HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs Microsoft Configuration Manager comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Microsoft are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #13 with an average rating of 9.5, while Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 1.9% mindshare in SM, compared to Microsoft’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 50% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

HPE Integrated Lights Out (...

Read 2 HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) reviews

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1,308 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

Microsoft Configuration Man...

Read 86 Microsoft Configuration Manager reviews

14,692 Views
3,232 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

HPE Integrated Lights Out (...

Microsoft Configuration Man...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 2026

Microsoft Configuration Manager and HPE Integrated Lights Out are essential tools in IT management, competing in software distribution and server management categories. Microsoft Configuration Manager is preferable for network-wide software management tasks due to its affordability and widespread support, while HPE iLO offers a comprehensive suite for server management that justifies its premium pricing.

Features: Microsoft Configuration Manager offers software distribution, patch management, and inventory tracking across networks. HPE iLO provides remote server management, real-time monitoring, and power management. The primary distinction lies in Microsoft Configuration Manager's focus on endpoint management and HPE iLO's server-centric approach.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Configuration Manager benefits from seamless deployment in varied network environments with strong support channels. HPE iLO is easy to set up for server management with dedicated customer support, but it is more specialized.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Configuration Manager is more cost-effective, optimizing IT resources for large networks with substantial ROI. HPE iLO, although more expensive upfront, offers significant long-term savings by enhancing server maintenance and uptime, delivering ROI in server-focused applications.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

June 2026

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Helped 902,894 peers since 2012

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

HPE Integrated Lights Out (...

Ranking in Server Monitoring

13th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Configuration Man...

Ranking in Server Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Distribution (2nd), Configuration Management (4th), Patch Management (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 4.2%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Configuration Manager	4.2%
HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)	1.9%
Other	93.9%

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Alexander Monahan

Senior Systems Administrator at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

Positive access capabilities and user-friendly interface empower efficient server management while cost and licensing concerns persist

HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is user-friendly, offering easy navigation and a nice GUI. It provides an alternative network connection, enabling access to servers without physical access. The software is highly valued for its ability to bring servers back up remotely, essential for minimizing downtime in critical situations. HPE iLO is a strong competitor to iDRAC. Being a second network interface physically installed on a server, iLO provides an extra IP to access the server, bypassing other layers such as ESXi or Proxmox, and enabling BIOS-level access. The remote software involved is fantastic for recovering servers quickly and efficiently when they go down, providing significant improvements to organizational operations. Whether dealing with international or local solutions, iLO can save considerable time, reducing downtime from minutes to weeks depending on location. It is particularly useful for integrating with Microsoft Active Directory, simplifying login issues, and mitigating risks of login leaks through Multi-Factor Authentication. The quick response times from HPE support, including shipping parts and sending techs promptly, add to the overall efficiency and reliability of solutions involving HPE iLO. The integration of iLO with vSphere provides a seamless user experience, making navigation feel consistent across platforms.

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Narendar S

Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Centralized endpoint control has streamlined deployments and improved security compliance

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. These features make endpoint management efficient and scalable. The feature I rely on the most day-to-day is software deployment and patch management. It keeps endpoints updated and secure with minimal manual effort. Inventory and compliance monitoring are also important, but daily deployments are critical. Microsoft Configuration Manager has had a significant positive impact on our organization in several ways: improved efficiency, enhanced security and compliance, standardization, scalability, and visibility reporting. Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager has helped us save time, reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, and maintain strong control over our endpoints. One of the biggest impacts Microsoft Configuration Manager has had on efficiency is the reduced manual work for software deployment and patching. For example, deploying a new application or security updates to hundreds or thousands of devices previously required several days of manual effort, including running scripts, checking devices individually, and validating installation. With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these tasks are automated and managed, allowing deployments to complete in hours rather than days. We also have automated reporting for deployment success and compliance which saved the IT team significant time that used to be spent gathering and reconciling inventory data from multiple tools.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is user-friendly, offering easy navigation and a nice GUI."

"HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) has the best features for detecting any kind of hardware failure, such as any DIMM, HDD, system board, or PSU failures, providing real-time alarms with all necessary information."

"The dashboards have information about our assets."

"I would tell potential users that for 15,000 or 30,000 machines, you must go with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager as it's the best tool."

"The solution may be one of the top products from a management standpoint."

"This solution helps to ease the day-to-day system operations and standardization of the organization."

"Excellent reports for compliance, status of updates, and software metering."

"The cloud account management is a valuable feature."

"Patching is the main feature because SCCM is made to control the entire environment without manually interpreting. So it is good to use for patching."

"The stability of the product is good."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pros

Cons

"I am currently avoiding HPE in my current build because of the pricing that is almost highway robbery. Service contracts are required to receive firmware updates."

"Sometimes when the system fails, iLO doesn't get the proper information from the system, so there's a need for improvement so it can provide real-time information for our engineers to give the correct solutions to customers."

"There is a reboot issue with the patching. Sometimes, if patching runs into any issue whatsoever, it doesn't reboot but it doesn't tell you it errored out. It just sits there and we don't find out until the next day whether it patched or not. That was a big issue for us. We're working through that. They added some stuff in there now where you can actually tell reboot is pending. But we still need some kind of notification that if something fails or is pending, we know. We shouldn't have to go in and look. They don't have anything for that right now."

"There should probably be better remote support. They should also continue to improve on patch management, patching, and creating or turning products in software into deployable apps."

"This solution needs to be supported on all Operating systems."

"SCCM does not scale well, which is one of the reasons we are not going to continue to use it."

"The availability of technical support could improve."

"The deployment process is lengthy and should be quicker to complete."

"The tool's deployment is difficult. Microsoft needs to improve documentation with videos."

"The solution is crowded with information."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"As far as I know, it is an annual operating expense license."

"Presently, I am using a free trial version."

"The price could be better."

"It comes free with the Microsoft account. We have a yearly agreement, and all products are covered under it."

"Its licensing is quite complicated because we are getting the license not only for SCCM but for the full Microsoft package. We don't need to pay for a separate license. We need to have one license that includes everything we need, such as Windows, Microsoft 365, SCCM, encryption, and so on. So, we don't have a specific price for it. Perhaps, it is good that it includes the full suite of licensing of Microsoft. It is expensive, but we are getting a lot of features."

"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."

"We have a support license from Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and the overall price of the solution is reasonable."

"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."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Insurance Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	69

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)?

Regarding pricing or set-up costs and licensing, HPE's approach is quite intense compared to Dell, Cisco, Microsoft, Lenovo, etc. Avoiding HPE in the current structure due to high costs would be co...

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What needs improvement with HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)?

As a reseller, I think HP iLO can be improved in a few ways. HP has a lot of experience with iLO, but they need to work on synchronization between iLO and the system hardware. Sometimes when the sy...

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What is your primary use case for HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)?

HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is used for monitoring the system; we have almost 115 or 116, around 150 servers, and we use this product to check the server current status with alarms and all othe...

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How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?

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 org...

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How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?

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 a...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCCM?

The setup cost is considered sufficient. It is not significant enough for us to consider a change at the moment.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Server Monitoring

May 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Configuration Manager

June 2026

Download Microsoft Configuration Manager product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM ), Microsoft SMS

Overview

HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is a powerful remote server management tool that enhances efficiency by allowing IT administrators to manage servers from anywhere, ensuring seamless operations.

HPE iLO provides a comprehensive suite for remote server management, designed to streamline tasks like server configuration and health monitoring. Ideal for both SMBs and large enterprises, it enables administrators to access critical server information remotely. This functionality maximizes uptime, reduces operational costs, and enhances productivity, becoming an essential tool in modern data centers.

What are the key features of HPE iLO?

Remote Console Access: Enables full remote control over server operations.
Integrated Remote Console (IRC): Supports virtual media and secure data connection.
Health Monitoring: Provides real-time health status and robust diagnostics.
Embedded Media Controller: Adds convenience for firmware updates and management tasks.
Power Management: Optimizes power consumption efficiency to lower costs.

What benefits and ROI should be considered when evaluating HPE iLO?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces the need for physical presence, saving travel costs.
Time Savings: Streamlines management processes, saving precious time.
Enhanced Security: Provides secure access to ensure data safety.
Improved Uptime: Reduces downtime with proactive monitoring and alerts.
Scalability: Supports growth without a significant increase in management resources.

In various industries like healthcare, finance, and telecommunications, HPE iLO is implemented to optimize IT infrastructures by offering remote diagnostics, rapid issue resolution, and enhanced server performance. Its comprehensive set of tools allows industries to maintain high operational standards while minimizing intervention times.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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?

Software Deployment: Efficiently distribute software across large networks.
Patch Management: Automate and streamline update processes for security and functionality.
Automation Capabilities: Reduce manual effort and enhance consistency in IT tasks.
Centralized Management: Standardize OS deployments and application updates.
Integration with Microsoft Products: Seamless operation with existing Microsoft infrastructure.
Hardware and Software Inventory: Comprehensive tracking for assets and resources.
Compliance Reporting: Ensure compliance with internal and external standards.
Remote Control Functions: Enhance support and troubleshooting capabilities.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Microsoft Configuration Manager?

Decreased Manual Work: Automation reduces time spent on repetitive tasks.
Enhanced Security: Automated patch management keeps systems secure.
Consistent Configurations: Centralized updates ensure uniformity across systems.
Improved Integration: Seamless operation within Microsoft ecosystems boosts productivity.
Comprehensive Oversight: Detailed inventory and reporting tools aid in strategic planning.
Streamlined Support: Remote capabilities improve IT support and user satisfaction.

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.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad

Buyer's Guide

HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

June 2026

Free Report: HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

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