In the News

"Our Clear Choice Award goes to LANDesk for having a broad range of features that covered our five sets of users well, and had superior security features," said Paul Ferrill. "LANDesk has provided the broadest-possible level of platform support in all its products since we've been testing its gear. Version 8.6 of the LANDesk Management Suite is no exception."

"LANDesk Software is expanding into business process management (BPM) by acquiring the assets of NewRoad Software. The software is suitable for industries where business processes need to be updated frequently, including the financial services, insurance, health care and manufacturing sectors."

"Providing [this] support to Mac OS X computers increases the enterprise-readiness level of Macintosh machines and enables IT managers to add one more layer of security against the increasing number of blended threats and attacks," said Dave Taylor, LANDesk vice president of marketing.

“In our case, they were expecting [the requested audit information] to take about a month and seemed surprised when we turned it around in a week," said Brad Carpenter, senior information systems analyst and customer support for Lane County, Oregon. "[Intel’s] LANDesk was a timesaver and the accuracy held up. Having good, available numbers on demand is probably the greatest thing.”

"By automating its desktop patch-management process, Exempla Healthcare slashed its monthly labor expenses by $800,000. 'Now when the media does a big blitz on a new virus, we don't flinch as much," said Ed Skaff, IT supervisor for Exempla Healthcare. "Most IT managers think their patches [are up-to-date and deployed] until they get hit by that first big disaster and then they're in reactive mode. Well, we're proactive.'"

According to Brad Carpenter, senior information systems analyst with Lane County, Ore., LANDesk Patch Manager has been "worth every penny." The tool has cut his time to patch 1, 550 desktops by 75%, from 16 hours per week to four. "They've built a really world-class patch management tool," he said. 

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. 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.

Managing remote devices over the Internet is among IT administrators' biggest challenges, and is top-of-mind among CIOs and CXOs as well. The LANDesk Management Gateway lets administrators securely manage systems once unreachable over the Internet without a VPN connection or dedicated link.

LANDesk Security Suite 8.6 includes updates to help network administrators scan computers connecting to corporate networks and quarantine any system that does not meet established security policies. "This creates a proactive way of ensuring that every computer allowed onto the network is brought into compliance and does not represent a security threat," said Dave R. Taylor, vice president of Marketing for LANDesk. "This is especially important to large organizations with large numbers of disparate endpoints spread across multiple geographies."

LANDesk Software is shipping a network access control (NAC) product that scans computers attempting to connect to a corporate network, and which quarantines any systems that don't meet the necessary security policies.

With LANDesk, Lenovo said it now offers IT managers a "mission control" console view that consolidates the various tools under one view. "We had customers looking for a higher level of integration," said Tom Tobul, director of marketing for ThinkVantage Technologies. "LANDesk is an industry leader and integrated with the functionality of ThinkVantage takes us to the next level."

Lenovo, the Chinese company that bought IBM’s laptop wing in May, has strengthened its ties with LANDesk, a provider of systems and security management software. "The two companies will create joint marketing plans and sell co-branded products," said David Taylor, LANDesk’s vice president for worldwide marketing. "The relationship goes beyond product bundling. The two companies jointly fund two Innovation Centers, one outside Raleigh, N.C., and the other in Beijing, where engineers from both companies work to integrate their products."

With LANDesk in place, "I foresee only six months needed to migrate to new platforms in the future," said Tres Inscore IT manager for Penn National Insurance. "Most application distributions with LANDesk take as little as five minutes and rarely more than a day." 

LANDesk Software has unveiled administrative console support for Apple's Mac OS X "Tiger" operating system. With the company's LANDesk Management suite, administrators can now use a Mac and Apple's Safari Web browser for enterprise network management. LANDesk may pull away from the pack with its ability to provide network management on Windows and Macs in a heterogeneous environment.

Working in conjunction with Apple's own Safari Web browser, IT administrators can now manage their enterprise networks from a Mac using LANDesk's technology. The Web-based console lets IT admins take care of software distribution, inventory support and patch management and schedules, according to the developer. In addition to Mac support, LANDesk also works with Windows, Windows XP, Windows CE, Linux, Unix, RIM and Palm devices.

Tom Davis

Vice president of engineering

Top technology innovation in 2004: Released the third major upgrade in two years to LANDesk's flagship product. LANDesk Management Suite Version 8.1 is a software solution that contains more than 2.5 million lines of code. Specific innovations include patch management, OS deployment, profile migration, software license management and auto-device discovery.

LANDesk Software has introduced the LANDesk Security Suite that integrates device-level security features into the company's systems management software.

LANDesk Security Suite is designed to help both corporate management and IT staff achieve higher efficiency by providing tools that solve their top security concerns such as spyware, malware, worms, unauthorized access, and vulnerabilities.

The county had been using software from LANDesk Software of South Jordan, Utah, for a few years for hardware and software inventory, and had just installed LANDesk Patch Manager 8, Johnson said.

LANDesk CEO Joe Wang said the program is part of the "long-term view" his management team takes toward its channel relationships. "Peace of mind for our channel partners is critical," Wang said in an interview with CRN on Monday after his keynote address kicking off the event at the Doral Golf Resort. "We're 100 percent channel driven," he said. "We don't compete with our partners."

FACED with the thankless task of regular OS patch installation, users of LANDesk Software’s system management tools started asking for an add on patch management component. Paying heed, the company did just that and launched its patch management piece last year. Building it into its policy management function, the tool scans networks to identify vulnerabilities such as machines without updated patches or unsafe system settings.

When it comes to PCs, some might say keeping them patched and secured is just another aspect of a company’s overall approach to desktop management. Especially if that company is Intel—a prodigious producer (and user) of computer components...

About two years ago, Intel spun off the division as LANDesk Software. Given the group’s desktop-centric vision, it's no surprise that Davis argues that a number of security problems will be better solved if integrated into the overall desktop management equation. Davis speaks with Security Strategies about future of patching and keeping desktops secure.

In our reviews, LANDesk Management Suite 7 was distinguished from the others because of its richness in features and the originality of some functions.

(Full article in French.)

SUNNYVALE, Calif., January 13, 2004 -- Remedy®, a BMC Software company (NYSE:BMC), today announced a strategic partnership with LANDesk Software, a leader in integrated desktop, server, and device management solutions. The partnership creates the most complete solution available for asset management, change management, and service desks by adding client services management capabilities. This complete solution enables customers to better manage dynamic and distributed desktop networks.

Formerly part of Intel, LANDesk Software was created in August 2002 as an independent company and this latest release of its flagship product looks to be one of the most significant yet. The main interface in LANDesk Management Suite (LMS) has been revamped to make it much easier to use, and components such as the Server Manager are now provided as optional extras. One new tool that wasn't available during testing is the Patch Manager, which aims to deploy critical system updates across the network as soon as they become available.

The product's software scanning really impressed us: It let us grab config, batch or other text files in the software scan, as well as exclude selected directories. Registry keys can be scanned and reported as well. Best of all, creating custom form data (such as asking users for their phone numbers and mailing addresses) was a breeze. We could then be alerted to any changes in inventory, such as a decrease in RAM on any system. We also were able to set up network broadcasts, display Windows message boxes, send e-mail and pages, and run program alerts for events like failed software distributions or when new machines join a collection.

Barely a year ago, Wang was enjoying a life of privilege. A one-time vice president of Symantec, Wang had previously made a small fortune establishing and later selling 20/20 Software. He had a dream home on an Oregon lake and a growing reputation as a man who could help transform businesses into enterprise-software powerhouses. That's when the calls from headhunters began pouring in. Most he dismissed. One he did not: LANDesk.

One of the suite’s clear advantages is that it is not tied to any vendor’s anti-virus software - you can install and manage any combination of products you like. The agent can monitor the install process for any software and create a package that will mimic the process on any system, often faster and easier than installing the software natively... Once it is all up and running, the software is surprisingly easy to use.

LANDesk last week announced patch management software designed to work with the company's LANDesk Management Suite, now in Version 7. LANDesk's Management Suite, which includes asset, inventory and configuration management applications, runs on Windows servers and clients. Network managers administer the patch features either through a Web browser or a Windows interface.

Englewood Hospital opened its doors on June 14, 1890, in a 12-bed wooden building on a three acre tract of land. Now in its second century of service, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center has evolved into a major medical and academic institution, providing primary, secondary and tertiary care. It is the first New Jersey affiliate of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is a member of the Mount Sinai Health System.

LANDesk Software, a provider of management solutions for desktops and devices, announced its strategy for growing 100% a year in Brazil and launches a new version of its LANDesk Management Suite 7, which embodies the functions of software distribution, inventory, remote control, migration systems of platforms and management of licenses for software.

Two new PCs in Gateway's E-Series line replace older models designed to be managed by administrators over corporate networks. The E-4100 and E-6100 come with integrated Gigabit Ethernet, LANDesk Software Inc.'s LANDesk Client Manager software, and eight USB (universal serial bus) 2.0 ports, in addition to the new Intel technology

He is a systems administrator at a large sales and service company with 5,000 employees, more than 100 software applications and dozens of branch offices. Business is down, the pressure up. Managing his systems and networks for LAN workers and road warriors is no small task. And now his CFO and CIO have mandated cost cutting measures while crowing about maximizing existing IT resources. He has a sinking suspicion that the company has hundreds of unused copies of Microsoft Project, which means wasted money and upset bosses. What to do?

How can these attacks cause so much damage when fixes are already there? It's simply that the task of identifying, installing, and maintaining necessary patches has become so overwhelming for the average user and network manager that many are simply unable to keep up...

The new product, LANDesk Management Suite 7.0, is being offered with a suggested retail price of $79.99 per node. The launch comes against a backdrop of rising profits and significantly increasing partner margins, said Michael Hall, vice president of marketing at LANDesk, based here.