KACE by Quest Reviews

Pros

After more than three years using DELL KACE K1000 Asset and Inventory Management, it has been a very solid tool for managing and tracking an organization's assets and devices. The patch management feature is especially useful because it helps automate the identification, deployment and tracking of patches across IT assets. Using labels to separate different appliances or devices and to patch test machines, makes the whole patching process much more organized and manageable. On top of that, the DELL KACE patch management functionality is simple to configure and simple to work with.

Cons

I wasn't able to move the ticketing setup I built in K1000 into production because my SQL query knowledge was only at an intermediate level.

Pros

Across all of our endpoints, it gives us excellent visibility along with remote software management. We're able to create application packages and deploy them either silently or with user notifications, depending on what's needed. It also collects a broad range of hardware and software details from our devices. On top of that, we can lock down machines when necessary. The reporting is very strong too and having scheduled reports is a big plus.

Cons

Honestly, I don't really have anything negative to say about the software.

Pros

It can handle inventory management, includes backup functionality and lets you customize asset items to match your needs.

Cons

Compared with other products, the support feels unreliable. Support for Japanese business operations is especially lacking and it seems the company is not really set up to handle that side well. Even after the maintenance fee is paid, emails come saying the two-year contract may be suspended unless support procedures are completed. Even when contacting Quest directly, there is still uncertainty about what is actually covered within the maintenance support fee. After paying for maintenance, I still do not know what support is included beyond the completion notice for the payment.

Pros

After more than six years with KACE SMA and SDA, I've been able to shape it around my needs for patching, scripting, imaging, reporting and labeling/querying. It doesn't have the most polished graphical interface but it gives me the flexibility to do most of what I need to manage the organization effectively. It was also simple to learn and roll out. To me, it fits that ideal middle ground for companies that are too big to manage everything manually yet not so large that they need something like SCCM or BigFix. Another big plus has been customer service and technical support. On multiple occasions, the support team walked me through issues, openly acknowledged when the fault was on their end and communicated clearly the whole way through.

Cons

The one area where it feels limited is self-service software distribution. Having users click the tray icon feels a little awkward and I'd much prefer a browser-based link that opens a more user-friendly GUI page for self-service software installs. Because that part hasn't been as convenient as I'd like, we've ended up leaning on Chocolatey for software package management and distribution.

Pros

Appreciate the detailed reporting for every node, along with compliance tracking, patch management, inventory and software monitoring. It also gives us the ability to upgrade firmware on Dell physical servers which is a really useful bonus.

Cons

Compared with SCCM, there are still a few options missing.

Pros

Right away, the interface feels light and simple and it does a solid job as an IT helpdesk ticketing system. The patching feature works reliably and the overall simplicity of the application is a plus. Keeping track of tickets is also very simple.

Cons

At the same time, the application is fairly limited in terms of functionality and really comes across as a basic IT ticketing system. The repeated alerts prompting a system restart after patching can also get pretty annoying.

Pros

There are plenty of tools available and the support team is very responsive.

Cons

It should offer more support for creating scripts.

Pros

It does what it's supposed to do so if you only need a lighter set of options and features, it can help cut costs. It really comes down to what your needs are though we're in the process of moving away from it.

Cons

The platform feels outdated and is missing the newer automation features that would save time.

Pros

reporting really stands out, it's detailed and actually useful. The inventory side is also a plus especially since it automatically pulls in warranty status for Dell devices. On top of that, it's likely one of the most affordable tools you'll find in this category.

Cons

biggest frustration is performance, page loads can take 30 seconds or more unless the system is hosted on a server with an SSD. Another limitation is patch visibility since you can't look up the full patching history for an individual machine and only get the latest patch attempt.

Pros

Troubleshooting scripts and application packages is pretty simple which saves a lot of time. The "Run Now Status" page in the SMA is especially useful because it shows exactly where things stand, what's failing and the reason behind it.

Cons

The fact that it's still 32-bit is really frustrating. Powershell and Registry scripts can fail and it can take way too long to troubleshoot before realizing KACE is defaulting to the 32-bit versions. Because of that, a script that works in the SMA may not work in the SDA and the other way around which basically doubles the troubleshooting effort. On top of that, the SDA still doesn't support Windows 11.

Pros

Using it felt pretty simple overall and that was the part I appreciated most.

Cons

I don't like the site's appearance. While we were able to set up a client portal for our end users, it was not very user-friendly for that kind of audience.