I am pleased to announce that we are going back on the road to bring you all the latest technology offerings from LANDesk next month!

Our Roadshow's aren't that typical vendor show were your stuck in a room with what seems for days with technical Powerpoint (Yawn). 

We actually bring out all the equipment and the LANDesk engineers/team to provide you the benefits of working with the different solutions hands on-real time!  Bring your boss, bring your technical team, whoever needs to see these technologies.

Please join us to learn more about LANDesk's Service Desk, Security Suite, Application Virtualization, Process Manager and much more.

Dates and confirmed locations so far:

-5/28 Denver Colorado - ESPN Zone

-5/30 Dallas Texas - Dave & Busters

Sign up forms and more information on the events will be posted this week at http://www.ldms.com/Company/events.html

We'll supply the food, the games the prizes as well as answers to your technical needs!  See you soon!

 

-Susie

  

 

LANDesk's Application Virtualization product was the least intrusive off all the solutions GCN tested as well as the most flexible.  There is notable differences with LANDesk Thinstall's integrated solution vs. Symantec's Altiris SVS.

While SVS uses a client application and installs a filter driver on the local machine, Thinstall builds an executable image, including a cut-down version of the Windows operating system (VOS) adding about 400K to the size of the virtualized application. When you launch a Thinstall virtual app, the program first loads the VOS, which in turn loads the application into an isolated environment. All access to the underlying operating system and file system is controlled by a configuration file created at the time you build the virtual application.

It’s important to point out that all LANDesk virtual applications run exclusively in user mode.

The LANDesk/Thinstall combination offers a solid solution for organizations without any existing products from those vendors. Building completely self-sufficient applications requiring no additional components to run will appeal to many IT managers. Add to that the flexible configuration options and user-mode execution and you’ve got a great way to deploy applications on Vista that might not have run otherwise.

For more information or pricing on LANDesk's Application Virtualization Suite please give us a call at 877-624-8311.

 

Have a wonderful week!

-Susie

  

In a post to Microsoft's TechNet Forum, Microsoft's XP SP3 release manager Chris Keroack announced that Service Pack 3 of Windows XP has released to its manufacturing channels, in order to reach OEM and enterprise customers by the late-April deadline.

The key features of Service Pack 3 include Microsoft's updated Management Console 3.0, which appears in Windows Server 2008 and Vista; the new Windows Installer 3.1; an update to Wi-Fi protected access; and support for Network Access Protection, the "health checking" component used by Windows Server 2008. With that latter component, a network server can check to make sure certain upgrades and security features are in place for XP-based clients as well as Vista-based, before those clients can be allowed to log onto the network.

A complete list of XP SP3 features appears in this document from Microsoft.

  

In December 2007, research firm Gartner, Inc. released its Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms 2007 report. This new Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) quadrant is a merging of Gartner’s former Antivirus Magic Quadrant and the Personal Firewall Magic Quadrant. LANDesk was evaluated and placed in the Visionaries Quadrant.

"Inclusion of LANDesk in the visionaries quadrant is another confirmation of LANDesk's success in leading the convergence of the security and systems management markets," said Ed Harper, Chairman of the Board of Avocent, and former Chairman of Network Associates (McAfee).

To be included in the EPP Magic Quadrant, products must provide malware detection and cleaning, as well as a personal firewall and/or some form of host intrusion prevention capability for PCs. Products must also have centralized management, configuration and reporting capabilities that can support companies that have, at a minimum, 5,000 geographically dispersed endpoints, as well as possessing global service and support organizations to support enterprise products.

The report cites the “many nimble vendors beginning to challenge the status quo with innovative EPP solutions and a higher level of customer focus.”

"Our customers tell us that they've essentially beaten malware, the ‘zero-day,’ and targeted attacks once they've deployed our application control, DLP, and other protection layers. We're pleased to get recognition for our security efforts," said Steve Daly, General Manager of LANDesk, an Avocent company.

  

GCN posted their lab review today for top vendors in Virtualization field, and LANDesk rated #1 (3rd win in 4 months!)

Read the full article and lab results http://www.gcn.com/print/27_6/45953-1.html

Advantages to using LANDesk Application Virtualization, No driver or client installation required.  And more importantly, LANDesk runs exclusively in user mode:

"That can be critical for enterprise environments with locked-down PCs without administration rights. User mode makes possible a number of significant benefits from a security perspective."

If you would like more information on LANDesk's Application Virtualization, give me a call @ 877-624-8311.  We can help you with more details and trial information if you would like to test it in your lab.

*For our friends with government entities,  LANDesk Application Virtualization is 508 compliant.

Happy Easter!

Susie

  

So are you the type that will immediately download it, cross your fingers, get out your lucky rabbit foot and hope for the best?  Or will you be waiting a few weeks to see if this Service Pack causes more issues than it fixes?

In a blog post, Windows Vista product manager Nick White acknowledged having encountered driver compatibility problems with the initial deployment of SP1, though at this point those problems aren't exactly news.

"We spent the last couple of months looking closely at reports of driver problems on pre-release builds and, to be safe, we held the public availability until March," White wrote. "We've completed our analysis and are happy to report that many of these issues were fixed between the release candidate (RC) and the final version. We identified a small number of device drivers that may be problematic after an update from Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP1."

The download is available via Windows Update or you can download the standalone version here.  But be prepared if you do the manual download that it is larger than the Windows Update version, it comes in at a whopping 434.5MB!  That's right, close to half a gigabyte!  So if you are the bleeding edge type and decide to download and install it now then leave us comments here on how it goes.

  

The power management capability in LANDesk Solutions lets you create your own power management policy, which can be global or on a per-computer basis.  Once your policy is set, it's automatically enforced on managed systems, without any further intervention on your part-set it and forget it!  If the user has to overwrite the policy-say to prevent a system from sleeping during a presentation-the user can. And if the user forgets to reinstate the power management feature, your policy will automatically reset the system to your defined standard.

The power management capability in LANDesk solutions can be used with LANDesk Management Suite, LANDesk Security Suite and LANDesk Patch Manager via LANDesk updates definition CF000001.  Power options include power usage on the monitor, the hard disks and when the system goes to standby, and when the system is running off battery power or plugged in.

How Do Savings Translate into a Greater Return on Your LANDesk Investment?
Say you purchase both LANDesk® Security Suite and LANDesk® Anti-virus, if you apply the dollar savings you achieve by using power management, you can end up saving off the cost of your LANDesk licenses.

LANDesk® Security Suite MSRP $59
LANDesk® Antivirus MSRP $10
Monitor power savings* - $30
Computer power savings* - $45
Total LANDesk® license cost -$6
(MSRP minus power savings)
*Based on the estimated maximum savings of $30 per monitor and $45 per computer. Source: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_management.

 

 

If you have more questions on LANDesk Power Management join us on April 3rd @ 1:00 Eastern for our webinar on Going Green with LANDesk!  http://www.ldms.com/Company/eventsignup6.htm.

 

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Susie

  

LANDesk has just released their Classroom Manager last week.  It is based of the same technology that LANDesk has used for Remote Control.  For those of you who have been around LANDesk for a while from the "old Intel days", this product is similar to the LAN School product. 

Each Teacher has a console view of either full screen or thumbnail size to view each students screen, with the ability to monitor what websites and applications that are running on the students computers.  Teachers have full control to lock down their students PC's (mouse, keyboard, and screen) as well have the ability to control what websites and programs their students can or cannot use.

Teachers can either broadcast from their screen to the full classroom or just one particular student.  As well as quickly administer online multiple choice or true/false quizzes to assess the students.

And yes LANDesk is using industry leading anti-tampering controls to make their software extremely difficult to disable!

If you are a public or private school administrator and would like more information on Classroom Manager please contact NAI today.  There is a 30-Day trial available that we can help you with as well.  877-624-8311

 

Enjoy your week!

-Susie

  

In the new LANDesk release v8.8, LANDesk turns off "Desktop Compositing " which is part of Aero that blends all the different layers together.  LANDesk doesn't totally turn off Aero, just this piece, and then LANDesk restores the setting when the session ends.  This will happen when LANDesk Remote Control starts on any Vista computer.

  

New Dashboard Capability

One highlighted feature introduced in this release is the new dashboard capability that allows users to display and monitor key metrics on their main console in an easy-to-understand graphical format. Sample metrics include:

• The number of incidents raised during a working period
• The number of change requests made
• Progress against goals

The new dashboard information helps users make better, more informed business and operational decisions based on real-time information.