Any advice on the best way to compare the offerings of SCOM and DellManagementConsole? Without talking to someone who has actually used both, all I can look at are sales pitch sections of MS and Dell websites. I am an organization made up of 5 branches that are connected, all Dell hardware, all Microsoft software. Consists of 800+ workstations, 25 servers. Thanks for any help! -Mark-

Hi Mark, First of all, can you tell us your goals? Do you want to manage your workstations (configurations, software deployment etc)? DMC and OpsMgr are slightly different. OpsMgr is a 'pure' monitoring product, DMC(with Altiris plugins) is more like ConfigMgr... http://OpsMgr.ru/

Thank you sir for your reply. I think you are exactly right on my comparison of the two products. Perhaps a better comparison would be OpsMgr and Dell ITA. The primary goal is to have a centralized console for monitoring DELL network devices and servers, with capability of producing historical data for growth decision making. Management of server config/software is very secondary, as on-site staff deal with any hardware changes. Appreciate your time, Mark

Dell ITA is based on SNMP. Even if it have some CIM support for Windows Servers. ITA have no idea about IT services, distributed applications and have not any 'deep dive' capabilities for Windows-based software (servers, like TMG or technologies like NLB). ITA supports broader range of the DELL network devices (SANs, tape libraries, printers) out-of-the-box than OpsMgr. Historical data and reporting capabilities (on availability, performance etc) is... from my point of view it's just poor. IMHO, ITA isn't the competitor to OpsMgr. With OpsMgr you'll able to monitor DELL servers with the DELL MP (PowerVault and PowerEdge). OpsMgr CONS: you have to create the management packs for many network devices (printers, switches etc etc) or to buy it if you'll find the commercial MP that fits your needs OpsMgr is a complex product, you'll have MUCH to learn. And you should start to learn before you installed the product - to be able to create the good design for your OpsMgr environment OpsMgr isn't free, moreover - isn't cheap No inventory, patching, software deployment or OS deployment capabilities - it's in ConfigMgr PROS: Much better monitoring capabilities (you can monitor even your coffee pot :)) Supports distributed apps, health models and much more Have a lot of free management packs to extend monitoring capabilities: http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-US/systemcenter DataWarehouse for historical data and SQL Reporting services gives you the really powerfull reporting capabilities (and a lot of ready-to-go reports) http://OpsMgr.ru/

By the way, you can download the evaluation version of OpsMgr or Essentials and try it yourself to make a better decision. http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/try-it.aspx#downhttp://OpsMgr.ru/

That is exactly what I needed to decide how to continue my research. Many thanks!

This may be a little late but am posting to avoid confusion. First of all Dell IT Assistant is a free product. What do you expect from a free product! Second of all he is asking about DMC, which is a different product to ITA. Only thing they have in common is that they are both systems management products. So your feedback is totally irrelevant as you've not read the actual question. DMC is Altiris based and has a trial period of 30days. SCOM also has a trial period. My suggestion is to take both for a test drive.