Dell
Kace announced a line of systems management products developed specifically for
small to medium-size businesses, including tools for hardware and software
inventory, software license compliance and asset tracking and management. In
addition, businesses get increased visibility into their IT network, which helps
them address configuration issues.
The
M300 dashboard allows users to check alerts, software license compliance
status, recent activity on the network and pending tasks, while also providing
an inventory of assets that companies can use to enforce PC configuration
policies to help identify and prevent rogue software from opening security
holes. The appliance is priced at $2,498, with a one-year warranty and
recommended maximum of 200 nodes.
The
platform is also designed to help minimize end-user downtime with its PC
inventory and software license management solution, and it provides
“plug-and-play” deployment—users just plug it in, connect it to the network,
and it discovers, maps and inventories network assets. Upon installation, the
M300 manages many repetitive tasks associated with IT inventory, which the
company said will allow IT managers to focus on more strategic issues and
projects.
"I'm
excited about the M300 for two reasons. First, it represents the first in a
family of new systems management appliances designed specifically for the needs
of companies with 50 to 200 computers—and that's never been done before,” said
Rob Meinhardt, general manager of Dell Kace. “And, second, our beta customers
are telling us that this is a breakthrough product for them. These asset and
license management features are—for the first time—immediately accessible to IT
generalists in very small organizations."
Recent
Dell Accelerev corporate research with SMB customers revealed businesses
falling within the 50 to 200 employee range are still using time-intensive
methods for tracking hardware and software inventory as well as managing
software license compliance. Fifty percent of IT managers interviewed still use
spreadsheets to manually track IT assets, according to the report.
“Prior
to deploying the M300 asset management appliance, we spent a significant amount
of time manually tracking license compliance. In total, we had three different
'point solutions' to watch over our entire asset tracking process," said
Danny Daniels, IS manager for the city of Menlo Park, Calif. "We brought
in the M300 and literally deployed it in under 10 minutes—it's a true
'plug-and-play' product. The appliance can perform multiple asset
management-related tasks, and because it's so simple to use and so effective,
team time has been freed up to focus on other strategic IT projects."
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