Azure StorSimple vs. Microsoft System Center vs. Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes

Onsite storage needs and backing up to Azure.

Incentivized

For companies with more than 10 Windows devices and needing to standardize the OS, AV, access, share resources, and install software. SCCM is the way to go. This software is unnecessary if the business is all remote users and not in an office-type setting. There are cloud offerings or none to accomplish what a business needs.

Incentivized

Mirantis is well suited for someone who doesn't mind spending money but doesn't quite want to commit to a cloud provider like AWS. It is also well suited for small or junior technical teams that don't have the skills, experience, or time to run their own openstack clusters.

Incentivized

• Performance via the SSD drives.
• Writes back to our Private Cloud via Azure.
• Easy to Admin via Web client interface.

Incentivized

• Allows the grouping of devices by user.
• Allows controlling updates being deployed to user devices.
• Allows for the repurposing of machines by being able to load new or updated software on machines that already are in the system.
• Allows us the ability to wipe a machine clean and restore it back to the configuration that was assigned the machine.

Incentivized

• Can be deployed and run on bare metal on premises clouds
• Is highly reliable and highly scalable
• One of the good performance private cloud IAAS platforms available around

Incentivized

• Additional fail-over functionality

Incentivized

• Needs web based storefront for requesting new software
• Needs ability to manage the packaging work flow better
• Sometimes is slow to download and there is no indication the entire catalog is being loaded, resulting in confused users not being able to find common software in the available list.

Incentivized

• Mirantis OpenStack managed services are expensive. Very expensive for a start-up.
• I'd personally like to see a little more under the hood details in the status pages.
• Mirantis could also benefit heavily from a free "light" version that start-ups could use to run their own cloud. Maybe coupled with advertising or some sort of surveys.

Incentivized

If I wanted to use just onsite storage the StorSimple device is already paid for.

Incentivized

It is not user-friendly for the most part. With IT infrastructure, sometimes it cannot handle excess requests. Every few months, you will need an upgrade in terms of server resources to keep up with incoming alerts and requests. This does not happen all of the time, but it does happen when there are too many requests.

Incentivized

If I had to dislike something about the system it would be how much it changes once you upgrade. This could be more of a problem of mine since I get used to one way and don't like it when it changes so much. I am enjoying the newest update, but it is a mess when you are actually going through the upgrades.

Incentivized

Easy to use and highly compatible with our MSFT Hyper-V environment

Incentivized

We previously used a mix of FOG and Clonezilla to image machines. The biggest issues with these products is that changing one piece of the image required you to rebuild the entire image itself. These pieces of software also did not allow you to manage applications and Windows Updates, causing IT to have to constantly touch machines after they were imaged and update or manage them with a much more hands on approach.

Incentivized

Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes is easily manageable and has seamlessly configurable containers. It also has high reliability and security, which is certainly a positive point for this product. Overall I think it is a worthy competitor in the market to compare for your needs.

Incentivized

• Great Folks on the MSFT Implementation team
• Great value on year 2

Incentivized

• We have been able to automate our patch management, firmware and other security concerns.
• We have a standardized "image" ensuring our setup is consistent across the enterprise. This alone has saved us in time to support and time to understand how to use our desktops.

Incentivized

• Mirantis did help our business figure out if openstack was right for us.
• Using Mirantis I felt a bit cheated on understanding the deep technical knowledge of how openstack works. But that being said that is probably a value add more than a detractor for most people.
• Using Mirantis was considerably cheaper than AWS.

Incentivized