The management imperative

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Pillars of Enterprise

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Technical Brief: IT Management

Pillars of Enterprise Protection: IT Management

The management imperative

Contents

The management challenge . . . 1

Complexity . . . 1

Security. . . 1

Windows 7 . . . 1

Core management capabilities . . . 2

Client management . . . 2

Server management . . . 3

Asset management . . . 3

Service Desk support . . . 4

Effective Windows 7 migration. . . 4

Altiris IT Management Suite from Symantec . . . 5

Integrated management . . . 5

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The management challenge

IT infrastructure, originally intended to help run financial and manufacturing organizations, has grown to resemble one. Infrastructure management in the 1990s concentrated on one-at-a-time deployment and "break-fix" deskside

maintenance. Imaging and remote control tools for the height of sophistication, and management was by fire drill, or spreadsheet at best.

It couldn't last, and it didn't. As IT grew more central to enterprise operations, the challenges of IT management—and the risks of getting it wrong—grew more urgent.

Complexity

New platforms, services, and initiatives quickly outstripped the capabilities of informal management. Complex infrastructures require IT organizations to specialize into separate teams responsible for managing storage, servers, databases, messaging, and more. Specialization improves efficiency, but comes at the cost of duplication or conflict in managing technologies or processes that cross organizational boundaries, and the possibility of unmanaged gaps where responsibilities are undefined or unclear.

Security

Challenges are especially acute in managing IT security across complex infrastructures and organizations. Some of the

latest and most dangerous security threats1work across technologies to exploit complex vulnerabilities: a targeted "spear

phishing" email, for example, may direct employees to a website that implants code designed to steal company records. Effective protection against this kind of attack requires coordination among messaging, Web, patch management, endpoint antivirus, and data-loss prevention technologies and teams. And as security and data-protection software solutions themselves grow more complex, security-management software can help assure that they are properly configured, up to date, and running, and guide remediation efforts when they are not.

Windows 7

The release of Windows 7 represents a watershed event in the history of systems management. Many organizations skipped Windows Vista, so it has been a decade since their last major OS migration -- making Windows 7 the first full-scale industry-wide test of today's multicomponent management suites. Many organizations will get their first look at these suites during their Windows 7 migrations, which will not only accelerate their transition, but help them meet the challenges of the coming decade, including:

• Proliferation of mobile, virtualized, and cloud platforms that continue to complicate physical links between computing assets and their owners

• Financial, strategic, and environmental requirements that push IT managers to accomplish more at lower capital and operating expense

• Threats to infrastructure and data that are growing more focused, persistent, and costly

1-Symantec Corporation. Global Internet Security Threat Report XV. (Cupertino, CA: April, 2010). 6-Symantec Corporation. Internet Security Threat Report XV. (Cupertino, CA: April, 2010). http://eval.symantec.com/ mktginfo/enterprise/white_papers/b-whitepaper_internet_security_threat_report_xv_04-2010.en-us.pdf

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Core management capabilities

IT management solutions counteract the growing complexity, vulnerability, and volatility of IT infrastructure by helping organizations:

• Standardize management across Windows, multiple UNIX and Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems, Microsoft and VMware virtual environments, and more

• Automate both individual tasks and IT policy enforcement to build efficiency, consistency, accuracy, and productivity into IT service delivery

• Consolidate tools and disciplines to gain visibility and control over the entire IT environment and get more from their assets and staff

Individual solutions for client, server, and asset management are growing more comprehensive and powerful. But the compelling value of modern management solutions comes from their integration of information across solutions into consolidated console views and reports, and the organization of individual management activities into workflows that may be extended and combined to meet such complex requirements in OS migration, Service Desk management, or incident response.

These capabilities will grow even more important over the next five years, as IT struggles to manage increasingly virtual assets across complex infrastructures that span virtual and physical worlds and their organizations' own internal and external boundaries. Technologies such as server virtualization and cloud computing, applications streaming, Web applications and software-as-a-service increasingly decouple IT workloads from underlying physical assets, making IT management both more difficult and more necessary than ever.

The following sections illustrate the capabilities that organizations should expect from future-ready solutions for integrated IT management.

Client management

Client management solutions integrate components that discover and inventory client systems, tools for image-based deployment and configuration, solutions to package, virtualize, patch, and manage application software, backup and recovery solutions for continued business productivity, and support for remote assistance and troubleshooting. The latest generation adds new capabilities for process automation, end-user-focused management, and intelligent software management, including:

• Automated, policy-driven process management with conditional logic and orchestration of deployment, migration, and end-user self-service

• Improved detection and analysis of software, with collection of user and ownership data along with version and upgrade status

• Application virtualization tools for easy distribution and compatibility assurance, with improved policy compliance

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Replacing manual solutions with Symantec Client Management solutions results in significant time and cost savings over the life span of a desktop or laptop computer. But over and above the direct cost savings, client management supports business objectives with improved management quality, spanning visibility and control, standardization, automation of manual processes, improved security posture, and progress toward on-demand end-user IT services.

Server management

Server management gives IT administrators the specialized tools they need to keep critical servers up, with automating provisioning, control, and monitoring of both physical and virtual servers throughout their lifecycles from procurement or deployment through decommissioning. These solutions help address the growing complexity of hybrid physical and virtual server environments with ease-of-use enhancements such as maintenance and staging calendars, configuration and policy wizards, and improved visualization and reporting tools. Extensions include backup and recovery for mission-critical servers with physical-to-virtual or virtual-to physical recovery options, compliance visibility and reporting, and centrally managed server security.

Service-level requirements, virtualization, and business growth are turning up demands on critical servers, while tiered applications and multiple operating systems are increasing management complexity. Server management solutions, integrated into complete IT management solutions, are a powerful way for IT to automate operations, apply best practices, and increase quality of service even as they reduce IT costs.

Asset management

Asset management solutions inventory hardware and application software across IT environments, complete with versions, license, contract, and lease/purchase information, with data on interrelationships of assets to one another, configuration data, their users, actual cost-of-ownership information, and maintenance status.

Asset management is the foundation for accurate IT budgeting and financial decision-making, and helps IT staff manage organizational changes from mergers, growth, relocations, and contraction. Asset management speeds compliance by identifying disappearance of assets and data and instances of license oversubscription. Its overall effect is to reduce operational costs, and align IT with the business by reducing licensing costs, penalties and other unpredictable expenses. To keep pace with the expanding pool of physical and virtual assets under management, IT organizations should expect these solutions to include automated processes for:

• Procurement and receiving with support for barcode scanners

• Ownership verification to identify the owners of an asset and notify them of inaction or scheduled task • Hardware and software request management, with a request portal and tracking workflow

• Lease termination alerts with notice of pending lease expirations, and workflow to initiate return processes • Asset maps by location, user, and owner, to track and manage "ripple effects" from asset and configuration

changes

• Software license management tools to streamline software license purchases, installs, compliance, planning, and harvesting

• Configuration-management database for in-depth views of asset configuration in full context without correlating across solutions

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• Coverage of mobile and IP phones, with customization options to track medical devices, analytical instruments, and other non-IT assets

The ability to link assets with their users and owners helps IT organizations link asset-management operations with business processes for true 360° control over all IT assets deployed in the service of a department, business initiative, or individual.

Service Desk support

As IT staff attempt to improve responsiveness and meet IT governance and risk management requirements, reactive, manual service desk processes are a significant obstacle. Service desk management solutions should include:

• Advanced integration—including third-party products—to give incident managers relevant information across multiple sources for quick resolution

• ITIL support for industry-standard best-practices for incident, problem, release, change, and knowledge management

• Self-service and process automation of repetitive tasks to improve customer satisfaction, reduce errors and response times, and automate escalation

• Service catalog automation that allows end-user self-service for repetitive or routine tasks, skipping IT entirely or including them in approval only

Service desk solutions should also include tools designed to accelerate the creation and testing of process steps to modify standard service desk processes, or create entirely new workflows to automate them. And full integration of service desk support into overall IT management assures visibility and smooth, effective operation across client, server, and hardware and software asset domains.

Effective Windows 7 migration

IT Management solutions can simplify and accelerate organizations' migration to the Microsoft® Windows® 7 platform as well as help assure that the new IT environment is efficient and secure. Migration-specific tools included in management solutions can help organizations assess their migration readiness, build images, prepare applications, capture user personalities, and then assemble and automate a smooth migration that includes:

• "Zero-touch" migration of remote systems

• "Configure-on demand" capability to minimize image size and network traffic, and tailor desktops to exact departmental or end-user requirements

• Virtualized application delivery to "ring-fence" legacy applications, minimize conflicts, and set the stage for future application delivery models

True integration among components is essential for a smooth migration and efficient management of the new

environment. In preparation for Windows 7, Symantec has prepared a new guide, 7 Steps to Windows 72, outlining how

2-Symantec Corporation. 7 Steps to Windows 7 (Cupertino, CA: October, 2009). http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/white_papers/b-whitepaper_7_steps_to_windows_7.pdf

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enterprise organizations can save time and money, and minimize end-user downtime during their migration and build a more secure, efficient infrastructure for their business future.

Altiris IT Management Suite from Symantec

Figure 1: Altiris IT Management Suite 7.0 integrates Symantec and third-party management solutions with a single management platform, console, and workflow engine, for visibility and control over large organizations diverse assets and complex operations.

Integrated management

Infrastructure complexity, multi-pronged security threats, and the challenge of Windows 7 migration require more than a collection of individual point solutions---and more than a "marketing bundle" that integrates solutions with little more than shrink wrap. The foundation of Altiris IT Management Suite is the Symantec Management Platform, a Web-based console with associated services to provide visibility, control, and coordination across component solutions. Platform services include:

• Discovery—technologies to locate, identify, and collect information on undiscovered assets, to locate

unprotected or unpatched systems, license liability exposure from unauthorized software, or hidden caches of sensitive data

• Management—back-end administrative support for management solutions, with role- and scope-based security that gives technical staff the granular data they need, and executive management actionable top-level analysis • Automation—graphic workflow design, test, and customization that improves productivity dramatically

compared to custom scripts linking incompatible point solutions

• Reporting—advanced analytics that consolidate information across component solutions for an in-depth end-to-end view of infrastructure status and trends

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Why Symantec?

Altiris IT Management Suite 7.0 from Symantec combines best-in-class solutions for endpoint and asset management, service desk operations, and OS migration in a comprehensive solution built on the robust Symantec Management Platform. It combines and extends the capabilities of the market-leading Altiris family of management solutions in a single-vendor solution aligned with the advanced requirements of enterprise organizations.

More than just a problem-solving technology, Altiris IT Management Suite gives IT a new way of working, and a new source of value to their organizations. It reduces total costs by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks involved in

deployment, management, security, and troubleshooting, so staff can apply their talents to more rewarding and valuable activities. It reduces IT complexity by delivering visibility, monitoring, and reporting across the endpoints of even the most distributed global network, for quick, decisive response and improved security. And it adds business value by aligning people, processes, and technologies, thus enabling IT to assume a more strategic business role with their organizations.

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About Symantec

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storage and systems management solutions to help

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their information-driven world. Our software and

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