HCL BigFix

There is a lot of flexibility on how to get things done. The out of the box content to patch is great, but we also have the flexibility to develop and deploy custom jobs and collect any data from systems that we need.

There are too many things to name but these are two of the most powerful aspects of the tool. These things play into many other aspects of the product to elevate your success. 1. Relevance Language - The client driven relevance language is extremely powerful and lets you have insight into the operating system without having to run separate tasks to gather information and then turn around and use that device specific information and populate it into dynamic script variables to dynamically build a purpose driven script on the fly. In addition, you can also create properties to collect data through relevance and use it in Webreports or other tasks to make more informed decisions about future actions in your environment. 2. Policy compliance. With other deployment tools, you set policies or configurations and really have no way to identify whether those configurations got put into place and you don't have to just hope that they are applied. 3. Integrations - The BigFix RestAPI is very useful and allows you to integrate your other tools or use the data that BigFix provides to make your other tools more effective.

We implemented Bigfix in September 2013, and since then, it has become the core platform for managing over 70,000 Linux endpoints. The solution enables efficient software distribuition, patch management, and native remediation through shell scripts, directly within the console. As one of Brazil's leading banks, we rely on Bigfix to ensure secure and efficient operations at scale. In addition to operational tasks, Bigfix also serves as a realible source of inventory data. It provides detailed hardware and software insights, with are routinely shared with multiple internal teams to support strategic decision-making and technical planning.

The admin interface with the most flexibility is still thick client based and prone to slowness. Other modern tools are native web-based. There is a web-based console but it doesn't have all the features needed. Needs a better code version control system or integration with github. If you do develop a lot of custom tasks, it requires vigilance to maintain and keep tidy. The native web-based report tool is both really helpful but also very outdated. Think hard about how and where to expose the data so it can be used in better data presentation tools.

1. The MDM (Mobile Device Management) functionality is still improving but still lacks many critical features. 2. Relevance, although very powerful, does come with a bit of a learning curve, so training new BigFix admins takes longer to become proficient than with other tools. BigFix provides free training and webinars which does help with this. 3. BigFix Remote control still uses java based processes for accessing the target endpoint which feels clunky at times

The cloud pricing model is relatively high; Bigfix could be marketed directly with HCL, without need for partners.