As every IT professional knows, Microsoft has always struggled with OS security. The vulnerabilities inherent in XP, Vista and Windows 7 have led to security breaches – and embarrassing headlines – in record numbers. Keeping up with the never ending schedule of Microsoft security updates is a full time job for administrators and even companies that keep up to date with the latest updates still have to worry about zero day vulnerabilities that can be exploited before an update to address them is released.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has used the release of Windows 10 Enterprise as an opportunity to repair its reputation in this area. The new OS has two new security features designed to help reduce security breaches in organizations:

1. Device Guard
   Device Guard enables enterprises to lock down systems to prevent many forms of malware from executing. It does this by only allowing applications that are trusted by your enterprise to execute.  Device Guard isn’t a replacement for traditional antivirus and malware protection as it does not protect against exploits such as java scripts or documents with embedded macros, but it provides another layer to your defense in depth strategy.
2. Credential Guard
   Credential Guard is a new feature in Windows 10 Enterprise that isolates secrets by creating a virtual container to keep them separate from the full operating system.  In previous versions of Windows, without Credential Guard, user’s hashed credentials were stored in the Local Security Authority (LSA).  Malware could access these and utilize them to access data as well as other systems.  Credential Guard significantly reduces these types of attacks by isolating secrets in a virtual container and limiting their access.

While these new features sound great, there’s a catch: implementing them in the enterprise is not as easy as simply checking a box. In fact, they have specific hardware requirements and configurations which, although they are available on many modern enterprise laptops and workstations, may not have been previously enabled or utilized to date. These include:

• Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)
• Secure Boot
• Virtualization Extensions
• Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

Ensuring these settings are in place creates a huge manual workload for administrators – and a considerable overhead for the business. The conversion to UEFI, for example, requires a complete reformatting of the hard drive – something that may well prevent many organizations from taking advantage of Windows 10’s new security features for quite some time. So how can these issues be overcome? The answer lies in abandoning the manual techniques that characterized migration to Windows 7 and XP and embracing the automated Zero Touch approach. For example, 1E’s Nomad and PXE Everywhere eliminate the need to have a server at every location or to deploy an army of technicians with USB drives. 1E Nomad utilizes peers at remote sites to share data removing the need for local servers, while PXE Everywhere uses peers to facilitate the PXE booting needed to reformat hard drives without a technician present. By eliminating manual configuration in this way, organizations can gain fast access to Windows 10’s security capabilities and fortify themselves against risk.

Many enterprises install multiple SMS providers in their Configuration Manager environment. This gives them flexibility and choice to scale on demand and also make the system completely fail-safe. 1E is happy to announce that Shopping 5.2 will now start supporting multiple providers, in line with 1E’s intention to embrace the new and important technical changes in Configuration Manager.

Before we go into the details, let’s talk about few basics:

What is an SMS provider?

SMS Provider is a WMI provider that allows both read and write access to the Configuration Manager site database. The SMS Provider is used by the Configuration Manager console, Resource Explorer, tools, and custom scripts used by Administrators to access site information stored in the site database. SMS Provider also helps ensure that Configuration Manager object security is enforced by only returning site information that the user account running the Configuration Manager console is authorized to view.

After the installation setup is complete, the current installed location of the SMS Provider is displayed on the site properties general tab. So essentially SMS provider is a WMI wrapper on SMS related classes which can be used to connect to configuration manager site database.

Need for multiple providers

Having only one SMS provider for the connection increases the risk of a single point of failure. Obviously, having more than one provider mitigates this risk. One can choose to install SMS providers at below locations:

Now, lets deep-dive into the Shopping 5.2 updates that support this feature.

The SMS Provider Namespaces

A WMI schema exists to describe the structure of the SMS Provider. Schema namespaces describe the location of Configuration Manager Data within the SMS Provider schema. The following table contains the common namespaces used by the SMS Provider. Details can be found here

More details about planning for the SMS providers can be found at below location
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712282.aspx#BKMK_PlanSMSProv
And here you can find a short explanation of installing a SMS Provider:
http://henkhoogendoorn.blogspot.ch/2012/11/how-to-install-multiple-sms-provider-in.html

Provider Locations Support in Shopping

There were multiple changes made at the code level across several Shopping components. At installer level, changes have been made to handle the multiple stream of strings gracefully to pick one of the lot during the install. At code level, each time the service (Central and Receiver) is started, it would trigger the below query :
select SiteCode, NamespacePath from SMS_ProviderLocation where ProviderForLocalSite = 1
The above query will return all providers associated for a given site.
A typical environment having multiple SMS providers can be queried by using WQL through any tools (WMI Explorer or WBEMTest).

Shopping components (viz. Receiver Service, Central Service, Shopping Web, and Admin Console) will fire the above query at the time of start or when the process is loaded into the memory. Then, it would iterate through each result/provider to check if that provider is responding. Response check is done via using small WQL which is targeted for the specific provider:
SELECT Version FROM SMS_Site WHERE SiteCode = ‘CAS01’

If there is any result back from the above query before time-out, then it would assume that provider is in good health and hence can be used for making all future calls. If there is a time-out or any other error then the system will skip this provider and try to connect to the next one in the collection.

So, let’s assume a scenario where there are 5 providers which are set-up in a SCCM system and at the time of receiver start, 4 of them are down and only one is up and running. Even in the worst case scenario, receiver would try to connect to four providers (which are down) and eventually it will automatically reach out to the correct one.

Apart from our ‘big ticket’ roadmap execution, 1E is determined to keep adapting to tech changes on a continuous basis. In this case, that happens to be supporting multiple providers in Configuration Manager with Shopping 5.2.

The holiday season is upon us and some of us are thinking of shopping!   How much will it all cost? Will your friends and family approve? How do you keep track of what you have bought, and can you review and return items?

1E Shopping presents a Portal (Enterprise App Store) full of delights which come down the chimney on time without you needing to leave the comfort of your seat! You can browse or search for software or other items, order and have them delivered instantly just like any other app store, and with confirmation emails. You can rent items, and you can keep track of each order and its approval and delivery status.   I will talk about emails and the request and approval workflow in my next article.   Here I want to show you some of the new social features introduced in version 5.2 of the Enterprise App Store and how to keep track of orders.

Searching

The search feature in Shopping 5.2 is now the best and quickest ever, using a Lucene indexing mechanism. If you are not sure of the item you want, then you can type all or part of the name or description and quickly see results, which you can display as tiles or a list.

You can also browse categories, which the Shopping administrator will have named appropriately.

Listings will not show any application which is pending approval or installation, or you have previously installed it and the Shopping administrator has not enabled it for reshopping.

Ratings and Reviews

Shopping lets you see and add ratings and reviews for applications. This enables Shoppers to share their experience of particular applications and feedback information to other Shoppers.

   
The pictures above show tile and listing views of the same application.

Clicking on a tile, or clicking on the More Info link, shows the Details page for the application.

Here you can see the average rating, the number of reviews and how you have rated the application. If no reviews currently exist you can be the first to leave a review.

Tracking Orders

By clicking on the My Software link on the home page, you can view

• My installed software, with usage shown as used, partially used or unused, if Shopping is integrated with AppClarity
• All orders including non-ConfigMgr applications, where you can view status and uninstall ConfigMgr applications
• Approved orders waiting installation
• Rejected orders, where you can review an approver’s reason for rejecting a request
• Pending orders waiting approval, where you can review who the next approver is, and have the option to cancel orders

Featured, Trending and Latest Applications

The Portal home page includes three views, allowing you to view featured, trending and the most recently added applications.

Featured applications are configurable by Shopping administrators. Trending and latest views are new to Shopping 5.2.

Administrator Reports

Users with permission to view Shopping reports can keep track of orders. There are different categories of reports for licensing, pending orders, completed orders, and applications.

Reports can be exported into PDF format, or to Excel for further manipulation.

You can find an live interactive demo our Enterprise App Store at http://www.1e.com/shopping-enterprise-app-store.

Congratulations to 1E client The Oscar Lambret Center – a regional comprehensive cancer center in Northern France – for winning the 2015 UNICANCER Sustainable Development Innovation award. Not only are we really excited for the Center, we’re also happy to know that 1E NightWatchman was a core part of the initiative that led to their success.

Created in 1955, the Oscar Lambret Center is a non-profit private healthcare organization and member of France’s UNICANCER group, focusing on cancer treatment, research and teaching. In 2012, after adopting a Sustainable Development Charter, the Center realised that a large portion of its PC estate was being unnecessarily left powered on overnight during week-days and over weekends. To eliminate this waste, the Center’s IT department initiated a Green IT Project for IT to centrally power down PCs not in use outside of business hours. Using the 1E NightWatchman Management Console from 1E, Oscar Lambret has implemented 11 distinct 1E NightWatchman power management policies to automatically shut down desktops of different services at the end of their business day, based on the specific end-users needs and requirements, and automatically power machines on in the morning. As a result, PC power consumption has been cut, reducing the Center’s CO2 emissions by 11 tonnes per year and saving €6.7 in energy costs per computer actively power managed per year. The security, health and lifespan of PCs have also been improved thanks to regular successful updates and patching.

Earlier this year, the project’s success was recognised with a Sustainable Development Innovation award from UNICANCER. Didier Cauchois, Head of IT Management Support, Centre Oscar Lambret says: “The UNICANCER Development Awards specifically recognize initiatives developed by cancer centers for reducing the impacts of their activities on the environment. Our Green IT Project was selected for its innovative nature, reproducibility in other Comprehensive Cancer centers and benefits for the patients and the organization of the Center.”

We’re really impressed by this great example of how using 1E products benefits our customers – and helps them gain recognition within their industries.

This article will help you understand the basic approval methods used by Shopping (1E’s Enterprise App Store) and what happens along the way. It is not just for techies who want to know what 1E Shopping does under the covers. I hope you approve!

One of Shopping’s strengths is its request and approval workflow engine. Shopping’s architecture allows for independent development of the Portal, which has seen significant changes since Shopping was first released, as well as language localization, improved integration with ConfigMgr, support for OS deployment, integration with AppClarity and many administration features.

Furthermore, this engine is the framework for integration with 3^rd party systems like ServiceNow, Remedy and HP Service Manager.

The 3 diagrams below show the request and approval workflow for installation and uninstallation of Shopping applications, which also support rental and AD integration features. The workflow starts with a Shopper requesting an application and finishes with either a cancellation, approval rejection or installation. Uninstallation follows the same workflow but does not require approvals.

The numbered red boxes indicate where workflow scripts can be triggered, which allow for integration with 3^rd party systems, and can modify data in preparation for later steps. Shopping Admin Console settings specify which combination of workflow scripts are used, although script logic can override. Out-of-the box scripts are templates and written in vbscript. The parameters that are passed to each workflow script are described in our public documentation at http://help.1e.com.

The text in blue represent the names of email template files. Email templates use XSLT and can be customized to present more or less information, with simple HTML for email headers and footers. XSLT uses logic to insert content into emails depending on email parameters, therefore the same template can be used for installation and uninstallation, for example. The parameters that are passed to each email template are described in our public documentation at http://help.1e.com. For workflow steps that include emails and scripts, emails are sent before the script is run.

Different lists of Approvers can be defined for each application in Shopping. Each application can have either a “chain” of Approvers so that each Approver in a chain must approve in turn; or a list of “any” Approvers so that anyone in the list of Approvers can approve the request. Any application that requires approval shows up in the Portal with a special icon.

An Approver can be an individual user, or an email-enabled AD group of users, or the Shopper’s line manager if that is defined in each Shopper’s AD account.   A deputy Approver (or group) can also be defined for each Approver (or group).

All Approvers must have email enabled AD accounts, so that they can receive requests for approval. Emails are actually sent by Shopping Central’s service account, but appear as if they are sent by the Shopper, Approver or Administrator.

There are alternative ways to configure approvals for categories/branches of computers but more of that another day.

If you’d like to learn more, you can:

Watch a live interactive demo 1E’s Enterprise App Store – Shopping

Check out this video to understand more of how Shopping automates the full software lifecycle within the enterprise.

Read this whitepaper explaining the integration with ServiceNow 

Browse our Shopping FAQs

Last weekend saw participants at the COP21 climate change summit in Paris reach a landmark decision as 195 countries committed to slashing their carbon emissions and combat rises in temperature in an effort to clamp down on global warming.

The agreement is a huge win, not just because two of the world’s biggest energy consumers – the U.S. and China – have agreed to the measures, but also because the agreement has been passed into law. The governments involved have set publicly recorded targets for the next 20 years and will be legally bound to monitor and report their progress and to share their results publicly every five years. The more vulnerable countries will be given the benefit of $100 billion in funding to help them meet their targets.

The hope is that this agreement will also have an impact on the financial sector, prompting investors to turn their attention away from traditional fossil fuels to begin pumping more money into renewable fuels.

These aims look like a huge win for environmental campaigners everywhere. It’s hard not to be sceptical about just how they will be achieved – and critics are already questioning whether they are enough. What’s clear is that achieving these goals won’t just be down to the governments themselves. Businesses also have a huge role to play – not least because they are among the biggest consumers of energy. Big names such as Google are already investing heavily in clean energy, but as anyone who’s ever glanced at their office energy bill knows, most companies aren’t quite there yet. In many workplaces, just leaving the office empty overnight consumes a vast amount of energy over the course of the year, thanks to lights and machines being left on after hours. While you can install lighting systems that detect when everyone has left the building to automatically switch them off, powering down PCs is a trickier business. Putting up posters and stickers reminding users to switch off will prick the conscience of some, but the majority of users may ignore them. Enforced shutdown policies can also put you at risk of losing user data that has been left unsaved. So what’s the solution?

Reduce your carbon footprint with 1E NightWatchman

At 1E, we’ve been passionate about helping businesses reduce the impact their IT resources have on the environment for almost two decades. Our award-winning power saving product, 1E NightWatchman, is proven to help customers drastically reduce their carbon emissions. For example, engineering firm Arup, was able to reduce its carbon emissions by 442 tonnes per year by using 1E NightWatchman to ensure that 100% of its machines were switched off at night and over weekends. Similarly, insurance firm Aviva found that 60% of its computers were left on at night, but was able to use 1E NightWatchman to power them down automatically and reduce its carbon emissions by 2802 metric tonnes annually.

One of the secrets to 1E NightWatchman’s success is the fact that it allows companies to overcome many of the common difficulties associated with energy consumption and IT:

• Fully automated – 1E NightWatchman doesn’t rely on user participation – it allows you to automatically power down PCs after hours – and power them back up again the next morning
• Based on technology you already use – 1E NightWatchman allows you to get the most out of your existing technology investment, by integrating with and enhancing the capabilities of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
• No data loss – 1E NightWatchman saves the data in open products or programs before power down, eliminating the risk of data loss

This unique approach has helped 1E win many Green IT and sustainability awards – and it’s turned our clients into award-winners too.

1E has released the latest version of Enterprise App Store – Shopping 5.2 – and we’re really excited to share the new features and enhancements we’ve added. Most of them are aimed at helping improve user experience and ensure it integrates seamlessly with the rest of your IT landscape – including IT support. We’ve made the new version of the Enterprise App Store smarter and more secure, as well as making sure it is entirely based on the latest browser-friendly technology. Everything you need to know about Shopping 5.2 is on our product pages, but here are some highlights to whet your appetite.

Mobile App Support – Deep Links

Shopping now supports the mobile app type and enables users to “shop” for mobile apps on commercial app stores.

Enhanced Social Features

We have added a selection of social features to help make app selection more intuitive. The Shopping interface now displays both Popular Apps and Latest Apps and includes functionality that allows users to rate and “like” apps as they would in any other app store.

• Win 10 Support – As you’d expect, Shopping 5.2 is fully compatible with Windows 10, for a fuller user experience.
• OS Filtering – Since many customers will be planning a migration in 2016, we’ve expanded our OS filtering functionality so that Shopping 5.2 now allows you to filter Configuration Manager apps based on OS compatibility.
• FIPS Compliance – For US-based customers, we can now confirm that Shopping 5.2 is fully FIPS compliant. This is particularly beneficial for Federal customers who need to adhere to a minimum encryption standard.
• Support for Multiple CM providers – There is no need to worry about the security risk that comes with a single point of failure as Shopping now offers support for multiple CM providers.
• Additional ITSM APIs  – Integration of Shopping with ITSM is a popular choice with our customers – which is why we’ve added 7 new APIs to further enhance ITSM integration scenarios such as ServiceNow.
• New Shopping Agent – The new agent is based on the latest technology – ensuring that Shopping continues to work with Google Chrome and other browsers as plug-in support is deprecated. It’s also compatible with our earlier versions – Shopping 5.0 and 5.1

If you’re new to our Enterprise App Store and want to learn more about how you can benefit from these features, contact one of our experts. For existing customers, you can see the full list of new features, fixes and updates for Shopping 5.2 on our support portal.

Earlier this week, I took a look back at my SAM blogs from 2015. Given my professional past, and a strong interest in advocating for and developing ISO SAM standards and a better approach to audits, I’m always interested to learn which SAM topics are of most interest to our valued readers.  Apart from people, process, and technology – the fundamental pillars of any successful SAM program, other popular subject areas include audits (we know many of you have been audited multiple times) and the cybersecurity issues that arise from unlicensed or unused software.

The SAM articles you loved in 2015

1. Why It Asset Management SAM Is Fundamental To Enterprise It. This article stood out after reading a report stating that 72% of IT budgets are doing nothing more than keeping the lights on.  I spoke to the need for transformation and offered five reasons why IT Asset Management is crucial for any organization.
2. Adobe v. Forever 21: An Update And Three Thoughts For SAM Managers. A reader asked about the status of the Adobe v. Forever 21 lawsuit via our Ask SAM portal.  I researched that case and in doing so, offered three thoughts on what this case, and audits, mean to any SAM manager.
3. Do I Need A SAM Program If I Have SCCM? As I attend events and speak to end-user organizations, I constantly got this question in 2015.  Let’s put this one to bed.  Yes, both SCCM and SAM are needed.  SCCM provides inventory and usage data but does not manage licenses, or provide automated methods to optimize an organization’s software portfolio. 1E AppClarity, on the other hand, uses inventory and usage information from SCCM to manage software compliance, reclaim and license demand reports that create more value for your organization.
4. Software Asset Management Sam Doesn’t Have To Be Hard – Here’s Why.  This one particularly hit home for me – especially in light of my work on the ISO SAM working group.  We are all busy – with new challenges hitting us from all sides every day.  End-User organizations can spend millions of dollars each year on IT – but do a poor job managing those assets.  In this article, I offered three areas showing how SAM can deliver value back to the organization.
5. Top 5 Software Audit Tips From SAM Expert Peter Beruk.  Many of you know that I used to work with and for software vendors – I also sent out the first ever audit letter.  In this article, I outlined five areas that a SAM Manager must consider when receiving their next audit letter.
6. Cyber Security And Unused Software Making The Connection.  I was inspired to write this after seeing an article in the Wall Street Journal titled Cyber Security in the Wake of Sony, and tying that content into 1E’s Benchmarking Study showing that on average, 37% of all installed software is unused or rarely used software.  As unused, it does not get patch updates – leading to cyber security concerns.

Participating fully in the SAM community

One of the factors I feel contributes to the popularity of these posts is that they are frequently inspired by real-life events – an interesting customer discussion, an industry event, or reading an interesting article that tickled my creative side.

In 2016,  I’m going to be writing more about SAM processes including the ISO 19770 Standard (I am the Secretary of that working group and have been involved since 2008), audits, and tips as well as how 1E AppClarity can dramatically reduce risk and costs for your organization.  I’d like to encourage our readers to get in touch using the contact points below to suggest SAM articles or content that is of interest to you.

A key motivation behind my posts is the feeling that as a member of the SAM community, it is important to share information in a way that benefits others. I hope you will see the wider 1E team and me helping you reach your goals – and remember, if you have a confidential question, you use our Ask SAM form, or contact me privately.

Federal Information Technology Reform Act (FITARA)

For 18 years, 1E has been enabling our customers to automate the full software lifecycle across their business.  Through Software Lifecycle Automation employees become more productive, the organization becomes more agile, and their IT departments more reactive to change – able to automate more processes, and save money.

It is this mission that excites me to be at 1E and see the largest purchaser of software in the world, the US Government, moving forward on implementing a strategic approach on how it buys and manages software.

Why is this important?  Each year, the U.S. Government spends more than $9 billion on software through more than 50,000 transactions.  The U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) has previously issued a report saying that agencies buy and manage software in a decentralized matter, struggle with inventory and entitlement tracking and often purchase unneeded capabilities.  Not surprisingly, this is a similar problem with all organizations – but compounded by the scope and size of the U.S. Government and its software spend.

So, what is happening?

1. The Office of the Federal Chief Acquisition Officer and the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer is seeking comment on the proposed guidance to improve the acquisition and management of enterprise software and encourages the public to participate.
2. Steps are already being taken to improve how the government buys and manages software including:
   1. Federal Information Technology Reform Act (FITARA), a bill to eliminate duplication and waste in information technology acquisition and management.
   2. OMB is releasing guidance to agencies on FITARA implementation that ultimately will result in a more efficient, effective and secure government.
3. Creating strategies which parallel the software lifecycle and ISO SAM processes, including:
   1. Appointing a software manager, who reports to the agency CIO (executive sponsor in end-user speak).
   2. Build and maintain a comprehensive inventory of software license spend, including knowing license count and usage (1E has issued a report stating that, on average, 37% of all software is unused (government agencies coming in slightly below at 28%)).
   3. Create a centralized acquisition strategy to aggregate agency funding and requirements.

Clearly, the U.S. Government has a long road ahead to successful implementation of software asset management.  The guidance being offered by GAO also includes recommendations for short and long-term goals.  Some of these goals are simple, i.e. provide OMB the name and contact number of the agency’s software manager in 30 days.  Others require more work (and time), for example, within one year, providing an annual report of software license inventory.  The GAO and its agency partners are to be commended for working together which will result in a more efficient, and secure government.

1E looks forward to working with additional US Government Federal agencies on implementing strategic software asset management processes.  1E is delighted to be already engaged with and agencies large and small via our software asset management AppClarity solution, and other services. The US is showing significant leadership in this area, and government organizations worldwide would do well to consider implementing a Strategic Enterprise Software Asset Management program to reduce effectively cost and improve the impact of each dollar spent.

1E’s Rosario Perri sat down with Richard Häggström, an IT operations specialist at Scandic Hotels based in Sweden, to discuss their successful implementation of Nomad, 1E’s peer-to-peer content delivery solution, in their hotels across the Nordics. Before teaming up with 1E, Scandic was facing a full SCCM server replacement in their hotel sites. They were looking for an option that could reduce hardware and infrastructure, that was cost efficient, eco-conscious, and innovative. Scandic worked with 1E and their trusted Nordic partner to implement a network friendly solution that met all of their requirements and exceeded their expectations.

Rosario Perri: What were the problems you were experiencing before working with 1E, and had you previously tried anything else to solve these problems?

Richard Häggström: Prior to using Nomad, we saw Distribution Points begin to fail. Our previous implementation of SCCM was not fast enough to match the speed with which we would open and close hotel locations. A 1-to-1 replacement of servers was not an option, and the hotel chain was growing so more purchasing servers would have been necessary if we wanted to continue using SCCM.

How many DPs were you using before implementing server reduction with 1E?

Rosario Perri and Richard Häggström collaborate on Nomad project

We had approximately 220 DPs. Today we have 3: the management point, one at the configuration center, and one at the headquarters. Before Nomad, we spent approximately 50% of our time administering, troubleshooting, and maintaining DPs. With fewer DPs to manage, our IT team can dedicate time and attention to new projects.

Wow! Were you skeptical when 1E told you what Nomad could accomplish in terms of speed and server reduction?

When the solution was presented we all thought, ‘is this too good to be true?’ We were skeptical that we could achieve these results at the price that was proposed.

The technology proved us wrong. The product is solid, worth the cost investment because it eliminates unnecessary hardware and the strain associated with purchasing, licensing, and maintaining DPs.

What else factored into your decision to move forward with 1E?

Since we have a limited bandwidth on our scattered WAN across all of the Nordics we needed to make sure that the solution did not prevent business applications across the WAN from functioning. With Nomad that is not a problem.

We also appreciate that there was no need to handle another GUI in the SCCM console. Nomad integrates with the familiar Microsoft GUI.

Finally, we trusted our local partners. They shared our preference for Nomad over the competition. We trusted their advice and felt safe with the product.

Why are the largest enterprises worldwide choosing Nomad? Read about the content distribution, security, and automation benefits Nomad provides or talk to a 1E expert about how Nomad is the solution to your content distribution challenges.

Thanks to everyone who joined us during last week’s webinar Leveraging the Power of Software Asset Management! This is the first in a 4-part web series on Strategic SAM. Last week, we discussed:

• How businesses can achieve quantifiable cost reductions at times of software renewal
• Approaches to reduce the interruption, time, cost and risk of a software vendor audit
• Real-world examples of Strategic SAM yielding huge benefits to Enterprise-level customers

We received so many great questions in the Q&A at the end of the session that we decided to recap them here on the blog. Got a question that isn’t covered here? Why not Ask SAM?

Q: Do you need metering or usage configured for the 1E Intelligence tool to work correctly?

A: 1E’s free intelligence tool, “Software Lifecycle Intelligence,” and 1E’s commercial SAM product, AppClarity, require SCCM metering to be enabled (metering is enabled by default). However, you do not need to configure any specific metering rules in SCCM for Intelligence (or AppClarity) to provide usage assessments.

Q: How many vendors have agreed to use the ISO 19770-3 standard?

A: The -3 standard was developed within ISO with involvement from multiple vendors. Companies like Microsoft, IBM, Symantec, and others were closely involved in the design, and more importantly, the testing of the standard – to ensure that it could support the different metrics required for each of the vendor products. IBM, for example have 80 distinct metrics in currently shipping products, and thousands of metrics in older products over the last five years.

The standard was ratified earlier this year (26^th February 2016) in a vote in which 23 countries participated. It will be published later this year. While not yet committed, it is expected that the vendors involved in the design and testing will sign up to support the standard very quickly once published this summer.

Q: What SAM tools support the -3 standard?

A: 1E are the first and, right now, the only vendor with a SAM tool aligned to the standard. We would recommend enterprises to really push their SAM vendors on this, in order to give yourselves options around portability. We would obviously love you all to buy 1E SAM solutions and, like all vendors, would love for our solutions to be ‘sticky’, meaning that you continue to pay support and maintenance for many years. We want you to use our software for years because of its quality, not because you are locked into a proprietary data schema and unable to port data elsewhere. As other tools begin to support the standard, you will be able to port and migrate date easily back and forth between different tools. This is great for customers, but scary to a lot of vendors. 1E are very much leading the charge here with our full support for -3.

Q: If a vendor decided not to support the -3 standard, does that give me a negotiation position during an audit or renewal event?

A: It absolutely does. In the absence of -3 (or indeed -2) support, you should seek a discount based on your inability to properly identify how software is deployed due to the absence of standards support. It is much harder for you to manage your entitlements and your different metric calculations when a -3 tag is not present, and you are also exposed to a higher level of risk in and audit scenario. So we would urge you to request such support from all your vendors and request discounts if they don’t support it, on the basis of it costing you more to manage the software and you being at more risk during audit if the vendor doesn’t support ISO 19770-3.

A good example of the power of demand is the US Federal Government, where the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) is mandating that all government tenders must include a requirement for -2 from next year. As a result, all of the vendors have sat up and taken notice – this is how the market itself, how you the customer can drive standards adoption in the future.

Q: Vendors seem to be constantly changing the underlying metrics for software licensing. Will this continue, and what can I do about it?

A: We are constantly hearing of your frustrations around this – as an example, at a recent 1E SAM Social event in San Francisco, we had a long discussion over a particular vendor’s move from perpetual to subscription based pricing without any consultation with their enterprise customers. The bad news is that no one, not ISO, not NIST, no customer no matter how large or small, can dictate to software companies how they create and modify license metrics. So this frustration is likely to continue in the future. The good news is that standards such as -3 will allow you to better understand changes as they happen, and to automatically manage the implications of such changes without the need for time-consuming manual intervention.

Q: What is the single most important feature for SAM tool?

A: That’s a difficult question. As discussed on today’s webinar, proving the value of SAM should be the key driver for any SAM manager within an enterprise – being able to quantify the impact that your different workflows and processes are having on the organization. And while the overall picture is important, it is vital that you can prove this value in the context of the many different scenarios you will face – for example, broken down by different business unit, by different software vendor, for a specific contract or for different timelines. In each case you must ensure that you quantify the value you have delivered. And your SAM tool must enable that.

We would love to hear further from you all on this – please reach out and let us know what you would consider to be the most important features for a SAM tool!

Want to learn more about Strategic Software Asset Management? Register for part 2 in our series, Auditors at the Door- Open Up or Run and Hide?

I’ve written and have been talking a fair bit recently on the need to consider a wipe-and-load approach to your Windows 10 migration. If you want to learn a bit more about why this is an important consideration, check out my blog on the subject.

Wiping the disk means the applications are all gone. If you implement an Application Mapping process within your Windows deployment process, you can ensure users automatically get the apps they need while eliminating software and version sprawl and standardizing on your corporate preferred apps at the same time. It can also reduce your software license liability, increase security (fewer old, unpatched versions lying around) and reduce support effort (maintaining a standard portfolio of known applications with consistent versions across the board).

What is Application Mapping?

Quite simply, it is automation that uses inventory information collected before the device is migrated, along with a mapping table that defines the identifier or command to install the ‘replacement’ application. The replacement may be the same application and version, a later version of the same application or a completely different application.

Application Mapping with Configuration Manager and MDT

Configuration Manager provides information of installed applications on each device through the v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS view. If you’re using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager with integrated Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to automate your OS Deployment, you can use the MDT Package Mapping feature.  The association between an inventoried application and the Package and Program that will install its replacement is defined in the PackageMapping table in the MDT database. Below is a sample extract from a PackageMapping table that demonstrates how the mapping can be used to ‘upgrade’ previously installed applications to the latest version, or to completely replace one application with another (replacing WinZip with 7-Zip in this example).

When the OS Deployment Task Sequence runs, it executes a stored procedure that retrieves the Display Name of all the “Add/Remove Programs” rows for the device (using its MAC address for ID) from the ConfigMgr database. It then uses the ARPName column in the PackageMapping table as a look-up and sets Task Sequence variables to the corresponding Package:Program pair for each ARPName it matches. These variables are used to dynamically install the identified Programs later in the Task Sequence. As seen with the Adobe Reader example above, every variation of the ARPName must be added to the PackageMapping table for every application to be installed.

For more information on this MDT feature, check out Brad Tucker’s blog. If you are using ConfigMgr Applications (as opposed to Packages) to install software, check out Jason Sandy’s blog on modifying the process to work with Applications.

Application Mapping with 1E

1E’s Windows 10 Now solution combines application intelligence gathered by AppClarity (our Software Asset Management solution) with Shopping (our enterprise app store) to deliver an Application Mapping solution with the following benefits over the MDT solution.

• Like-for-like ‘replacements’ – e.g. simply reinstalling Project 2013 if it was previously installed regardless of usage – do not require specific mapping rules to be defined. You only need to define rules where you are upgrading the application or want to change behavior based on usage.
• Inventory data is normalized by AppClarity, so mapping rules are based on a specific Publisher, Product and Release (e.g. Adobe Reader DC) rather than individual “Add/Remove Programs” names with their minor versions or revisions, meaning there are fewer rules to manage.
• The replacement application in the mapping rules uses the “friendly name” you chose when you added the application to the Shopping portal for BAU self-service. This is already associated with the corresponding ConfigMgr Application or Package/Program that will install it.
• Mapping rules can include usage information provided by AppClarity to allow different choices based on whether the application was used or unused.

Below is a logical representation of the Application Mapping rules as used by the 1E solution.

As Microsoft Visio is an expensive application, the administrator has chosen to only install the latest version if it was previously installed and being used. If it was potentially unused (no usage detected in the last 60 days), the free Visio viewer is installed allowing the user to at least open Visio drawings. If Visio was unused, nothing gets installed to replace it. Of course, if the user needs it back again any time later, they can request it through the Shopping portal and (as long as the request is approved), it will be automatically installed and ready for the user to work with in a few minutes.

Using the 1E Windows 10 Now solution with its integrated Application Mapping feature means you can rationalize your applications and stamp out version sprawl as a by-product of smart automation of the migration process, killing two birds with one stone.

Dear Confused by Intelligence,

There is a lot of confusing information regarding SCCM Software Metering on the Internet, so let me clarify a few details. For 1E’s Intelligence and AppClarity products to work, you need to have the Software Metering Client Enabled, but do not have to have any rules defined.

By simply having the Software Metering Client enabled, Configuration Manger will track the date of the last execution of executable files on a client device. This level of information on software usage is often all you need to know in order to identify if an application is used. Enabling the Software Metering Client will have a very minimal impact on the amount of data your SCCM implementation is transferring.

Just enabling the Software Metering Client SCCM will not collect additional information – such as the time the application started, or when the user exits the application. If you decide you need this additional fidelity on application usage, you need to add software metering rules to SCCM. Before you do that, be aware that additional software metering rules will have a much larger impact on the amount of data your SCCM implementation transfers. You will need to ensure your network and data storage are set up to handle the additional load.

One more piece of information you need to know – default configurations changed between SCCM 2007 and SCCM 2012. In SCCM 2007, depending on what options were selected during installation, the Software Metering Client may be disabled by default, so you may need to enable this option to monitor usage from that point on. SCCM 2012 has the Software Metering Client enabled by default. In either case, if you’ve had the Software Metering Client enabled for a reasonable period of time, you’ll be able to report on usage information as soon as you install the free Intelligence tool, or AppClarity products from 1E.

Resolutely yours,

Sam

You can follow updates from the 1E Software Asset Management team via Twitter @1E4SAM, or the BetterITAM blog feed.

Ask Sam your own question at http://www.1e.com/ask-sam/

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One of my greatest honors as a product manager is to announce the release to market of a new version of NightWatchman. NightWatchman 7.1 is now available!

Based on input from many of our existing customers and a lot of hard work from numerous 1E staff, we’ve added some key extensions to the feature set. I think you’ll be impressed by the team’s innovations, once again demonstrating why NightWatchman is unquestionably the industry’s leading power management solution.

In the coming days additional blog posts will go into further detail, but here’s a quick overview of the innovations in NightWatchman 7.1:

• Reboot Optimization

  • Critical data that you should understand in order to tighten security by improving your reboot strategy. These days we all have to do everything we can to maximize security

• Power Optimization

  • Ensure that the batteries in your laptops, ultrabooks, tablets, 2-in-1’s, and other devices are still giving your users the battery life they expect
  • Find new problems your users can be hitting with such modern devices. Ensure great user satisfaction and productivity by proactively understanding and isolating problems you can fix. Make sure the devices are giving the smartphone-like experience they promise

• Secondary Improvements

  • All improvements from 7.0.100 and 7.0.200, including Windows 10 compatibility
  • Web WakeUp and Enterprise View are FIPS compliant (a security standard)
  • Recent bug fixes:
    • Non-laptops were not always preferred over laptops when looking for an available primary agent for WakeUp
    • Keep Active in the system tray icon didn’t show all its options
    • The Web WakeUp API WakeMachines did not work since version 7.0

I encourage you to review the documentation, particularly:

• General background on core concepts related to Power Optimization:
  • http://help.1E.com/display/NWE71/Understanding+Power+Optimization
• The problems that Reboot Optimization and Power Optimization will help you to address, how to do so, and examples of what that might look like:
  • http://help.1E.com/display/NWE71/Operational+best+practices
• Changes to NightWatchman reports:
  • http://help.1E.com/display/NWE71/NightWatchman+Management+Center+reports

And if you’re an existing customer, please do download the new version of NightWatchman from https://supportportal.1e.com and give it a try.

If you’re not an existing customer, let’s talk.

The post Announcing: NightWatchman 7.1! appeared first on 1E Blogs.

The recent release of NightWatchman 7.1 includes two important new features: Power Optimization and Reboot Optimization. Today let’s focus on Reboot Optimization.

Reboots have been a serious pain for both users and administrators as long as we’ve had computers. We know they’re necessary, but are too often needed when we have important work to do. There’s always the risk that unsaved data could be lost and we’ll be inconvenienced. So, we should do what we can to optimize the experience.

NightWatchman has long helped with reboots by making them safe. To safely shut down computers for power savings, NightWatchman has coordinated with applications to save unsaved document changes on shut down. When the computer is started up again, the users can choose to use the unsaved changes or go back to the pre-changed documents. Using that feature, you’ve been able to confidently force reboots as needed.

The next step is to get data on all reboots, NightWatchman-related or not. Waiting for complaints or just hoping that users are not too badly affected is not a proper strategy. With NightWatchman 7.1 you now know that data. In particular:

• When are reboots happening? You expect a lot after Patch Tuesday when you enforce the reboots (or suggest them to users), but what about other times? Is your Patch Tuesday rebooting actually being completed as you believe?
• How long are those reboots taking? Waiting one minute for a machine to reboot is painful enough but do you have some that are taking three, four, maybe five minutes? Longer? Those users can’t be happy, and they’re much less likely to reboot when you need them to.
• You might not force reboots right after installing something that needs a reboots. These are “pending reboots.” For security updates, that means the vulnerability they’re fixing is still open. A short pending period can be reasonable, but is that what is actually occurring?
• And when are those pending reboots occurring? Patch Tuesday is to be expected, but are there other times when they occur?

With this data in hand you can work with related teams, such as your Security department, to assess the actual reboot activity. Are your security goals being met? Are users being overly inconvenienced?

In some cases, you might find that certain business units or regions are having bigger issues than others. Maybe they have an application or management tool that makes unnecessary reboots more likely. Do they have computers that need improvement? Is a computer startup script or other configuration issue causing them grief?

With a proper understanding of what’s happening you can maximize security for your organization while providing the best possible user experience. A win for all! For more information, please see our Reboot Optimization whitepaper.

The post What is Reboot Optimization? appeared first on 1E Blogs.

Making a mistake at work is never a good thing. There are some jobs, however, where a mistake can be a really, really, really bad thing. Various professions spring to mind. Surgeons, for instance. Or pilots. Less obvious, but no less daunting, are the inherent risks faced by utilities maintenance crews on a daily basis. If maintenance crews accidentally hit a water main, you flood the street. If you hit a gas main – KABOOM! –say goodbye to the street altogether…

In the US, anyone planning to dig any kind of large hole can call 811 and receive the underground maps needed to safely guide the excavation. These are updated all the time, so for a utilities crew covering a large region for a utilities company, it’s extremely important (KABOOM!-level important) that they’re using the most up-to-date version.

Ideally, a utility company would have its maintenance crews download these updates on-the-go, but this is easier said than done. That’s why one of the largest natural gas utility and delivery companies in the US, relies on 1E Nomad for robust, remote content distribution.

This particular company’s maintenance crews travel with MDTs (mobile device terminals). While trucks will sometimes be found at satellite depots with network connections, more often than not they are out in the middle of nowhere, at the side of a road, digging a hole, and totally dependent on a cellular connection for communications. With those all-important updated maps equating to about 4GB worth of data, the utility company was sending CDs and DVDs to their crews to deliver the updated maps. Users would then have to manually update their MDTs, while the customer company had no way to establishing whether or not the updates had been successfully delivered.

The challenges of roadside content delivery created a scenario crying out for 1E’s Enhanced SCCM solution, Nomad. 1E Senior consultant John DeVito explains:

“The big thing that the customer wanted to accomplish was to be able to transfer the map data over the network, get validation that the content had been received from the mobile device terminals, and for the MDTs to automatically determine the most efficient method for retrieving the content. When they were on the 3G or the 4G networks, the machines would reach out to a Configuration Manager distribution point to get their content, but Nomad would throttle the bandwidth, so the data would trickle down to the machines and not over-utilize the cellular data link.”

Additionally, when a service vehicle pulled into a depot or satellite facility, Nomad enabled the data transfer to automatically switch from the cellular connection to the wireless, and to make use of Nomad’s unique peer-to-peer connection.

“Some of these satellite offices still had to go through a slower WAN link to get back to the Configuration Manager distribution point,” explains DeVito. “Ultimately, the most efficient thing would be to share peer-to-peer.”

Nomad, in short, was able to fit the customer’s needs to a ‘T’. I ask DeVito if, besides other utility companies, he could think of any other use cases this one pointed in the direction of?

“I’m just throwing this out there, but what about police departments? They all have laptops in their cars, and these laptops need to get security patches. When they’re driving around they need to have some remote connection, and when they pull into the police station it should switch over.”

Law enforcement? Sounds like another example of a high-risk profession where Nomad could make a critical difference.

The post Roadside Content Delivery Prevents Explosive Results appeared first on 1E Blogs.

The recent release of NightWatchman 7.1 includes two important new features: Power Optimization and Reboot Optimization. Let’s focus on Power Optimization.

NightWatchman has long helped many organizations with power management to reduce costs and environmental impact by reliably and safely shutting off computers or putting them in a standby state when they’re not being used. That continues to be of immense value to our many customers but the world now includes a wide variety of low-power computing devices. NightWatchman 7.1 helps you to optimize them as well.

The computer industry has been amazingly innovative in recent years, releasing a cornucopia of 2-in-1’s, convertibles, tablets, and similar form factors. Like laptops and ultrabooks, they provide a great mobile battery-enabled experience. They also include a very smartphone-like experience. I suppose we should thank Apple for spurring the industry to wake up to the importance of design and new form factors.

How are these modern devices “smartphone-like”? Increased battery life is crucial, especially when the device is in standby. Some of these devices may only be used occasionally, such as at meetings, in front of the TV, on a plane, etc. So you don’t want to think about charging them every day. In fact, if you haven’t charged it for a few days, it should still be ready to go. At the same, time you don’t want to miss out on Skype calls or instant messages when it’s on standby. You need to know about those right away. And when you power it back up to check e-mail, the inbox should already be full with your latest new messages. Just like your smartphone.

Intel, Microsoft, and the device vendors have seen the need (the threat?) and have provided such functionality in those devices. They’re based on what’s called “system-on-chip,” meaning that many of the computer components are on a single chip, saving space and power requirements. The rest of the components are tightly coupled in order to provide those smartphone-like features. As you move to Windows 10, your users are also going to be keen to move to this kind of computing experience.

Great stuff, but does all this work as it should? Does it break when things change? Are you sure?

NightWatchman 7.1 gives you the answers. It collects the data from all your clients, consolidates that back at the NightWatchman server, and provides the reports you need to proactively find problems. All broken down by device model, business unit, and region.

And there’s more! How are the batteries themselves doing? Not only on these modern devices but also your laptops and ultrabooks. We know batteries don’t last forever. Do you replace the devices (or the batteries) every couple of years just to be safe? What about those devices that aren’t used in battery mode that much – that would be a waste. Do you wait until customers get so frustrated that they call the helpdesk? That’s not efficient and certainly doesn’t make for happy users.

NightWatchman 7.1 allows you to proactively watch how the batteries are holding up. Have they been discharged/recharged to the point where they’re likely bad? Do they only get a quarter of the battery life that they originally did? NightWatchman has those reports as well. Management and your finance department can budget months ahead of time for the eventual demise of the devices users depend upon.

Power Optimization is a new form of power management for your modern devices. Find out more:

• http://help.1E.com/display/NWE71/Understanding+Power+Optimization
• http://help.1E.com/display/NWE71/Operational+best+practices

The post What is Power Optimization? appeared first on 1E Blogs.

Having returned from the IAITAM ACE conference in New Orleans, I was struck by the number of times I heard, “I am not sure what to focus on when starting a Software Asset Management program.”

The question seems simple and this recent blog from John DeVito outlines some key considerations to take into account when building a SAM program within your organization. The question of where to begin becomes more complicated for a SAM manager who is charged with reducing risk and costs across IT assets. Presuming the SAM manager already has executive sponsorship, and has determined scope (usually desktop), this is how I answered the question…

When a SAM manager is starting their program, they want to be able to show the executive sponsor quick wins. Often, the SAM manager will look at the spend of their top five software suppliers to identify opportunities to reduce spend – whether it be a change in license type (e.g. a premium version being downgraded to Standard), a reduction in maintenance or consolidation in the number of suppliers. Clearly, this approach requires research, and cooperation with other parts of the business, including procurement, finance, and IT operations. It also means that savings may not be achieved in the desired time-frame as changing license types generally requires waiting until the end of an existing license term, or when considering consolidating suppliers, and requires a great deal of due diligence and input from other parts of the business.

A simpler approach is first to look at your existing assets. Presuming you know the number and types of devices, analyze your software installations. Can you determine if your organization using all of the software it has installed?

Back to our question, where do I start?

1E has a free tool called Software Lifecycle Intelligence. This tool helps SAM managers learn how much software is installed, yet unused (but paid for) within their environment. The tool will also help the SAM Manager understand their security risk and Windows 10 readiness – giving the SAM Manager valuable information in which to bring back to the organization.

The 1E Intelligence tool has just been updated and reorganized based on customer feedback to highlight the most common questions a customer may have about their software environment, especially when looking for immediate value from a software asset management program. I encouraged those who I spoke to try it out. The information the tool provides is confidential, and not shared with 1E.

Related Information:

Software Lifecycle Intelligence: Assess your Windows upgrade potential, identify vulnerabilities in your environment and estimate the software waste for the most common applications.

The Hidden Cost of Unused Software: A report analyzing the results of a four-year study of over 1,800 software titles deployed on 3.6 million desktops, in 129 enterprises, across 14 industries showing that, on average, 37% of all installed software is unused.

AppClarity: AppClarity accurately captures and reports application usage across the enterprise, reducing cost, complexity and risk by removing the guesswork around software asset management. Our software puts data to work: automating the reclaim process to minimize application sprawl, saving enterprises millions.

The post The number one question from the IAITAM ACE 2016 conference appeared first on 1E Blogs.

Modern devices often have “system-on-chip” hardware and use Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. Such computers are capable of Connected Standby (Windows 8) or Modern Standby (Windows 10), which can place the hardware in a deeper standby state than traditional laptops and yet still have network connectivity while in standby. Tablets, 2-in-1’s, convertibles, and similar devices are typical of such modern devices. Some ultrabooks or laptops can also use Connected Standby or Modern Standby. Microsoft’s own Surface Pro and Surface Book devices are prime examples.

Connected Standby enables your computers to enter the lowest hardware power saving state, which for Windows is called Deepest Runtime Idle Power State (DRIPS). Connected Standby also works with the networking hardware to ensure that select incoming network traffic is acted on immediately and other network traffic is processed every 30 seconds. Connected Standby has been available with Windows 8 and better while Modern Standby is available with Windows 10. Modern Standby includes Connected Standby but also Disconnected Standby, which better handles scenarios where the device is sometimes in locations without available network connectivity.

Such devices are more efficient because:

• When idle they consume around 50 milliwatts (mW) per hour, as opposed to the 500 mW per hour of traditional standby
  • This should be less than 1% of the battery capacity, meaning that you should be able to leave your device unplugged while on standby for at least 4 days and still be able to use it
• As instant messages, internet phone calls, or similar real-time data are sent out, the device receives them in real-time and can wake the device as much as appropriate, including alerting the user
• Routine network traffic, such as receiving e-mails, is batched and done every 30 seconds in very short bursts. Only enough of the device is powered up as needed to process the data and the user is not alerted
• Because network connectivity is nearly continuous, details such as IP addresses are retained, ensuring the network is ready to use as soon as the device is powered back up

That is a very smartphone-like experience that users love.

Traditional computers were typically plugged into the wall power and so users would often leave them powered up ‘just in case’ (or without thinking about it). For any one computer that isn’t terribly expensive but if you have thousands, the cost is substantial. And the environmental impact of generating that electricity contributes to the global warming issues we see today.

Battery-enabled devices will power-off when the batteries are drained and they won’t be ready to use, so users are much more conscientious about powering them off when not needed. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have power-related problems.

For DRIPS and Connected Standby to perform their magic, a lot of things have to come together. Components, firmware, device drivers, and networking must cooperate. The operating system and applications must behave correctly.

The trade press is full of stories of such problems. Microsoft’s release of Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 was marred for months by such problems. As an engineer at Microsoft famously said:

NightWatchman 7.1 finds such problems by collecting the data on the client and centrally reporting it. You can check business units, regions, and specific models of computers to see where problems are more common.

With such information you can not only work to correct underlying problems but also determine which devices are actually providing the best experience in your environment; with your applications and your network.

Power Optimization is a new form of power management for your modern devices. Find out more:

• http://help.1e.com/display/NWE71/Understanding+Power+Optimization
• http://help.1e.local/display/NWE71/Operational+best+practices

The post Is power management different on modern devices? appeared first on 1E Blogs.

“Nomad is a set it and forget it type of product. It has exceeded my expectations.”

After hearing about Nomad at a SCCM user group meeting, Mike Simms, Desktop Technologies Architect for TEVA Pharmaceuticals, wanted to learn more about Nomad’s server reduction capabilities. He was redesigning the SCCM 2012 architecture for TEVA Pharmaceuticals in North America and knew that reducing hardware and infrastructure could improve systems management in the environment and user experience across the network.

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager typically requires a lot of servers distributed throughout the environment. 1E Nomad uses peer-to-peer technology to eliminate the need for over 98% of servers in a typical SCCM infrastructure. Regardless of how large or distributed your network is, Nomad will drastically reduce infrastructure cost and months of maintenance and administration each year.  After adding Nomad into their SCCM environment, the TEVA team was able to eliminate several dozen Distribution Points while improving end-user experience.

This level of server reduction is only possible due to Nomad’s intelligent bandwidth management (we call it “Reverse QoS”), which enables content to be delivered across the WAN without slowing other traffic down. It constantly learns and adapts to conditions on the network, giving priority to all other traffic and ensuring that end-users are not effected by patching or application delivery. The goal of TEVA’s CM design was to eliminate end user disruption and Nomad has enabled that in the environment.

Learn more about all of Nomad’s features and advantages in this Data Sheet or Talk to a Technical Specialist.

The post Nomad for Enhanced SCCM Improves Systems Management appeared first on 1E Blogs.