Combining the features of its inventory products with its software distribution products, Vector Networks recently released version 5.03 of the LANutil Suite, a PC auditing and software distribution product. The company said that through the combination of the two products in the newest version, users have not only the ability to report on PC assets, but are now able to deploy software to them as well.
According to Art Johnston, technical services manager for the Duluth, Ga.-based company, a new feature of the LANutil Suite is the addition of LANdeploy. Johnston explained that LANdeploy is a utility that automatically deploys a LANutil Client in a multi-domain NT/Windows 2000 installation.
“New with the 5.03 release, we are able to automatically deploy the client and roll that across the network,” he said. “In prior versions that functionality was there but it was not integrated in the console.”
Designed for the small- to medium-sized business, LANutil 5.03 supports ODBC-compliant databases and enables access from a variety of customer database applications and reporting packages. The Suite is also available bundled with Vector’s remote control product, PC-Duo Plus, under the Elite brand name. Johnston added that version 5.03 comes with limited DMI support and said that machines do not have to be powered on or attached to the network to be able to be managed.
“We include 35 canned reports,” Johnston said. “The reports cover all the hardware and installed software. If you have gathered user information, we can summarize that user information into a report. We can see what software has been changed and report on that. These reports are right out of the box.”
According to Jasek Pakula, team leader of the IT test lab for Teknion Furniture Systems Ltd. in Toronto, the combination of the 5.03 package and the features included made LANutil an ideal product choice. He said one of the major issues Teknion faced was simply keeping track of equipment and software inventory.
“When companies are growing fast, you are getting into a problem of managing all this equipment,” Pakula said. “I think having accurate reports from LANutil…has helped us understand what we have and reassign sources. Software inventory and installations can be tracked.”
Rob Ingrham, Teknion’s infrastructure support specialist, also noted that the LANutil Suite was easy to implement and did not require a lot of time.
“The other products (we looked at) were much more complex,” Ingrham said. “They were maybe a little more robust in terms of features but I would gave expected the testing involved and the total time to roll out would have been considerably longer.”
Pakula said that although Teknion’s implementation of the LANutil Suite is still fresh, it is approaching the stage where it will be more widely used within the company.