With the need for keeping employee workstations current with patches and
updates becoming increasingly more important, officials at Altiris and HP
are set to update their own remote management tools.
The HP Client Manager Software (CMS) has been upgraded to perform functions
on the Altiris 6.0 platform, publicly released
last month. HP also expanded the machines that can use the software to its
Point of Sale System rp5000 and nc6000 and nc8000 line of notebooks.
The goal: get networked computers up-to-speed so they aren’t affected by
the growing number of computer viruses and worms that bring
computers, and the workstations around them, to their knees.
The Bagle
strain of Internet worms, for example, targeted corporate victims by
attaching a zipped file containing the virus, bypassing enterprise
firewalls.
“Even in the first half of 2003, you had six or eight months of lead time to
install a patch,” Mark Magee, Altiris client management segment manager,
told internetnews.com. “You’ve literally got less than 30 days,
between initial discovery and outbreak. This dictates that the manual
processes of managing your enterprise are no longer acceptable.”
From one console, a network administrator will be able to install patches on
networked PCs, adjust security settings. In addition to bolstering
security, CMS updates hardware and BIOS
software will include a wake-on-LAN feature so computers can be updated
after-hours.
CMS ties into HP’s other network software offering, the Systems Insight
Manager (SIM). The software package
provides a central management console for keeping HP’s Proliant servers
whole, updating drivers and BIOS when needed, and providing inventory
reports when needed. E-mail and pager alerts sound when a server
experiences problems.
The HP/Altiris CMS software is available as a free download here at the end of
March.
