Novell has begun shipping Version 4 of its ZENworks for Desktops
management software, with an important improvement that makes the
product no longer dependent on a Novell NetWare client to manage
workstations.
The latest version can be combined with Novell's ZENworks for
Servers and ZENworks for Handhelds products to give network
administrators a view of a company's entire portfolio of desktops
and mobile devices from a single console. That should make it
simpler to monitor the systems and update applications, analysts
noted.
US users welcomed the news. Allina Hospitals & Clinics in
Minneapolis plans to roll out Version 4 in parallel with a planned
Windows XP deployment to 10,000 desktop PCs, said Jeffrey Smith, a
senior LAN analyst at the company.
Allina has used Version 2 of ZENworks since a Y2K readiness project
in 1999 and has found it "absolutely essential" in distributing up
to 700 applications to desktops since then. "In health care, there
are continual upgrades," Smith said.
Allina will also be considering ZENworks for Handhelds, since
mobile computing is gaining importance, Smith is more interested in
the open nature of Version 4. "Previous versions forced you to use
the Novell inventory database system, and now we can aim this
inventory to Microsoft SQL Server instead," he said.
While Allina has roughly three times as many Microsoft-based
servers as Novell-based ones, Smith said he wants to hold on to
Novell's eDirectory. "EDirectory is so stable, so why reinvent the
wheel? Why not use what we have?" he said.
Matthew Krieger, assistant director of global network architecture
services at The Reader's Digest Association, has been a beta tester
of Version 4, and has Version 3 installed on 4,000 desktops in 19
countries. The open nature of Version 4 will let the publisher
deploy ZENworks without the full NetWare client as Reader's Digest
acquires companies that are pure Microsoft shops, he said.
Krieger said reports that said Version 4 was "clientless" are
inaccurate, because client software that comes with ZENworks still
needs to be installed. Analysts confirmed that is indeed the
case.
ZENworks 3 has been used for massive software deployments at
Reader's Digest, bringing the time required for such processes down
from weeks to one or two days. "The reality is that we couldn't
survive without this product," Krieger said.
Ronni Colville, an analyst at Gartner, said Novell's directory
approach was "more mature" than that of Microsoft, and that doing
away with the NetWare client was "critical" for Novell. "It had
been an impediment for them." With Version 4, "Novell might get
more acceptance in pure Microsoft shops where there has been no
Novell," Colville said.