Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
About
Watch Your Assets continued page 3
10/5/2005
The school maintains state-of-the-art IT equipment, Bussell says, and managing assets closely has helped his staffers do that and still save money. For example, he’s been able to monitor a specific group of computers from the same manufacturer, to gauge how they are holding up. That, he says, “helps us to evaluate our next purchase.” Another module in the suite allows him to monitor Internet use on each computer in the lab, both by tracking Web usage and blocking select URLs. Still another selling point for him, he says, is the ability to distribute files to a specific machine or machines, since instructors often have material on a flash drive or disk that they want distributed. NetSupport Manager and DNA (enterprise systems management software) have that capability.
“Any time you can automate something,” Bussell concludes, “you’re better off. For us, this solution has met expectations and more.”
Management/Security Merge
The LANDesk (www.landesk.com) product line from the vendor of the same name is one example of software that not only blurs the lines between asset management and traditional network management tools, but also the line between those tools and security products. Beefing up security was a big driver for Dartmouth College (NH) administrators when they selected LANDesk, although the school is also using the product for remote network management and basic asset tracking. Enterprise administrator Timothy Chiacchira says he runs three LANDesk modules: Management Suite, Patch Manager, and Security Suite. With these modules in place, he says, “I know every share, every folder; who has a guest account; even if there’s a remote share on a drive, which could indicate a hacker.” But Chiacchira says he uses LANDesk primarily for distributing new versions of operating systems and other software, and for standardizing computer hardware through monitoring. All 1,200-plus administrative computers at Dartmouth are monitored by the system, including central servers; and though faculty and student systems are not currently covered by the asset management capability, installing LANDesk on student computers is in the works, says Chiacchira, chiefly to help track who’s running what. With LANDesk, he says, “We can standardize the OS build, along with what software we support, and make sure every system conforms.” He links up LANDesk to a Microsoft SQL Server backend for data storage; LANDesk can also be used with an Oracle database. The product also includes an asset management module that can be used for tracking IT assets in detail, including depreciation, users, contracts, and maintenance agreements.
Before LANDesk (and before Chiacchira), Dartmouth used various less formal methods to track installed software. IT administrators knew their machines and which client was linked to which machine, Chiacchira says, but the school didn’t necessarily know exactly what software was on what machine, nor could IT administrators block installation of certain products, as they do now on the LANDesk-managed machines. Chiacchira and his staff can also detect machine changes, such as if a memory module has been removed, a machine is down, or if someone has removed or added software. With LANDesk, he says, he no longer needs to write and execute login scripts to monitor the network. Instead, the product auto-monitors not just Windows, but Linux devices, printers, and just about anything that LANDesk can install a monitoring agent on, even Mac OS X.
