LANDesk for MACs vs Casper

[Vitamin-Z]

First I want to appologize for beating the dead horse. I see that there are several post of similar or same topic but they are somewhat outdated.

I was asked to compare LANDesk and Casper Suite and create a simple Pros and Cons document. While I see that LANDesk claimes pretty much everything that Casper does I have serious doubts. For one their patch support is abysmal. We still can't roll out Yosemite because the AV package has some Cron job issues. Yosemite for developers was released nearly a year ago. Unfortunately this alone is not a selling point for my management. There are a few things I came up with for Casper and I don't think LD does any of the below but I would appreciate any additional input.

• Integration with the Apple’s DEP
• Native OS integration - allows for near same day support
• VPP integration
• File Vault 2 key escrow
• Specific technical service manager

Thanks guys.

[pdye]

For what it's worth, we run Landesk for our Windows machines and Casper for our Macs. Landesk is horrible. It's also super expensive. We've done relatively little testing on Macs with Landesk, but most of our testing has failed in one way or another.

We had one of Landesk's techs out to try and troubleshoot some issues we'd been having and he saw that I was using Casper. He told me that Landesk had tried to buy Casper some 4 different times. That's what Landesk does. They buy other companies so that they can incorporate their products into the Landesk Suite, but none of the pieces are seamlessly integrated with each other. It is honestly terrible to work with.

[mm2270]

I can't really speak to LANDesk as it is today. My experience and knowledge of it are several years old now and I know that the product has improved some, or I would hope it has. But back when I used it, it was just terrible at Mac management. I'm sure its a bit better now, but I'd highly doubt its anywhere near as good as Casper Suite, or even other products for that matter, as you suspect.

I'd say the list you have above is a good start. What about Self Service? Does LANDesk have anything remotely like that? And if so, is it Mac friendly or some PC ported product that looks like, well, a PC product ported to the Mac? Looking quickly at one of their data sheets I see no mention of anything like that, but then again, it was last updated in 2013. (That in itself isn't such a good sign to me)

Also, not sure about anyone else, but I doubt I could live with a product that didn't allow for something similar to Extension Attributes. So so many of our workflows rely on custom database fields. I'm not sure if LANDesk has that functionality. I think it has a pretty firm set of hardware/software criteria it captures and that's it.

Anyway, good luck, and I hope someone with more current experience can chime in to help you out.

[joecurrin]

Casper is designed for Mac. JAMF focuses on what they know and what they are passionate about. It is the reason Casper is the best for Mac. I've used LANdesk in the past and it is clunky at best. And yes what @pdye said its much more expensive than Casper. This is one of those times where running separate computer management systems is preferred.

[adamcodega]

LANDesk does not support DEP or VPP.

[Simmo]

It actually works, that's one.

Casper supports both OS X and iOS
First day support for new OS
Support is great, knowledgable, don't have to go through Level 1 techs and get escalated for a resolution.
The community of JAMFnation is also really great, an abundance of resources on here for everything casper
VPP, DEP.
Smart user groups (and custom smart groups with extension attributes)
JSS can run on OS X/Unix/Windows
Casper Imaging
GSX integration
Self Service
Constant feature requests implemented and bug fixes

[Chris_Hafner]

Oh boy... there was a nice comparison sheet around here somewhere. It's probably out of date, but I'll see if I can't look it up for reference sake. You may have to do some digging to get a nice comparison for a write up. It's safe to say that your anecdotal evidence is going to be strongly against LANDesk but that's not going to help you specifically. So with that in mind, here are a few links worth checking out.

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=9628
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=280
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=8120

Oh, and here's the spreadsheet I mentioned previously (found in the first thread I copied above and NOT created by myself)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15umBgKAeoWbWHlHwQtTmYhyc9_05hyLwn9a4JHwihCs/edit#gid=0

I'm sure things have changed since then, but here's a qualitative comparison to start from!

[bpavlov]

I believe that spreadsheet was made by one of our very own @clifhirtle. But I heard it was a bit outdated. But doesn't mean your company can't take it work off the categories to decide which route to go...

[Chris_Hafner]

Good call! I suppose I could have read the name in the corner and given proper attribution! @clifhirtle How old is this one... 2 years right?

[bpavlov]

It's got to be a little older than that. I was at the presentation at Boston University when he presented it. What year was it that the Patriots lost to the Giants in the Superbowl for the second year? Not trying to start a fight amongst football fans lol but it was that week.