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Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Configuration Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
304
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Red Hat Ansible Automation ...
Ranking in Configuration Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (3rd), Network Automation (1st)
SolarWinds Server Configura...
Ranking in Configuration Management
18th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.4%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is 16.0%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform16.0%
Microsoft Intune9.4%
SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor0.5%
Other74.1%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license
The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.
Sudhir Kumar Tiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
Have managed thousands of servers with streamlined configuration processes
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very helpful due to passwordless integration and the ability to interact with multiple servers at once, which is especially advantageous when dealing with thousands of servers. The integration aspect of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has optimized my IT ecosystem significantly by consolidating multiple tools, such as a CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins, where we validate everything, including testing and SonarQube code quality. 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. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's main benefit is that it allows us to push configurations to multiple servers without manually visiting each one, maintaining efficiency.
Ravi Khanchandani - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful version control, high availability, and scales well
We are in touch with the management of the SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor team, and we have made recommendations to them for quite a few changes. One area that could improve is the configuration download. Instead of only showcasing the differences between the baseline and the current configuration, or a specific version of the configuration, they should show the entire configuration getting downloaded. It could be in the form of a flat file or in the form of a binary file. If it is a flat file, it can use as a reference, and preserved for auditing purposes. That is one area where the product can see quite a lot of improvement. They have a feature where you can download by section, what I mean is, you can download the configuration of the hardware, software, or driver information, or the file folder settings or permissions. It is a section download, but not a complete download. That is one area of improvement. The other area of improvement is specific to the customer use cases. They would like to compare two servers as to what the configuration drift is but not only within the server comparison. For example, I would like to take a server in the DR setup that is in the primary data center to do a comparison between the primary server and the DR server. Currently, the configuration comparison is within the server itself. In a feature release, they could enhance the reporting. However, we have not evaluated this part of the solution extensively.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Application deployment and keeping the devices secure no matter where they are, by having this cloud solution — that has been great."
"The performance of Microsoft Intune is good."
"I particularly appreciate the administration and security features, which can be deployed easily."
"These capabilities have made a significant impact in my work, providing a comprehensive view of all devices and features in a single platform."
"Everything has worked better since we started using Intune."
"It is very easy for me to configure all the things. Once I create policies and applications in Intune, it is very easy for us to enroll users."
"For our office workers who are not based in Norway, when we order the PC, we can do some of the settings for them. These are standardized settings. We can set them up exactly as they are in Norway so that they're the same."
"The most valuable features are the ones that make sure that the deployment is of a standard operating system and the Zero Touch deployment, which is very useful. This allows users to have an out of box experience."
"Since it is in YAML, if I have to explain it to somebody else, they can easily understand it."
"The reason I like Ansible is, first, the coding of it is very straightforward, it's very human-readable. I'm also on a contract, and I can clearly iterate and bring people up to speed very quickly on writing a Playbook compared with writing up a Puppet manifest or a Salt script."
"The ease of being able to use the modules and collections to define what our business processes are is valuable. We are able to give non-technical people the ability to look at a process and say, "We need a step here. Someone do something and put it right here.""
"We can manage all the configuration consistency between all our servers."
"The most valuable features of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform are the agentless platform and writing the code is simple using the Yaml computer language."
"We can automate a few host configurations using the product."
"It has an easy-to-use interface. It is REST API driven, and it integrates with Active Directory. It provides the ability to grant permissions to other users who would not necessarily have those permissions via the GUI so that they could run other people's jobs. For example, you could have the Oracle team grant permissions to the Linux team so that they can use each of those playbooks or each other's code. It is called shift-left."
"It allows control over thousands of servers, whether virtual or physical."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is version control. For example, if we began on the first of the month and we considered that as the configuration of the server, I could set that configuration as my baseline. On a daily basis, if there was the operations team that did, for example, server patching, the tool will maintain all levels of versions."
"The product’s alert feature is good. We receive notifications whenever some failures occur in the configuration."
 

Cons

"Intune's reporting and logging could be improved. When troubleshooting, it's difficult to collect the logs and determine what's happening. If I want to filter out the compliant devices, I can see it from the logs, but I would like the option to drill down further."
"The pricing can be expensive if you are not combining it with other products."
"The UI is not user-friendly and has room for improvement."
"In terms of the admin experience, it is straightforward, but the Windows enrollment experience could be improved. Sometimes, for enrollment, we have to reset devices and re-enroll them. Just configuring Windows, Azure, or Active Directory doesn't enroll the devices. We need easy enrollment for Windows."
"It would be helpful if there was proactive remediation."
"The documentation about the custom image setup could be better. Although Microsoft provides the steps to configure Intune or set up or deploy Intune, it doesn't have much information related to custom images. If you ask, "how can we deploy the custom image?" There is no information. The steps they mention ask you to connect to your on-premises environment or create your own image on the cloud itself once there is connectivity. But I needed to go to multiple websites to get all this information. I had to figure out how to upload the custom image if you want to use the on-premise custom image for Cloud PC. If you have the proper subscription, you must have the right access, like global admin or owner. Then you can add your custom image to that. There are no steps mentioned over there. Microsoft Intune doesn't have Chrome browser support. I would like to have that support because they will want it if we pitch the product to clients."
"One thing that could be better in Microsoft Intune is the file size, as it is quite large at times."
"When Microsoft Intune is used with different android devices it does not always work as it is supposed to."
"The technical support is not adequate. The Ansible sales and technical support services need significant improvement."
"Accessibility. Ansible uses a CLI by default. Those accustomed to it can find their way and adopt the YAML files easily over time. But, some users are more comfortable using UIs..."
"Because Ansible is establishing SSH sessions to perform tasks, there is a limit on scalability."
"It would be good to make the solution more user-friendly,"
"Ansible is great, but there are not many modules. You can do about 80% to 90% of things by using commands, but more modules should be added. We cannot do some of the things in Ansible. In Red Hat, we have the YUM package manager, and there are certain options that we can pass through YUM. To install the Docker Community Edition, I'll write the yum install docker-ce command, but because the Docker Community Edition is not compatible with RHEL 8, I will have to use the nobest option, such as yum install docker-ce --nobest. The nobest option installs the most stable version that can be installed on a particular system. In Ansible, the nobest option is not there. So, it needs some improvements in terms of options. There should be more options, keywords, and modules."
"The tool should allow us to create infrastructure. It has everything when it comes to management, but it lacks the provisioning aspect."
"There are challenges in using the graphical interface, particularly in open-source versions."
"The support could be better."
"The product’s support services and licensing models need improvement."
"In a feature release, they could enhance the reporting. However, we have not evaluated this part of the solution extensively."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is cost-efficient."
"As a partner, we always look for how we can generate more revenue from a consulting point of view, but I do not see any complaints from the customer side regarding pricing, so they are satisfied with it."
"The pricing for Microsoft Intune is reasonable. Our clients are satisfied."
"With one user base license, we can use Intune for up to five devices. However, with Soti MobiControl, each license is tied to a single device, meaning one license is dedicated to one device only."
"We have the business premium licenses for the solution."
"Intune is included in the Microsoft 365 licensing package that we have."
"The product is relatively pricey, but considering its benefits, I'd say it's fair. The benefits outweigh the expensive licensing fees, especially for large organizations, but medium-sized and smaller businesses may be unable to afford it."
"Every customer used to purchase licenses based on their needs."
"Red Hat's open source approach was a factor when choosing Ansible, since the solution is free as of right now."
"Customers need to pay yearly for the license."
"Ansible is a lot more competitive than any of the others. Its setup was also straightforward. In fact, we just implemented Ansible on OpenShift, so that is how we are running the Ansible Automation Platform now."
"The pricing is okay."
"It is a little pricey but it is affordable. It is not that bad."
"The pricing is pretty standard."
"We're charged between $8 to $13 a month per license."
"Users have to pay a per-node cost of around $ 100 per node."
"SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor has medium pricing compared to other solutions."
"The price of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is not reasonable, it is slightly on the higher side."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business116
Midsize Enterprise46
Large Enterprise152
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise48
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What is the difference between Red Hat Satellite and Ansible?
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What do you like most about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?
The most valuable features of the solution are automation and patching.
What do you like most about SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor?
The product’s alert feature is good. We receive notifications whenever some failures occur in the configuration.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor?
SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor has medium pricing compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor?
The product’s support services and licensing models need improvement.
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Ansible
SolarWinds SCM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs. SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.