensuring consistency across systems. Centralized management enables standardized OS deployments, application updates, and configuration integrity. Integration with Microsoft products facilitates seamless operations, while hardware and software inventory, compliance reporting, and remote control functions enhance IT management. Users seek improvements in application deployment for those without deep scripting knowledge and desire better WSUS control, PowerShell and Intune integration, Linux compatibility, and user interface enhancements. Performance improvements are requested for remote user management and third-party application support.
What features enhance Microsoft Configuration Manager?Microsoft Configuration Manager is widely implemented in organizations to manage Windows workstations and servers. It is essential for deploying operating systems and applications, managing software updates, and conducting hardware and software inventories. The tool is crucial for endpoint and configuration management, ensuring compliance, and automating processes like patching and vulnerability management. Industries such as finance, healthcare, and education rely on Microsoft Configuration Manager to keep systems secure and operational, adapting it to address their specific needs and challenges in maintaining diversified IT environments.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform streamlines IT operations with features like a simplified GUI and extensive module support. Its agentless architecture and YAML ease make it an adaptable choice for managing diverse infrastructures efficiently.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers a robust automation framework that supports multiple environments and integrates well with various applications. Its agentless Python-based architecture facilitates efficient server management and rapid update deployment. Users benefit from centralized management through Ansible Tower, role-based access control, and dynamic inventory. However, improvement areas include documentation, API integration, network support, and UI scaling. Enhanced community contributions could address module availability and compatibility gaps.
What are the most important features of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?In industries like finance, healthcare, and technology, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is used for network management, security compliance, and configuration tasks. Organizations utilize its capabilities for cloud and on-premises deployment, infrastructure provisioning, and workflow orchestration. Many integrate it with tools such as Puppet or Terraform to enhance CI/CD processes, benefiting from its agentless design in adapting to cloud environments.