Cisco Intersight vs. Puppet Enterprise

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Intersight
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Intersight is an operations platform that helps IT operations teams control and automate Cisco UCS, converged, and hyperconverged infrastructure. Intersight consolidates and automates infrastructure lifecycle management from data centers to the edge in one solution delivered as-a-service.N/A
Puppet Enterprise
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Puppet Enteprise is an IT automation and configuration management solution that enables users to manage and automate infrastructure and complex workflows. The vendor states Puppet Enterprise combines both model‑based and task-based capabilities in a way that enables organizations to scale their multi-cloud infrastructure as their automation footprint grows, with more flexibility from both agent-based and agentless capabilities.N/A
Pricing
Cisco IntersightPuppet Enterprise
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco IntersightPuppet Enterprise
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco IntersightPuppet Enterprise
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Cisco IntersightPuppet Enterprise
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Medium-sized Companies
IBM Turbonomic
IBM Turbonomic
Score 8.9 out of 10
Ansible
Ansible
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
VMware Cloud Director
VMware Cloud Director
Score 8.7 out of 10
Ansible
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Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco IntersightPuppet Enterprise
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(35 ratings)
7.0
(12 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.8
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(35 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco IntersightPuppet Enterprise
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
It is highly suited for an organisation pushing for a standardised and centralised configuration of settings using policies, profiles and templates. It is highly suited for customers used to legacy UMM that need to refresh their environment, but instead of deploying them in UMM (which is still possible), to take the time and effort to learn Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service and IMM as well as familiarise themselves with the differences between UMM and IMM, and the issues in UMM which IMM addresses and improves upon. We deployed in UMM initially then transitioned to IMM with the transition too. I cannot think of a scenario where Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service would not be suited. Even for small-scale deployments, it provides significant benefits. Maybe if you come from another server vendor management environment, the learning curve may feel steep (e.g. many new concepts and constructs that one has to master).
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Perforce Software
Puppet is good enough to get the job done, you can use it to automate deployments and maintain files and configurations, if this is all you're looking for it's great. If you're looking for more control over your systems as a whole without having to write your own scripts or install multiple configuration management systems then Puppet is not what you're looking for.
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Pros
Cisco
  • Standardising the environment by enforcing use of updating templates.
  • Show the difference on a profile between what has changed and what setting was last deployed.
  • Perform bulk deploy operation on profiles (like server profiles).
  • Policies underpin all settings (e.g. no more defining individual VLANs before being able to use them, or having to clean them up manually when they are no longer in use. You deploy a Domain VLAN policy that states which VLANs are configured on a domain (either standalone) or a domain profile template (if domains profiles are bound to an updating domain profile template).
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Perforce Software
  • Provides a clear map of how a system is configured
  • Eases the creation of a system in a specific cluster as it is scripted in code
  • Simplifies configuration changes to a cluster or to every system such as rolling out vhost configurations, updating ldap roles, NFS mounts, etc
  • The syntax is very easy to read and carries a lot of fluidity once the language is learned.
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Cons
Cisco
  • It is difficult to spot an added or removed VLAN in an Ethernet Network Group Policy or VLAN Policy. The comparison widget will show you that something has changed, but if you have 100s of VLANs, the difference does not stand out. Workaround: we copy the data out and compare it in a text editor.
  • If you are transitioning from UMM to IMM, you lose some functionality like vNIC redundancy pairs.
  • It is not easy to map the UMM version 4.x server firmware version to the equivalent IMM version 5.x firmware version.
  • It is not possible to configure out-of-band management IP addresses on a per-domain basis. You have to configure these ranges via an IMC Access policy (which contains the IP address range/pool) on the server profile. This leads to "server profile template sprawl" where we have to maintain multiple server profile templates since our domains sit on different ranges, even though the servers are for the most part configured identically.
  • UCS domains in IMM only support one Ethernet Network Group Policy (VLAN group) per vNIC template.
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Perforce Software
  • The setup of Puppet is a nightmare compared to ansible. Anyone watching a youtube video can easily set up ansible with minimal IT knowledge. All one needs is the source IP addresses and we are good to go. Setting up Puppet is a more hands-on task and pushing the puppet agents to all the boxes is another issue. If the installation and setup were simplified like ansible that would attract a lot of people to this platform
  • The syntax of the code for Puppet is not as easy as ansible. Ansible simply follows a YAML format and it's like typing in normal English. Even complicated tasks can be written by just understanding YAML syntax. Perhaps Puppet needs to revisit the lanugage used and try to come up with a much simpler lanugage for writing code. This will make day-to-day usage easier.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
Very happy with the product. Also, without an Intersight Essentials license as a minimum, M7 servers and up cannot be managed
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Perforce Software
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
Usability of Cisco Intersight is highly dependent on the licensing purchased. The default (free) license level provides a lot of value for the minimal amount of effort to implement. The paid license levels provide additional features (detailed inventory, configuration management and deployment, etc.)
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Perforce Software
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
I have had servers TAC cases open for issues with Cisco Intersight. Some have yet to be resolved. One case that is still open is where the HCL status ( Hardware Compatibility List ) shows not validated when It should be. We have several servers that have the exact same hardware, OS, and the same firmware. One server will show the HCL is not validated but all others will
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Perforce Software
Puppet has top class support. You can simply mail them with their query and they will respond to your query in a timely manner. We do have enterprise license for puppet. Also there is a vibrant community for puppet out there. So even if you dont purchase a premium support option you can simply google your queries and get answers
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Online Training
Cisco
You really need a lab to get hands on but it was useful
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Perforce Software
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cisco
Very smooth process and we did it for 2 data centers
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Perforce Software
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
I personally think that Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service is at the top of its class when it comes to managing data center hardware. The cloud-connected design feels very modern and easy to use. The mobile app is something I wouldn't expect to get in a server management tool. The way it can update, monitor, and manage our servers is very nice. Overall, we are very happy with it.
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Perforce Software
HPSA is a licensed product and incurs significant upfront investment costs due to COTS licensing. Puppet Data Center Automation has a significantly lower upfront investment and product documentation is more readily available. Chef is a very similar offering, however, at the time our decision was considered, the adoption of Chef vs. Puppet was significantly less in the community.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • The negative thing is that we prefer to use the UCS Manager in our company because this bare metal is integrated into the FI and no extra appliance is required. SaaS is generally not viewed favorably in Germany.
  • Telling the user that they have to buy Intersight licenses even if they use UCS Manager annoys our customers.
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Perforce Software
  • Cut deployment times down to around 1 hour from 4-5 hours.
  • Allows us to get a fully running system up from scratch in around 30 minutes.
  • Allows for a more clear view of what is required to get a host running.
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ScreenShots

Cisco Intersight Screenshots

Screenshot of the Intersight dashboard, which provides out-of-the box summaries of real-time health and performance data across data center and edge infrastructure. Users can customize the dashboard with a library of widgets to quickly see information that's most important to them.Screenshot of the security advisories and field notices that alert users about endpoint devices in their environment that are impacted along with recommended resolution.Screenshot of the Topology Views that let users quickly identify any UCS domain connectivity issues thorugh a visual representation.Screenshot of an example of the automated workflows that users can create, using Intersight's drag-and-drop workflow designer and library of tasks and workflows.Screenshot of an example of the aggregated and visualized metrics that are collected for fabric interconnects, chassis, and servers to monitor devices, optimize performance, identify bottlenecks, and proactively address any potential issues.