Network America's Blog

Easily Migrate to Windows 7 using LANDesk

2009-12-11T15:17:01Z

There is so much activity and excitement this time of year!

The holidays are approaching…(quickly)
LANDesk Software is releasing v9 next week……(December 17th to be exact)
And yet another birthday for XP???

XP has just celebrated its eight birthday (wow) and 72% of enterprises didn’t migrate to Vista, (according to Forrester Research).

With the hardware vendors no longer writing XP drivers, and XP Support ending summer of 2010….

You know you will be tasked to migrate next year….

How are you going to migrate all your XP systems to Windows 7?
More importantly how are you going to do it quickly without breaking your network?
Over the years how many hardware platforms do you have…?(do you have to guess on that one?)
And your end-users wants maintain their data during the migration…

Allow us to introduce you to LANDesk Management Suite v9!

With LANDesk v9 you can manage all aspects of a Windows 7 migration including planning, implementation, migration, and validation. It includes system readiness reports, it supports heterogeneous environments, it checks application compatibility, maintains existing user data, and best of all it will cut costs!

Email or call the NAI team today for more information on LANDesk Management Suite, let us help take the future headaches out of your migration plans so you can enjoy you holidays!

Take care,

Susie

Getting Ready for LANDesk 9

2009-11-20T22:01:21Z

Network America has been a long time LANDesk Platinum Expert Solutions Provider and has seen new versions come and go. But with less than 30 days before LANDesk releases v9 for Management Suite and Security Suite, (26 days to be exact) we are as excited about the new capabilities in LANDesk 9 as the upcoming holidays!

Here are some highlights in the upcoming release:

• All new interface in LANDesk Management Suite that allows for different views depending on your responsibilities (license administrators can view it from a license perspective, and
managers can take an organizational or group perspective)
• The personal firewall available in LANDesk Security Suite
• And my personal favorite - the new reporting engine!

But to sum it all up, whether you’re looking for best methods to migrate to Windows 7, tracking your licenses you own or - equally important are actually using, or you need a better way to protect your endpoints, LANDesk 9 solves all of these needs and more.

While we are waiting for the upcoming release, now is the time to plan for your upgrade. Whether you are running an older version or haven’t rebuilt your Core Server in awhile, call or visit us today at www.ldms.com, to set up your no-obligation systems management review. Network America is offering custom upgrade and tune-up packages to help you easily upgrade to LANDesk 9 AND enjoy your holidays.

If you have any questions about upgrading, utilizing all of the new features, enhancing your ROI or reviewing the latest best practices, contact us to discuss how we can help you!

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday,

My best,

Susie

LANDesk Refined to the 9th Degree – Coming December 17th

2009-11-11T20:41:59Z

LANDesk Software announced this week the much anticipated release of version 9 for the award winning products, LANDesk Management Suite & LANDesk Security Suite that will be available on December 17th.

As we count down to the release here are just some of the new enhancements;

LANDesk Management Suite v9:

An all-new interface—Users can now see and manage data in ways that meet their singular needs: IT administrators can view the network from a product perspective, license administrators can view it from a license perspective, and managers can take an organizational or group perspective.

Software normalization and inventory data improvements—Filter inventory data through a system with information on thousands of products and manufacturers. Obtain more accurate product and file recognition with normalized data that can be leveraged by LANDesk^® Asset Lifecycle Manager.

Dynamic products—Simplify asset management with version wildcarding that lets you merge multiple product versions into a single, dynamic product

Return on investment (ROI) reports—Obtain the information you need to manage licenses more wisely and reduce license costs. Additional reports help decrease the likelihood of being audited—as well as avoid being stuck with major fees in the event you are.

LANDesk Security Suite v9:

Layered security that includes a personal firewall—Ensure increased system protection and dramatically reduce the potential for effective system attacks.

Industry-leading antivirus solutions—Get amazingly fast response time to new threats, as well as a high level of detection and proactive protection.

Unparalleled remediation using a single agent—Simply and efficiently manage new devices currently not managed by the system.

Location-aware policies—Preserve productivity and reduce the chance of data loss and infection with dynamic policies that adjust security settings—including application control, anti-malware configuration, and removable storage restrictions—based on the environment a selected machine is in.

The ability to view all security activities in a single console—Increase productivity and reduce the amount of effort required to monitor all security activities on the network.

USB encryption policies—Create flexible policies that control usage of mass storage devices and make them read-only, block them entirely, or force encryption.

Compliance standards assessments—Assess and enforce alignment with compliance standards such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), SANS, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

Stay tuned to Network America’s v9 countdown on www.ldms.com for more information as it becomes available.

But more importantly the Network America team would like to send out our heartfelt thanks to all Veterans for your service.

Susie

LANDesk Management Suite Full System’s Management Unmasked

2009-10-30T14:54:14Z

In this day of cutting overhead and reducing costs, could you be suffering from IT infrastructure overload? Too many tools, agents, databases from various vendors managing several maintenance and support agreements?

Why not join us on Tuesday November 10th for a technical presentation of LANDesk® Management Suite? Learn first hand about the award winning solution that allows you to see, manage, update and protect your enterprise all with a single agent, single console, and single database.

LANDesk® Management Suite lets your IT staff automate systems management tasks. No
management solution is more complete, more integrated or easier to use, whether your
systems are inside or outside the corporate firewall, or at one location or many.

Realizing a rapid time to value is critical to smart business practices and according to
IDC (Quantifying the ROI Benefits of Integrated Systems Management), on average, an organization can recoup its investment cost for LANDesk® Management Suite in just 90.5 days and enjoy an average return on investment of 846% over three years.

From cost cutting saving’s benefits including software license management, power management, and automated patch management, LANDesk Management Suite provides all of these while leveraging your existing investments in database, application and directory service technologies. And it works across heterogeneous IT environments for minimal impact on your network, servers, and personnel.

Don’t be tricked by other solutions who require additional infrastructure, multi consoles, or view systems management is an after thought.

To learn more please visit us at http://www.ldms.com/Products/LANDesk/landesk_management_suite.html

Happy Halloween!

Susie

Tap into the full potential of Virtualization with LANDesk®

2009-09-11T17:09:59Z

Admit it, deploying new applications can be a hassle. You’re never sure whether or not you’ll “break” your environment, or if you do “break” it, how quickly and effectively you’ll be able to roll it back to a pre-deployment state. You can end up impacting you user productivity—not to mention their happiness with fielding numerous complaints. Worse, you may have to stop and do regression testing to fix problems created by new applications. And you may have to spend time and and additional budgets to create a testing environment.

With LANDesk®Application Virtualization will enable your enterprise to seamlessly run multiple applications—even different versions of the same application—on individual systems without installing anything on or making changes to a client’s registry and file system, without installing agents on the client or a server, and without installing device drivers. You give your users conflict-free access to the applications they need while maintaining secure, clean, stable user desktops and complete control.

Because LANDesk® Application Virtualization runs each application in its own environment you eliminate application conflicts. Two versions of the same application can run on the same PC without conflicts, even where virtual and non-virtual versions exist. There’s no need to redevelop applications or upgrade to a new OS.

With the benefit of saving thousands of dollars most companies spend per desktop per year managing applications plus the saving on the cost of maintaining secure, locked-down desktops.

You reduce or eliminate the time needed for regression testing and analysis of end-user support requirements in order to minimize the downtime caused by DLL and other application conflicts. And you alleviate the costs of the intensive planning and user support needed for new applications.

A quick recap:

True Isolation
Client-Less Architecture and Instant Zero-Footprint Deployment
Security (Runs applications exclusively in user mode with no kernel-mode code or device drivers)
Saves money, time, frustration

Please join the Network America team next week to learn more via a web meeting September 15th @10:00 am EST. Visit our main page for more information and registration.

LANDesk® Application Virtualization integrates with LANDesk® Management Suite or be purchased as a stand alone application.

Looking forward to seeing you next week!

-Susie

Why LANDesk Application Virtualization

2009-03-05T19:37:48Z

Deploying new applications can be a hassle. You're never sure whether or not you'll "break" your environment, or if you do indeed "break" it, how quickly and effectively will you be able to roll it back to a predeployment state?

With LANDesk Application Virtualization, you have the power to create virtual applications using true isolation capabilities and:

Minimize OS migration risks and hassles - including Vista - with true isolation for testing before you implement.
Save time with easy, client-less, conflict free application deployment and rollbacks
Improve user satisfaction by reducing application conflicts
Reduce infrastructure requirements and costs with no-client or server components to manage.
Improve your enterprise security with the power to transparently run applications in user-mode on locked-down machines.

The most common issue we have run into of late has been with IE7, with using LANDesk Application Virtualization we were able to run both IE6 for legacy applications and IE7 on the same machine.

Join us for our upcoming Network America "LANDesk Lunch & Learn" being held on Thursday March 19th @ 12:30 Eastern to learn more about LANDesk Application Virtualization, see the product and have the opportunity to ask technical questions on best practices. If you would like to register for this virtual LANDesk Lunch & Learn please email me @

For more information on LANDesk or our Lunch & Learn series, visit our web-site www.ldms.com or check your email for the latest Network America Newsletter announcing dates and topics coming to your email soon!

As always we want to hear from you on what would help you the most - please email me with ideas of things that the Network America team can do for you!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

-Susie

Doing more with Less - LANDesk? NO for Valentine's Day!

2009-02-12T22:59:06Z

We spent quite a bit of time this year working on value propositions for saving IT dollars with automation from LANDesk Software. But more importantly at THIS moment - you can't blame budget cuts for being empty handed on Saturday!

(Yes - Valentine's Day is this coming Saturday)

Last year I provided some helpful links (I thought) for restaurants and jewelry and of course flowers. So this year I polled my fellow gals and we have some awesome suggestions that are not costly and will gain you instant ROI.

Flowers, we aren't really expecting you to drop $75.00 for a dozen roses this year. Run out on Friday to your local florist or grocery store, and pick up a nice bouquet of flowers nothing too expensive and drop by her work/home/school to bring them to her personally on Friday. Gives her bragging rights!

Restaurants can also be expensive, why not a romantic picnic? In your living room! Run by the grocery and pick a nice bottle of wine, cheese, crackers, strawberry's and definitely something Chocolate! Light a couple of candles and you have nice evening with You and your undivided attention.(Turn off your PDA please - and don't rush to your computer for at least a couple of hours-that goes for the TV too!)

With this year falling on Saturday - you could always bring her breakfast in bed...Get up a little early, tend to the kids, bring your sweetie breakfast and let her enjoy a nice relaxing morning!

Let's face it no woman in the world would say no to jewelry, for those of you that can afford to spend some money this year, there are some really beautiful options for under $100.00 at http://www.ice.com/.

And lastly for you guys that ran out of time or money, we are here to help! We prepared some love coupons for you that you can print off and give to your honey! These are as good as gold - especially when she can use her coupon to have you take out the trash! http://www.ldms.com/holiday/thelcb_na.html

Watch for newsletter tomorrow, we are focusing on LANDesk Security Suite and Patching. LANDesk provides a complete HIPS offering, protection for Internet only connections, black listing and more. We will have online demo's and best practices for Security Suite and Patch over the next couple of weeks and you can sign up via our newsletter.

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Susie

LANDesk Training - Expand your skills and get the most from your investment!

2009-01-13T18:51:11Z

Hi Everyone,

Network America is hosting a LANDesk Administrator training in Florida February 25th 26th & 27th. The focus is hands on training with using v8 SP2. Whether your new to LANDesk or looking to refresh your skills, this class is for you.For more information please visit our training page at http://www.ldms.com/Company/eventsignup_training.html.

This is a three day lab setting with experienced LANDesk Certified Engineers targeting agenda items such as:

- LANDesk Core Server configurations and optimization

- Software License Monitoring

- Provisioning

- Software Distribution

- OS Deployment and more.

Looking forward to seeing you in Florida!

Also always looking for feedback on best ways to help YOU, if you have suggestions we want to hear from you our phone numbers and info forms are listed on the main page.

Thanks!

Susie

A New Year - A new attitude

2009-01-07T21:46:32Z

Welcome back to work! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and more importantly, you were able to come back!

With tight times, cut backs and high-tech IT firms laying off over 20,000 workers in November alone, IT jobs are in survival mode. In other words: You're no longer a techie helping the business; you're a businessperson who uses tech to boost the bottom line.

The most reliable path for self-preservation? Transition your focus from technology to business value and business needs. The more quantifiable results you offer the more indispensable you become. How long and how much did it cost your company for that last Office 2007 deployment? What about patches and security threats, costs for your IT guys to visit each desktop to update? Speaking of desktops and equipment, do you know where your assets are and how they are being used?

Now more than ever you deploy efficient IT.

Let NAI and LANDesk help you solve those problems. From world class system management, security and patch protection, effective asset management, and enterprise service desk solutions. We have the expertise to deliver the right solutions and the ROI that you need now-on time and on budget.

Do you already own LANDesk products? Email me so I can have our LANDesk Services team schedule a customized tune up and training to make sure your gaining as much from your investment as possible.

This is the time for you to get a handle on the projects you own and show your organization that you can expand your efficiencies, reduce your expenditures and maintain the rep your IT organization owns.

Expand your capabilities and change the corporate attitude towards IT!

Sincere regards and hopes for a successful 2009

Susie

Let us help you increase your LANDesk ROI

2008-12-09T23:32:05Z

Today's IT is hectic: user problems and complaints are never ending, team is reduced with either cut backs or holiday vacations, projects are mounting, a server just crashed today, and your boss wants that report tomorrow by 9:00 am on what your budget needs are for 2009.

Yep, we know...

Have you had a chance to upgrade to the latest LANDesk Management Suite version? Are your patches up to date? Do you perhaps have some tickets open with LANDesk support that you haven't had time to update and trouble shoot on your end? Or maybe you have some new members of your team that could use training and best practices tips on using LANDesk?

Yep, we know...

Let the veteran NAI LANDesk Certified team help with our year end tune up packages. We offer either remote packages to onsite upgrades and training, with custom packages for any environment and budget. You made the investment in LANDesk, let's work together to make sure your getting the most from your purchase.

LANDesk provides incredible software solutions for today's IT needs, but with any software package it will require maintenance from time to time. Email me atfor more information on support packages and pricing options to help you get one more task off you list!

Wishing you my very best for this holiday season,

-Susie

LANDesk Service Desk

2008-12-03T18:37:42Z

LANDesk Service Desk was positioned by Gartner in the "Magic Quadrant for IT Service Desk". The LANDesk solution that was evaluated in the report provides and end-to-end solution covering all aspects of IT business management - including IT service management, customer service solutions and network and systems management.

Along with meeting the full functional ITIL verification, to gain inclusion in the Gartner Magic Quadrant LANDesk had to:

-Have an IT Service Desk offering to support enterprise environments of more than 5,000 employees as demonstrated by customer references.

-Include modules for incident management, problem management, change management, inventory management, self service, knowledge management and SLA management.

-Generate client interest and inquiries sufficient enough to be noticed by Gartner analysts. Analyst must also receive feedback from enterprise clients indicating they are using the products.

If your currently using LANDesk products to manage your clients, and would be interested in learning more about LANDesk Service Desk, please email me at and I will be happy to set up a demo of Service Desk for you and answer questions. Or if you have seen Service Desk and would like to do some testing we can help with a VM trial as well.

For those of you who would like a Service Desk or ticketing solution to integrate with LANDesk, but are not in need of a enterprise tool, we can help with offering information on ATTACC Help Desk Solution. www.attaccsoftware.com. ATTACC includes automatic ticket routing, AD integration, integration with LANDesk and more.

Let us know how our team can help you with your Service Desk needs.

Happy Holidays!

-Susie

"Are you ready for that knock on your door?"

2008-11-13T15:48:03Z

If the Business Software Alliance (BSA) came knocking at your door how prepared would you be? Would you be ready when they walk in the door or try to hide?

You may have a pretty good idea how many licenses of software you own and how many copies are installed in your environment; but do you know exactly where the purchased orders and licenses are?

Software manufacturers' revenues are down and guess how they are making up that revenue? Audits! Audits are on the rise and each instance of a violation can be a fine of up to $150,000. None of us are prepared for that in today's economy.

By implementing Asset Lifecycle Management with a purchase request process with approvals, audit tracking and the ability to attach documents such as POs, license files and proof of disposal you can be prepared for that knock on the door.

With Asset Lifecycle Management you can also do the following:

- Know the exact status of each computer or other assets (Ordered, Received, Assigned, Inventory, Disposed, etc.)

- Monitor vendor performance, how many RMAs have you had with each vendor?

- Know which location each asset is in, assets at each geographic location could have different tax rates.

- How many assets does each division, department or cost center have

- Aggregate data from multiple data sources (Finance, HR, IT, etc)

Wouldn't it be worth taking the time to join us next month for an online web demo of the new release? Automate your IT, protect your company. The audits are happening, be ready.

Join NAI on Thursday December 11th @ 3:00 EST to review the new LANDesk Lifecycle Manager. To register please visit http://www.ldms.com/Company/events.html.

Speak Soon-

Susie

LANDesk New Asset Lifecycle Manager - Gartner's Top 10 IT Product

2008-10-20T21:57:55Z

ZDNet today listed the Gartner ITxpo 2008 Top 10 IT products. The new LANDesk Asset Lifecycle Manager (ALM) was ranked #2. To read more about the top products and review the information on LANDesk ALM, http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10502.

There is still time to register for our Web Release tomorrow on ALM @ 3:00 Eastern, where the NAI and LANDesk team will demo this new solution on line. To register for tomorrow's demo or for more information on ALM please visit our site http://www.ldms.com/Products/LANDesk/landesk_asset_manager.htm.

Talk to you tomorrow,

Susie

LANDesk Releases New Asset Lifecycle Manager Today

2008-10-17T15:20:34Z

Every year, nearly $150 billion in IT assets are considered lost or missing. And still, IT managers are charged with the responsibility of driving returns on their company's technology investments. Introducing the one tool that will help maximize your IT asset investments and build your company's value. LANDesk® Asset Lifecycle Manager helps IT identify and track IT assets simply and easily – in a centralized manner

LANDesk® Asset Lifecycle Manager - Designed by IT Asset Managers for IT Asset Managers based on the best practice approach to lifecycle management:

§ Identify and track the manufacturer, version, and status of IT assets

§ Simplify IT audits and speed up the decision-making process associated with replacing, upgrading, and updating assets

§ Execute routine tasks like backups, patches, upgrades, and procurement using automated workflows

§ Consolidate valuable asset information by attaching services, support, and warranty agreements to the assets

§ Provides SMB's with a cost-effective and value-based alternative to the high dollar, enterprise-wide generic solutions that require extensive consulting engagements to provide basic functionality.

LANDesk Asset Lifecycle Manager provides a central asset repository for valuable data so that cost analysis, audit compliance, patch/upgrade, and troubleshooting are executed without the drawn-out and difficult act of gathering data from disparate tools.

Join NAI on Tuesday, October 21st @ 3:00 Eastern for a online demo of LANDesk ALM. Please register today as space will be limited: http://www.ldms.com/Products/landesk/landesk_asset_manager.htm.

Download and additional product information will be available on the main website later today, Friday 10-17-08.

In the game of risks and rewards, LANDesk Software is your best Asset!

Have a great weekend!

Susie

LANDesk Power Management- Available in v8.8 SP2

2008-10-09T22:03:02Z

LANDesk Power Management functionality allows administrator's to centrally control end-node power consumption by facilitating the creation, financial evaluation, and deployment of power management policies.

The average energy cost of a typical desktop with monitor runs $89.00 per year, with laptops roughly costing $29.00 per year. If the machine is put into standby mode during off hours, energy cost by average drops to roughly $18.00 per year.

By implementing a true Power Management Policy, you will not only reduce your energy usage/costs you won't be impacting your end user productivity.

Join the NAI team on Thursday October 16th @ 1:00 EST to learn more about the Power Management feature in v8.8 now available from LANDesk.

If your interested in attending please email me swatkins @ ldms.com and I will email you the LANDesk Power Management: Practical Policy Considerations white paper.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to speaking with you on the 16th!

Susie

LANDesk Service Desk daylight savings issue

2008-10-08T15:49:29Z

LANDesk has identified an issue with the way in which LANDesk Service Desk calculates daylight savings. The issue affects version 7.2.5 only. The root cause relates to how Service Desk works out your local time zone from reading information stored within your windows registry.

LANDesk has issued a patch that corrects this issue and can be downloaded from:

http://community.landesk.com/downloads/ITBM/Problem3513_v7.2.5.zip

Please, review the readme file stored within the patch zip file for instructions on how to apply in your environment. If you need any further advice or assistance please contact your local LANDesk Technical Support Department.

http://www.landesk.com/Support/ContactUs/Index.aspx

Please note: It is recommended that this patch is applied at the very earliest opportunity.

LANDesk Service Desk Options

2008-09-26T14:32:25Z

Whether your looking to improve on your current Service Desk solution, or maybe your current Service Desk solution is just too expensive, or just looking for a Service Desk solution to integrate with your current LANDesk environment- we can help.

The Network America Service Desk specialist team has the experience to help understand your unique business needs. Our team will meet with you to understand your current system, provide best practice recommendations, and help with product recommendations that integrate with LANDesk. We can help with both larger enterprise projects, as well as smaller mid size projects. Whether your looking for a product to support ITIL version 3 or just a more automated process to eliminate your excel spread sheet/Access database Network America provides the solution, service and support.

For larger enterprise organizations we recommend LANDesk Service Desk:

LANDesk Service Desk is a next generation graphical service application that helps your organization deliver outstanding support services without a large enterprise budget. LANDesk Service Desk can help you:

Resolve support and service issues more quickly
Gain complete control over support levels and manage the lifecycle of IT services.
Cut costs by reducing the overall number of help desk incidents.
Improve efficiency by helping technicians define and follow multiple support procedures.

For smaller organizations looking for automating trouble tickets with integration with your LANDesk software, ATTACC Help Desk Solution. www.attaccsoftware.com ATTACC Software provides:

Windows & Web Consoles
Automatic Routing
Email Submission and Email notification
End user announcements
Self Service Portal
Knowledgebase

If you would like to learn more about either solution, we invite you to join us for a web demonstration of the products on Thursday October 9th at 2:00 EST for LANDesk Service Desk followed by ATTACC starting at 3:30 EST. Just email me that your interested in attending and I send you the registration information.

And as always we are here to help with other information on LANDesk products or solutions!

Wishing my best

Susie

LANDesk Service Pack 2 is now available.

2008-09-11T15:47:36Z

Good Morning!

LANDesk has just released SP2 for v8.8. For more information please log into the LANDesk Community Web-site.

Enjoy!

Susie

LANDesk Anti-Virus ...are you ready for the challenge?

2008-09-09T22:47:13Z

I posed a challenge a while back to provide a 30 - Day trial of LANDesk Anti-Virus software to compare against your current Anti-virus software.

We have seen some great results in the testing and wanted to promote this offer again. If you have evaluated LANDesk Anti-Virus would love to hear your feedback!

Big advantages with LANDesk Anti-virus -it will provide enterprise ready anti-virus and rootkit detection from a single console for multiple points of protection on the desktop. And you will save time and money with reducing the need to manage multiple software packages and consoles. LANDesk Anti-Virus will integrate fully with either LANDesk Patch Manager or Security Suite.

Send me an email today to take your test drive of LANDesk Anti-Virus, we will even have the product set up in your Core Server. You will find that the price point is very competitive to other packages on the market and the overall ROI this product brings is well worth your time to investigate.

Shoot me a quick email and we will set up the trial for a 30 Day free no obligation trial to test for approximately 100 desktops,

(Side note for all of you who emailed regarding SP2 for v8.8, we are still hearing release this week as soon as we get confirmation we will post it on the site and blog.)

My very best regards,

Susie

LANDesk SP2 Update

2008-09-05T22:16:08Z

Just an quick update to previous blogs on the announcement of LANDesk v8.8 Service Pack 2, the release is due out next week. (Week of September 8th)

Typically with a SP release from LANDesk we haven't seen such cool new features added, normally they are scheduled for a rev release. So we are excited about both Power Management and Launch Pad and we really want to hear from you when you see it.

BTW we have some great e- learning demo's on both the New Launch Pad and Power Management. If you interested in more information on either product email email us and I will be happy to send out the e-learning demo as well as some white papers.

Have a safe weekend!

Susie

In Memory of our Dear Friend Miker Ybarra July 4th 1974-August 23rd 2008.