F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management vs. KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA)

F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management is a great interface to manage F5 gear for large enterprises, often simplifying the routine manual workflows which are time consuming.

Incentivized

It is most effective in Windows PC environments and doing mass Windows deployments across a wired LAN. It would not be suitable for small office/school environments or for environments with limited PC usage.

Incentivized

• It show us all F5s in one spot
• It is able to take backups
• It can help with upgrades
• Give central spot to make reports

Incentivized

• Windows PC deployments.
• Windows PC re-imaging.

Incentivized

• To be able to schedule software updates at a later time/date to meet change management window so manual intervention is minimized. F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management should be able to send alert if upgrade process halts or fails for any reason.

Incentivized

• USMT had issues with successfully capturing user states.
• MAC support, stopped supporting newer versions of MAC OS. No APFS support.

Incentivized

It may be due to how we deployed it or how we use it, but it adds time to doing small changes. I do like the deployment detail and change tracking though.

Incentivized

The majority of the support reps I talk to on the phone are quick to respond and very helpful. They will take their time helping you with any case for the SDA and have any issues with it. They will help you build new boot environments or deployments if you get stuck or have a problem.

Incentivized

B/c We liked the other products even less

Incentivized

• In 2021 thanks to Big-IQ we drastically reduced the time we spend on software upgrades.
• BigIQ helped us to have visibility of our Big-IP environment in one place.

Incentivized

• Primarily saves us time for maintaining our computer labs.

Incentivized