PowerMAN and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager® (SCCM)
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is an enterprise IT management suite targeted at larger organisations.
SCCM 2007 R3 and later editions include client-side PC power management and basic power management reporting features.
The features available are an improvement over those built-in to Windows® and have the potential to offer a near-uniform
solution for Windows XP and later.
How does SCCM compare to PowerMAN?
SCCM is a complex and costly product. It offers a complete enterprise IT management solution but will not be
a cost effective solution if purchased for power management alone. The power management support is an improvement over that present
in Windows itself but does not compare to the more evolved and focused support present in a specialist product such as PowerMAN.
The major reason for this is that the SCCM power management feature is built around the underlying power management engine in the operating system.
This means that the features supported on each operating system release are limited to the timeout based power features present in that specific release of Windows
and configurable by the end user using the Control Panel application. This prevents SCCM from being used to wake computers for maintenance or AV scans,
logout stale users or shutdown the PC when nobody is logged on.
A second limitation of SCCM is that, whilst supporting peak and off-peak time-bound power management policies, it does not allow power management
policies and actions to be scheduled for specific times, does not allow users to opt-out or allow exclusions for specific programs, files or times of day.
Further, SCCM offers no way to warn users about an impending power management action or allow them to cancel it. This one-size-fits all approach limits
effective use in many scenarios, especially timetable driven environments such as computer labs and school classrooms.
A final, and perhaps most crucial, limitation of SCCM is that the product does not include an anti-insomnia feature. This greatly reduces the
effectiveness of power management especially when longer timeout periods (typically over 15 minutes) are used. SCCM does provide a PC insomnia report
but does not include any feature to overcome insomnia itself. This vital omission makes SCCM power management unsuitable in many environments.
PowerMAN is a best of breed power management solution. PowerMAN was designed specifically for effective power management and
offers features above and beyond those present in SCCM:
|
Power Management Feature
|
Win XP
|
Win Vista/7/8/10
|
SCCM*
|
PowerMAN 5.5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Management Tool
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Highly Complex
|
Windows Group Policy
|
|
Historic Reporting per PC/Site
|
No
|
No
|
Limited
Per-collection
Not per-PC
|
Comprehensive
Per-site
Per-PC (detailed)
|
|
Reporting UI
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Complex
|
Intuitive / web-based
|
|
Export reports to Excel/CSV/XML
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Data Retention
|
No
|
No
|
Detail 31 days
Summary 13 months
Not configurable
|
Detail 2 years
Summary 5 years
Configurable
|
|
SQL access to per-minute data
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Live Reporting per PC/Site
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Comprehensive
|
|
Per-site workstation availability report
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
Workstation status dashboard
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Central power management configuration
|
No
|
Limited
|
More
|
Comprehensive
|
|
Sleep/Hibernate (on-idle)
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Multiple/day
|
|
Shutdown / Power-off (on-idle)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Multiple/day
|
|
Logout (on-idle)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Multiple/day
|
|
Sleep/Hibernate (on-schedule)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Multiple/day
|
|
Shutdown / Power-off (on-schedule)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Multiple/day
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Maintenance window (Wake-up + stay-awake)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Multiple/day
|
|
Wake-up (on schedule)
|
No
|
No
|
Yes, single per collection
|
Multiple/day
|
|
Wake-up (remote / ad-hoc)
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Administrator
|
No
|
No
|
via Console
|
via WakeMyPC
|
|
By User
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
via WakeMyPC
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Multiple policies per user/computer/group
|
No
|
No
|
Requires distinct collection
|
Multiple
|
|
Distinct policies per day
|
No
|
No
|
Peak and off-peak only
Same policy everyday
|
Yes, any day/time combination
|
|
Separate policies per user / group
|
Yes
|
No
|
Per-collection only
|
Yes
|
|
Separate policies per PC / group
|
No
|
Via GPO
|
Per-collection only
|
Yes
|
|
Protect power settings from unauthorised changes
|
No
|
Via GPO
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Distinct policy for no-user present
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
Enforce policy (anti-'Insomnia')
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
Configure power/sleep/lid button behaviours
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Opt-out / exclusion features
|
|
|
|
|
|
By computer
|
No
|
No
|
Requires distinct collection
|
Yes
|
|
By file/program
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
By time
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
By login user
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
By CPU%
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
User driven opt-out (optional)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed Power Management Event Log
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Client deployment footprint
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
>50MB
|
~1MB
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Uniform solution for all client OS
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
No
Limited by client OS features
|
Yes
|
|
Full support for Windows® Vista/7/8/10
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Fully supported via email and telephone
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Extra Cost
|
Included
|
* Based upon technical analysis of SCCM and Microsoft documentation available
here
and
here.