ManageEngine Network Configuration Management (NCM) vs. Salt Project

It is well suited for cases we use very often in IT, which is deploying the same set of configuration across tens of network devices. By creating the template config on ManageEngine Network Configuration Management, these config can be deployed on multiple nodes at once. Backup and reporting is vital as well, in addition to the restore capabilities.

Incentivized

SaltStack is a very well architected toolset and framework for reliably managing distributed systems' complexity at varied scale. If the diversity of kind or number of assets is low, or the dependencies are bounded and simple, it might be overkill. Realization that you need SaltStack might come in the form of other tools, scripts, or jobs whose code has become difficult, unreliable, or unmaintainable. Rather than a native from-scratch SaltStack design, be aware that SaltStack can be added on to tools like Docker or Chef and optionally factor those tools out or other tools into the mix.

Incentivized

• Automated Backup and Revert Configuration
• Compliance audit check
• Configuration change management
• Instant notification alerts on change detection
• Detailed comprehensive reports

Incentivized

• Targeting is easy and yet extremely granular - I can target machines by name, role, operating system, init system, distro, regex, or any combination of the above.
• Abstraction of OS, package manager and package details is far advanced beyond any other CRM I have seen. The ability to set one configuration for a package across multiple distros, and have it apply correctly no matter the distrospecific naming convention or package installation procedure, is amazing.
• Abstraction of environments is similarly valuable - I can set a firewall rule to allow ssh from "management", and have that be defined as a specific IP range per dev, test, and prod.

Incentivized

• If the developers can make the initial setup more simplified, it will be great. Due to the complexity of the initial setup and tweaking, it takes more time than the planned period.

Incentivized

• Managing network hardware should be more native and easy
• SaltStack should buffer jobs and, when a client returns, make sure it is executed proberly
• SaltStack should provide basic pillar and states structures to help get newbies started

Incentivized

It makes my life and work easier and more accurate.

It can be used for various tasks. We most importantly depend on its backup and script automation service.

Incentivized

ManageEngine support is excellent. Every time we had a issue and contacted the support we received it very quickly.

Incentivized

We haven't had to spend a lot of time talking to support, and we've only had one issue, which, when dealing with other vendors is actually not that bad of an experience.

Easy to deploy and add devices to, except Huawei devices

Incentivized

Price its very competitive

Incentivized

We moved to SaltStack from Puppet about 3 years ago. Puppet just has too much of a learning curve and we inherited it from an old IT regime. We wanted something we could start fresh with. Our team has never looked back. SaltStack is so much easier for us to use and maintain.

Incentivized

• Increased network security
• Mitigation of audit findings
• Easy hardening

Incentivized

• We manage two complex highly available self-healing (all infrastructure and systems) environments using SaltStack. Only one person is needed to run SaltStack. That is a HUGE return on investment.
• Building tooling on top of SaltStack has allowed us to share administrative abilities by role - e.g. employee X can deploy software Y. No need to call a sysadmin and etc.
• Recovery from problems, or time to stand-up new systems is now counted in minutes (usually under eight) rather than hours. This is a strategic advantage for rolling out new services.

Incentivized