Likelihood to Recommend It [Cisco UCS Manager] is extremely well suited to large virtual infrastructure environments with resource dense blades. This solution is also great if you want to consolidate a large number of servers (if they are servers that need to stay physical, but can fit in the profile of a blade) - this would reduce data center space utilization as well as power and cooling. Cisco UCS Manager is also great if you're looking for centralized management of a larger number of servers. This would not be a great solution if you have a very small shop - it's not cheap and probably wouldn't give you a ROI if you only have a couple dozen servers total. I'd say it would be overkill for small shops, but if you have the money and don't care, you'll still like it.
Read full review If you have to manage a large number of computers, especially spread over multiple clients or a large physical area. This is one of the main products that allows us to act as a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and actually manage our clients devices and not just react to issues as clients call them in. Clients really love the proactive approach it allows us to take.
Read full review Pros It is very all inclusive for management of every part our our Cisco blade center. It allows us to directly connect to a hardware-based server in the blade center as though we were physically at the console. It allows us to monitor the entire system for faults. It lets us manage connectivity. It is set to alert us via email if a fault occurs. Read full review It monitors computers and notifies us of any issues with any computer. It allows remote control of computers, such as requesting a computer to reboot itself. It is very highly configurable to monitor exactly what we need to monitor. For example, on server, we can have it notify us any time the server is shutdown or rebooted. On the other hand, for a desktop computer, we don't have to be bothered with notifications when a user decides to reboot his computer. Read full review Cons Automation: There is a simple power-shell CMD lets, but it leaves more to be desired. Navigation: Navigating the interface can be confusing. Integration: Integration with ESXi hosts while doing FW upgrades would be hugely beneficial without the need for additional tools. Read full review It would be nice if they increased their scope of supported third-party apps. It would be great if they would create an ios app for their ticket system. If they could possibly build in a location service for tracking devices, that would be helpful. If they had two-factor authentication, it would be nice. Read full review Usability Pulseway is very user friendly. The system is labeled in terms and grouped together by function so that anyone can understand and locate the functions that they need. We use this system to monitor a file server that we have that can have an unstable power supply. This allows us to easily see that the system is offline and get it back to operational with minimal downtime.
Read full review Support Rating Cisco UCSM Support has been very quick to reply and address our concerns, issues, and questions. We have found that Cisco's documentation is clear and concise and fairly easy to find. With Cisco support's help, we are able to quickly and safely meet the demands of our end-users, consistently.
Read full review I haven't really needed much support for Pulseway, so I can't really say a whole lot about their support. Pulseway has been pretty much trouble-free for us. There are regular updates and new features. The updates never seem to break anything or cause problems. It just works.
Read full review Alternatives Considered I think UCS Manager would be able very comparable to other vendors offerings when it comes to server configuration. I think Cisco did a good job in giving you full access to many options that you might not see with Dell or HPE. Every manufacturer would need a similar tool to control their server environment, but I think what Cisco has built into their Manager is a little better than others I've used. You can just see and change so many settings. I would say that is also a bit of a negative by a little bit because sometimes it is hard to dig in and find what you need to change and often might need to reach out to TAC or take a training course to understand all of the interface.
Read full review Pulseway has the most features, the best looking app with the best design and better usability than any others we evaluated. We liked the uniformity of the app design across all platforms (Windows, Android, Apple) and the notifications displayed on each platform. The price was a major contributor to our selection of Pulseway compared to the competition.
Read full review Return on Investment The positive is I was able to consolidate my small server infrastructure from 3 racks to one rack giving me space back and much power savings The negative would be it could feel a little daunting to manage as there are many tabs and pieces to the interface. Read full review Problems can be dealt with more rapidly because I have access to systems from anywhere. I don't have to carry a computer with me nor do I have to find a location with potentially non-secure wifi to gain access to my systems. I can handle 99% of my system admin tasks using Pulseway and never have to touch a system or connect to the console. Pulseway gives so much control over a system that I don't need to spend extra money on other software to perform management tasks. Read full review ScreenShots