The document compares SolarWinds Patch Manager with VMware/Shavlik solutions, highlighting its simplicity, affordability, and effectiveness in patch management. Key advantages of SolarWinds include faster patching, better compliance reporting, and integration with WSUS and SCCM, making it scalable for large enterprises. Overall, SolarWinds Patch Manager provides a more efficient and cost-effective solution for managing updates and patches compared to its competitors.

1. Author
Jennifer Kuvlesky
SolarWinds Patch Manager compared to
Shavlik / VMware
Keep Patching Simple & Affordable
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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2. Agenda
» Patching Simplified – SolarWinds Patch Manager
» SolarWinds Patch Manager High Points
» Top 5 Reasons – Choose Patch Manager over Shavlik / VMware
» Quick Comparison – Patch Manager Vs. Shavlik / VMware
» Detail Comparison
» SolarWinds Patch Manager Features
» Dashboard
» What IT Pros say about Patch Manager
» Helpful Resources
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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3. Patching simplified with SolarWinds Patch
Manager
At SolarWinds, we keep things super simple right from:
Download Install to Purchase Daily Use
Our newly enhanced product, SolarWinds Patch Manager, has all
these characteristics.
If your goal is to Keep Patching Simple and affordable choose:
SolarWinds Patch Manager, the champion solution for patching
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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4. SolarWinds Patch Manager High Points
» Reduce time from weeks to minutes for patching physical &
virtual Windows® desktops & servers with pre-built, tested
patches from vendors such as Adobe®, Apple®, Google®,
Mozilla®, Oracle® & others
» Decrease security risks & service performance degradation
by controlling when & where patches are applied
» Pass audits & demonstrate compliance with out-of-the-box
reports & dashboard views
» Turn your WSUS or System Center Configuration Manager
environment into a powerful patch management solution
» Patch Manager provides the best ROI with agentless
architecture, mass scale, and ease of use – no scripting or
professional services needed
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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5. Top 5 Reasons to choose Patch Manager over
Shavlik / VMware
» SolarWinds helps create advanced before & after package
deployment scenarios – great for patching Java®
» Patch Manager provides the ability to build custom packages
without SCUP or complicated scripting
» SolarWinds Patch Manager’s scale is unlimited- perfect for
large enterprises
» Patch Manager leverages WSUS & SCCM so Microsoft®
patches are immediately available to the user.
» SolarWinds is more affordable
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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6. Quick Compare - SolarWinds Patch Manager
Vs. Shavlik/ VMware
Note:
*1 node = 1 device
**Please note, the anticipated SolarWinds pricing is based upon current pricing and is not guaranteed.
***Per VMware / Shavlik's published price posted 5/29/2012, VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus costs $150 per
server for 3 year support and $96 per workstation for 3 year support
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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7. Detailed Comparison - Patch Manager Vs.
Shavlik
Patch Manager leverages WSUS and SCCM, and there is no need to package Microsoft
patches because they are synchronized directly from Microsoft by WSUS.
VMware / Shavlik does not leverage WSUS and needs to package Microsoft content. This
can cause concern for users for two reasons:
1)There is a delay in getting critical Microsoft patches to VMware / Shavlik customers.
Microsoft releases content on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month. Until the time of
release, the installation files are not available to any company, and packages cannot be
built without the installation files nor without knowing what the installation behavior
should be. Ergo, companies with their own patch engine and schema cannot begin working
on that content until after Microsoft releases it.
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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8. Detailed Comparison - Patch Manager Vs.
Shavlik
2) Pressure to quickly provide Microsoft updates may cause quality issues.
For example, a recent post in patchmanagement.org stated there were issues in running
vCenter Protect Essentials 8.0.0 -
three Windows 7 (x64) patches were not installing or being detected as having been installed
. The post went on to say that Shavlik was fixing the problem.
Lack of quality is the reason SolarWinds opted not to package the Adobe Reader v10 and
Adobe Acrobat v10 content that is now available from Adobe.
How QUICKLY does SolarWinds provide updates? SolarWinds documents this explicitly
and normally can get an update out the door in a day or two from the time of ISV
publication. VMWare/Shavlik also documents the latest patches they have released, but I
am not quite sure how often this page is updated as the latest JRE 7u7 update (made
available 8/30) is not on this list .
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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9. Detailed Comparison - Patch Manager Vs.
Shavlik
Patch Manager automatically synchronizes the 3rd Party Updates Catalog and other
catalogs on a schedule, convenient to the customer's organization.
VMware / Shavlik requires customers to install the software update catalog on their own.
Because Patch Manager leverages WSUS & SCCM, SolarWinds Patch Manager scale is
unlimited. Each WSUS server scales to 30k endpoints out of the box. WSUS can integrate
with up to 100k endpoints per WSUS Server with custom configuration. One Patch
Manager server can integrate with an unlimited number of WSUS servers.
Alternatively, as detailed in this comparison of Shavlik to IBM BigFix by Productive,
VMware / Shavlik only scales to 50k endpoints and is not suitable for very large
environments.
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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10. Detailed Comparison - Patch Manager Vs.
Shavlik
SolarWinds' list price (as of the date of posting) is more affordable than the
VMware / Shavlik published catalog price (as of 5/29/2012).
To patch 500 nodes (where 1 node equates to 1 device, a virtual or physical
desktop, laptop, server, etc.), SolarWinds Patch Manager will cost $5,595 (USD).
This perpetual license price includes year 1 maintenance. Based upon the list price of
the product at the time of renewal, the support cost for 2 years is 20% of list price
for each year. At this time, if a customer purchased 500 nodes and support for 3
years, the approximate cost would be $7,833 (USD) for Patch Manager.
Per VMware / Shavlik's published catalog price posted on 5/29/2012, VMware
vCenter Protect Essentials Plus costs $150 per server for 3 year support and
$96 per workstation for 3 year support. At this time, 3 year software cost for 500
servers is $75,000 and $48,000 for 500 workstations.
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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11. Detailed Comparison - Patch Manager Vs.
Shavlik
In addition to pricing and architectural differences, there are two unique features
SolarWinds Patch Manager provides that VMware / Shavlik does not:
PackageBoot
Package Wizard
The first feature, PackageBoot, helps with tricky deployment scenarios - especially
useful in patching Java. With PackageBoot, SolarWinds customers can build and
designate specific actions to occur before or after package deployment to ensure
that patches get deployed correctly each time.
The second feature, Package Wizard, gives users an easy way to build custom
packages for any application – without the use of SCUP or complicated scripting.
A recent post on Spiceworks outlines the difficulties of patching Java with VMware /
Shavlik.
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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12. SolarWinds Patch Manager Features
Affordable 3-Year Pricing
SolarWinds Patch Manager's perpetual license price includes 1 year
maintenance.
Affordable
VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus costs $150 per server for 3
year support and $96 per workstation for 3 year support.
Scale to Support Enterprise Needs
Scalability Each WSUS server scales to 30,000 endpoints out of the box. WSUS
can integrate with up to 100,000 endpoints per WSUS Server with
custom configuration. One Patch Manager server can integrate with
an unlimited number of WSUS servers.
Note:
*1 node = 1 device
**Please note, the anticipated SolarWinds pricing is based upon current pricing and is not guaranteed.
***Per VMware / Shavlik's published price posted 5/29/2012
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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13. SolarWinds Patch Manager Features
Easy to Use Wizard for Custom Packages
Ease of Use SolarWinds Patch Manager’s Package Wizard gives you an easy way
to build custom packages for any application – without the use of
SCUP or complicated scripting.
Before and After Packet Deployment Scenarios
Package SolarWinds Patch Manager’s PackageBoot™ lets you create advanced
Deployment before and after package deployment scenarios to ensure that even
the most complicated patches (such as Oracle Java) are deployed
successfully – without complicated scripting.
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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14. SolarWinds Patch Manager Features
WSUS Administration
SolarWinds Patch Manager works with and extends the capabilities
WSUS
of Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) so that in
addition to adding patch deployment and management for 3rd
party applications, SolarWinds Patch Manager adds key
functionality to WSUS that helps you:
•Force real-time download and install of updates from the Windows
Update Server
•Repair & force re-install of the Windows Update Agent
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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15. 3rd Party Updates
» Does the vendor provide updates for the applications that are important
to your environment?
» Do they provide both security updates and bug fixes?
This is easy to find out. Most vendors list the applications they support on
their website.
What is more difficult to determine is how QUICKLY they get the package
from the ISV to you.
SolarWinds documents this explicitly and Ideally can get an update out the
door in a day or two from the time of ISV publication.
VMWare/Shavlik also documents the latest patches they have released, but
Its not quite sure how often this page is updated as the latest JRE 7u7
update (made available 8/30) is not on this list .
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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16. Keep Patching Simple – The SolarWinds Way
At SolarWinds, our goal is to help our clients keep patching simple:
»From direct integration to WSUS
»For ease of use and scale
»Pricing and
»To an extensible platform for managing and patching
3rd party applications
We invite VMware / Shavlik users to try our "keep it simple"
approach to patching.
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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17. Patch Manager Dashboard
Patch Manager 3rd Party Update Summary Page – A Comprehensive View
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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18. What IT Pros say about SolarWinds Patch
Manager
“It used to take four hours per patch for packaging and testing and about a week to deploy
each patch,” said Jay. “Now with Patch Manager, it takes an hour tops - It is incredible.”
- Jay Harper - IT Network Administrator, Terminix Service, Inc.
“I’m very happy with this software and the support services offered. I’m not
sure how Solar Winds taking over will affect the company. In the short term,
though, I’ve seen that there has been a large price decrease (almost 50%!)
and a couple discounts added on. This will definitely decrease some
headaches I’ve gotten from working with other products that either require
an agent, or haven’t been updated since 1998. The key thing for me with this
software is the third-party packages, but I’m not going to complain about
better reporting and more granular control”
- Lauren Malhoit, TechRepublic
“What I especially liked about Patch Manager was that it is a big time saver.
The software didn’t have a steep learning curve and it didn’t require third
party patches to be manually packaged like some competing solutions do.”
- Brien M. Posey, WindowsNetworking.com
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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19. Helpful Resources
We invite you to learn more about SolarWinds Patch Manager
Watch Video Test Drive Live Demo
Ask Our Community Download 30-day Free Trial
Check out PatchZone.org Explore Features
Click any of the links above
SOLARWINDS PATCH MANAGER COMPARED TO
VMWARE / SHAVLIK
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20. Thank You!
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