Hands off my assets: 6 asset management packages tested

Altiris Asset Management Suite

 Asset management
T&B Editor's choiceAsset Management Suite is part of a complete IT lifecycle management solution. Altiris offers client and mobile management, asset management, and server management. For this review we only looked at the asset management component.

Installing the asset management suite can be a time-consuming and complicated task. In most cases, you would get the vendor to install this product for you. Before you can install any applications you have to install all the relevant prerequisites like IIS and MCDE (SQL Server). If these are not installed, the installer will install them. You then have to install the Notification Server, which is the primary infrastructure for the Altiris solutions and provides a common Web console, Web reports, notification policies, and helpdesk. The package server is then installed. It distributes the Notification Server packages to different servers on the network where client PCs can then download these packages. The deployment is the last key component. It provides real time LAN deployment for all assets and it offers numerous methods of deployment, from logon scripts and e-mail to Web pages and a fully schedulable client. Altiris also provides native integration for Microsoft SMS and some companies use Altiris to extend their SMS infrastructure to more fully manage their enterprise.

Some of its key features are:

  • Inventory of desktops, servers, and handhelds
  • Tracking software application usage
  • Tracking fixed assets
  • Managing corporate contracts
  • TCO management
  • Automatic alerts of critical usage information
  • Web reporting and data export

The Asset Management Suite features Web-based reporting. From any browser you will able to publish data into an executive style report. There are many built-in reports you can choose from, and you can also customise your reports by drilling down multiple levels of detail for each report. One handy report is where you can display a count of software installations compared to the actual usage.

The Asset Management Suite did a great job at discovering the assets on our network. It offered an extensive hardware and software inventory. However, it does more than this by offering service request and service level agreement management as well as contract management. It does all this by allowing you to build a database that tracks payments and service records for assets that are under contract. Then you can setup policies that will notify staff of leases that are running out or violating service level thresholds.

Product Altiris Asset Management Suite
Price $22 per node for 100 nodes
Vendor Altiris
Phone 02 8925 4500
Web www.altiris.com
 
Interoperability
Comprehensive hardware and software support.
Futureproofing ½
You can easily purchase additional modules as your needs expand.
ROI ½
Good price, but the extra modules can get expensive.
Service ½
Range of standby & priority support offerings available.
Rating ½

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Talkback 5 comments

    Geez you guys, do you think yo ...Anonymous -- 15/04/04

    Geez you guys, do you think you could have included appropriate candidates for this topic? Where is Marimba, Landesk, Paradigm, Tivoli?
    The fact that these were not included make this inaccurate!

    Guess Mike in previous comment ...Anonymous -- 18/08/04

    Guess Mike in previous comment does not see the difference in IT asset management and device management. Bigger issue in the items listed is these are all legacy software solutions. Difficult to integrate, upgrade headaches and very intrusive to your environment. Look at products that will grow and support you in the future and link easily to enterprise systems. Look at incontroltechnology.com

    other options Stuart McDonell -- 10/11/05

    Some others to think about include Centennial and Opsware. This doesn't end the list by any means. BMC-Marimba and Tivoli do ITAM also. The Opsware solution ATE (originating in Tangram) was the leader for desktop inventory. It supports all major platforms and allows Lifecycle management. Ask vendors to do a proof of concept, some won't. A proven track record of integrating to similar systems to your own is also important. Regards.

    Sofware Asset Management Review Petar -- 15/03/07

    We have 2 software packages BAM (Biomedical Asset Management) and NAMES (naval asset management ).
    We would like to be reviewed. How can we have you review our software?

    New Player 250 nodes per second Trevor Smith -- 16/04/09

    We are just releasing a competing product that is agentless ie requires no deployment. In appearance is similar to Altiris, does what most of the others do and some things that none do and analyses nodes at the rate of 250 per second and returns data at 2000-3000 nodes per minute. Installation takes 5 minutes and 1 minute later you have the results from 2000-3000 nodes and its cheaper than the rest. 1.5% hit on 10 base network, fragmented data so hi security. Functions from a wireless laptop and over VPNs. You can scan global networks from a single wireless acces point and send the data in real time to a server at another location. Picks up all remote users and anything that connects to the network even internet enabled mobile phones. an extreme example : provided that you have a wireless connection and the relevant access rights you can sit in a restaurant in the UK, scan a distributed enterprise across America and stream the data to a server in Rusia in real time; while eating your lunch and by dessert you will have scanned approximately 100,000 - 150,000 nodes .

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