Microsoft System Center vs. Arcserve ShadowProtect

For companies with more than 10 Windows devices and needing to standardize the OS, AV, access, share resources, and install software. SCCM is the way to go. This software is unnecessary if the business is all remote users and not in an office-type setting. There are cloud offerings or none to accomplish what a business needs.

Incentivized

In situations where business continuity needs are high, ShadowProtect backups provide the ability to keep operations running with very minimal downtime, even in situations like crypto-locked data. If a backup server is set up in an environment to resume a live server from backup, this is even more helpful. In situations where clients don't care as much about quickly recovering their data, they can go without a solution like this.

Incentivized

• Allows the grouping of devices by user.
• Allows controlling updates being deployed to user devices.
• Allows for the repurposing of machines by being able to load new or updated software on machines that already are in the system.
• Allows us the ability to wipe a machine clean and restore it back to the configuration that was assigned the machine.

Incentivized

• You can virtualize your backups using Virtualbox, a free program that works on any PC.
• Backups are versatile, and you can back up to any location you'd like.
• Alerting can be set up for failed backups.

Incentivized

• Needs web based storefront for requesting new software
• Needs ability to manage the packaging work flow better
• Sometimes is slow to download and there is no indication the entire catalog is being loaded, resulting in confused users not being able to find common software in the available list.

Incentivized

• The replication offsite can have issues over time. It takes manual involvement to keep it working right.
• SPX remote management isn't easy out of the box.

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

If I had to dislike something about the system it would be how much it changes once you upgrade. This could be more of a problem of mine since I get used to one way and don't like it when it changes so much. I am enjoying the newest update, but it is a mess when you are actually going through the upgrades.

Incentivized

We don’t need support often, but when we do, the support has been strong. Sometimes it is hard to determine how to access support for the exact issue we are having. There are a decent forum and online ticketing system. Support for the cloud center seems to be provided only by phone, though.

Incentivized

We previously used a mix of FOG and Clonezilla to image machines. The biggest issues with these products is that changing one piece of the image required you to rebuild the entire image itself. These pieces of software also did not allow you to manage applications and Windows Updates, causing IT to have to constantly touch machines after they were imaged and update or manage them with a much more hands on approach.

Incentivized

Speed, we rely on Shadowprotect to provide us with fast backups and also backups that are smaller in size compared to the other products.

Incentivized

• We have been able to automate our patch management, firmware and other security concerns.
• We have a standardized "image" ensuring our setup is consistent across the enterprise. This alone has saved us in time to support and time to understand how to use our desktops.

Incentivized

• We have been with Shadowprotect for 5 years and are now only moving off of them due to limited functionality and Shadowprotect doubling our billing.
• The product now requires a lot more babysitting so I have one person just stuck managing backups, which is not a fulfilling job and hard to keep someone in that seat.
• While Shadowprotect has been fantastic for years, it is time for us to move on to something that makes financial sense and requires less labour.
• Storagecraft Cloud is fairly expensive compared to competitors.

Incentivized