FileWave for a Mostly Windows Environment

[Yebubbleman]

I apologize if this is borderline off-topic AND/OR if this topic has been beaten to death.

Presently, I work for an all-Windows shop of about 250 devices. (There is a lone MacBook Pro, with a potential for some iOS devices to accompany it, but as far as anyone knows, these are likely one-offs for the development department and not likely the beginning of a trend of Apple adoption.)

We are presently considering FileWave. I'm a huge fan of JAMF, but alas, we are a Windows shop first and foremost. We're looking for FileWave to accomplish much of what JAMF does for Macs and iOS, but on the Windows side of things. We just had a technical sales demo and we came away impressed. Of note, both my IT director and server/network admin are vehemently opposed to adopting SCCM and are similarly skeptical of Microsoft Intune. That all being said:

1. Is there anything we should know about FileWave before proceeding?

2. Are there any alternatives that we should consider (given that we are 99.9% Windows) instead?

3. Is there anything we should do or consider before pulling the trigger on FileWave?

Any insight would be most helpful here!

[blackholemac]

I’m actually going to use Jamf’s own arguments to recommend a different toolset altogether. If you need a good windows shop product consider SCCM+intune. That combo is obviously highly optimized for Windows devices to manage it Microsoft’s way and has very rudimentary iOS management tools if needed for a small population of iOS devices. Since it is made by Microsoft and uses AD, you can’t really get better control than that. Filewave (while a good product) tries to manage everything and really doesn’t specialize on any of it.

[danbutler]

I use ManageEngine Desktop Central at one of my customers and have been fairly happy with it. It is pretty light-weight and the best part is that it includes automated patch management for MS + 3rd party patches. Very much a set-it and forget it solution thus far.

I should mention this customer is small (< 50 machines), but it should scale fine. It also supports Macs, though not as well as JAMF.

[jefff]

I second the recommendation of ManageEngine Desktop Central. The folks who manage the Windows fleet of 800+ devices at my university started using it about a year ago and have been very pleased with it. I'm fortunate to specialize in Apple devices, so I don't work with it, but it seems to be Jamf-like, from what they describe.