Hi everyone,
We are in the process of reviewing tools to assist with management of oour SharePoint environments.We are looking at a tool that can assist with the day-to-day management of the farm, sites, and content. What we also need is reporting on user access, implement setting accross sites/libraries (e.g. versioning etc.).
We have a relatively small farm, and let’s assume finances is not an issue. We also need good support, since we do not have the appetite or the resources to struggle with a 3rd party app when things goes pear-shaped.
We’ve had demo’s by both these parties, but I’d like to hear from “the people on the ground” 🙂
Sales people tell you all the nice tales, which is right, but I need an objective (well, as far as possible) view from the community. Your assistance and comments would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
I would say that both products are very strong contenders; however, after months of extensive testing in our lab environment we went with Axceler. There were several reasons for us, the easiest being cost. Beyond that their tool is extremely solid! Though AvePoint’s solution is modular, once you add up the cost of all the pieces you will need to manage your farm the cost is extremely prohibitive. My final assessment of all the tools we tested was that none had a very good backup tool, and that it was best to get SharePoint backup tools from someone who specialized in it. Avepoint was the most expensive tool. Metologix seemed to be very comprehensive, but in the end the results were very unstable, and though very cheap it absolutely wasn’t worth the savings. Both Avepoint and Axceler were very stable, however we felt that the results of the tools built into the Axceler solution exceeded those of Avepoint, and in the end when you compared cost versus results Axceler was by far the winner. I would also mention that Axceler’s support is extremely good, with fast response times.
Hi Mary, I’m a great fan of products that can handle their own load and not impact too much on the farm. For me this is where DocAve scores a lot of points. Yes, you need an extra server, but that really does not cost that much these days, especially in a virtualized environment. Thanks for your feedback.
Yes we’re also looking at just buying what we need and perhaps explore the other functions later on. Thank you Tracy
Robert, this is a good point. Why should I take down my whole farm to upgrade a 3rd party product? Not cool in my books. Thanks for the feedback.
Thanks Ken for the above. This is really helpful. Just the kind of response I was hoping to receive.
