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However, if you can get past the complexity, price, and management challenges, a desktop management suite can give you a centralized set of tools that streamline administrative tasks and reduce the total cost of ownership of desktop systems.
In Network World (US)'s recent shakedown of available desktop management systems, we found a class of mature products that embrace new and old industry specifications, such as Desktop Management Interface (DMI) and Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM). All the products we scrutinized offered hardware and software inventory; desktop configuration and remote control; and software distribution and licence metering to a variety of clients. One product dabbled in antivirus protection as well.
Since our last look at these products in 1998, vendors have packed more useful features into their offerings, but a truly comprehensive product is not available yet. Users still have to make some trade-offs and possibly use more than one product to meet all their desktop management needs. And they must plan to devote a significant chunk of their time to integrating their choices into their computing environment.
The lineup
The seven suites we looked at can handle your basic desktop management chores, but Intel Corp.'s LANDesk Management Suite 6.3 is once again our Blue Ribbon Award winner. It offers excellent client support, provides antivirus tools and is well-rounded in most of the other categories. The one complaint we have about LANDesk is that it could use some better desktop configuration tools.
Attachmate Corp.'s NetWizard Plus 4.11 and Veritas Software Corp.'s Desktop Management Suite (DMS) 3.5 were right behind LANDesk in our roundup. They are solid options as well, especially if a user's primary focus is software distribution, a category in which they both excelled in our test. In the software distribution arena, we found DMS to be slightly peppier in performance than NetWizard Plus.
Tivoli Systems Inc.'s IT Director 2.1 is an adequate, albeit pricey option. The lack of native licence metering in the product could be a concern for some shops not willing to invest in a third-party add-on. Novell Inc. shops would do well to take a look at ZENworks 2.0, which offers strong inventory and distribution options, but also suffers from a high price tag.
Finally, Microsoft Corp.'s Systems Management Server (SMS)...