News

Symantec releases their latest version of Symantec IT Management Suite 8.0

March 29, 2016 By Vam Gangam

The main goals of Symantec’s IT Management Suite 8.0 are to improve performance, scalability, cloud integration, support for latest version of Internet Explorer and ease of use. In addition, improvements have been made around inventory, application metering and the help system. New flip book pages have been added to include SMA agent health and software utilization. Security Cloud integration now allows users to bring unmanaged cloud devices into the CMDB for a unified view of all assets. Finally, the ability to create dynamic reports from filters, targets and Activity Center predefined data classes, has been added.

Installing or upgrading Symantec Management Platform 8.0 is easier and faster than previous versions. The average the time to upgrade went from 2 hours to just 30 minutes. The number of clients a single server can now support went from 20K to 50K and cloud enabled management has been extended to Apple systems. Additionally, new security features have been added for compliance:

Support for FIPS 140-2 standards
SSL rollout improvements
Support for TLS 1.1 and 1.2 for Cloud Enabled Management

Here are some of the new screens that have been added to the console:

Agents/Plug-ins

You can now see Agent’s Health status including Communications, Configuration Requests, Basic Inventory and Agent Version in a single dashboard. In addition, each of the specific areas can now be drilled down to a single client computer.

Application Metering

Application Metering now supports UEFI secure boot and has a dedicated driver that monitors the configured applicataions and will act accordingly even when the core agent is disabled.

Software License Tracking

Within Asset Management, Software License Tracking has been extended to include licensing models per computer, per user, per processor or per core. The compliance dashboard (below) has been given a new look as well as new functionality depending on the license tracking options selected.

Context Help System

The Context Health System shown below, now unifies search results from ITMS Documentation, Symantec Connect and Symantec Support. It is now referred to as the Unified Help System (UHS) making configuration and troubleshooting much quicker and specific. UHS comes with standard install of ITMS 8.0 and it has the capability to connect directly to online version of the Help System for more updated information.

Additional Features

Also worth mentioning are features such as:

Report Generation from Filters, Targets and Activity Center
Global and Individual Site Server Settings
Site Server Communication Profiles for Certificate Distribution
Individual Package Server Settings

Symantec Security Cloud Connector lets you integrate Symantec Unified Endpoint Protection Cloud Service with your IT Management Suite. You can manage the mobile devices of your organization in the Unified Endpoint Protection portal, import the data into IT Management Suite, and then view the data in the Symantec Management Console.

Product specific IT Management Suite (ITMS) 8.0 Documentation is available at: https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.DOC8649.html

For any additional details on implementing Altiris 8.0 in your environment please contact our Lanworks Life Cycle Management Team.

The Ultimate Mobile Workstation

March 4, 2016 By Vam Gangam

Last summer I blogged about HP’s Omen Pro workstation notebook. I liked it a lot, saying it was “a very powerful, sleek, light (for a workstation) and sexy hunk of professional hardware,” but like anything it wasn’t perfect. Because is was based on a high-end consumer model, rather than being built for business from the ground up, it still had a few issues, such as battery life and a glossy touchscreen that maxed out at 1080p.

Still, the idea of a thin and light, yet still very powerful, workstation notebook is very appealing, and for 2016 HP has kept at it and created a much-improved model, the new ZBook Studio G3. I’ve been using one for a week now and have been very impressed with this new model.

Mobile Xeon has Arrived

HP’s Workstation notebooks are called ZBooks, and up until now there have only been two choices. If you wanted the full power of a quad-core processor, lots of RAM, dedicated workstation graphics and a high-resolution display you had a choice between the ZBook 15 and ZBook 17. Although both of these machines are excellent pieces of mobile hardware (in fact, many of Lanworks’ employees use ZBooks, including yours truly), they are some of the biggest and heaviest business-class notebooks HP offers.

The other option, the ZBook 15u, although much thinner and lighter, is built on HP’s EliteBook notebook chassis, so it only offers dual-core processor options, which for some workloads isn’t going to be enough. The ZBook Studio addresses this issue but using Intel’s latest 6^th Generation Skylake i7 and new Mobile Xeon processors that are much more power efficient than the previous generation, allowing a machine as portable as the Studio to still come with a quad-core CPU. The latter processor option is significant because this is the first time you’ve been able to get a Xeon processor in a notebook, complete with support for more reliable ECC RAM as found in desktop workstations.

An Ultrabook with HP’s Z DNA

In addition, despite the Ultrabook tag, the ZBook Studio G3 still had all of the features that define the bigger HP Z workstations. It’s ISV certified, passes MIL-STD 810G durability testing, has a dedicated Nvidia Quadro workstation-class GPU, supports up to 32GB of ECC memory, yet it still only weighs 4.4lbs (very light for a 15-inch notebook) and is only 18mm thick. I’ve become accustomed to lugging around my 6.2lb ZBook 15 every day, so replacing it with the Studio was a huge weight off my shoulders, literally.

As an Ultrabook, you’d expect the ZBook to sport a sleeker design than its bigger brothers, and in this department, the Studio certainly delivers. As we said above, we thought the Omen Pro was a pretty sexy piece of professional hardware but the Studio turns it up a notch. It both manages to look more business-like than the Omen (and closer in style to the other ZBooks), yet still have some unique design elements that make it stand out. For example, when you flip it over, its bottom has an eye-catching textured geometric pattern, and its magnesium chassis has attractive diamond-cut edges.

HP Kills the Laptop Dock

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about some of the top business trends I saw at this year’s CES, and one of them was the death of the traditional laptop dock. The ZBook 15 and ZBook 17 both have dock connectors to mount them on big, bulky and proprietary docking stations to conveniently add more ports and connect the notebook to an external keyboard and mouse. In my post, I talked about how USB Type-C is going to change everything, by allowing for a single cable connected to an external dock to be able provide all a notebook’s power, data and video connection needs. Also, if the notebook has Thunderbolt 3 ports (that use USB Type-C cables) you can connect two 4K external displays to one machine, and what do you know, the ZBook Studio has two Thunderbolt 3 ports!

This means that you can hook it up to HP’s ZBook Dock with Thunderbolt 3, which adds ten additional ports, including DisplayPort, VGA, Ethernet and USB 3.0. This dock is small and light enough that you will be easily able to throw in your bag with the Studio, so you have the extra connectivity. Don’t worry if you don’t though – even though the Studio is an Ultrabook, it still had a lot of onboard connectivity.

There are three USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports (that with adapters can also be DisplayPort-out ports), Ethernet and HDMI.

A 4K Mobile Workstation Marvel

Did I mention that you can get the ZBook Studio G3 with an optional 4K display? Well, you can, and while 4K may seem overkill for a notebook, everything just looks so much crisper and clearer on such a high-resolution display. Furthermore, when working in advanced ISV applications like AutoCAD and other engineering software, the additional screen density of 4K will allow you to display more of your work on a single screen.

From the time that I’ve spent with the ZBook Studio I can safely say it’s one of the best notebooks you can currently buy because it combines the extreme power of a workstation with the practical portability of an Ultrabook, all wrapped up in a gorgeous package. However, we understand that perhaps this isn’t going to be the ideal machine for every worker – along with its premium performance comes a premium price and it might be overkill for some.

At the end of the day, though, if your work requires the most powerful portable hardware possible, as does the work of many of Lanworks’ own engineers, then I’d suggest you take a good look at the ZBook Studio G3. For more information about it, you can contact one of our sales team members.

ITMS Health Check

January 22, 2016 By Arthur Zylka

If you are an Altiris diehard or have inherited an existing implementation, and are facing issues related to its performance, functionality or are even contemplating a replacement, rest assure you’re not alone.

Anybody familiar with Altiris product lines such as Client Management, Server Management, IT Management or Service Desk can attest that getting these solutions to perform and function as advertised can be, at best, challenging for most admins. In most cases, “Set it and forget it” does not resonate well with the Altiris line of products. Altiris admins need to continually stay “On Top” of the environment to ensure success. Typical maintenance headaches include;

Ensuring compliant hardware configurations
Regular (monthly) software updates/fixes
Managed Clients functionality
Producing required/custom reports
Creating custom workflows

Our technical team at Lanworks have been doing the Altiris thing for over 12 years now, helping customers get the most out of their solution. I know, I know, you are probably asking yourself why? Symantec as well as the competition has managed to get a lot of customers to develop an allergy to the word Altiris. Having said that, we do support similar solutions from other vendors and as far as Altiris is concerned, in my opinion, it is one of the most comprehensive, flexible, scalable and one of the easiest platforms to implement and manage despite of all its challenges. Then again, which software, especially of this magnitude, does not have its ‘issues’?

I do agree that when Symantec acquired Altiris they were too eager to impress and have fallen short with their initial release of SMP 7.0. This caused a lot of customers to look at other solutions, and since implementation of any ITMS solution is a massive undertaking, most of these customers, once switched, were not interested on going back. With that said, the release of SMP 7.5, cloud enabled management and Bomgar partnership offered a very robust and secure offering for management of local as well as remote users. That release happened in the third quarter of 2013 and since then a significant number of improvements and enhancements has been implemented and has put Altiris back into the ITMS landscape.

We have developed a simple yet effective solution for existing Altiris environments. We begin by performing a complementary (yes free) Altiris Health-Check. Oh no, free…nothing is free, well.., this one is…and here’s why. As a Certified Symantec Platinum Partner we are privy to MDF or Market Development Funds that we can apply to perform these Health Checks.

This Health-Check starts with a discussion on the current Altiris implementation, its functions, likes and dislikes. We then dive deeper to examine the architecture, performance, detailed information on solution patch levels, functionality and provide you with an analysis of the troubled spots, bottlenecks, security risks and potential enhancements that may be required to ensure an optimal environment. In addition, each section of the report includes recommended actions based on Symantec best practices and Lanworks real life experience. Some organizations take our recommendations and do it all in-house, others may outsource to us… you decide.

To simplify the process, this service can be performed on site or via remote access.

Top Business Trends from CES 2016

January 15, 2016 By Vam Gangam

Every New Year, tens of thousands of people (170,000 this year!) from all facets of the tech industry descend upon Las Vegas for CES, the Consumer Electronics Show.

Although it’s roots were an event that showcased the latest in audio visual equipment, it has grown to embrace computing and now future technologies like automotive tech and wearables. However, one key point is that it is a consumer (rather than business) focused show, so you can’t expect HP to announce its latest SAN solution there. Despite that, there are still quite a few new technologies shown that are relevant for business, and here are some highlights from what we saw.

OLEDs are for More Than just TVs and Phones

OLED, known for its deep blacks and vibrant colours has become the go to ultimate display technology for all the best ultra HD TVs and also a lot of premium smartphones (like the Galaxy S6). However, until this show, you couldn’t find this tech used in many other products, especially ones for business. Well, both HP, Lenovo, Dell and Samsung surprised us by showing off notebooks with gorgeous OLED displays.
For business users, there is the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon Yoga and HP has updated its Spectre x360 to have OLED displays. Although OLED technology won’t directly impact your productivity in standard office applications, you will still appreciate the improved visual quality, and for those in the creative industries the benefits are greater.

Death of the Laptop Dock

Traditionally, there has always been one essential accessory for any business notebook, and that is a docking station. Dock’s allow you to expand the amount of ports the laptop has (which is always limited due to their size), and is also a convenient way to hook up an external monitor, mouse and keyboard. You just simply place the notebook on the dock when you get to the desk, everything connects, and you get to work. One of the problems with these docks is that they are proprietary – not just by brand, but even by model, where the dock your company bought 2-years ago might not work on your new machine.

Well, all that is about to change thanks to the new technology found in USB Type-C, that can use a single cable to send power, data and video back and forth. This means that the next generation of business laptop docks will let you plug one cable to your notebook to power it and connect to all your external accessories, including up to two monitors. On top of that, machines that support Intel’s Thunderbolt 3 tech can connect to up to three external displays or two 4K displays all from one cable.

The beauty of this technology is that it is NOT proprietary, so if you buy a Dell Thunderbolt Dock and later an HP notebook, you’ll still be able to use together. At CES, both Dell and HP showed off these new docks.

USB Type-C

The replacement for the larger non-reversible USB Type-A standard has been around for about a year now, but until now not many devices have incorporated. This smaller plug can be connected either way, and the standard allows for much more that just data connectivity, as you can see in the section above about Type-C enabled docks.

As CES, we finally started to see a much wider range of machines, from business tablets to notebooks, incorporating Type-C ports, including HP’s super-sexy new ultraportable business notebook, the new 12-inch EliteBook Folio that only has two Type-C ports for connectivity.

Modular Everything

Although modular components are nothing new, at this year’s CES we saw more and more companies showcasing attachments that can enhance or even transform the way they work. Lenovo had a new business tablet on display, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet and it will be available with a number of modular extensions. The Presenter Module transforms it into a powerful presentation device by adding a Pico projector, the Productivity Module adds additional ports and battery life, and the 3D Imaging Module incorporates an Intel RealSense 3D camera that transforms the X1 into a 3D scanner.
Lenovo displayed some additions to its innovative ThinkPad Stack, which is a series of stackable accessories that all connect a single space-saving tower of options. The original stack included a wireless router, Bluetooth speaker, external hard drive and power bank, and joining them is a wireless charging pad and a (another) Pico projector.

VR is for More Than Just Games

Up until now AR (Augmented or mixed reality) products like Microsoft’s Hololens have been seen as the “new reality” tools designed for business, rather than fully immersive VR (virtual reality), which is more for games and entertainment. Well, at CES there were some demonstrations on how VR can also be used for business, and one of the most interesting was the Dassault Systèmes 3D experience.

Dassault, a French software company that makes the Solidworks CAD software, showcased how you can use consumer-grade tech like the HTC Vive VR headset and Microsoft Kinect to create a collaborative environment for engineers and designers to work on projects together in VR. This technology is designed to replace the expensive “VR Caves” that larger organizations in the aerospace and automotive industries use for collaboration.

CES, a Glimpse Into Our (Business) Future

For tech enthusiasts, January is always the most exciting time of the year, where CES lets them look at new technology that are just around the corner or perhaps a few years away. Although much of what is shown is consumer facing, many of these innovations find their way into the business space, and the above examples are only a select few from all the cool thing we saw at the show. Moreover, we didn’t even talk about self-driving cars, but that’s for another day!

How to Determine if Hyper-Converged Infrastructure is Right for Your Business

December 18, 2015 By Vam Gangam 1 Comment

At this time of year, it is common for many of us to reflect on the past 12 months and think about what we want to achieve in the New Year. For those in the IT space, many teams have already begun to envision and define which projects they will be working on in 2016. Is your infrastructure one of them?

In the past year, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) has grown in popularity. With vendors like Nutanix in the market space, IT departments are now provided with a new option when it comes to scaling their data-centers. We’ve have had many conversations with our clients on this relatively new offering in 2015 and have helped determine if this solution is right for our clients’ business.

In our last blog post, we covered off the main differences between converged and hyper-converged infrastructures. Yet the question remains, is HCI right for you? [Read more…] about How to Determine if Hyper-Converged Infrastructure is Right for Your Business

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure: What Canadian SMBs REALLY Need to Know

December 11, 2015 By Vam Gangam Leave a Comment

According to IDC, the hyper-converged infrastructure, or HCI, market is currently growing at 116%, and is expected to reach $800 million by the end of 2015, and to pass $1.5 billion worldwide in 2016.

Virtualized environments have increasingly become the standard, because of its many benefits to IT departments. Who doesn’t want reduced power consumption, high-availability, and more streamlined IT deployment and support for rapid change?

Still, even in virtualized environments, IT infrastructures exist in figurative silos, with different infrastructure elements of network, storage, compute, software operating on different systems, often with difference experts.

But for many organizations the silos are disappearing. Large cloud providers, such as Amazon or Google, have developed an infrastructure model to extend the benefits of virtualization to meet their exponentially expanding IT infrastructure needs, dubbed hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI).

Converged vs. hyper-converged infrastructure

Virtually all major infrastructure companies are looking at, and developing, solutions for the converged infrastructure space. Open source analyst firm Wikibon has estimated that by 2017 nearly two-thirds of all infrastructures that supports enterprise applications will be packaged as converged solutions.

On the other hand, hyper-converged infrastructure takes the decoupling of function and hardware even further by delivering the function using software. In this software-defined approach all infrastructure components run across a mesh or fabric of low-cost hardware components turning them into a single pool from which resources can be drawn.

While hyper-converged is an exciting, up & coming technology, is it right for your business?

A great deal of confusion still exists around converged infrastructures, their benefits and challenges, and what businesses and environments for which they are well suited. We get it! At their simplest, converged infrastructure is based on blocks of hardware and hyper-converged is software-defined. But this distinction creates significant concerns that SMBs must consider.

Our recently published whitepaper “Demystifying Hyper-Converged Infrastructure: Investigating the Pros & Cons of HCI for Canadian SMBs” looks at HCI and what SMBs must consider in evaluating such solutions. If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, download the paper here.

For more information about Lanworks & our core IT solutions, contact us today!

Symantec releases their latest version of Symantec IT Management Suite 8.0