Active Directory Management Tool. In this highly competitive category,
Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) pulled away easily as our readers'
choice for Best Active Directory (AD) Management Tool for the second year in
a row. GPMC is a solution for Group Policy administration that lets you manage
sites, organizational units (OUs), domains, and forests in a single UI with
drag-and-drop support. GPMC supports import, copy, backup, restore, and reporting
of Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Scripters enjoy additional benefits because
each GPMC operation can be scripted for customizable and automated management.
You can use GPMC to manage Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Group Policy
implementations.
See associated figure
Applications and Operations Management Tool. The ability to monitor
multiple computers and Microsoft applications such as SQL Server, Active Directory
(AD), and Exchange Server, might be the reason why Microsoft Operations Manager
(MOM) 2005 is our readers' choice—for the second straight year—as
Best Applications and Operations Management Tool. MOM provides three essential
functions for managing a Windows environment: it identifies problems, streamlines
the process for determining the root cause of problems, and facilitates quick
resolution to restore services and prevent additional problems. Management packs
monitor your servers, alerting you to problems and helping you resolve them.
Management packs are available to enable MOM to manage non-Microsoft applications.
See associated figure
Asset Management Software. This year, Help Desk Technology International's
HelpSTAR pulls off an upset win over Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS),
the winner of this award for the past four years. HelpSTAR is Help desk software
with asset management features that let administrators track and manage the
assets in their company to determine workstation configurations and service
histories, track and manage asset maintenance, and monitor software-licensing
compliance. In addition, HelpSTAR generates reports so you can review your technology
investments, prepare future budgets, and plan technology upgrades. HelpSTAR's
asset management features also provide additional functionality to Help desk
staff, who can scan for particular hardware and software in various support-call
scenarios.
See associated figure
Capacity Planning and Trend Analysis Software. VMware's Capacity Planner,
a hosted IT capacity analysis and planning tool, took the lead in the Best Capacity
Planning and Trend Analysis Software competition by a strong margin. The product
helps users quickly determine whether their current hardware is fully utilized
and identify areas in which consolidation and virtualization can benefit their
IT environment. Specifically, Capacity Planner lets administrators gather performance
metrics during peak usage times and collect data that gives a clear picture
of how servers and applications are used—or underused. An enterprise can
use this information to help develop a server consolidation strategy and discover
where virtualization opportunities exist.
See associated figure
Disk Imaging Software. For the past three years, Symantec Ghost Solution
Suite has been the winner in this category. An enterprise imaging and deployment solution that comprises
Symantec Ghost, Symantec Client Migration, and the Deploy-Center Library imaging
technology, Ghost Solution Suite lets administrators create OS, application,
and user settings images. You use the images to quickly migrate to or deploy
new OSs, restore PCs after a system crash or failure, install application upgrades,
and deploy new systems, all from a central management console. You can use the
Ghost Boot Wizard function to create a bootable CD-ROM ISO image, then use any
CD-writing software to write the image to a CD-ROM. The latest release lets
you image drives as large as 2TB.
See associated figure
Change and Configuration Management Tool. ScriptLogic Desktop Authority
took this award from Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003—the
winner for the past two years. Desktop Authority lets administrators configure
and manage Windows workstations by providing the capability to add and remove
printers, install applications, and maintain email profiles from a central location.
ScriptLogic's patented Validation Logic technology applies desktop configurations
according to validation-type settings for client OSs, Group Policy, Active Directory
(AD), organizational units (OU), and registry and file properties. From any
Java-enabled browser, an administrator can manage services, processes, and drivers;
edit file systems and the registry; manage applications; open files, DLLs, and
registry keys; and take control of a remote workstation. Desktop Authority collects
configuration, and hardware and software details and generates built-in reports.
See associated figure
Compliance Reporting Solution. ScriptLogic's Enterprise Security Reporter
is our readers' pick for Best Compliance Reporting Solution, a brand-new award
in the Readers' Choice competition this year. ScriptLogic describes this product
as "an agent-less, fast, comprehensive discovery and reporting solution for
analyzing file security, group memberships, and other security settings on Windows
servers." Enterprise Security Reporter provides a new UI that quickly collects
data to prove compliance with regulatory and best-practice standards such as
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA), and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The Delta Reporting function
lets administrators select two discovery snapshots to use to compare for security-related
changes made to files, folders, the registry, file shares, and Active Directory
(AD).
See associated figure
Event Log Manager. The Event Log Manager award is new to Readers' Choice
this year. By a wide margin, readers chose NETIKUS.NET's EventSentry as the
winner. EventSentry lets you configure event filtering so captured events route
to the appropriate department. You can also exclude events that aren't relevant
to you. Because EventSentry monitors Windows-based workstations' security event
log, you can use the product to help gather information required for compliance
regulations. The Event Log Consolidation feature stores event log entries in
a central ODBC database. You can then use the information to create reports
and print them through any popular Web browser or export them to comma separated
value (CSV) files.
See associated figure
Help Desk Software. For the second straight year, Help Desk Technology
International's Help-STAR takes the Best Help Desk Software award. (In 2004,
BMC Remedy and HelpSTAR were declared co-winners of the award.) HelpSTAR tracks
requests and provides a self-service portal for end users. A library of standard
reports let you identify problems, detect trends, and view representative activity.
Custom reporting is also available. HelpSTAR version 9.0, released in 2006,
includes project templates that facilitate IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
framework change-management processes, an email Inbox processing function that
lets you create a service request by dragging and dropping an email message
onto a related HelpSTAR icon, and a new Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
Audit function that scans networked PCs to obtain hardware and software configuration
information.
See associated figure
Meta/Virtual Directory. Windows Server 2003 R2 Distributed File System
(DFS) wins Best Meta/Virtual Directory, the third new award in the Systems Management
category. DFS is part of Windows Server 2003 R2 OS and provides two key technologies:
DFS Replication and DFS Namespaces. These technologies ensure that offsite users
stay connected to the files they need and that local servers are backed up correctly
after system changes are made. DFS Replication supports replication scheduling
and bandwidth throttling and uses Remote Differential Compression, a protocol
that updates files over networks with limited bandwidth capacity. DFS Namespaces
provides the ability to group shared folders from across various servers and
present them to users as a virtual tree.
See associated figure
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