10 Best Enterprise Configuration Management Tools Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
In the past, system administrators managed configuration manually. At the enterprise scale, manual configuration management is laborious, time-consuming, and expensive. Due to the complexity of enterprise IT infrastructures, organizations rely on enterprise configuration management tools to monitor and ensure IT systems are properly configured to the correct specifications.
Configuration management solutions help you adhere to best practices, keep the integrity and consistency of your systems, check misconfiguration or duplication of rules, and prevent downtimes. Ditch the manual grind! Find the perfect solution to ensure consistent IT infrastructure and boost your team's efficiency.
What Are Enterprise Configuration Management Tools?
Enterprise configuration management tools are designed to enable development and operations teams to track and control changes made to enterprise IT infrastructures, both hardware and software. These tools help organizations ensure best practices, quality, and compliance are maintained. Enterprise configuration management systems come with a wide range of capabilities, including version control, enforcement, change control, and abstraction.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Enterprise Configuration Management Tools
Here’s a brief description of each enterprise configuration management tool that showcases each software’s best use case, outstanding features, and some pros and cons. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface.
BackBox
Best for multi-tenant network management
BackBox provides network and security device automation capabilities that allow you to automate configuration management, device backups, OS updates and security patching, and more. It enables you to manage tedious, time-consuming tasks like keeping track of serial numbers, licenses, device types, and versions.
Why I picked BackBox: I added this tool to my list because it’s very easy to use. It offers automation features that enable you to automate and audit tasks seamlessly. This is made possible by a library of more than 3,000 pre-built automations that enable you to get started quickly. If you want to build new automation or modify existing ones, BackBox has a no-code, scripting-free way to build new automation templates.
It supports over 180 vendors and thousands of devices. Being a scalable platform, it’s designed to help you automate the configuration management of enterprise and service provider infrastructures.
BackBox Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include multi-tenancy, diverse deployments, centralized device management, automated disaster recovery, access management, and customized network reporting.
BackBox allows multiple deployments; you can deploy it on-premise, in the cloud, or as a service. It provides an advanced system feature that lets you keep track of your activities. The tool allows you to generate customized reports, which are useful for drawing insights and making data-driven decisions.
Integrations include Device42, MySQL, Symantec Endpoint Protection, Sophos Email, Centerity, Gigamon, Citrix Gateway, NetWitness, Aruba Cloud, AppWall, and AlgoSec.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Thousands of pre-built automation
- Easy-to-use IT automation tool
- Scalability
Cons
- Usage of the GUI can be cumbersome
- Script tracking and error debugging are complicated
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Best for automating software deployment and orchestrating advanced workflows
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is an automation system designed to help enterprises configure systems, ship software, and facilitate advanced workflows. It provides the tooling your team needs to establish and keep desired configuration states across all your enterprise systems.
Why I picked Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform: This configuration management system enables you to execute automation faster. It gives you access to more than 140 certified and validated content collections from over 60 industry partners. These content collections help you automate common configuration management tasks quickly with minimal hassle.
The tool fosters collaboration among team members. There is a shared language and standardized framework that boosts collaboration between your IT operations teams and developers. It allows teams to increase productivity and efficiency by sharing configuration management resources.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform lets you measure performance and monitor drift. It offers full visibility into the performance of your automation. Keep an eye on configuration drift and use Event-Driven Ansible to resolve issues before they impact your systems.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform enables you to manage compliance through consistency, respond to issues quickly, and ensure resiliency. It provides the visibility you need to ensure your automation is implemented properly and consistently across multiple platforms.
Integrations: It lets you integrate with cloud providers, DevOps tools, and security systems. Integrations include OpenStack, Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Atlassian, Splunk, Datadog, Fortinet, Palo Alto, CyberArk, and Juniper.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Good customer support
- Extensive integrations
- Improved collaboration among teams
Cons
- Product trial conditions aren’t simple
- Limited workflow customizations
Hashicorp Terraform
Best tool for managing Kubernetes configurations
HashiCorp Terraform is an infrastructure automation platform that empowers you to manage resources in any cloud or data center.
Why I picked HashiCorp Terraform: It has extensive cross-environment capabilities. With Terraform, you can enjoy the flexibility to automate infrastructure on any cloud or data center. It allows you to manage resources, establish guardrails for security and compliance, and scale configuration management with workflow automation.
It has a Kubernetes management feature, which enables you to provision and manage Kubernetes clusters on AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. You can also interact with your cluster using the Kubernetes Terraform provider.
HashiCorp Terraform Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include infrastructure as code, network infrastructure management, virtual machine image management, and policy as code enforcement. Infrastructure as code helps you automate the provisioning and management of your IT systems, such as servers, databases, and firewall policies. It provides the tooling required to build and manage virtual images.
Integrations include AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, GitLab, GitHub, ServiceNow, Confluence, SonarQube, Port, and Genymotion.
Pros and cons
Pros
- There are tutorials to help you get started
- Support for many cloud service providers
- Seamless integration with existing workflows
Cons
- New users face complex settings
- Sometimes it’s slow for large deployments
Octopus Deploy
Best for DevOps automation
Octopus Deploy is a software deployment automation solution. It provides automation capabilities that help you implement complex deployments to multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments reliably and easily.
Why I picked Octopus Deploy: The tool offers easy-to-use software deployment features that allow you to ship code faster, boost reliability, and break down dev and ops silos. It makes DevOps automation simple, trustworthy, and auditable. Octopus Deploy brings accountability, peace of mind, and reliability to the table.
It comes with full auditing, role-based access control, and single sign-on (SSO) as standard; these features contribute to making the tool very secure and reliable for software deployments.
Octopus Deploy Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: It has built-in support for rollback. You can work with Octopus with confidence, knowing that it’s easy to revert to the previous version if the need arises using the rollback capabilities. The software makes shipping with containers very smooth. It makes containers more accessible and allows you to deploy to container services via a user-friendly interface.
It offers built-in multi-tenancy support. As a result, you can deploy to multiple customers without duplicating the deployment process.
Integrations include Umbraco, GitLab, GitHub, Docker, Slack, Jira, Microsoft Azure, Jenkins, and CircleCI.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Multi-tenancy support
- Deploy without scripting
- There are tutorials for new users
Cons
- Some complex asset management technologies
- It takes time to understand
ServiceNow IT Service Management
Best for incident and change management
ServiceNow IT Service Management helps you offer resilient services, create great experiences for your employees, and make digital transformation a reality with future-proof, cloud-based capabilities. IT Service Management (ITSM) enables you to optimize processes, build new value with high-end technologies, and achieve better work outcomes with the help of real-time data.
Why I picked ServiceNow IT Service Management: It furnishes you with real-time data, which enables you to understand what’s going on in your systems so you can make data-driven decisions. With the high-quality insights you get, you can optimize service operations across the entire enterprise.
It also helps you get things done faster and better with AI-powered workflows. The tool offers intelligent automation that empowers you to monitor operations and manage configurations with minimal human involvement.
ServiceNow IT Service Management Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: ServiceNow ITSM streamlines infrastructure management with modern mobile experiences. Keep users in the loop and engaged all the time with intuitive apps for mobile devices, fostering a people-first approach to IT service management.
ServiceNow ITSM's advanced capabilities include knowledge base management, incident management, and change management. Knowledge base management makes seamless knowledge sharing and collaboration possible, while you can bring back services faster with powerful incident control capabilities.
Integrations include Zoom, TeamViewer, Asana, Goto Meeting, Rippling, Box, Smartsheet, Tableau, TeamSupport, and Envoy.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Knowledge sharing and improved collaboration
- Real-time visibility
- High-level security
Cons
- The reporting features need to be improved
- A more comprehensive knowledge base needed
Bamboo by Atlassian
Best configuration management software with built-in disaster recovery capabilities
Bamboo provides automation solutions that let you build, test, and deploy with maximum security and compliance. With Bamboo’s continuous delivery pipeline, you enjoy resilience, reliability, and scalability from code to deployment.
Why I picked Bamboo: Bamboo is a leading configuration management solution that offers advanced DevOps capabilities that let you build products reliably and efficiently. It comes with a built-in disaster recovery feature, which helps you manage interruptions or misconfigurations without losing track of your work. Bamboo keeps teams online and on track with build resilience and high availability even after an outage.
Bamboo Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: Bamboo offers advanced workflow automation. It takes agile development to the next level with automated workflows, from code to deployment. Its automated workflows accelerate software development and delivery, allowing you to shorten the time to market and the time it takes to work on feature requests. Due to its scalability, you can increase capacity and optimize performance according to your organization’s needs.
Integrations: It allows you to integrate with development workflow, continuous delivery, and incident investigation tools. Bamboo’s major integrations include Ranorex Studio, AMGtime, Ghost Inspector, Crucible, CSA360, Xray, Bitbucket, Jira, Docker, AWS CodeDeploy, and Opsgenie.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Wide range of integrations
- Resilient and scalable
- It’s very reliable
Cons
- More customizable options needed
- Building a pipeline can be difficult sometimes
Split
Best tool for feature management
It’s an advanced feature management software, offering feature flag management, software experimentation, and continuous delivery.
Why I picked Split: It stands out with the feature flagging capability, which helps you accelerate deployments without compromising safety. The tool allows you to decouple deploy from release with feature flags so you can speed up testing and deployments without negatively impacting your core infrastructure. It’s designed to combine speed and safety, enabling you to make changes confidently without the fear of causing incidents, outages, or costly rollbacks.
Split Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include feature observability, data-driven innovation, and enterprise readiness. Split’s feature observability empowers you to monitor features and to get alerted when there is an issue. Alerts point you directly to the features in question, enabling targeted issue resolution.
Split uses high-quality data to let you know what works, helping you make better product decisions, learn from actionable metrics, and improve or add features without disrupting the development process. Split makes enterprise readiness a reality by providing security, reliability, workflow management, advanced automation, and governance and data privacy.
Integrations include AppDynamics, Azure DevOps, Datadog, Jira Cloud, Librato, New Relic, Papertrail, Rollbar, ServiceNow, and Slack.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Provides accurate data for better decision-making
- It’s scalable and flexible
- Very fast and safe feature management
Cons
- Getting started can be a bit complex for new users
- The reporting feature needs to be improved
AWS Config
Best for auditing and enforcing compliance
This enterprise configuration management system is designed to help you assess, audit, and evaluate your configurations. AWS Config provides the tooling you need to continually monitor and document resource configuration changes.
Why I picked AWS Config: I selected AWS Config because it enables you to ensure your system configurations are compliant with regulatory standards and your organization’s policies. It simplifies operational troubleshooting, enabling you to keep track of configuration changes and figure out issues quickly and easily.
The software allows you to streamline change management, deploy a compliance-as-code framework, and continually audit security monitoring and analysis. It provides a detailed configuration history. At any time, you can access details of changes to your resources at any point in the past. Configuration history helps you make better decisions and track issues faster when things go wrong.
AWS Config Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include resource relationship tracking, configurable and customizable rules, extensibility, and a cloud governance dashboard.
AWS Config identifies, maps, and keeps track of AWS resource relationships in your account. It provides pre-built rules, which you can customize to evaluate your AWS resource configurations and configuration modifications. With third-party integrations, you can seamlessly expand its capabilities. AWS Config stands out with its visual dashboard, which helps you identify non-compliant resources and provides the insights you need to implement a remediation measure.
Integrations include SAS Visual Analytics, Zluri, Virtual Days, Virima, Sagicc, Alert Logic MDR, Sectona Security Platform, JupiterOne, Secureframe, and Strike Graph.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Visual dashboard for monitoring resources
- Free AWS training
- It’s very extensible
Cons
- Customer service should be faster
- Pricing isn’t straightforward
Azure Automation & Control
Best for simplified configuration management in the cloud
This enterprise configuration management tool provides automation capabilities that help you simplify cloud management. Azure Automation & Control empowers you to control hybrid environments, integrate management systems, and keep track of Windows and Linux systems.
Why I picked Azure Automation & Control: I included Azure Automation because it’s cost-effective. It enables you to save time and lower overhead costs. With this tool, you can seamlessly automate repetitive, time-consuming, and error-prone cloud management tasks. It frees your teams, enabling them to focus on more productive tasks instead of spending hours on frequent manual tasks.
Azure Automation & Control Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: Azure Automation & Control allows you to update Windows and Linux systems across hybrid environments. You can keep tabs on update compliance across Azure, on-premises, and other cloud services for Windows and Linux. It streamlines configuration management. It lets you automate configuration management tasks, such as automatically updating machine configuration across your cloud or on-premises infrastructures.
It comes with rich reporting, which helps you to collect inventory and track changes. This gives you access to detailed information on your configurations. There are diagnostics and alerting systems you can turn on to help you monitor unwanted changes.
Integrations. It lets you integrate with other third-party services you’re using. Key integrations include Audit Prodigy, Supportbench, Open eLMS, eTrainCenter, MailMeter, Azure Backup, PowerShell, Smart IVR, Cyral, and AgileWare.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Seamless integrations
- It improves efficiency and lowers overhead costs
- It reduces errors
Cons
- Sophisticated configurations
- Takes time to learn
Rational ClearCase
Best for meeting compliance requirements
IBM Rational ClearCase is a configuration management platform built to help enterprises manage access to software assets. The configuration management system helps you monitor and manage IT assets, such as code requirements, models, design documents, test plans, and test results.
Why I picked Rational ClearCase: It provides the tooling that helps you manage your IT systems with maximum efficiency. Rational ClearCase lets you work quickly and independently by offering development and integration models, private workspaces, and public integration areas. It gives you control over your workflows, enabling you to control development activity efficiently.
It comes with advanced security and compliance features. It saves you from administrative difficulties and enables you to meet compliance requirements easily. The tool features user authentication and audit trails, which make meeting compliance standards a lot easier.
Rational ClearCase Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: One of the features that set Rational ClearCase apart is version control. It has version management capabilities that allow you to get rid of previous versions, create and delete branches, list version histories, and compare and merge versions. The software also comes with security version management and IP protection.
With Rational ClearCase, you enjoy improved time to value. It’s designed to help you avoid costly mistakes, reduce defects or misconfigurations, and spot and resolve bugs earlier. It offers process control and traceability for compliance, which enables you to streamline routine tasks and properly reproduce versions.
Integrations include Apex, ClearQuest, ClearDDTS, PurifyPlus, Rose, RequisitePro, and Rose RealTime.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Improved time to value
- Streamlined workflows
- Flexible and scalable
Cons
- More workflow customization required
- New users have high-level technical things to learn
The Best Enterprise Configuration Management Tools Summary
Tools | Price | |
---|---|---|
BackBox | Pricing upon request | Website |
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform | From $10,000/year | Website |
Hashicorp Terraform | Pricing upon request | Website |
Octopus Deploy | From $10/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
ServiceNow IT Service Management | Pricing upon request | Website |
Bamboo by Atlassian | From $1,200/agent | Website |
Split | From $33/seat/month | Website |
AWS Config | Pricing upon request | Website |
Azure Automation & Control | Pricing upon request | Website |
Rational ClearCase | Pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
Here is an additional list of enterprise configuration management software to check out:
Selection Criteria For Enterprise Configuration Management Tools
Here’s a summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best enterprise software configuration management tools for this article:
Core Functionality
Here are the basic functionalities I considered when I was evaluating enterprise configuration management tools for this article:
- Multi-environment capabilities
- Streamlined or centralized configuration management
- Security and compliance
- Multi-vendor support
Key Features
I picked tools that come with the following key features:
- Feature management: Feature management enables you to release, control, and measure features.
- Analytics: This provides insight into your configuration files, tells you the state of your infrastructure, and reveals gaps in your configurations.
- CI/CD configuration management: A capability that enables you to configure and maintain your CI/CD pipelines in the desired state.
- Version management: Version management helps you keep track of source code changes and configurations.
- Task scheduling: This feature comes into play when you want to schedule some configuration management tasks. With task scheduling, you can automate tasks and set them up to run any time you want.
Usability
I recommended tools that are easy to use. In the course of my research, I considered key usability factors, such as intuitive user interface, comprehensive documentation, responsive customer service, user community, and tutorials.
Software Integrations
I picked configuration management solutions that allow you to integrate other tools. You can connect with cloud providers, DevOps tools, virtualization software, and software development programs.
Pricing
I considered transparency and value for money. They come with a free trial or free demo to help you get a feel of the program before committing your money. I also looked out for tools that offer free plans. This helps you to confirm features before going for the premium packages.
People Also Ask
Some of the frequently asked questions that might be helpful:
What is configuration management?
Configuration management is the process of keeping track of your IT system’s configurations. It involves keeping computer systems in a desired state. Configuration management is also the practice of ensuring that configurations are maintained and systems perform as expected or configured over time.
What are the benefits of enterprise configuration management tools?
The advantages of enterprise management programs include quick disaster recovery, improved uptime and site reliability, scalability, enhanced visibility, better communication, and improved resource usage.
Who uses enterprise configuration management tools?
The users of enterprise configuration management solutions include system administrators, software developers, QA professionals, and software engineers in general. That being said, the position or title of people who use configuration management tools differs from organization to organization.
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Final Thoughts
Choosing the right enterprise configuration management software for your company can be challenging due to the many tools available on the market. But having done the heavy lifting for you, you don’t have to spend many hours evaluating tools online. Go through the 20 programs I’ve recommended to find the one that suits your operating systems, cloud providers, budget, and other important factors.
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