Red Hat Satellite vs. SmartDeploy vs. Symantec Ghost Solution Suite

Red Hat Satellite works amazingly with servers that need more control over their packages. For one or two servers that you're just doing "dnf update" Red Hat Satellite is way overkill.

Incentivized

Well suited scenarios : One of the situations SmartDeploy helped immensly was in application deployment and management for our projects , making it and instant favorite for the deployment process. Also in one situation where we had a high flying app development which did'nt had much time to develop, deployment thorugh smart deploy made it quick and less involvement. Easier to understand major functionalities and onboard new projects. Less appropriate scenarios: We faced issues while utilising by DevOps team for monitoring every system for issue resolving in linux update on every employees system. This created alot of delay in every employees work front as systems were not working as expected

Incentivized

It helps to manage the mass of computers we use. We use GSS to see where and who deployed software to what computers. This can particularly be helpful when dealing with license usage, and tracking how many licenses we have left, and where those licenses have been used. We are able to use it to manage clients.

Incentivized

• Patches
• License Management
• Dashboards / Visibility

• It allows us to maintain only one image. Much less effort required than storing and maintaining multiple images.
• LAN deployment works very well with few issues.

Incentivized

• Simple and easy to use interface
• Easily image multiple computers at the same time
• Deploys software

Incentivized

• I woud love for it to provide the same functionality for non-RHEL OS's
• Containerized Installation
• Simplified workflow setup

Incentivized

• Remote monitoring is useful but has some lagging and functionalities are not upfront to use , making it complicated for new users to be aware just by using the application
• Windows migration was quite difficult in terms of updates of softwares to be migrated to new system
• Integration with client systems can be tough as major usage of other softwares is done in most of client systems causing us difficulties to integrate with smart deploy on the same platform

Incentivized

• Setting up PXE has a learning curve.
• Still trying to figure out if we can create one golden (master) image for all hardware types.
• Would love a way to be able to refresh PCs with effecting user and program data.

When you're first getting into the platform, the GUI can be a little confusing. It takes a little while to get accustomed to where everything is, and what everything is used for. I highly recommend prior training / classes before diving into the platform. This will ensure a better transition into the platform, and more likely to use more features of it overall due to the new knowledge gained

SmartDeploy customer support has been very good. Although we do not always get a super-fast response (though always within the time stated). The tech support folks at SmartDeploy always go the extra mile to see that our immediate issues are taken care of in as timely a manner as possible. They have always been attentive to our needs and frustrations.

Incentivized

SmartDeploy has a fantastic deployment process management with detailed and configurable aspects. Even though it has detailed configuration it still somehow makes it easy to understand and implement compared to other services which need special learning and courses to understand them completelya and use them efficiently. This is one quality highly appreciated and stacks up against any other services I have used for deployment

Incentivized

Once the research had been done, it seemed that Symantec Ghost Solution Suite was the best suited for our environment. The initial cost was fair and the return on investment was well worth what we had to pay up front. I would recommend Ghost Solution Suite to any larger company.

Incentivized

• We have been able to automate the update process to not require after-hours monitoring.
• Centralizing updates has greatly reduced the overall time servers are down and processing their individual updates.
• We are able to bring our own RPM packages in and stage them in the same deployment model as official Red Hat packages.

Incentivized

• Very fast as an image deployment solution for new PCs. We do not have to create a completely new image when new hardware comes out. This is an amazing time-saver on its own.
• With offline deployment and some workarounds, this is allowing us to migrate many Windows 7 units, rather than having to upgrade each one or load from scratch or replace it with new hardware.

Incentivized

• Helps to manage remote computers
• Helps to manage software licenses
• Helps to track and manage usage

Incentivized