The LANDesk Suite has been around for many years and version 8 brings some welcome improvements. A powerful and multi-functional management suite, it is designed to help IT managers to control large networked environments.

Previous users will be familiar with the core functionalities, which include asset management and migration software. Add-on components are available for servers, real-time problem resolution or patch management, all at additional cost.

This extensive range is controlled through a new console, which can be a little daunting for first-time users. However, it does not take long to get to grips with it and to navigate rapidly to the various sections.

Role-based administration ensures greater flexibility by limiting feature access and view rights for each console user.

One of the key improvements is that software distribution now benefits from LANDesk's Peer Download technology. This helps to reduce bandwidth consumption, enabling clients to download packages from peer-group clients residing on the same subnet.

Dynamic bandwidth throttling and byte level checkpoints ensure the packages are received fully over slow links.

New on-demand secure remote control improves security by loading the agent only when an authenticated request is received. Any remote control traffic is passed over an SSL connection.

Scalability has been improved to 200,000 nodes within a single database scheme. Significantly, support for Mac OS X systems running Jaguar or above has been included.

The LANDesk suite covers a great deal in a single package. While there are a number of competitors providing similar features, LANDesk's latest improvements may sway your decision.

Contact: LANDesk Software (0118) 902 6200
www.landesk.com

Specifications:

Price details:
£48 per node; add-ons - System £5, Patch £6.50, Servers £277 (all ex. VAT)