Novell unveils a new all-encompassing suite

Novell has introduced the release of Novell ZENworks Suite, a new all-inclusive suite to replace all existing ZENWorks suite/bundled options. The new solution enables enterprise IT to easily oversee asset management, configuration management,service management and endpoint protection in one offering. Additionally, Novell ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3 is now available, which further enhances customers’ abilities to manage, protect, audit and report on their complex device fleets.

“The new Novell ZENworks Suite will provide Novell customers with more value and ensure they are receiving the most from their ZENworks investment,” said Eric Varness, vice president of product management and marketing for Novell. “This new suite was created specifically with the enterprise in mind to help them better manage and protect their complete endpoint landscape.”

In conjunction with the unveiling of the new suite, the release of ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3 greatly enhances scalability, auditing and patch management to manage more endpoints. This latest ZENworks release delivers an even more holistic management solution that streamlines and automates IT processes, without increasing risk or costs.

Novell continues to deliver exceptional audit and reporting capabilities that surpass industry standards, as evidenced by the new capabilities offered in ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3. New auditing features allow users to track changes made in the management console, and remotely manage files written to removable devices. This is critical in highly-regulated environments, such as healthcare and financial services, and is useful for all customers that want to monitor changes in events that occur in the system. Also included in the newest version of ZENworks is a new reporting engine that makes it easy to collect and analyse information by running a wide range of customised reports, ensuring IT managers have the flexibility that best fits their enterprise audit and reporting needs.

“With the rapid pace that new devices and software are hitting the market, IT has more endpoints to manage than ever before, and those endpoints have more capabilities that the workforce wants to use to improve productivity,” said Novell’s Varness. “Our customers need the ability to enable their workforce to use these new devices and software without putting the organisation at risk. ZENworks allows administrators to manage users, not just devices, and includes the tools required to monitor and report security concerns in real-time.”

ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3 includes updated Patch Management capabilities, with policy-based patch deployments that allow users to define their preferred state of workstations and maintenance windows when patches can be applied – a process that can be fully automated,. Further improving IT procedures, a new diagnostics dashboard enables IT to quickly identify issues and drill down to the ZENworks processes on any server for advanced troubleshooting.

“While working with Microsoft, providing accurate information to our auditors was highly resource-intensive, and the reliability did not meet our expectations,” said Peter Ridley, finance and informatics director of the NHS trust for Royal Surrey County Hospital. “We turned to Novell ZENworks in order to provide timely and accurate data to our auditors, with reliable and efficient processes – something our existing infrastructure wasn’t delivering. In addition to improved auditing and reporting, ZENworks has enabled us to improve our software deployment and patch management processes.”
By eliminating the need for additional hardware or infrastructure investments, ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3 allows IT to reduce enterprise risk without increasing costs. The updated suite’s improved scale and performance, along with new features, create additional security layers and continue to make ZENworks one of the most comprehensive, reliable solutions available. Additional features of ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3 include:
• Multizone Content Sharing
• Fully Automated Patch Management Policies
• Improved rights-based management
• Join Proxy
• Improved software inventory
• Inventory pruning
• Full Windows 8 Support
• Imaging Enhancements
• In-Product Diagnostics
• Improved Scale and Performance
• FDE Support for OPAL