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Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs Microsoft System Center comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Cloud Monitoring Software category. Google is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.4. Google holds a 1.0% mindshare in CMS, compared to Microsoft’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
Google Cloud's operations s...
Read 10 Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) reviews
  • 2,389 Views
  • 908 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Microsoft System Center
Read 20 Microsoft System Center reviews
  • 562 Views
  • 298 Comparison Views
85% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Microsoft System Center and Google Cloud's operations suite are both leading IT management platforms. Microsoft System Center holds the upper hand for those in the Microsoft ecosystem due to its seamless integration and configuration capabilities, while Google Cloud's operations suite excels in multi-cloud integration, ideal for cloud-native environments.

Features: Microsoft System Center stands out for its strong integration with Microsoft products, extensive automation capabilities, and comprehensive antivirus administration. Its ease of configuration and efficient update deployment cater well to Microsoft-centric environments. Conversely, Google Cloud's operations suite is renowned for its multi-cloud integration, stability, and scalable cloud logging, which require minimal manual handling.

Room for Improvement: System Center needs enhanced integration with non-Microsoft products, optimized resource consumption, and improved reporting capabilities. It must also align better with cloud trends, including AWS and Azure monitoring, and update its documentation. Google Cloud's operations suite should focus on improving application performance monitoring, refining logging analytics, and providing better cost transparency. Increasing automation features could also enhance its usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft System Center is typically deployed on-premises, sometimes in hybrid setups, with variable support experiences. Google Cloud's operations suite offers versatile deployment, encompassing public and private clouds, often running smoothly without support. However, Stackdriver's support and guidance could be more proactive and engaging.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft System Center is perceived as expensive, integrated within enterprise subscriptions, but offers high ROI through operational efficiency. Google Cloud's operations suite employs a usage-based model but needs better cost predictability. Despite a lower perceived cost, Microsoft System Center delivers a greater ROI due to detailed internal management that reduces reliance on third-party solutions.

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To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Microsoft System Center Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Microsoft System Center
September 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud's operations s...
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
21st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (27th), Log Management (30th)
Microsoft System Center
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) is 1.0%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft System Center is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft System Center0.4%
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)1.0%
Other98.6%
Cloud Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Anand_Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers reliable Ops Agent and logging transport feature with easy third-party integrations
As part of our company, we implemented several changes in our log analytics pattern, including the storage and procurement process. Earlier, before implementing the solution, our company was able to procure only one year of data, but later, we came to the three-year mark. Around 15-20% reduction has been witnessed in the total analytic consumption of our company. The aforementioned result was possible because the solution allowed the creation of a dashboard where factors like storage costs, proportion of logs, and logs presence in a storage bucket or BigQuery can all be checked. Earlier all logs were stored in a raw storage, but currently our company is able to move logs in table bucket that contributes towards cost savings.
Read full review
Carl Palapal - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides comprehensive system management with effective deployment and integration capabilities
The advantages of Microsoft System Center are significant, and I have seen other products as well. As far as advantages are concerned, they have PXE deployment, which is good for deploying operating systems, such as Windows client systems including Windows 10 and Windows 11. Since it is a Microsoft product, all the patches are proprietary, making it easier to deploy. In Microsoft System Center, all the features are integrated already, whereas in ManageEngine, you have to license each feature individually to access those features. The automated features of Virtual Machine Manager are very useful; it automates as long as the policy that I have created is in line with the objective, especially the templates when I'm going to deploy. Regarding endpoint management, Microsoft System Center is very helpful; it has integrated endpoint protection deployment, allowing me to handle endpoint configuration, system deployment, and patch deployment, making it an all-in-one stop shop for managing and configuring end clients. The impact of using Microsoft System Center is significant; it gives me a whole picture of my environment, making it easy to get inventory details regarding applications and hardware, providing full visibility of my setup within the organization.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the multi-cloud integration, where there is support for both GCP and AWS."
"We find the solution to be stable."
"I like the monitoring feature."
"Offers a valuable logging transport feature"
"The cloud login enables us to get our logs from the different platforms that we currently use."
"Our company has a corporate account for Google Cloud and so our systems and clusters integrate really well."
"Google's technical support is very good."
"Provides visibility into the performance uptime."
More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) pros
"It can generate KPIs and management reports with monthly presentations on activities and updating the environment (success and failure)."
"Good for managing and administering the infrastructure."
"I like the automated features of it that let you schedule those updates and the ability of the product to focus on the specific updates, specific platforms, and products that we're interested in keeping up to date."
"The detail in the alarms is great."
"Step-by-step documentation that clarifies the implementation procedure."
"We like Microsoft System Center's Operations Manager. That is primarily why we use it."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The impact of using Microsoft System Center is significant; it gives me a whole picture of my environment, making it easy to get inventory details regarding applications and hardware, providing full visibility of my setup within the organization."
More Microsoft System Center pros
 

Cons

"If I want to track any round-trip or breakdowns of my response times, I'm not able to get it. My request goes through various levels of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and comes back to my client machine. Suppose that my request has taken 10 seconds overall, so if I want to break it down, to see where the delay is happening within my architecture, I am not able to find that out using Stackdriver."
"It could be more stable."
"The product provides minimal metrics that are insufficient."
"The logging functionality could be better."
"The process of logging analytics can be improved"
"It is difficult to estimate in advance how much something is going to cost."
"This solution could be improved if it offered the ability to analyze charts, such as a solution like Kibana."
"While we are satisfied with the overall performance, in certain cases we must add additional metrics and additional tools like Grafana and Dynatrace."
More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) cons
"Implementation and integration in the case of multi-tenant environments needs improvement."
"Microsoft System Center should be easier to manage. However, it is complex to deploy, so people hesitate to use it. Though it has many features, such as licensing, asset tracking, and software deployment, we mainly use it for Windows updates. It protects many screens and integrates with databases, but it's complex compared to other solutions. Many now use cloud-based products or other tools like Automox to deploy updates and manage vulnerabilities."
"They should have some customized solutions or internal development, then maybe it could be easier to use different solutions or some self-developed solution."
"Less server consumption would help, as would better, more flexible reports."
"We have some bugs but it's stable. It doesn't break every day. It works. Like other applications, it has a lot of bugs but they're manageable."
"The multi-tenancy support needs to be improved. We need to have the ability to manage several different environments from one central point of administration."
"For me, the tool's UI seems to be too old."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
More Microsoft System Center cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost could be lower."
"The cost of using Stackdriver depends on usage."
"We have a basic standard license without any additional costs."
"I know that sometimes there is some reduction in the prices of Microsoft System Center because of the costs of Microsoft SQL Server, which can be advantageous."
"It's rolled into our enterprise subscription. The entire subscription is around $25,000 a year, however, that covers all the products that we use."
"Microsoft System Center is quite expensive."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"I rate the product price as five to six on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is cheap and ten means it is expensive."
"Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly."
"We maximized our license investment."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
14%
Media Company
7%
University
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Stackdriver?
If the errors are caught early in the interface, it would be easier for users to manage. The process of logging analytics can be improved.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Google Stackdriver?
I use the solution for logging, defining alerts, and monitoring. Our company's Java and Python logging teams mainly use it.
See all answers
What advice do you have for others considering Google Stackdriver?
The Ops Agent and logging transport feature of the solution have had a major impact on improving application performance. The solution also allows the transport of logs into log buckets, which is h...
See all answers
What do you like most about Microsoft System Center?
The product's initial setup phase was easy.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft System Center?
Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft System Center?
The disadvantage of Microsoft System Center is related to the many integrated services; if one service is failing, then all features will be affected. For example, with site configuration, when one...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

AWS X-Ray vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
AWS X-Ray vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 25% of the time
Datadog vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
Datadog vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 13% of the time
New Relic vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
New Relic vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 6% of the time
Amazon CloudWatch vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
Amazon CloudWatch vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 6% of the time
Splunk Observability Cloud vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
Splunk Observability Cloud vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 5% of the time
More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Competitors
VMware Aria Operations for Applications vs Microsoft System Center Logo
VMware Aria Operations for Applications vs Microsoft System Center
Compared 38% of the time
JBoss Enterprise Application Platform vs Microsoft System Center Logo
JBoss Enterprise Application Platform vs Microsoft System Center
Compared 26% of the time
IBM BPM vs Microsoft System Center Logo
IBM BPM vs Microsoft System Center
Compared 19% of the time
Veeam Data Platform vs Microsoft System Center Logo
Veeam Data Platform vs Microsoft System Center
Compared 16% of the time
More Microsoft System Center Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
September 2025
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) reportDownload Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft System Center
September 2025
Microsoft System Center reportDownload Microsoft System Center product report
 

Also Known As

Google Stackdriver, Stackdriver Monitoring, Stackdriver Logging, Google Cloud Monitoring
MS System Center
 

Overview

Real-time log management and analysis

Cloud Logging is a fully managed service that performs at scale and can ingest application and platform log data, as well as custom log data from GKE environments, VMs, and other services inside and outside of Google Cloud. Get advanced performance, troubleshooting, security, and business insights with Log Analytics, integrating the power of BigQuery into Cloud Logging.

Built-in metrics observability at scale

Cloud Monitoring provides visibility into the performance, uptime, and overall health of cloud-powered applications. Collect metrics, events, and metadata from Google Cloud services, hosted uptime probes, application instrumentation, and a variety of common application components. Visualize this data on charts and dashboards and create alerts so you are notified when metrics are outside of expected ranges.

Stand-alone managed service for running and scaling Prometheus

Managed Service for Prometheus is a fully managed Prometheus-compatible monitoring solution, built on top of the same globally scalable data store as Cloud Monitoring. Keep your existing visualization, analysis, and alerting services, as this data can be queried with PromQL or Cloud Monitoring.

Monitor and improve your application's performance

Application Performance Management (APM) combines the monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities of Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring with Cloud Trace and Cloud Profiler to help you reduce latency and cost so you can run more efficient applications.

Google
System Center helps customers realize the benefits of the Microsoft Cloud Platform by delivering unified management. Experience fast time-to-value with out-of-the-box monitoring, provisioning, configuration, automation, protection and self-service.
Microsoft
 

Sample Customers

Uber, Batterii, Q42, Dovetail Games
Kassen_rztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein, Magyar Telekom Nyrt., Adeka, QualCare, Aeriandi, UniCredit Bank d.d., Mostar, Allianz Australia Ltd., Grupo Familia
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Microsoft System Center
September 2025
Free Report: Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Microsoft System Center
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Microsoft System Center and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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