Network America and LANDesk News

LANDesk Mobile Web Desk
LANDesk Mobile Web Desk delivers a touch optimized interface that gives support staff instant access to the service desk via a smart phone or tablet device. You now have the flexibility to manage and interact with any ITIL-verified processes from anywhere.

Additional LANDesk Service Catalogue features
The addition of a Shopping Cart extends the abilities of Service Catalogue by building on a consumer orientated experience. This new feature enables end users to perform multiple requests for items without starting over each time. By using Add to Cart, Add to Cart and Checkout options users can select and review multiple requests before submitting to the service desk. These requests will then follow the appropriate process for the service request.

Enhanced LANDesk Management Information
LANDesk Management Information provides a graphical view of trend and service performance over time. It enables organizations to accurately track and measure the complete service desk environment against their own key performance indicators (KPIs) to maintain visibility of how IT is performing against agreed measurement criteria defined within KPIs.

e latest iOS, Android and Blackberry operating systems. It allows custom device policy options, enabling IT to centrally define a policy and distribute it over a variety of platform types. By expanding the platform support to include the latest operating systems and custom device policy options, LANDesk Mobility Manager 9 delivers flexibility to the user while giving IT departments more control over their IT environment via a single management console and database – enabling greater ease of management and security.

Unlike many current solutions on the market, LANDesk Mobility Manager 9 provides the ability to display all discovered devices – PC, laptop, mobile, virtual and servers running on a variety of operating systems – in a single management console. The new solution also includes the LANDesk application store, a portal to access business documents, IT recommended applications and resources. Users can access content on their own, such as corporate files or purchased apps, through the application store portal. Any download requests can be approved by IT first, before making their way to a horizontal app store via integration with LANDesk’s award-winning business process engine.

"As enterprises adapt to an increasingly mobile workforce, it’s becoming more important to offer IT teams solutions to easily implement policies across a wide variety of platforms," said Steve Daly, President and CEO, LANDesk Software. "LANDesk Mobility Manager allows IT managers to easily distribute mobile policies, making IT feel more secure in their corporate environment while continuing to allow users to leverage new technologies such as iPads, iPhones and Android devices. By merging mobility and systems management, LANDesk delivers the security IT managers seek in a corporate landscape of increasing user-purchased devices."

The proliferation of mobile devices into business environments has created headaches for security-minded IT departments everywhere. LANDesk aims to give system administrators more peace of mind with the launch of LANDesk Mobility Manager 9, with the integration of complete mobile device management with the award-winning systems management solution, LANDesk Management Suite. This announcement follows on the heels of LANDesk’s development work with Lenovo to provide systems management and user provisioning for the new Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet, the market’s first enterprise-class tablet device.

"The LANDesk/Lenovo collaboration enables our customers to effectively manage applications, data and devices from a single management console. When designing the ThinkPad Tablet, we took everything into account - the user experience, business and productivity features for the workplace and security and manageability for IT managers," said Peter Gaucher, Executive Director of Software and Content Services, Lenovo. "Working with LANDesk, the ThinkPad Tablet makes IT management simple, allowing the tablet to easily fit into a company’s ecosystem of technology devices."

LANDesk Mobility Manager’s discovery capabilities feature integration with Microsoft ActiveSync and Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) systems, allowing the capture of devices at the point of entry. Once a device has been discovered and recognized in the network, IT managers are capable of blocking specific devices from corporate data, if they pose a threat. Remote wiping capabilities are available for devices that are out-of-policy, non-compliant, active threats, lost or stolen or at the time of a user’s employment termination.

LANDesk Mobility Manager 9 features:

• Expanded Platform Support: LANDesk Mobility Manger 9 provides premium support for all iOS and Android platforms.
• Device Connection Policy: With employees continuing to bring new, unsecured devices into the workplace, IT has the option to prevent unmanageable or unsupported devices from connecting to the corporate network or to choose specifically which devices may have access – all through one interface.
• Device Enrollment: Setting up new devices to be enrolled in the company system can easily be done by adding them to the user’s profile, which applies the user’s existing configuration and policy options, as well as installs the management agent on the new device.
• Device Configuration/Security Policy: Configuring email, VPN and WiFi capabilities are done in conjunction with a security policy, which IT can use to set locks, password strength requirements, screen timeout limits and more. This policy can be easily updated if the end-user’s capability requirements expand or become more restricted.
• Remote Management: When incidents occur that could potentially compromise the security of the corporate network, IT can remotely locate the device in question, locking, unlocking, wiping or resetting its password.
• Application Management: LANDesk’s application store is a self-service software distribution repository where enterprise resources such as apps, files, videos and other corporate resources can be accessed. The application store provides enterprises with a centralized source for providing corporate resources that can be accessed at the user’s discretion.

The average business professional carries anywhere from 2-5 computing devices at all times, making free-flowing data in and out of the enterprise unavoidable, exposing user systems to an infinite number of security threats – significantly complicating the process of managing and securing the end user environment. LANDesk now provides new drillable dashboards for real-time analytics and dynamic click-through reporting, giving IT the ability to enforce security policies and manage patch distribution inside and outside the network (across a wide range of computing platforms). This latest upgrade supports the most current versions of popular operating systems from Mac, Windows and Linux and adds several cloud based services that enable IT to easily manage and secure users anywhere in the world – both on premise and in the cloud - with only an internet connection.In addition, the enhanced asset management analytics capability extends LANDesk Management Suite to become an even more cost effective asset tracking tool allowing IT managers to make better more informed decisions and more tightly manage software license costs.

"LANDesk 9 provides a broad range of capabilities in a single integrated solution,” said Steve Workman, vice president of product management, LANDesk Software, “Heterogeneity is the new way of life in the enterprise, especially when it comes to supporting the end user environment. The new features are smartly focused on delivering real business goals– like ROI, security and compliance, productivity, asset analytics, and executive insight – via an integrated light architecture model."

With this release LANDesk expands on its core strengths - reducing risks and software expenses, while increasing productivity in several key areas, including:
•Software Asset Management: LANDesk Management Suite has enhanced its software distribution and license discovery capabilities, increasing the overall usability and reliability, thereby allowing IT managers to make better, more informed business decisions and more tightly manage software license costs.
•Endpoint Security Analysis: The new version of LANDesk Security Suite includes drillable dashboards for real-time enhanced report analytics. This allows IT to understand what is happening in the environment in real time and make appropriate updates and/or patches.
•Cloud-based Service: With this release, LANDesk showcases several of the building blocks of its Adaptive Cloud Environment Initiative. The LANDesk Cloud Service Appliance integrates with LANDesk Management Suite and Security Suite and allows IT to easily manage users anywhere in the world, ensuring they are meeting policies and protecting end points. It can use an existing Internet connection to securely manage any user without a VPN or leased line, and without purchasing, installing, configuring or managing a server. The LANDesk cloud hosted patch management repository also benefited from this release with the addition of more patch content, platform support, and additional certification templates.LANDesk continues to address the needs of the extended environments with updates to its infrastructure replication/synchronization, reporting and security capabilities.
•Microsoft® Windows 7 Migration: Designed to determine migration readiness and assessment and application compatibility while creating minimal end user disruption, LANDesk Management Suite supports migrations to new operating systems such as Windows 7. With today’s announcement, LANDesk provides provisioning and Hardware Independent Imaging (HII) that allows administrators to retain one generic image that can be deployed to many different platforms.
•Expanded Platform Support: LANDesk Management Suite 9.0.3 provides broad platform support to reduce cost, increase productivity and gain control of end user environments. Only supporting Windows is not an option anymore; LANDesk supports all of the latest platforms, including: Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Mac patching, CentOS 5 32-bit & 64-bit, HP-UX 11.11 PA RISC 64-bit, HP UX 11.23/11.31, Itanium 64-bit, Red Hat Linux 6, Solaris 10 (SPARC 64-bit & x86 64-bit) and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 64-bit. Updated database support for Oracle 11g R2 and SQL 2008 R2 was also added.

LANDesk Software’s latest release builds on the company’s proven success, most recently recognized by Enterprise Management Associates who awarded LANDesk its top honors in the recently published Client Lifecycle Management Radar report. "LANDesk offers the broadest heterogeneous platform support on the market today" said Steven Brasen, Managing Research Director, Enterprise Management Associates. "LANDesk natively provides the most extensive support for the client lifecycle management core discipline including: asset, deployment, patch, configuration, service and security management. Further, LANDesk provides a single-pane-of-glass management platform that establishes end-to-end systems management support. LANDesk Management Suite is a market leader and is an ideal solution for organizations looking to manage and gain control of the end user environment."

For IT environments where a cloud-based service desk makes the most sense, LANDesk Service Desk as a Service provides one of the most feature-rich IT service management cloud solutions available. For companies that seek the ease of a hosted model, along with the security, flexibility and robustness of an on-premise solution, LANDesk also offers a unique hybrid model. Unlike pure cloud-based or pure on-premise solutions, the hybrid cloud approach provides IT departments with the flexibility to adjust and readjust how their Service Desk is hosted at any time, enabling them to adapt as their enterprise environment shifts and grows.

In addition, Service Desk as a Service provides the same rich functionality and ability to adopt ITIL processes as LANDesk Service Desk delivered on-premise, including LANDesk Self Service, which allows users to log their own incidents; LANDesk Service Catalogue, which provides employees with a storefront view of services available to them; and LANDesk Web Desk, which provides a browser interface to Service Desk for IT analysts and administrators.

LANDesk Service Desk as a Service also enables IT administrators to design processes without having to write code. Unlike a number of competitive solutions on the market today, IT departments do not require a developer on staff or any addition of custom code to get Service Desk as a Service up and running. LANDesk provides drag and drop functionality so that setup and ongoing enhancement is easy.

"We created software-as-a-service functionality for Service Desk to provide a full range of service desk provisioning and delivery options,“ said Steve Workman, vice president of product management, LANDesk Software. “In order to better enable IT organizations in balancing the benefits of cloud-based accessibility and premise-managed security, LANDesk has provided a unique combination of cloud-to-premise IT service management solutions, allowing customers to optimize the configuration of their service desk by leveraging the cloud, existing on-premise infrastructure or by taking advantage of both via a hybrid apporach."

Given the wide range of enterprise IT environments around the world, there is no one software delivery model to fit all. In addition, IT administrators, along with end users are now demanding more choices than ever before. Service Desk as a Service was created to address these demands and by doing so has garnered the praise of industry influencers.

"Through years of consulting and research, it’s become increasingly apparent that IT adopters not only prefer choices, they need them as technical and staffing resources change and as strategic initiatives and business objectives evolve," said Dennis Drogseth, vice president, EMA. "LANDesk’s new offerings are optimized to deliver maximum choice in selecting SaaS, on-premise, or hybrid deployments in a well-defined, well-governed, cost-effective and responsible approach. EMA has been very impressed with LANDesk’s progress as it grows beyond its native strengths in asset and systems management into a more robust, process-centric architecture to help unify the service desk more effectively with operations."

Bjorn is keen to use local knowledge and talent in order to service existing requirements and attract new partners in the Nordics for LANDesk products and services. Bjorn brings with him a wealth of experience with over 21 years in the technology industry and joined LANDesk from Trend Micro where he most recently held the position of Major Account Manager. Prior to working at Trend Micro, he held the position of country sales manager at RSA Security for seven years.

Nigel Seddon, Regional Sales Director for Northern Europe, comments, "These are exciting times for LANDesk and although we already have lots of customers in the Nordics, the introduction of a local presence will allow us to broaden the base as well as open up new Nordic territories. Holmen’s motivation and wealth of experience in this sector is unparalleled and will be vital to LANDesk’s commitment to driving success and increasing the channel in this region. I am confident that Holmen will be instrumental in encouraging the growth of LANDesk in the Nordics."

Holmen has a strong reputation built upon excellent management skills and expertise with a solid track record of exceeding targets, developing sales strategies and providing strong leadership in The Nordics. LANDesk is headquartered in Utah with offices located in Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Since becoming a stand-alone business in September of 2010, LANDesk has won more than 700 new customers and achieved a customer satisfaction rate of 93.5 percent. The company has been particularly successful in the education, healthcare and government markets. In fact, LANDesk recently accelerated its penetration into the federal government space with announced support for FIPS 140-2 and SCAP standards.

The company has achieved record profits this year and profits in the most recent quarter are up more than 30 percent. Within the past 12 months, LANDesk has won 10 awards from industry organizations such as Info Security Products Guide and CRN Magazine and was named the Network World Clear Choice winner for PC Lifecycle management. LANDesk has also been acknowledged for its technological leadership in industry analyst reports from Gartner, Forrester and EMA.

"LANDesk is reenergized as a stand-alone company with greater independence and flexibility, which is positively impacting our customers, partners and market momentum," said Steve Daly, CEO of LANDesk. "Despite challenging market conditions, we have over-achieved our financial targets with record growth in profitability and have been able to grow our business, broaden our customer base and expand our product portfolio. Our ability to deliver industry leading ROI coupled with our strong and improving financial position allows us to invest to extend our leadership position."

Investing in product improvements and research and development is one of the ways LANDesk will extend its leadership position. As part of the newest version of LANDesk® Management and Security Suites, the company announced LANDesk® Mobility Manager, which provides IT managers the capability to discover devices at the point where users access and consume corporate data and take action by removing data from a single device or from all users’ devices. In addition, LANDesk made significant upgrades to its LANDesk® Service Desk and LANDesk® Asset Lifecycle Manager products in the past year.

This fall, LANDesk will again be hosting Interchange, its annual customer and partner conference in Las Vegas. At the event, LANDesk executives will outline the company’s vision and strategy for 2012 and will make numerous product announcements, as the company continues to pursue profitable revenue growth and solidify its leadership position in delivering an integrated portfolio for simplifying the management of desktops, servers and mobile devices across the full spectrum of an organization’s IT environment.

This award recognizes security vendors with advanced, ground-breaking security solutions that help set the bar higher for others in all areas of information security. LANDesk solutions were selected based on real-world deployments that are making a positive impact on security in today’s highly sophisticated and blended attacks environment.

"With the recent proliferation of breaches we have seen across a range of industries, employing effective endpoint security measures is more critical than ever," said Mike Hall, senior vice president of sales and marketing at LANDesk Software. "This recognition is particularly meaningful because it validates LANDesk solutions not only on their own merits, but also on the effectiveness in the field. It’s the actual deployment that matters when endpoints are at stake."

LANDesk® Security Suite was selected as the winner in the Endpoint Security Solution category because of its small footprint, configurability and flexibility, all of which Radiant Systems, a major point-of-sale provider, found extremely valuable in enabling its customers to achieve PCI compliance. LANDesk Security Suite also provides a multi-layered approach that offers more integration and threat protection for Windows, Mac and mobile operating systems than other solutions – an increasingly valuable asset for deployment in today’s increasingly heterogeneous enterprise.

LANDesk® Cloud Services Appliance was chosen as the winner in the Enterprise Management category for enabling Gwinnett Hospital System, a large not-for-profit hospital network, to secure field-based or traveling laptops across the Internet—without a dedicated leased line or VPN and without punching a hole in the firewall. LANDesk Security Suite also helped the organization cost effectively distribute patches to its extensive network, a major requirement for a not-for-profit hospital with limited budget.

"The most powerful message security vendors can give to prove their capabilities and continued commitment in solving customer’s security needs is through successful deployments," says Rake Narang, editor-in-chief, Info Security Products Guide. "LANDesk’s successful deployment at two companies enabled both to effectively secure their endpoints, one across a wide range of customers and the other, a very mobile corporate network. These capabilities are what made LANDesk stand apart from the competition."

LANDesk Asset Lifecycle Manager allows IT managers to manage, update, protect and control all of their hardware and software assets – regardless of location. The solution gives IT administrators all the control they need, no matter how big or diverse their environments.

"Asset management is one of the most important, and yet one of the most daunting tasks for an IT organization," said Toby Martin, director of product management at LANDesk Software. "Organizations can save a significant amount of time and money by being proactive about asset management, particularly software asset management."

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) recently named LANDesk a Value Leader in its EMA Radar™ Report for Software Asset Management (SAM). The report evaluates a dozen vendors in the areas of discovery and inventory management, financial analysis of software usage, the ability to understand entitlements and the functionality to support software audits.

The report highlights LANDesk’s distinctive state-based approach for managing the asset lifecycle, including the ability to clearly see asset lifecycle status with a visual interface. The report points out the ease of use associated with LANDesk reporting functionality, as well as strong process automation capabilities, which are critical when software user and titles number in the hundreds of thousands.

LANDesk was also recently listed as a top vendor in Info-Tech Research Group’s Vendor Landscape report on IT asset management. LANDesk is one of the top three vendors based on product strength. In addition, Info Security Products Guide named LANDesk the winner of the 2011 Tomorrow’s Technology Today Award in the asset management solution category for the second year in a row.

"We are pleased to be recognized as a leading vendor of IT asset management solutions," said Toby Martin, director of product management at LANDesk Software. "With the proliferation of mobile devices in corporate environments, IT departments often struggle to maintain control and intelligently manage growing complexity and risk. LANDesk solutions help IT to simplify complexity and mitigate risk with complete lifecycle management, from discovery through retirement."

Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape reports recognize outstanding vendors in the technology marketplace. Assessing vendors by the strength of their offering and their strategy for the enterprise, Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscapes pay tribute to the contribution of exceptional vendors in a particular category.

LANDesk® Asset Lifecycle Management Solutions allow IT managers to manage, update, protect and control all of their hardware and software assets – regardless of location. LANDesk solutions give IT administrators all the control they need, from discovery to management, no matter how big or diverse their environments. Administrators can discover devices in their network, including mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys and Android devices, and store information about them in a central database. That information helps IT optimize all systems under one umbrella and thoroughly prepare for potential audits.

The Info-Tech Research Group report specifically highlights the tight integration of LANDesk asset management solutions with LANDesk Management Suite and leading third-party applications, as well as the strength of policy control through intelligent workflow automation. All LANDesk asset management solutions are available through the company’s global partner network.

View the full Info-Tech Research Group report: "Selecting an Automated IT Asset Management Solution."

LANDesk Software, a global leader in systems lifecycle management, endpoint security and IT service management, today announced that Info Security Products Guide has named LANDesk a triple winner of the 2011 Tomorrow's Technology Today Award in the asset management solutions, endpoint security solutions and patch management categories. This marks the second year in a row that LANDesk has won in all three categories.

This prestigious award recognizes security vendors with advanced, ground-breaking technologies and solutions that are helping set the bar higher for others in all areas of information security. LANDesk technologies were selected based on their positive impact on security in today's highly sophisticated and blended attacks environment.