Sunday, May 20, 2012

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Desktop Management

Desktop Management is not as simple as it used to be, most environments now have a wide range of devices and operating systems that need managing.

Even in organisations with predominantly Windows devices there may be physical desktops connected to AD, Laptops or Dedicated PC's with no AD integration, Terminal Service and Virtual Desktop Machines all of which if not integrated will have a different look and feel and even worse different user security or application access configurations.

So what are the device management issues facing IT teams today?

 

 

  • Automated imaging and personalisation - What is the point of imaging if you still have to visit the device afterwards to manually enter settings?
  • Application Delivery - Got a mixed Windows OS environment, got non-MSI applications, want to create a unified desktop for Local applications, Networks and Internet applications and Terminal Services applications, want to be able to have personalised application environment for Individual users, workstations, user or workstations groups based on time of day, free disk space, processing power or memory or a host of other parameters?
  • Inventory - Pen and paper inventory is no longer enough, get the ability to have daily hardware and software inventories with enterprise level reporting, Inventory Windows, Mac OSX or Linux. Upload licenses to produce reports on how many deployed applications are unlicensed or over licensed, Show how many PC's are Windows 7 ready or produce your own reports detailing any aspect of your environment, want to know how many PC's have a specific BIOS revision, Windows Update patch, how many laptops are running out of disk space, no problem.
  • Printer Deployment - Manage the deployment of Windows, IPP or Local printers to Windows
  • Remote Control - Connect to a Windows device via, IP address, Workstation name or Logged in username from a Windows, Mac OSX or Linux client
  • Enhanced Group Policy Control - Push our Windows XP or 7 Group Policies not just based on AD Container but individual Users, Workstations or Groups. Change Local user File system rights.
  • Power Management Control - Configure the AC Power Management settings on the managed devices by creating a power scheme for Users. Workstations or Groups then produce reports detailing the results of your efforts
  • Enhanced Patch Management - Configure controlled push outs of not just Windows patches but for all major application vendors, e.g. Adobe, Skype, Citrix, Mozilla.
  • Control Access to Storage Devices - Storage devices such as USB devices and Bluetooth a business reality, Now you can control not only who can use, for example, a USB pen but which workstations can use them, also what files can be copied to and from a USB pen based on who the logged in user is (and renaming a .exe to a .txt will not fool the system).
  • Local Firewall Security - Superior to typical personal firewall technologies which operate only in the application layer or as a firewall-hook driver. The ZENworks Security Client includes a powerful Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) driver for each network interface card (NIC), providing protection against malicious traffic from the moment traffic enters the PC.
  • Laptop and USB Data Encryption -  Create centralised policies that encrypt all the data stored in administrator defined or user-defined “safe harbor” folders on fixed discs and create removable storage device encryption that encrypts any data copied to a removable storage device, as well as the entire contents of that device, the moment it's plugged into a PC to help protect data in case of theft or loss.
  • Application Virtualisation - Create mobile Windows applications that can be transferred between devices even USB pens as standalone fully functional compressed executables. Time bomb your virtualised applications so that they expire and are no longer usable or even stream them across your website over http!

Any of these issues sound familiar? Why not take a take a look at Novell ZENworks today?

Novell ZENwork has a long award winning history and is the best desktop management product on the market today providing an answer to all of the issues listed and more.

 

It is very simple to administrate as it have been designed with the aim that no desktop management task should be more than 3 mouse clicks away and this ethos has been used to create an intuitive and powerful web interface so you can access and administrate your site from your Windows, Mac or Linux workstation.

As the product is modular you can pick and choose which services you want  and they all integrated and work together through the same web interface, the current modules are:

  • Novell ZENworks Configuration Management:  The main program with Windows, Linux and Mac management Inventory and Reports, Windows and Linux imaging, application deployment and desktop lockdown, Windows printer delivery, remote control, power management, local system rights management and more.
  • ZENworks Patch Management: Controlled deployment of Windows patches and application updates for all major software vendors
  • ZENworks Asset Management: Advanced Inventory services for Windows, Mac and Linux including application license management, advanced reporting of application and license usage and extra pre-built system reports.
  • ZENworks End Point Security Management: Control access of users and workstations to mobile storage devices such as USB pens at a fine detail level, control which users can copy which types of files to and from what storage device to which PC or laptop, Advanced Windows personal firewall and local hard drive and storage device file encryption.
  • ZENworks Application Virtualisation: Create portable sandboxed applications that run as single files which can be time-bombed so that they stop working if required. Create streaming applications that can be run over your website using http.