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Microsoft System Center

Microsoft System Center

Overview

What is Microsoft System Center?

Microsoft System Center Suite is a family of IT management software for network monitoring, updating and patching, endpoint protection with anti-malware, data protection and backup, ITIL- structured IT service management, remote administration and more. It is available in two editions: standard…

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Recent Reviews

System Center

9 out of 10
January 25, 2021
It is used across the whole organization. It addresses critical business solutions managing all windows endpoints and servers. It is a …
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Awards

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Pricing

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Standard Edition

$1323

On Premise

Datacenter Edition

$3607

On Premise

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $1,323 per month
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Product Demos

Flexera Software's Integration and Support of Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Microsoft System Center?

Microsoft System Center Suite is a family of IT management software for network monitoring, updating and patching, endpoint protection with anti-malware, data protection and backup, ITIL- structured IT service management, remote administration and more.

It is available in two editions: standard and datacenter. Datacenter provides unlimited virtualization for high density private clouds, while standard is for lightly or non-virtualized private cloud workloads.

Microsoft System Center Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft System Center Suite is a family of IT management software for network monitoring, updating and patching, endpoint protection with anti-malware, data protection and backup, ITIL- structured IT service management, remote administration and more. It is available in two editions: standard and datacenter. Datacenter provides unlimited virtualization for high density private clouds, while standard is for lightly or non-virtualized private cloud workloads.

Microsoft System Center starts at $1323.

The most common users of Microsoft System Center are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(72)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-20 of 20)
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Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Microsoft system centre in our organisation in multiple devops team and operation team to simplify operations and deployments . It has been renamed to Microsoft Endpoint configuration manager recently . It provides a suite of applications which is critical to the operation . This includes comprehensive accessing , deploying and managing the servers .
  • Ease of use
  • Suite of application makes it a one stop shop for all the infrastructure needs
  • Onboarding and offboarding of users and devices are very easy
  • Need more comprehensive documentation and Wiki pages
  • The learning path can be a little difficult for beginners
  • Pricing can be a little more competitive
The suite of SCCM tools provided by the Microsoft system center is quite comprehensive and it helped out newly created infrastructure team manage the infrastructure smoothly without any major hiccup . The team was quickly able to adapt to new features and this helped our business to grow further and client really appreciated the smooth transition.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Configuration Manager instead of Group Policy features. And, we use Data Protection Manager instad of other backup solution. both systems are in production. Those systems are useful to install and to update agent. When we face trouble, we just ask Microsoft and they always find out the cause.
  • it is easy to use security groups in the install polices and other polices.
  • Install method is often complex.
  • If you make a mistake in the settings, it will break. You will have to re-build.
Do you want to know how to build System Centers?
You will get some failers, deeply knowledges and rebuild System Centers. After that, you can use it with confidence.
These experiences will teach you new ways to deal with windows machines.
It is also a great option for those who want to reduce the number of maintenance vendors.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In our internal automation helpdesk, to ensure the availability in our company. With this product, we can manage this. The platform is compatible with open systems like VMware. This makes it easy to use for different types of use.
  • Compatible with a variety of devices and systems.
  • End-users can use different apps and devices that fit their requirements.
  • Internal automation team can perform their tasks efficiently.
  • The scale of different devices.
  • High learning curve.
  • Need training to use the product.
Best Scenario: fewer clicks and automated workflows help the Internal automation team reduce repetitive daily tasks so that the team can focus on more important aspects of their job. Less: setting it up requires significant expertise.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have a large group of users over several buildings that require management. We use SCCM to control the device drivers and software that are deployed to different groups. This allows us to have unique offerings to the different groups of users, ex: Teaching staff, maintenance staff, different grade levels for students, etc. This also allows us to do a clean wipe of the machines if they become corrupt or abused by the user. The product also makes it easier to repurpose desktops and notebooks, allowing for us to clear a machine and install new programs as needed. Another nice feature is the ability to update operating systems and software versions via SCCM.
  • 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.
  • The end-user should be able to update the base system (SCCM) much easier than is currently allowed.
  • Searching across the different levels of device groups would make locating a single computer much easier.
  • Because our version is an older release this concern may have already been resolved. Often after we've done considerable re-imaging our unit requires a reboot to bring all of the services back online.
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use Microsoft System Center to manage and image all staff and student machines in the organization. We utilize Microsoft System Center to push applications and programs to machines and keep them up to date. We also use the Windows Update Server side of System Center to keep machines up to date and compliant. We use System Center's monitoring and query ability to track machines and assets in the district as well. This allows us to identify machines as they fall out of compliance. We utilize the Remote Control aspect of Microsoft System Center to remotely assist staff and work on issues. We also use Right Click Tools to expand the functionality of Microsoft System Center to give us greater control over machines.
  • Imaging
  • Remote Control Assistance
  • Deploying Software and Programs
  • Driver Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Windows Updates
  • User Interface
  • Windows Update Configuration and Setup
  • Distribution Point Setup
Microsoft System Center excels when it comes to mass imaging of machines in an organization. We recently had to replace a large quantity of machines in our organization, roughly 1000, and utilized Microsoft System Center to provide a consistent image to each machine. It made the process extremely simple. We setup our task sequences to drop machines into their respective OU's, so once the imaging process is done, the machine has all the software it needs, is completely up to date, is in the correct OU, and has the group policies that it should. This requires little interaction on IT's side to get a machine ready to go. We used to use FOG to image machines, which required a lot more work and interaction than what System Center does.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Microsoft System Center for remote support to users in the company and for the assets management. This software has been help us to be more productive and to have access the endpoint very easy. With System Center we too deploy software and can get information about the computers.
  • The remote access is very useful
  • The software deployment is very useful
  • The dashboard is very friendly
  • The patches software need to be improved
  • The reports need to be improved
  • This need a mobile device management
This software is very useful in the software deployment, but this is not very well with the reports. When you are an expert using this, you can do a lot of things, but it is necessary to know the sofware administration for to have good results using the deployment or patches features.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using System Center products including System Center Configuration Manager, System Center Operations Manager & System Center Endpoint Security Manager. The role of Systems Center Configurations Manager is to deploy windows updates, operating system images & custom software packages for clients and servers, we have deployed automatic deployment rules to deploy windows updates to windows clients, for servers we deploy manually only security patches, Windows 10 and other operating systems have answer files attached to the deployment which reduce interaction with support staff. End point security manager is deployed on servers to ensure proper antivirus update and security for servers, through operations manger we have automated a lot of tasks that were previously done through group policies and task scheduling.
  • Deployment of Windows Updates through SCCM
  • Deployment of Operating System through SCCM
  • Deployment of Application Packages through SCCM
  • Automation of task through SCOM
  • Deployment & Management of Antivirus through SCEPM
  • Reporting in SCCM
  • Automatic Deployment Rules in SCCM
System Center is a Suite of products with a very vast amount of depth to it, it covers almost all aspects of server infrastructure and is well suited for large enterprises and medium sized organizations, it is not suited for small organizations. The tool that we used the most is System Center Configurations Manager which is very well made and it simplifies a lot of tasks like operating system deployment, updates and patches deployment and applications deployment. For automation System Center Operations Manger is well suited and for security System Center End Point Protections Manager.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
SCCM is currently being used across the entire organization. It is used to image new and existing computers via PXE and USB boot keys. It is also being used to manage updates, install new software, run scripts, provide reporting, power management settings, and remove software. It addresses everything from update compliance, baseline imaging, providing specialized images for different departments, and remote control support in certain circumstances.
  • Imaging
  • Software Pushes
  • Script deployment
  • System Settings Compliance
  • Remote Control Tool
  • Imaging Troubleshooting
  • Database management
SCCM is a great tool for a large company with a large number of endpoints, computers that require specialized images - or lots of changes between images, OS updating, and general management. It isn't appropriate for smaller companies or teams that don't have a dedicated resource for SCCM management and managing the updates.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it mainly to manage our BOX servers and processes, it helps to show the logs and who has accessed the BOX recently. It makes resource management and application deployment easy. The product has saved a lot of time for our resources to automate implementations and roll our service jobs.
  • Better time management
  • Ease of application deployment
  • Manage remote BOX servers
  • Provide automated update to clients
  • Provide more documentations and training
  • The UI looks old and is not updated
  • shows error and needs to be reboot
It is a great tool for organizations having multiple resources accessing BOX servers that needs log management. It is easier to install and deploy applications for broad users. It can be used to update serves with quick patches. It can be easily integrated with other Microsoft products like SQL and BI tools for visualization.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft System Center is used by the IT department. We are using it to image PCs, initial software application installations, patching/updating existing applications, remote connection to PCs, software inventory, hardware inventory, and reporting.

We have found since using Microsoft System Center, providing customer support has been very quick and helpful, especially during the pandemic when the majority of the staff have been working from home. Patching has also been a tremendous savings of time and effort since deploying software patches via Microsoft System Center.
  • Remote PC connection
  • Software installation
  • Imaging PCs
  • Reporting could be improved (offering more canned reports)
  • Easier patching/patching automation (ability to connect to the vendor's site to create the patching in an automated fashion)
Imaging PCs is fast and rather easy. The turnaround time in providing a newly imaged PC is amazing. We also like the ability to copy the users' personalizations, documents, bookmarks, etc. using USMT to transfer to their new PC.

Reporting could be better. More canned reports would be nice along with more attractive reports with charts to share with management.

It would be nice if patching were more automated. The ability to retrieve patches from the vendor or a central repository would be great rather than manually retrieving the patches and creating the applications/packages to push out to the PCs in the organization.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it to deploy software to several thousand windows 10 computers. Users can see which software is being deployed or was recently deployed to their computer. It is also used to deploy updates to existing installs when it needs to be patched. It is being used across the entire organization.
  • User interface
  • Deployment of software
  • Tooling usability
  • 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.
Good for small to large companies with windows machines. Great for self service user troubleshooting (what changed recently that broke such and such). Reliable distribution of software and updates to existing installations. Wouldn't work great for companies that use Unix based systems, or at least I don't have experience using it with those.
January 25, 2021

System Center

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
It is used across the whole organization. It addresses critical business solutions managing all windows endpoints and servers. It is a core system in deploying desktop and laptop fleet. Patching through SCCM has been robust and also helps in producing the reports every month. It has helped to secure our organization and also quick deployments of packages to endpoints.
  • Application Deployment
  • Reporting
  • Operating system management
  • Integration with powerbi
  • endpoint protection
  • Availability of new feature is slow
  • Third party tool integration required for some endpoint management actions
Large enterprise requires robust product for managing their enterprise desktop fleets. SCM provides flexibility to have a hybrid system with AZURE which is added advantage
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Microsoft System Center to automate the creation, monitoring, and deployment of resources in our Azure Pack environment. It is being used by our entire organization and it allows us to be more streamlined and solves some of the challenges that we were having. It also helps our IT diagnose and troubleshoot infrastructure, workload, or application issues.
  • Provides our users the ability to deploy and manage our own datacenter based on defined software with understandable solutions for storage, compute, networking and security.
  • We are able to update at once all the computers from all departments without having to install the OS on every computer.
  • It allows us to have everything in one place for database management and datacenter inspection as well.
  • Implementation was a struggle, and although I was not here for it, that is what most people said.
  • It is not user-friendly, not easy for someone who has not used it before.
Microsoft System Center improves our company's overall organization and increases efficiency with its automated workflow process and self-serve options. It is also fully stable and is able to diagnose and troubleshoot infrastructure, workload or application issues in order to maintain always reliability and great performance the majority of the time.

I don't think it would be a great use-case for smaller companies of less than 25 users.
March 27, 2019

System Center Rocks!

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is our go-to when it comes to deploying packages to the end points. It makes it easier for us to deploy Windows updates.
  • Very easy to configure.
  • You can control how much bandwidth you want to use across the wire.
  • You can have branches if you don’t want to make deployments over the WAN.
  • More seamless integration. I feel like Microsoft can do better when it comes to configuring some features within System Center.
Best for the deployment of Windows updates, and updates of applications and imaging workstations over the network. Honestly, I have not found a situation where I wouldn’t use System Center.
Mark Fitzgerald | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft System Center is the client management solution for my institution. It is responsible for the imaging, inventory, software deployment, patch management, incident and service request tracking and much more. It is because of SCCM and SCSM that we are able to manage thousands of computers with a small team and provide a robust level of service.
  • It is completely tied and integrated with the Microsoft ecosystems.
  • Its ability to deploy and manage based on criteria is broad and helps identify the right collections for the right software.
  • It allows us to stay current with the ever changing MS infrastructure.
  • It is big. Microsoft Big. As a result you really have to know what you are doing. Set up precautions so that you don't image or deploy things to the wrong groups.
  • It is click intensive.
  • The UI could be simplified.
Microsoft System Center is ideal for companies with a lot of computers. After a 1000 you just can't keep track of all of the variability and unique circumstances. This helps you manage, monitor and control your environment. It helps keep down the amount of people needed to run around and allows you to take care of things automatically and at a distance.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Thanks to the platform developed by Microsoft, the Microsoft System Center allows you to monitor with ease, but also with the maximum possible detail all the infrastructure of your Data Center. For what is my experience I use with great satisfaction the operations manager that allows me to monitor different SQL server-side operations.
  • ease of management
  • complete overview of the infrastructure
  • unique and centralized console
  • differentiated licenses depending on whether you have VMs or physical servers
  • license prices too different between VMs and physical servers
  • initial configuration not very fast
Scenarios which Microsoft System Center is useful are if:
  1. you are the systems engineer for a company and you have a complex data center in a Microsoft environment,
  2. you need to centralize the management of your data center in a single point
  3. you want to check its performance, make detailed analysis after a downed service
  4. you want to analyze what happened
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The system center is used for several different things. We use it to deploy software and images to all of the machines on our network. We also use it for patch management and security updates. It also has several tools that can be helpful from the IT side to be able to assist end users better and get the information that you need without interrupting the end user.
  • Image deployment.
  • Patch management.
  • Remote management.
  • Sometimes it seems to take several times to get things added or changed in the system. For instance we have to add the OS that we want to me deployed a couple times.
  • Can have some time delay when using it.
  • Some management tools may be unavailable at certain times.
This is well suited for a medium to larger size company that is looking to create and manage a computer image that is uniform across the company. It is also nice because you are able to do everything remote from the user and don't have to be there in person. This is really nice when someone needs software and you can just deploy it. There are sometimes when the connection is lost between the host and SCCM and you have to see them in person to sync things back up. Sometimes there is also some delay but that may be something on our network side even though I don't experience any delays in everything else I am doing on the network at that time which makes me think that SCCM may run slow at times.
October 26, 2017

Makes life easier.

Tuan Pham | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for image deployment as well as patching our computers. Of course only the I.T. Department will use it to deploy our computers to the rest of the organization. The business problems that it addresses is having a default image for all our computers that we deploy. It makes our lives easier knowing that we can deploy our computers quickly and correctly.
  • Storing drivers for our different model computers we have.
  • Being able to have central server for Windows Patches
  • The system analyzer is also a great tool to see what security risks our computers we deploy have.
  • Injecting the correct drivers could be a little easier.
It is well suited for any scenarios you need it for.
Brandon Pelinka | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SCCM to help us in multiple areas. Machine management and settings is one of the main areas we use this tool. One of my favorite pieces is the image deployment. It is the cleanest and best way to create an image. It uses wmi to read the hardware and selects appropriate drivers. It lays down the drivers after the OS. Then it installs the software you choose. It works much better than a static image where everything is the same and you can run into multiple issues down the road. We also use it to capture images and deploy updates. Another great thing we use it for is patches and as a remote control tool for the machines in our domain. IT mainly uses this. It addresses hardware structure and security concerns. It is a great tool.
  • I love being able to image the different machine setups we have with one system.
  • I also love being able to manipulate windows settings without having to use group policy.
  • Patch management and taking over WSUS is a great feature.
  • More detailed information on where installs are at.
  • Easier and more granular reporting would be nice.
  • Ease of use.
I think the bigger the company the more need for SCCM. It can function very well at a large scale. The imaging function and management capabilities far outweigh any little headaches you might get from the initial setup and installation. The anti-virus piece could be more robust and easier to use but it is nice to have it included.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

We used Microsoft System Center and Windows Azure Pack to build our Private Cloud. On the backend we are using VMware. We built self service portal with WAP, approval process with System Center Service Manager (through WAP portal or email), automated deployment of the requested vms with Orchestrator and VMM. Everything is monitored with Operations Manager. Right now we are using it only for our DEV environment but next step is to do for our production environment. Developers can request vm (windows, red hat, Linux) in different regions and get the vm in less then 1 hour comparing to days through traditional way.

Our Desktop Support team is managing images and software with Configuration Manager.

  • System Center Orchestrator - best tool for automation I have ever used.
  • System Center Virtual Machine Manager - nice way to manage your hyper v and VMware infrastructure.
  • VMM - currently you can't build vm from Linux template and customize the vm if you are running VMware on backend.
  • Service Manager - email notification could be better, for a lot of notifications we need to use Orchestrator.

If you are thinking to build Private Cloud, I think it is a great product. I have experience with few VMware vrealize and I think Microsoft product is much more flexible and it has many more features.

If you are not thinking to build Private Cloud but you are Hyper V shop, the product is a must.

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