Kaseya VSA vs. Microsoft System Center

This package is well suited for businesses of any size that needs a method of connecting to systems on or off the network. This is one of the few packages that doesn't require the end user to provide permission before allowing the techs to connect which is what my agency needed as we have a majority of our systems are used by "general public" that walk in our doors and if they are doing something that they are not supposed to it would be unlikely that they would grant permission for us to access the systems.

Incentivized

We used a product before that was designed to prevent users making changes and saving files to the desktop computer. This required a renewal of the license. By using SCCM in our environment we were able to discontinue using that product because SCCM allows us to completely restore a machine back to the original configuration. We have taught our users to save their individual work on either a network drive or a cloud drive. By doing this, if we do a re-image of their machine they have lost no data, and it makes for a faster resolution. In some instances having a computer in our SCCM environment it can become cumbersome when creating new users for very specific purposes. It can be done by creating new organizational units and applying new policies but when in a pinch it can be frustrating. For the most part we have tried to make "new" purpose images and groups to at least accommodate a quick install.

Incentivized

• Scripting - Very powerful scripting engine that allows us to update/install applications and maintain PC's and Servers.
• Policy Management - Globally configured policies allowing us to make changes to thousands of PC's quickly.
• Monitoring - Monitoring engine allows us to Proactively respond to alerts quickly minimizing downtime significantly.
• Patch Management - This module requires minimal effort to manage and maintain.

Incentivized

• Allows us to visualize our systems in a single interface and see the status of health as well as relevant performance metrics.
• A flexible and powerful interface with active alerting covering domain controllers, SQL servers, etc...
• Allows you to customize your views and workspaces for specific tasks and needs.
• Reporting is powerful and flexible.

Incentivized

• The only area I can see where a lot of room for improvement can be made is in scripting of Agent procedures. Making operations more modular and able to be assembled by technicians who might not be strong in a scripting environment would be helpful. In the mean time, Kaseya has an entire site and a whole team of developers who write Agent procedures for common tasks and make them available for free to all Kaseya VSA customers.

Incentivized

• One of the biggest drawbacks to SCOM is the sheer scope and complexity of the system. This can be a pro and a con. The system is very customizable, what you put into it is what you'll get out of it. That said, the learning curve is fairly steep. An organization needs to be committed to putting time and resources into SCOM to get the most out of it. I've heard stories from colleagues of several different companies that invested in SCOM and then abandoned it due to the excessive time and care required.
• SCOM is expensive. Not only is the enterprise licensing costly, SCOM requires it's own servers, operational and warehouse databases to be maintained.
• The OOB SCOM reports are a bit clunky and feel outdated.

Incentivized

Excellent product with easy learning curve

Incentivized

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager is tightly integrated to Microsoft Windows servers os monitoring with great product support.

Incentivized

I think this is a solid tool for enterprise IT, however it would be higher if Kaseya VSA addresses the areas raised around recent stability, their support team, multiple session & screen support etc. It does do it's main job and allows an easy way for IT to operate and is mostly fine.

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

It was lots of back and forth email communication whenever I tried to solve my connection issues. I would send them detailed logs of the date, time, computer, and more of when I was experiencing connection issues. All I would get is an email back a few days later saying that they didn't find an issue in the service

Incentivized

There is a fair amount of documentation out there to help you when you have questions or run into issues with this product as well as tutorials on some of the more common tasks. Between the documentation and the overall ease of use we haven't had to deal with direct Microsoft support for this product.

Incentivized

Easy to install with intuitive interactive interface during the installation process a and integration to MS SQL was smooth

Incentivized

We moved away from NinjaRMM for support of PowerShell scripting and APIs. Overall, the experience with NinjaRMM, though limited in features, was tenfold better than our experience with VSA. We have been desiring strongly to move away from VSA to N-Central (having been provided a full demo that we installed on our cloud infrastructure) but have been unable to do so due to Kaseya's draconian contract policies. It's important to note that NinjaRMM was allowing us to go month-to-month and switching to Kaseya VSA was one of the worst business decisions I ever made. It's equally important to note that, if you are considering Kaseya VSA, you will be locked into a 3-year contract that is nearly impossible to escape from once the documents are signed. SolarWinds N-central only requires a 1-year contract and then has month-to-month billing available. I can provide no good reason for anyone to consider Kaseya VSA when there are dozens of better systems out there to choose from.

None. We are a Microsoft business, and this is THE tool for imaging, packaging, remote support, and antivirus management. Microsoft's tool is the best for managing its software, systems, and antivirus clients. I will say that Microsoft Intune, the cloud platform, can be used for those with heavy 365 usage, but for us, that does not meet our current company needs.

Incentivized

• It has increased the efficiency of operational tasks for our technicians
• It has change the speed at which we are able to deploy updates and software patches
• It caused us to spend additional money on more security tools due to concern from breaches

Incentivized

• The positive impact it has had on ROI is that it has been a solid AV product in our environment, meaning it has worked well when running on client computers. It doesn't use a lot of system resources on the client-side, so that helps end-users productivity of not being slowed down.
• It has been good for the end-user, since they really don't need to take additional training or consult user manuals, in how to use the product.

Incentivized