Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs Microsoft System Center comparison

Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs. Microsoft System Center

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Helped 869,566 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

Instana Infrastructure Moni...

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

24th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (37th)

Microsoft System Center

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

19th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Instana Infrastructure Monitoring is 0.8%, up from 0.7% 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
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft System Center	0.4%
Instana Infrastructure Monitoring	0.8%
Other	98.8%

Cloud Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Hakimuddin Ronaque

Assistant Manager at Lauren Information Technologies Pvt Ltd

Has the capability to automatically integrate with a large number of products

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. I have not worked much on other technologies, like SAP or VMware's virtualization part, on-prem infrastructure, or cloud infrastructure. Instana Infrastructure Monitoring is so fast and easy to adapt that it works fine. I have not explored other operating systems or infrastructure solutions because my company doesn't have that customer scale. Most of our customers are on-prem or on AWS or Azure, but Instana Infrastructure Monitoring adapts to their infrastructure very well. My company came to know how well Instana Infrastructure Monitoring adapts to our customers' infrastructures when we take care of the PoC phase. Around 12 to 15 people in my company use the product.

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Carl Palapal

Sr. Sys. Server & Storage Egineer / Tech .Consultant at CANAR OFFICE SYSTEMS

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.

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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

"The product is easy to deploy."

"The product's initial setup is easy."

"System Center helps to create the basis for ITIL alignment."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it helps us manage our company's application pool, license pool, application update pool, and OS updates."

"The product's initial setup phase was easy."

"The deployment and asset management features are the most valuable. These are the product's main features."

"Managment Packs for Microsoft-specific products, help us implement the best practices for each product."

"The solution is easily available. That's its most valuable aspect."

"It can generate KPIs and management reports with monthly presentations on activities and updating the environment (success and failure)."

"The features that I have found most valuable are the ease of configuration and the easy discovery of the environment."

More Microsoft System Center pros

Cons

"Instana Infrastructure Monitoring needs to support monitoring of the .NET framework since it is one of the areas where the solution currently has shortcomings."

"The product’s scalability is an area with certain limitations, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Most of the documentation is online, however, there are some gaps there. The product documentation still refers back to the 2012 Server. We're pretty much in 2022. There's a ten-year gap there."

"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."

"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."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"For me, the tool's UI seems to be too old."

"Could be more user friendly."

"Less server consumption would help, as would better, more flexible reports."

"In Microsoft System Center, it is difficult to follow the steps to create dataflows at times."

More Microsoft System Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of the tool is around 130 USD per month."

"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."

"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."

"We maximized our license investment."

"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 is quite expensive."

"Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly."

"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."

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869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Instana Infrastructure Monitoring?

The product is easy to deploy.

What needs improvement with Instana Infrastructure Monitoring?

The product’s scalability is an area with certain limitations, making it an area where improvements are required.

What is your primary use case for Instana Infrastructure Monitoring?

I use the solution in my company, especially if an application is down and it is considered to be a P1 issue or a critical issue. The network team will blame the application team, while the applica...

What do you like most about Microsoft System Center?

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft System Center?

Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly.

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...

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Product Reports

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Download Instana Infrastructure Monitoring product report

Instana Infrastructure Monitoring report

Microsoft System Center

Download Microsoft System Center product report

Also Known As

No data available

MS System Center

Overview

Instana ensures that your application delivery organization has the data, visibility and information they need to manage the performance of critical business applications across the DevOps lifecycle. Built to handle the dynamic nature of containerized, microservice architectures, Instana automates infrastructure and application monitoring helping you to ensure the performance and quality of custom applications and accelerate your CI/CD cycle.

Instana

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

booxware, drivenow, scopevisio, enevo, TimoCom, mobitech

Kassen_rztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein, Magyar Telekom Nyrt., Adeka, QualCare, Aeriandi, UniCredit Bank d.d., Mostar, Allianz Australia Ltd., Grupo Familia

Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs. Microsoft System Center