Altiris 6 brings new life to life cycle management

The sticker price of an IT asset accounts for only about 20 percent of its lifetime cost — something technology managers know painfully well. But they sometimes overlook the fact that ongoing systems support using a hodgepodge of asset management, patch deployment, and server monitoring tools can balloon expenses because of incompatibilities among disparate applications.

Taken individually, the three completely revamped suites of Altiris 6 — Client Management Suite, Asset Management Suite, and Server Management Suite — compare well to stand-alone systems-management products from other vendors. Collectively, however, they should produce quicker ROI for several reasons.

All three suites share a common .Net infrastructure and inventory repository that lets them work together seamlessly. Furthermore, a highly usable central console taps asset information and allows IT staff to remotely manage desktops, mobile devices, and servers.

Altiris 6, the first major upgrade to the company’s three primary suites in two years, offers important infrastructure improvements. The most visible core change is the Altiris Console, which is where I started my testing. The automated server installation takes under an hour, resulting in a single, uncluttered Web interface.

Version 6’s usability is further improved with a number of tutorials and aids, including a Quick Start Manager. Used throughout Altiris 6, this task-based approach saves time and effort. For example, to install the remaining suites I simply went to the Getting Started tab of the console, and the software transferred me to the proper configuration area.

My only caution for customers upgrading is that none of the past versions’ components are compatible with Altiris 6; as such, you will need to plan carefully for updates to all suites you currently run along with agents.

With life cycle elements from all three suites running, I verified that the new adaptive user interface would also streamline day-to-day management tasks.

To begin, the console is localized in six languages and dynamically changes based on a user’s language preference, making Altiris well-suited for international deployments.

I created several administrators, limiting each to systems within a particular Windows domain. The console accurately displayed authorized tasks and resources based on security settings, which simplified navigation and systems management. I also liked the ability to easily customize the console and include frequently accessed pages.

Client Management Suite 6.0 should boost the productivity of IT professionals who commonly manage desktops, notebooks, and handhelds. Given Altiris’ strong system cataloging, it wasn’t surprising to see comprehensive hardware and software inventory reports — plus analysis showing asset costs and expenses related to system and OS upgrades.

Client Management Suite is just as valuable in managing workstation configurations and even remotely upgrading OSes. When I needed to deploy a new system, an Altiris task wizard walked me through capturing the personality, as Altiris calls it, of an existing workstation and deploying it to a fresh PC. Next, I used the software delivery and distribution wizard to upgrade several systems to Windows XP Professional and load Microsoft Office 2003 during the migration. For large rollouts, this feature alone should produce significant cost savings.

I wasn’t able to perform a large test of scalability and speed improvements. However, Altiris customers report upgrading up to 500 workstations per day. And Altiris representative said this version is 40 percent faster than the prior release.

Altiris Software Portal, another new piece of Client Management, is a self-help application from which users (subject to proper security) can download qualified apps, which should free up support staff to perform more important tasks.

Client Management Suite should make the task of troubleshooting faster and more successful. The solution allowed me to roll back a system to a previous configuration state. And the recovery solution is one of the better ones I’ve seen. Put simply, this component uses the Altiris SQL database to store a compressed image of each managed system’s hard disk and record incremental changes on a schedule you specify. 

Asset Management Suite 6.0 helps eliminate unnecessary hardware and software costs. Foremost, this module does a fine job of tracking assets. For example, clear reports show which systems are idle or underused. Similarly, Asset Management tracks software licenses. If a particular package is never used by certain employees, you can reassign those licenses and reduce costs.

Moreover, this suite assists you in meeting ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practices for quality service. Here’s where the value of integration clearly shows. Case in point: In the Asset Management area I opened the inventory record for a particular PC and noticed there were an abnormally high number of help desk incidents, which could point to failing hardware that should be replaced before it triggers even more costs. It’s also possible for help-desk calls to spot trends, such as problems related to a custom application.

Additionally, I liked Helpdesk Smart Tasks. These present agents with resolution tools based on the type of incident they face. Plus, the Web Administrator for Windows allows agents to remotely view the details of a user’s system (such as disk space or running processes) and run apps. As a result, a few clicks is often all that’s required to fix common problems, such as restoring a corrupted .dll file.

Server Management Suite, an earlier version of which InfoWorld reviewed last November, provides deployment, management, and monitoring from the Altiris Console. Although there aren’t major functional changes in Version 6.0, there’s added support for Red Hat Linux and Sun Solaris platforms as well as blade servers from various vendors.

Altiris 6 reduces the complexity of configuring, upgrading, and managing IT assets. It’s one of the few solutions to address the entire life cycle from acquisition to retirement. This integration and reasonable per-client cost add up to a solid product with few peers. Once you’ve got the infrastructure in place it’s easy to add suites as time goes on. I believe most enterprises will benefit from asset management and client management initially and then fold in server provisioning.