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OpenText Dimensions CM vs. Rackspace OpenStack vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    OpenText Dimensions CM

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ADimensions CM is Software Change and Configuration Management for Agile development, developed by Serena Software and now sold by OpenText.N/A

    Rackspace OpenStack

    Score9.7 out of 10
    N/ARackspace delivers OpenStack private clouds as-a-service, architected like a public cloud and designed for scale and service availability to any data center in the world. It includes a 99.99% API Uptime SLA.

    $0.12

    per GB/per month

    Ansible

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/AThe Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (acquired by Red Hat in 2015) is a foundation for building and operating automation across an organization. The platform includes tools needed to implement enterprise-wide automation, and can automate resource provisioning, and IT environments and configuration of systems and devices. It can be used in a CI/CD process to provision the target environment and to then deploy the application on it.

    $5,000

    per year

    Pricing
    OpenText Dimensions CMRackspace OpenStackAnsible
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Rackspace OpenStack
    $0.12
    per GB/per month
    Basic Tower
    5,000
    per year
    Enterprise Tower
    10,000
    per year
    Premium Tower
    14,000
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    OpenText Dimensions CMRackspace OpenStackAnsible
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    OpenText Dimensions CMRackspace OpenStackAnsible
    Considered Multiple Products
    OpenText
    No answer on this topic
    Rackspace
    No answer on this topic
    Red Hat
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Would buy again
    265 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    210 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    263 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    166 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    201 Answers
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    User Ratings
    OpenText Dimensions CMRackspace OpenStackAnsible
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.8
    (292 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.3
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.3
    (184 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (5 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    OpenText Dimensions CMRackspace OpenStackAnsible
    Likelihood to Recommend
    OpenText
    Serena CM is well suited to highly controlled, audited, and process driven environments. It will allow strict segregation of duties, and change traceability. If implemented correctly it will help you quickly build trusts with your auditors. It is also well suited to environments that require constant branching and merging. Due to the complexity of the product and learning curve for your development and operations team it may be overkill in a small shop with loose rules
    Incentivized
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    Rackspace
    Need to get an application up and running, then I would say the open stack is a great place to test it out. Why spend time setting things up when you can let them do it for you? Many people also have experience with using Rackspace in some capacity so its an easier learning curve for many people.
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    I think it's the best defacto orchestrator for automation because it's so easy to integrate in other tools to it (dynatrace, cyberark, terraform, etc). It is a lot for a new or smaller team to use so I wouldn't recommend it to a new team using Ansible, in that case using Ansible navigator is a better start to understanding playbooks/inventories before diving into the complexity of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. EDA also takes a lot of connectivity between Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and target systems to get working which can be difficult in very locked down envs unless you have approval from many other teams like networking and security.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    OpenText
    • Code Promotion: Dimensions CM allows supervisors to control changes to code, in that they delegate requests to developers, and act as a gatekeeper prior to promoting to the next environment. This functionality is configurable so you can set up a workflow that best fits the structure and requirements of your own company.
    • Code Repository for changes and versioning: Code can be checked out by item or by synchronizing folders. Code revisions can be compared against other revisions or work files. Item histories show which developers made which modifications, and which supervisor and operations personnel were involved in assigning the request and promoting the code to each environment. Additionally a pedigree will show a stream diagram which graphically displays branches and merges.
    • Deployment: Serena Change Management offers help automating deployment including integrations with SVN and Jenkins. Its newer versions also have a powerful graphical deployment automation tool (Serena Deployment Automation- SDA). It comes with a certain amount of licenses built-in. If you have a many nodes to deploy to there will be separate licensing costs for that.
    Incentivized
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    Rackspace
    • Quick uptime
    • Simple Signup
    • Lots of options on what you need
    • Rackspace is a known company (not some unknown startup)
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    • Standardize controls and visibility for automation.
    • Provide RBAC and Vault for improved automation security and support.
    • Job Scheduling is much more effective than Cron or other home-grown solutions.
    • The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform API is one of the best features as it makes automation accessible from any other platform.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    OpenText
    • The only major negative that I have encountered with Serena CM product is that the very power and flexibility of the tool means there is a risk that you will make a mess of things. In other words it gives you plenty of rope to tangle yourself with. I recommend careful, well thought out deployments implementing the built in roles and workflows that can be turned on and configured, using a consistent methodology.
    • My experience with the Serena help desk support has not been impressive. Though reasonably polite and diligent, the technicians were well trained, and often gave bad advise and terrible scripts. On several occasions I had to rewrite scripts they have me; if I had run them as provided they would have caused even more difficulties than the problem I was trying to solve. I speak of the support in the past tense because I conditioned myself not to call them, it was usually just easier to solve nay problems my self. They do have a good account management team though, and for any major issues you can go thru them.
    Incentivized
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    Rackspace
    • Support does not seem to be what it use to be, use to be a solid 10 when dealing with them, now more like an 8
    • Pricing can be tricky to figure out
    • For some people too many options.
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    • Ansible is still not truly declarative like Terraform.
    • Simple automation is fine, but creating complex, scalable automation scripts is very difficult to learn.
    • For a higher number of nodes, Ansible consumes a lot of resources. It needs the paid version of AAP, which requires a cost.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Rackspace
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    We are extremely happy with the use of AAP. It's better than expected, There is almost no limit when thinking of automation. The only problem is that the day to day is consuming a big part of our time. Patching and checking vulnerabilities are virtually killing us. But we can only improve with AAP.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Rackspace
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    Everything has room for improvement, but Ansible is the best tool out there for what it does and what it can do. There are plenty of features and capabilities that can be added, but it's just a matter of time before it happens.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Rackspace
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    Great in almost every way compared to any other configuration management software. The only thing I wish for is python3 support. Other than that, YAML is much improved compared to the Ruby of Chef. The agentless nature is incredibly convenient for managing systems quickly, and if a member of your term has no terminal experience whatsoever they can still use the UI.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Rackspace
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    There is a lot of good documentation that Ansible and Red Hat provide which should help get someone started with making Ansible useful. But once you get to more complicated scenarios, you will benefit from learning from others. I have not used Red Hat support for work with Ansible, but many of the online resources are helpful.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Rackspace
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    I spoke on this topic today!
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    OpenText
    Serena CM is superior to Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) in overall functionality, but does not have very good native integration with Microsoft. Therefore in a Microsoft centric shop with no audit needs ,TFS would be better. Otherwise I would choose Serena CM
    Incentivized
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    Rackspace
    I looked into going with Amazon EC2, was very comparable in pricing, services, options, etc. and a bit cheaper too. Why I did not go with Amazon mainly has to do with knowing Rackspace and being familiar with them. It was easier for me to use a Rackspace product then go with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    AAP compares favorably with Terraform and Power Automate. I don't have much experience with Terraform, but I find AAP and Ansible easier to use as well as having more capabilities. Power Platform is also an excellent automation tool that is user friendly but I feel that Ansible has more compatibility with a variety of technologies.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    OpenText
    • Serena has facilitated our annual completion of various audit and technology control certifications. These certifications make a huge difference to our company's reputation and bottom line.
    • There has been no negative impact on our company.
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    Rackspace
    • Quick setup allowed me to work on the application not setup of where it was going to run
    • Expand ability with a few clicks was a great help, no worrying about if I needed more "power", few clicks and I had it.
    • Tech support is hit or miss so that can be problematic and that was cause for concern and took time away from development
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    • First, it keeps our entire server infrastructure aligned with our standards and reduces the time and effort needed to maintain our systems.
    • Automate routine IT tasks to save time, reduce errors, and ensure every server is configured and updated consistently.
    • Tasks that used to take our teams weeks to complete manually now run automatically and reliably, with full visibility, making our infrastructure management more effective and our compliance tracking much easier.
    Incentivized
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