Leaving Broadcom's Salt console before 2028, outgrowing free Salt, or tired of per-node pricing: keep your Salt and move to one flat-priced console.
SUSE Multi-Linux Manager and Uyuni do the Linux estate well, and leave Windows out. So the Windows fleet ends up in a second tool, a spreadsheet, or nowhere, with no single view across both. In a regulated shop that still answers for every endpoint, that is an audit finding waiting to happen.
Salt already manages Windows and Linux together. The commercial console that put a supported UI on it moved from SaltStack to VMware to Broadcom, which now sells it by the CPU core and has scheduled its support to end in 2028. The open-source pieces work, but nobody is standing behind them with a release you can pin and a phone number you can call. Gardience is that supported console, for the whole fleet.
What you are living with now
With Gardience
In the last two years the tools most Windows and Linux shops relied on were sold, deprecated, closed up, or breached. Every point below is from the vendor's own documentation or the U.S. government's exploited-vulnerability list.
Broadcom's commercial Salt console is supported only to October 2028, or sooner if your contract ends first. Upgrading your masters to Salt 3008 cuts them off from the console until a patched plugin is installed by hand on every master. It is sold per CPU core, with a 16-core minimum per processor.
Microsoft deprecated Windows Server Update Services in September 2024: no new features. Its answer for servers is Azure Update Manager, which charges $5 per server per month for machines outside Azure and needs them connected to Azure.
In 2025 Perforce moved Puppet's packages to a private repository; using them beyond 25 nodes needs a commercial license. The community forked the project to keep a public build.
In March 2026 CISA added an Ivanti Endpoint Manager flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: attackers with network access could pull credentials from the core server without signing in. The tool that manages every endpoint is the one attackers want most.
Broadcom, VMware, Microsoft, Perforce, Puppet, and Ivanti are trademarks of their owners. Gardience is independent and not affiliated with any of them.
The commercial Salt console has changed names four times: SaltStack Enterprise, vRealize Automation SaltStack Config, Aria Automation Config, Tanzu Salt, and now VCF Salt. Broadcom has set its support to end in October 2028, or sooner if your contract ends first. It is sold as a per-core subscription with a 16-core minimum per processor, and Broadcom documents that upgrading to open-source Salt 3008 disconnects its masters from the console until a patched plugin is installed by hand on each one. Gardience runs on the same open-source Salt underneath, so your fleet moves without a rewrite.
Your states, pillars, minions, and keys carry over. Gardience runs on current open-source Salt, which is still actively released and supported through 2028.
One yearly price for the fleet, Windows and Linux. No core counts, no 16-core minimums, and you can run it in the cloud. See the math.
We inventory your jobs, schedules, and roles, map them to Gardience templates and RBAC, and cut over one node group at a time with both consoles running side by side. Migration is included in the first year.
On Tanzu Salt, Aria Automation Config, or SaltStack Config? We review your masters, states, and renewal date, and send a written plan with effort and cost. No charge, no commitment.
Sources: Broadcom KB 413088 (product transition and October 2028 end of support), VMware SaltStack program terms, May 2025 (per-core licensing), KB 448159 (Salt 3008 breaks the master plugin; manual patch), Salt support lifecycle. VMware, Tanzu, and Broadcom are trademarks of their owners. Gardience is independent and not affiliated with Broadcom.
Salt is free, fast, and proven, and Gardience keeps all of it: your states, your agents, and a direct Salt view, so nothing your Salt people know is lost. What Gardience adds is everything an operations team needs on top, including the people who will never learn Salt. Here is the same job done both ways.
Ansible Automation Platform is priced per managed node, every year, and the bill grows with every machine you add. Gardience is one flat yearly price for the fleet.
Per-node figures use Ansible Automation Platform Premium list pricing on AWS Marketplace ($19,250 per 100-node pack per year, seen October 2026; 250 machines means buying three packs, and 5,000 is fifty packs before any volume discount). Your quote may differ. See the full math.
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