Quest enhances KACE Systems Management Appliance

Quest Software has introduced the KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) 9.0, a comprehensive, multi-platform endpoint and asset management solution that helps businesses proactively provision, manage, secure and service their growing endpoint environments. The unified endpoint management solution features improvements to workflow and infrastructure, as well as updates to Service Desk, asset management, endpoint communications and security functionalities. Quest KACE SMA makes it easier than ever for IT administrators to manage network-attached devices -- from notebooks, PCs and printers to Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices, all from a single pane of glass.

"Doing business today requires an increasing number of devices and platforms, making IT endpoint management more and more complex," said Ken Galvin, Senior Product Manager, Quest Unified Endpoint Management business. "KACE SMA has always been dedicated to making the management, security and servicing of the growing ecosystem of endpoints easier and more efficient, and this latest version is no different."

Single Console for Comprehensive Management of Endpoint Environments

KACE SMA 9.0 (also known as the K1000) empowers IT admins to manage network-attached devices with one, easy-to-use console, rather than multiple, disparate solutions. Through a single-pane-of-glass view, businesses can easily manage devices, mitigate security risks, address service tickets, and audit for compliance. IT admins can also ensure that software licensing is being used efficiently to avoid waste, and reduce time and resources required for troubleshooting errors. Additionally, KACE is future-ready to manage next-generation technologies such as IoT. 

"KACE SMA is perfect for us as it's reliable, quick and easy to use," said Duncan Bennett, Helpdesk Administrator for longtime KACE customer Naim Audo. "Sitting alongside our own infrastructure, but with enough depth to engage even the hardest of sysadmins, the KACE SMA 9.0 upgrade has brought some much needed features to an already proven system. Our users and technicians appreciate the ease of use, the UI improvements, the quick dashboards, the depth of integration and the analytics we get. Admins appreciate the depth of function available within a few minutes - you really can do nearly everything from one system, and most of it can be automated."

New Features & Functionality within KACE SMA 9.0

The KACE SMA 9.0 new dashboards for Service Desk, asset management, and endpoint communications features put widgets, links and news feeds all in one place, for an easier, more comprehensive management dashboard. A SysTray application has also been added to show the connection status of the agent for Windows and Mac, and allows for easy restart of the agent or a forced inventory with just the click of a mouse. Additionally, KACE SMA's updated user interface allows for light, dark or hybrid environments, allowing administrators to set their work environment to their personal preference.

Additional KACE SMA new features and functionalities include:

• Service Desk and User Console: Automated Service Desk ticketing allows certain alerts to automatically create new Service Desk tickets. Users can approve or reject tickets right from email, without having to revisit the SMA interface.
  
  
• Software License Asset Management: Software License Harvest Assistant allows users to quickly and easily detect and take action to remove seldom used software, a powerful function for improving efficiencies. Software catalog customization allows users to restrict what items are considered licensed software in License Compliance (e.g., .NET, Facetime, Spotify, Solitaire, vSphere Client) and only see what is considered important to the organization.
  
  
• Endpoint Communications: Added support for Raspberry Pi/Raspbian Linux Agent enables users to perform inventory, scripts, managed installations, and other actions just like other Linux distributions. Additionally, remote machine actions allow the Agent Relay Tunnel to start a custom machine action via a designated computer in a remote subnet.
  
  
• Platform and Infrastructure: Two-factor authentication provides an added layer of security, and a common calendar offers a global view of events such as managed installs, patching, scripts, and OVAL scanning.