How customer voice
drives business

Proxmox VE and Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) are open-source, Linux-based server virtualization systems. Proxmox VE is offered for free, making it a popular choice for do-it-yourself IT professionals. Red Hat Virtualization, though not free, comes with a lower price tag compared to traditional closed-source virtualization solutions, and includes more enterprise features and professional support. Red Hat Virtualization is almost equally popular with mid-size companies and large enterprises, probably due to its combination of open-source ideals with a  budget-friendly price tag. Proxmox VE is mostly popular with mid-size companies who likely have smaller-scale IT needs that can still be easily met with free software. Features Both Red Hat Virtualization and Proxmox VE help businesses manage virtual assets, but they have a few key differences to consider. Red Hat Virtualization is designed to be easy to implement, even if you have an existing virtualization management solution. Red Hat Virtualization offers migration scripts and assistance to help new customers get up and running quickly and smoothly. The company also offers professional support after setup to make sure their customers can solve any issues that may arise, and many customers specifically praise the quality of Red Hat Virtualization’s support team. For a professionally-supported, paid […]

Confluence and MS SharePoint are content management and intranet platforms designed to help businesses manage knowledge and collaborate internally. Confluence is primarily a wiki tool aimed at creating and navigating internal wikis. MS SharePoint has a broader scope, with features for creating web pages, managing version control, and setting up document workflows. MS SharePoint is used most heavily by large-scale enterprises, which can take better advantage of the product’s full range of features. Confluence is more popular with mid-size companies, likely because its narrower scope and lighter footprint make it easier to implement and manage. Features Both products can be used to create and manage internal web pages, but MS SharePoint and Confluence have several key distinctions. MS SharePoint is packed with functionality. Document workflow tools let users automate repetitive processes such as gathering approval signatures. Granular permission settings let companies tightly control who can see and share certain files. Its version control system helps co-workers keep track of file changes. MS SharePoint integrates closely with other MS Office applications and allows multiple simultaneous users to edit Office files within the application. Confluence, by contrast, is focused on internal documentation. Creating a new page and sharing it with others is […]

AdRoll and Google Ads are both online advertising platforms. Google Ads allows users to implement paid ads across Google products and services, from search results to shopping to YouTube. AdRoll helps people implement paid ads across a variety of platforms and media, and is specifically known for its remarketing functionality. Google Ads is popular with large businesses that want to appeal to a nationwide audience, while AdRoll can help small businesses target specific audiences.  Features Though AdRoll and Google Ads both offer users a way to advertise their business, products, or services online, they each have diverse features that may appeal to different types of users.  Google Ads excels at its primary purpose: allowing users to advertise on Google properties. Its robust features enable businesses to run ads in Google search results, on Google Maps, Google Shopping, Gmail, YouTube, and more. With Google Ads, users can create simple advertisements and modify them for use on each different Google property, then track those ads with detailed statistics. Ad spend is the only cost with Google Ads, and users can set a monthly budget cap so that they’ll never pay more than they’re expecting. When budget caps are set, Google Ads will […]

Cisco Webex Teams and Zoom are communication solutions designed to help users collaborate and communicate online. Zoom is primarily a web and video conferencing platform, with additional collaboration features. Cisco Webex Teams is more of an online collaboration tool that includes video meetings, group and private chat, file sharing, and interactive whiteboarding capabilities.  On TrustRadius, Cisco Webex Teams is mostly used by midsize businesses and enterprises. On the other hand, Zoom’s user base is more evenly distributed among small, medium, and large organizations.  Features Both Zoom and Cisco Webex Teams provide full-featured video conferencing and persistent chat features, but they each have their own strengths. Cisco Webex Teams integrates well with other Cisco products, making it ideal for businesses already embedded within the Cisco ecosystem of products and services. It provides a centralized collaboration hub for users and offers multiple security features as well. Cisco Webex Teams also includes tools to help users create chatbots that automate common responses and tasks. Zoom is primarily known for its easy setup and use. Its controls for meeting hosts are intuitive and accessible. Sidebars and breakout rooms help hosts dynamically organize attendees, making it especially useful for educators managing their students. Zoom users […]

IBM SPSS and SAS Advanced Analytics are powerful data science platforms used to conduct statistical analysis of data sets. The main difference between the two tools is SAS Advanced Analytics uses its own programming language and IBM SPSS runs on Java, and doesn’t require programming to use.  SAS Advanced Analytics is a widely used statistical tool that uses the SAS programming language to analyze data and create visualizations. IBM SPSS is used for statistical analysis and has features that make it easier for individuals without coding knowledge to analyze large datasets.   Both IBM SPSS and SAS Advanced Analytics are most popular with large companies and in higher education due to their high costs.   Features IBM SPSS and SAS Advanced Analytics offer robust statistical abilities but have key features that may make them more appealing to certain customers.  A key feature of IBM SPSS is that it offers better out of the box capabilities with less setup and downloading of packages. This program offers a minimal learning curve due to its more accessible graphical user interface and the ability to run scripts without extensive coding knowledge. Another advantage of  IBM SPSS is that it offers built-in data scrubbing and staging capabilities.  […]

Auth0 and Okta Identity Cloud are identity management solutions integrally featuring single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication, social login, and related identity-related security features. Both are offered in flexible suites that may be structured to provide employee or customer login and identity management. They are competing solutions. Okta’s is dominant, and is used across companies of all sizes, somewhat more so across mid-size or larger entities. Auth0 is a smaller company that competes from the middle of the identity pack, and is deployed at relatively smaller companies than Okta, possibly because it has a service tier that is free for long-term use, and that might be adequate for many kinds of projects. Features There are plenty of reasons to deploy Okta or Auth0 for a company or company’s identity management, authentication, or single sign-on needs. Choosing Okta is usually a straightforward decision: it is very strong across its core competencies, particularly for creating a central place for employees to login to the many cloud-based enterprise apps they may use (SSO). Okta presents a fluid sign-in process for end-users, with an easy to use UI that creates an efficient employee experience. Also, administrative users describe a flexible MFA solution with adjustable rules […]

Ableton Live and Cubase are digital audio workstations (DAWs), designed to help musicians and sound designers create audio. Cubase has a traditional timeline-based approach to its interface. Ableton Live, by contrast, is optimized for creators interested in iterating on looping audio samples. Both products are primarily used by small businesses, likely because independent artists and freelancers are more likely to be creating custom audio tracks. Medium-to-large companies are more likely to purchase stock music or work with contractors for their marketing and internal audio needs. Features Although both Ableton Live and Cubase are capable of producing professional-level music and audio tracks, their layout and key features set them apart from each other. Cubase is focused on track-based audio design, and is usually easier for new users to learn. It supports video import, making it a popular tool for musicians creating video scores. It has a lower price point than Ableton Live, making it somewhat more attractive for budget-focused users. Some users also prefer Cubase’s traditional window-based interface and organization, especially for multi-monitor setups. Ableton Live, by contrast, shines in loop-based music composition. Its workflow is optimized for creating looping audio samples and then experimenting and iterating on them, making it […]

Camtasia and OBS Studio are both screen capture and video recording tools. OBS Studio is designed primarily for live-streamed video, giving users the ability to send their video to sites like YouTube or Twitch as it’s recorded. Camtasia, on the other hand, is aimed at users who want to create training videos and other pre-recorded content, and includes tools for editing videos after they’re recorded. Camtasia is simple to use and has a reasonable price point, which is likely why it’s popular with businesses of all sizes. OBS Studio is most popular with small businesses, likely because it’s open-source and free. Features Although both Camtasia and OBS Studio allow users to record their screen and create videos, they also differ significantly in their feature set and user experience. OBS Studio helps users create both live-streamed and pre-recorded video content. Every audio, video, and text element in OBS Studio can be customized in a variety of ways. Users can lay out collections of pre-customized audio and video elements and switch between them at will with dynamic transitions. Its open-source format means users can take advantage of an expansive library of community-created plugins, transitions, filters, and other options. And, like other open-source […]

Final Cut Pro X and iMovie are two video editing software options created by Apple.  iMovie is a free offering that allows Apple users to create and edit videos on all of their devices. Final Cut Pro X is a more robust creation and editing tool available only on Macs that offers users greater creativity and editing options.  iMovie can be used by anyone with an Apple device. Users with no movie-making experience can pick up the software and create something, but it is also useful for skilled filmmakers who need to make something quickly and at no cost. Final Cut Pro X is aimed at film creators and editors who need more control and a greater number of features for their movies, but who are also willing to pay a fee to do so.  Features iMovie’s main feature is that it is free, but it still comes with huge amounts of built-in templates and tools that can satisfy the needs of amateur and pro filmmakers. It also has the advantage of having a very simple and clean user interface that makes learning the program less intimidating for beginners or users who are new to the Apple ecosystem. Final Cut […]

Jenkins is an open source automation server present in many CI/CD pipelines. Ansible, or more recently the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, is an IT automation platform, available as a free open source program or as a paid program with Ansible Tower supported directly by Red Hat. Ansible’s use cases include IT configuration management, application deployment, release orchestration, and continuous delivery (CD). Jenkins is a CI/CD leader, and is deployed across companies of all sizes, and large enterprises. Ansible is a multifarious platform but is generally used to provision and configure complex networks and server setups, and therefore is more commonly used in larger companies than in small ones. The tools are often used together in a CI/CD pipeline. Red Hat offers instructions on how to use Ansible roles and playbooks with Jenkins. Features Ansible and Jenkins present distinct advantages over alternatives for use in a CI / CD pipeline. As an automation server Jenkins brings flexibility, extensibility, and configurability via a mother lode of plugins and integrations, and it is able to work with nearly any DevOps tool (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, JFrog Artifactory, Puppet, Ansible). Jenkins is free and open source, but unlike some open source tools it has […]

CLion from JetBrains and Microsoft’s Visual Studio are cross-platform integrated development environments (IDEs). CLion is built to support development in C and C++ and is a paid service with advanced features. Visual Studio is freemium that offers paid editions as well. Its editors support a variety of languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JSON,etc.), and it can be used as an XML editor. Visual Studio is one of the most widely used IDEs in the world and is deployed at businesses of all sizes, and in home studios used actively by solo devs. CLion, as a paid service focused on C/C++ development, is deployed primarily at larger entities, often purchased as part of JetBrains All Products Pack where it sits beside the company’s more commonly used products (e.g. IntelliJ Idea). Features For building applications, there are plenty of reasons to use either Visual Studio, or CLion. Visual Studio is a well regarded all-in-one IDE for development, available offline or online with strong debugging, as well as IntelliSense autocomplete, and refactoring. Because of its freemium delivery model and strength in supporting Windows .NET development (or full stack development) it is an integral part of many developer’s toolboxes. You will use it for […]

AWS CodePipeline is a continuous delivery tool used to model and automate software releases, particularly when a CI / CD pipeline relies on at least some AWS products and resources. It can integrate Git repositories like GitHub or AWS CodeCommit, build automation services like CloudBees, Jenkins, or AWS CodeBuild, and testing tools like BlazeMeter. Azure DevOps Services, on Microsoft Azure, is an agile development suite of tools replacing the former VSTS, featuring Azure Pipelines, a service quite similar to but slightly more robust than AWS CodePipeline, alongside agile project space Azure Boards, and Azure’s own repo tools and Azure Test Plans testing toolkit. Both CodePipelines and Azure DevOps with Azure Pipelines are used to orchestrate a CI / CD pipeline in the cloud. Both solutions are deployed across companies of all sizes, and somewhat more at larger companies. Features For continuous delivery in the cloud, AWS and Azure DevOps both present some clear advantages. When building with Azure DevOps, users will reside in a rich ecosystem of apps and serviceable integrations (Chef, GitHub), while having complete in-built CI / CD automation (Azure Pipelines), as well as a strong agile planning tool with Azure Boards. Few competitors can boast breadth of […]

Microsoft Power BI and Amazon QuickSight are business intelligence (BI) tools aimed at helping companies interpret and understand business data. Amazon QuickSight is a lightweight solution optimized for as-needed use. In contrast, Microsoft Power BI is designed for dedicated usage across a company, with standard per-user pricing and deep customizability. Microsoft Power BI is almost equally popular with mid-size businesses as well as enterprise-level corporations, likely due to its per-user licensing and integration with the Microsoft Office 365 suite. Amazon QuickSight is most popular with mid-size companies and larger enterprises as well, although it also has a strong presence among SMB users. This is likely because its pricing model’s pay-as-you-go feature makes it affordable for smaller organizations. Features Although both products offer shareable charts and other data visualizations, they have individual strengths that set them apart from each other. Microsoft Power BI thrives on its variety and customization capability. Its open-source repository contains a broad selection of high-quality user-submitted visualizations, all of which can be individually tweaked by end users. Its sharing features make it easy to show others the visualizations you’ve created, and it integrates well with MS Azure and Office 365. Amazon QuickSight, as its name suggests, is […]

Symantec Endpoint Security (SES), now from Broadcom, and Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) are endpoint security and antivirus solutions targeted at enterprise level customers. They are direct competitors. Both solutions are deployed at companies of all sizes, with greater frequency of usage at larger companies, as that is their focus. Given their enterprise focus, both products boast advanced features such as pro-active protection and EDR, and centralized endpoint security management that can be conducted from an administration console by a security or IT admin. Features Both Symantec Endpoint and Defender ATP show distinct advantages for different use cases. Users favorite features of Microsoft’s endpoint security solution are that it is extremely lightweight and delicate on the system, and potentially “free.” That is, if you have Windows 10 Enterprise or Microsoft 365 Enterprise, then you have it already (individual licensing was made available in 2020, however). Beyond this, users enjoy the centralization and visibility of endpoint health it makes available. They particularly like the proactive monitoring it conducts with a very low footprint. Users say Symantec Endpoint Security is easy to set up and maintain. Its core function of antivirus protection against known threats is said by some to be […]

Lucidchart and Microsoft Visio are highly rated diagramming software used to create workflows, maps, and charts.  Lucidchart is a web-based solution that stands out because it can be used from anywhere and it has excellent collaboration features. Microsoft Visio is an excellent choice for businesses that are familiar with Microsoft apps and want a diagramming tool to enhance their capabilities.  Both programs are popular with individual users, students, and businesses from small to large.   Features Despite their similarities, both Lucidchart and Microsoft Visio offer options that help them stand out.  Lucidchart is a cheaper option that Visio which may help it appeal to non-business users and to small companies. It also features greater collaboration abilities like chatting and sharing with other users on the platform. It is also able to integrate with other workflow software like Jira, Confluence, and Github.   Microsoft Visio has the advantage of being a Microsoft tool and users who are familiar with the Microsoft environment will have little trouble jumping into the program. Visio also features a brainstorming function that helps you organize ideas from meetings and can automatically recognize and order themes and hierarchies. Visio also offers a larger variety of file formats for both […]

Microsoft To Do (formerly Wunderlist) and Todoist are productivity apps that can increase your efficiency and allow you to stay on task.  Microsoft To Do is a new offering from Microsoft after their acquisition of Wunderlist. It is part of the Office 365 portfolio and allows easy integration with Outlook to assist you in keeping on track throughout the day. Todoist is a very popular application that features gamification of tasks to make getting things done more fun and to motivate users to complete their goals.  Both applications have free versions that make them attractive choices for individuals and small businesses.  Features Microsoft To Do and Todoist each offer a few features that make them stand out next to their competition.  Microsoft To Do’s main advantage is that it is free and has no usage tiers. It also features Outlook Task integration to allow syncing with emails and calendars. And, since it is part of the Microsoft portfolio and is incorporated into Office 365 it allows team collaboration with other Office 365 users.  Todoist’s main draw is its gamification of tasks. The app is abe to award points for completed tasks, create streaks for continued usage, and also features productivity […]

Confluence and Jira are pieces of software created by Atlassian. Though the products have some overlap, they both serve different business needs. Confluence is a collaboration tool used by organizations to track the progress of projects, set up wiki-like structures, and allow users to share thoughts and ideas. Jira is software that is meant to provide in-depth ticket and milestone tracking throughout a project’s life cycle.  Both Confluence and Jira are used by small, medium, and large businesses due to their ability to scale based on the demands of a project.  Features Confluence and Jira offer a number of features that make them an attractive proposition to companies.  Confluence allows teams collaboration spaces where they can set up boards for discussions or wiki-style documentation for initiatives. With this comes excellent search capabilities for users to easily find what they need. Confluence also offers a plethora of department-based templates so users can get started quickly to meet the needs of teammates or customers.  As mentioned before, Jira is more detailed and is suited to tracking progression through a project. It allows users to set up complex workflows and diagrams to navigate the life of releases. Jira also offers built-in analytics so […]

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM), previously Call Manager, and Microsoft Teams are online communications platforms designed to centralize communications across large businesses. Cisco UCM is an established enterprise option with extensive flexibility for complex communications needs. Microsoft Teams focuses more on collaboration within a business, offering extra features to help users work together better.  Both products are used mostly by enterprise-level businesses, though Microsoft Teams also has a strong presence in mid-size companies. Features Both Microsoft Teams and Cisco UCM include core communications features like high-quality IP telephony and video conferencing, but they each offer unique benefits. Microsoft Teams offers robust collaboration features. This includes real-time collaborative editing on Microsoft Office files and seamless integration with other Microsoft products. It also uses a centralized UI from which users can start a group chat, share a file, schedule an event, or make a phone call. Its contact search tool helps users find exactly who they need to talk to by name, role, or department. Cisco UCM is known for being a reliable enterprise-grade solution that can scale and adapt to most business needs. It has a wealth of features and customization options for both implementation and end-user experience. For example, large […]

IntellliJ IDEA, from JetBrains and Apache NetBeans are IDEs, both of which primarily support Java development. NetBeans is an open source option supported by its community, with a large number of community-built plugins available to support specific use cases. IntelliJ IDEA is also available for free via the Community Edition, but the paid Ultimate edition provides advanced features, and users are supported directly by the developer. Both IDEs are used across companies of all sizes, with IntelliJ IDEA being more widely adopted overall. The IntelliJ ID paid edition is far more popular across larger enterprises willing to bear the cost to enjoy official support, along with its advanced features. Features Both IntelliJ IDEA and NetBeans are well regarded and actively used IDEs, however each option presents some distinct advantages. IntelliJ IDEA is praised for its themes, particularly its dark theme; it is described by users as being pleasant on the eyes, and thus far easier to work with and ergonomic relative to other options. It is generally strong in every other area important to choosing an IDE as well: its plugin library is extensive, it integrates capably with any tool that a developer is likely to use in tandem with […]

Alteryx and Microsoft Power BI are two flagship platforms in the business intelligence space.  Alteryx is an expensive but complete analytics platform with strong data preparation and scrubbing abilities. Microsoft Power BI is a widely used tool with cheaper and even free options that allow individuals and businesses the power to manipulate and take control of large datasets.  Both Alteryx and Microsoft Power BI are popular with enterprise-scale businesses, but Power BI’s much lower cost of entry helps make it appealing to individual users as well as small to medium-size businesses.  Features Alteryx and Microsoft Power BI are similar in many ways, but each displays a few standout features.  Alteryx is built around a clean and simple user interface that allows new users to get up to speed quickly but also offers power users customizable views to speed up analysis. Alteryx features built-in tools for merging datasets and powerful data scrubbing capabilities. Alteryx also empowers users by allowing workflow and report automation.  Since Power BI part of the Microsoft ecosystem, users who are comfortable with their other products will likely have little trouble adjusting to Power BI. Another major plus of Power BI is that it is available for free […]