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Agent versus Agentless Myth Busting: Agentless means there is no agent at all

So what does agentless really mean? Agentless generally means that you will not have to install a software agent to perform any power monitoring. While this might be technically true for a moment, agentless is really a misnomer.
Agentless implies that since there is no software to install, it is therefore easier to deploy, manage and maintain. In most cases, the supposed agentless solution simply uses the agents that come with another vendor’s product instead, such as: Windows WMI or SNMP Service. The Windows SNMP service is not fully configured or enabled by default in Windows XP and above; you have to manually configure it which is not easy to do. Configuring security for WMI namespaces and enabling DCOM remote access is not trivial either. Although you don’t have to install an agent, you may have to spend an almost equal amount of time configuring the built in one.
Agent-based technologies are like having a spy in the ranks – giving you a lot more information than you would get from just looking through a telescope (agentless). With an agent-based approach you get greater command and control capabilities, more granular information gathering and much less impact on the network. There are the additional benefits in real-time reporting (detecting which workstations are no longer in use or servers that are not being useful) which brings the sought for benefits of Power Management (by powering them down).
Check out the Agentless versus Agentless myths you may have missed already…
Part 1: Agent versus Agentless Myth Busting: Agented software usually places additional load on the network
Part 2: Agent versus Agentless Myth Busting: Interference with the operating system and applications
Part 3: Agent versus Agentless Myth Busting: Agents open up the machines to security vulnerabilities
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The FORRESTER WAVE™: End-User Experience Management, Q3 2022

The FORRESTER WAVE™: End-User Experience Management, Q3 2022