Microsoft has a piece of software called SMS, or "Systems Management Server". I work in an environment of a couple thousand(?) Windows XP desktops, and we're deploying SMS for use. I attended a crash course today on what it means for me, and I was very impressed.
SMS gives me complete control over the software environment of individual computers. Every computer in the entire network is represented in a Windows Explorer-like tree view. You can drill down to the individual computer you want and look at what hardware they have (as in the Device Manager), every single executable on the machine (major software as well as spyware, adware, wallpaper switcher, weather teller, etc), how often any given program has been used on the computer, how many and what patches have been installed to the OS or to individual programs. And it works with non-Microsoft software, too. I can install programs on the computer (simple installs like any Adobe product) and I can uninstall any program. The user doesn't even know. The only way they'd know is if they went to use the program and, lo and behold, it wasn't there. And it's possible to create "reports", i.e. querys, that determine how many of each application is installed, for licensing purposes, and how often a given program is used. "Hey, Jill Schmill says she uses Quark Xpress three or four times a week, but we've been monitoring it for three months now and she's used it twice in that time." Uninstall it, use the money you save on a couple more licenses of the mainframe program. And so on. We're going to be using SMS to enforce a policy of preventing network access to any computer with more than 9 outstanding OS patches. SMS is wonderful. It's taking stuff that you *could* have done before, using scripts and WMI and good old fashioned footwork, and rolling it all into one easy to use (and I mean *easy*) and sensibly integrated tool. SMS is wonderful in a Windows world! And Vintela (www.vintela.com) lets you use SMS with Unix boxen, too! -todd
