How do you take the complexity out of
systems management, to make it easy enough for small and medium
size enterprises (SMEs) to use?
There are lower-end products around such as Ipswitch WhatsUp
Gold, those that scale through the mid-market such as NTRGlobal and
NetIQ, and there are even freeware systems such as Spiceworks.
Microsoft can play pretty well with its Microsoft Management
Console (MMC) system - admittedly more within its own purview,
although it does provide a little bit of support for non-Microsoft
environments with available extensions.
For those wanting a pure software approach, there would seem to
be a reasonably broad set of different offers.
However, many mid-market companies struggle to find, install and
manage suitable systems management software, perceiving the whole
process as being too complex for them, and relying more on
discrete, disparate point systems or just trying to be highly
responsive to issues as and when they arise.
KACE appliance
KACE, a relatively new entrant in to Europe, has decided to take
a different approach through the use of an appliance to provide as
much within the systems management area as it possibly can in one
easy-to-use box.
Available as either a physical appliance built around a
white-label Linux-based system or as a virtual appliance currently
based on VMware, the KACE system is positioned as a plug in and run
system.
Just a couple of settings need putting in place, and then the IT
person responsible can just access everything through a web
browser.
Discovery and inventory, asset management, operating system (OS)
imaging and migration, software distribution, configuration
management, patch management, and reporting and alerts are all
there in the one box.
Alongside this comes integrated security with remediation, as
well as a basic help desk capability, including remote control and
recovery capabilities.
The box manages automated upgrades to itself - KACE pushes
through the upgrades but they are held in check until someone tells
it that it is OK to install.
OS, Basic Input/Output System, application and other upgrades
are all collated and managed by KACE, and a policy engine enables a
reasonable level of granularity to be applied as to how these are
pushed out to devices under management.
A level of intelligence is used to cut down on network traffic -
for example, if there are 20 machines in a branch office, only one
set of updates is pushed across to a machine which then acts as a
"slave" to feed the other machines, so the Wide Area Network gets
hit by only one set of updates.
The database that KACE creates is not a "standard" configuration
management database, and its help desk is not ITIL 3 compliant.
But, at the mid-market level, this will be a problem only if you
are planning on becoming a far larger organisation in a short
period of time. The entry level price includes the first 100
devices under control, and then new packs of licences can be bought
for 50 devices at a time.
An additional add-on gives control over iPhones, something that
Apple has decided organisations do not really need, as the iPhone
is obviously just a consumer device. It is surprising that you see
so many in business meetings, then.
Blackberries are on the roadmap - at the moment, it is felt that
the Blackberry Enterprise Server provides sufficient control
capabilities for most organisations. However, the current lack of
support for Windows Mobile (again, on the roadmap) does seem a
little strange.
KACE is pretty new in Europe, and we all know that times are
tough, which could make generating sales a lot more difficult than
it would have been a year ago.
But, there are opportunities, and with so many European
companies being in the mid-market, it is likely to be here where
sales can be made.
There is competition around for KACE, but no real 500-pound
gorillas.
It is likely the larger suppliers will try to muscle into the
market - but they have tried before, and struggled with offerings
that can be perceived to be trying to do too much for the needs of
the target market.