Whenever there is a leadership change in an Information Technology department, you can rest assured that there will be some sort of software or tool changes instigated by the new Management team. My previous place of employment was no different. A security and compliance team and Security Manager were added to the IT department. In the past, IT operated without a security team. The manager of IT and other system administrators took care of the daily security needs of the company. I was that manager, and I was asked to do a patch management software comparison with several patch management products to see which one would best fit our company’s needs. Unfortunately, after testing several products, the company decided to go with a product by Microsoft Corporation. 
Even before the security and compliance team was added to the department, I was already using a product called Patch Manager Plus by a company called Manage Engine. This product assisted our department with the monthly patching requirement of our Microsoft operating systems and our Linux-based systems. It also assisted us with the security management of our Mac systems.
Decision Time
After the patch management software comparison process, the company decided to go with a Microsoft product called Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, or SCCM for short. I hated this decision but complied with the request of the security team manager. Even though this software was the official patch management tool for the company, I still kept the Manage Engine Patch manager plus software running in the background as the tools for the patching of Linux systems. I must say that the patch manager plus software was still my tool of choice because of its ease of use.
Patch Management Software Comparison Setup Process
After the company purchased the SCCM patch management software from Microsoft, meetings and training sessions were held weekly to provide guided assistance for the setup and use of this product. This process consumed many hours of my time and the time of the other system administrators who were mandated by the Security and Compliance Manager to attend these weekly training sessions.
There were many meeting conflicts, but we had to rearrange and manage our time to attend these sessions. Failure to attend these sessions would sometimes lead to disciplinary actions but not major disciplinary actions. Very minor all of the time. Because I was the team manager, I had to ensure that my direct reports attended these sessions. I attended these meetings at times just to get a better overview of the SCCM product, but I was still sold on the Patch Management Plus software by Manage Engine because of its ease of use.
SCCM Setup Complicated? Very Much So…..
The setup of the Microsoft SCCM product, in my opinion, was very difficult. A physical server had to be set up just to run this software. It had so much processing overhead. Assistance for setup was provided in the training session by the consultants hired by the security and compliance team. That process lets you know how difficult the product was to set up. There was even integration with our Active Directory environment for this product to work. 
I had to set up several Active Directory accounts requested by the vendor to work with the Microsoft product. For the setup of the product by Manage Engine, none of these complicated tasks were needed. Not even a consultant was needed to set up the Patch management product by manage engine. All I had to do was read the manual for setup. The setup was so easy that even a newbie in IT could have done this.
It was interesting that even though a consultant assisted us with the setup of the SCCM product, the Patch Management Plus product by Manage Engine provided the same or even better performance than the Micorosft product. Even when it was time to patch the system after the setup of the SCCM product, the consultant was still needed to guide the team. With the manage engine product, all I did was watch the videos and read the manual to set up the product.
Eventually, I decided to switch back to the Patch Manager Plus product by Manage Engine for patching the Windows and Linux servers because of the complexity of the SCCM product. This was a decision that I communicated to the compliance manager, who understood my decision.
Manage Engine Patch Manager Plus Software Overview
Patch Manager Plus software is one of the industry leaders in software dedicated to the patching of systems in Information Technology. With this tool, you can automate the patching of Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It also supports patching third-party applications like Adobe and other major applications.
The software also has built-in reports that can be used to show management the status of your patching. At any given time, reports can be run to show servers that are out of compliance and the updates required to bring these servers into compliance. These reports saved me many hours of explaining to management the status of our patching. I also presented these reports in our weekly management meetings with our CIO. Rest assured, you will look like a pro with these built-in reports.
Patch Manager Plus Installation Requirements
The Patch Manager Plus solution can either be used on-premise or cloud-based. At my previous establishment, we used the software on-premise. This was easy for us because our environment consisted of a robust VMware infrastructure that already supported hundreds of virtual servers successfully.
Only one virtual server was required to set up Patch Manager Plus with minimum specs, so the required resources for the server were not intensive at all to the environment. Once you had access to the virtual server, all that was required was for you to install the OS and then the updates for the OS The next step was to install the software using the provided instructions in the manual. Unlike the setup of the Microsoft SCCM product, the learning curve was not steep at all. No wasting time with external vendors and contractors was required.
Conclusion
If I were you and needed a patching solution, I would choose the Manage Engine Patch Manager Plus solution over the Microsoft SCCM product. This is a no-brainer. If your company requires a non-complicated robust patching solution, then Patch Manager Plus patching solution should be your solution of choice. No complicated setup or meetings are required to set up the solution.