If variety is the spice of life, then why does it cause such headaches for IT?
Most IT administrators walk into heterogeneous computing environments every day knowing they’ll have to manage computers and servers running several flavors of Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux and, more recently, Chrome OS. Efficiently managing such multi-platform environments is not easy. Tasks like keeping track of all hardware and software, making sure you are in compliance with applicable regulations and licensing agreements, ensuring security, and providing exceptional support become increasingly difficult as your environment becomes more complex.
Systems management with multiple operating systems
In my last post I introduced “Best Practices in Lifecycle Management,” a new position paper from Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. (EMA), and outlined the many IT disciplines that lifecycle management covers, if you’re doing it correctly.
Strong support for heterogeneous computing environments is a must-have in a systems management product, and the paper includes a section specifically identifying the OSes supported by each of the four most popular systems lifecycle management solutions on the market:
- Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management and K2000 Systems Deployment Appliances
- LANDESK Management Suite 9.6 SP1
- Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager (SCCM)
- Symantec Altiris Client Management Suite (CMS) 7.5 SP1
If you spend your workday managing a multi-platform environment, then you’ll find EMA’s checklist a valuable resource in preparing for your next investment in a systems lifecycle management product.
Get a free copy of the tech paper and have a look at the section “Heterogeneous Support” on page 5 of the PDF.
