Item: Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SCOM is essential in managing our 15,000+ desktops and 3,000+ laptops across our enterprise in 17 countries and over 30 locations. We do asset management, Windows and security updates patching as well as software deployment. Recently in the last two years we have been working on utilizing SCOM to also manage our enterprise servers across four data centers and have been migrating off WSUS to deploy updates and patches.

Pros and Cons

SCOM can manage Windows OS systems from desktops to servers very well.
SCOM is platform agnostic in that we manage physical and virtual machines with no differentiation.
SCOM can quickly deploy emergency security patches and the best part is it can provide detailed results of success and failure rate of patch deployment.

SCOM to increase performance and more robust high availability.
Simplify dependent components (supporting servers and database).
Better management interface and more robust roles setup for multiple IT support groups with detailed auditing enabled.

Return on Investment

We wanted to make sure that updates and patches deployed are actually successfully installed on devices and other tools cannot match SCOM for detailed feedback on deployment status.
We can now confidently provide management and security teams on successful update of security patches with high accuracy.
Deployment complexity took over a year to fully implement all necessary features with help of consultants and in house teams. Wish it was simpler.

Alternatives Considered

We used Altiris and WSUS and in the beginning Altiris had the better admin interface than SCOM, but it is no longer the case as SCOM has refined their admin interface. Altiris still has better and more robust group assignments for management roles and those two other tools can better manage non Windows OS devices than SCOM but for a large enterprise Windows shop, if you can afford it, SCOM is the way to go.

Other Software Used

OnBase by Hyland, AspenOne Supply Chain Management, Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management

Likelihood to Recommend

Great for large mid to large enterprises but it's a big initiate to take on and if I am managing 5000 or fewer devices with SCOM I cannot recommend it due to cost and complexity of implementation. Perhaps there's a cloud-based SCOM coming soon for smaller enterprises and that may lower the barrier of entry for smaller organizations that are still mostly Windows OS dependent to finally manage their devices properly as meant to be without other third-party tools.

For Large Windows Enterprises with Resources there is No Better Asset Management Tool

Overall Satisfaction with System Center Operations Manager