HCL BigFix vs OpenSCAP

HCL BigFix combines endpoint management, security, automation, and digital employee experience capabilities in one platform. HCL says it supports more than 120 operating systems and provides near real-time endpoint visibility and control. It patches operating systems and third-party applications, and remediates vulnerabilities. BigFix Compliance enforces security policies and automatically corrects configuration drift, while BigFix Inventory provides visibility into devices, software, licenses, and usage. HCL documentation includes integration guides for ServiceNow Data Flow and BigFix Insights for Vulnerability Remediation. Fixlets and actions use SHA-256-based digital signatures; relay and agent communications can be encrypted with TLS. HCL states that BigFix v11 achieved NIAP certification and SCAP 1.3 validation, and that its embedded FIPS crypto module received FIPS 140-2 certification. Subscription support includes product updates, new features, content updates, bug fixes, and technical support during the term. Licensing depends on managed employee devices or managed virtual servers. Pricing is by tailored quote, and HCL offers a 30-day Endpoint Management trial. BigFix SaaS supports up to 50,000 devices per deployment.

OpenSCAP is a free collection of open-source tools for applying and enforcing the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) standard. It provides customizable policies for security compliance and automated vulnerability assessment. OpenSCAP Base includes a library and the oscap command-line tool for parsing and evaluating SCAP content, scanning systems and producing documents. It supports XCCDF benchmarks and OVAL definitions, with SCAP 1.2 support and backward compatibility for SCAP 1.1 and 1.0. SCAP Workbench can tailor content, run local or remote scans, and export results; OpenSCAP Daemon schedules assessments of machines and containers. Policy variables and rules can be changed, and customized policies saved separately for reuse. Integrations listed include Red Hat Satellite, RH Access Insights, Preupgrade Assistant and orcharhino. With Red Hat Satellite 6, the site describes centralized policy management, scheduled audits and audit-result collection and search. OpenSCAP Base is available on Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora and Ubuntu; the project also reports Windows support since version 1.3.0. Policies may include automated remediation, but some rules cannot be remediated automatically, and remediation may disrupt infrastructure functionality.