Westphal College at Drexel Deploys Appliance To Secure and Maintain Computers

Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University has implemented a systems management appliance to help the school's five-person IT team install and update software to  ensure all of its computers are up-to-date with the latest patches.

Westphal's IT team is responsible for installing software and updates on 800 Windows, Mac and Linux computers that are used by faculty, staff and students in the school's media, design and performing and visual arts programs. To automate those processes, the team deployed a Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance, which is designed to help systems administrators secure and maintain IT assets. Westphal College is also using the appliance to bring all of its computers into security compliance and to conduct quarterly digital asset updates. According to the company, it has saved the IT team 100 hours of overtime to conduct those quarterly updates.

“With the Dell KACE appliance, I can easily see where our equipment is, who is using it and what they’re doing with it,” said Jason Rappaport, director of IT at Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, in a prepared statement. “When I need a quick inventory of computers or an overview of application status, I can get it myself in a few seconds.”

According to the company, it's important to integrate "endpoint security functionality—along with traditional systems management capabilities—to identify vulnerabilities more easily across all servers, desktops, laptops and tablets," and the Dell KACE systems management solutions are designed to help IT teams ensure those devices comply with security protocols. The bring-your-own-device trend has created an additional challenge for IT teams, and according to Bill Odell, vice president of marketing for Endpoint Systems Management at Dell Software, KACE can help higher education institutions implement BYOD safely "because apps running on different devices across multiple operating systems are configured, secured, updated and managed properly."

Princeton University has also implemented a Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance to help its 11-person software support team guard against security vulnerabilities by ensuring that 5,000 faculty and administrator computers are updated with the latest software.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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