EMA_Numara-LifecycleMgmt

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IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING

PC Lifecycle Management Automationfor Mid-Sized Enterprises: ComparingSolutions from IBM, LANDesk, Microsoft,

Numara, and Symantec

An ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES (EMA) White Paper

Prepared for Numara

November 2010


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PC Lifecycle Management Automation for Mid-Sized Enterprises2010 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com



Table of Contents

Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................................1

Introduction to PC Lifecycle Management .....................................................................................................1

Functional Comparison.......................................................................................................................................2

Methodology ...................................................................................................................................................2

General Functionality ....................................................................................................................................3

Supported Platforms .....................................................................................................................................4

Inventory & Asset Management .................................................................................................................5

Deployment & Migration .............................................................................................................................5

Service Management .....................................................................................................................................6

Security & Compliance .................................................................................................................................7

Financial Comparison ..........................................................................................................................................8

Pricing Models ................................................................................................................................................8

Infrastructure Cost Comparison .................................................................................................................8

Total Implementation Cost Examples .......................................................................................................9

Supporting 500 Endpoints............................................................................................................... 10

Supporting 1000 Endpoints ............................................................................................................10

Supporting 5000 Endpoints ............................................................................................................10

EMA Perspective ...............................................................................................................................................11

About Numara ...................................................................................................................................................11
http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/


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Executive SummaryAs businesses become more reliant on workforce productivity to drive business success, PClifecycle management practices have accelerated in their importance. These complex requirements

are particularly burdensome on mid-market enterprises that often lack the personnel and resourcesto properly achieve lifecycle management requirements. Fortunately, automated management suiteshave come of age that can simplify these challenges, but identifying the most comprehensive andcost-effective solutions on the market can be a difcult task for the uninitiated. In this white paper,

ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES (EMA) analysts indentify essential evaluation

criteria through a side-by-side comparison of ve of the leading lifecycle management solutions on

the market today.

Introduction to PC Lifecycle ManagementIncreasingly, businesses have become reliant on Information Technology (IT) to meet organizationalrequirements and drive protability. The processes for provisioning, maintaining, and repairing IT

systems from deployment to retirement are all contained within the disciplines for lifecycle management.Client systems (e.g., desktops and laptops) require a specic set of lifecycle management practices to

meet a variety of user requirements, ensure security, track software and hardware assets, and maximizeendpoint productivity.

Mid-sized organizations are particularly challenged with providing services for client lifecyclemanagement. EMA denes this demographic as any organization with greater than 100 users, but

that has revenue streams lower than the top one thousand most successful businesses. This particularset of enterprises share common difculties in having to support the same extensive sets of lifecycle

management requirements as their larger competitors, but with diminished staff and operating budgets.For the mid-sized business, doing more with less is a common mantra. Often IT administrators for

mid-sized enterprises are forced to wear many hats supporting multiple IT disciplines, services and

platforms. These broad support requirements rarely allow administrative staff to develop specializedtalents, but instead promote more generalized knowledge on a wide range of topics.

Automation is essential to enabling mid-sized enterprise staff to meet organizational requirements. Byautomating standardized processes and repetitive tasks, resources are quickly provisioned, potential

problems are proactively identied, system failures are promptly resolved, and IT administrators are

freed up to attend to more business-focused environment improvements. Automated client lifecyclemanagement solution suites provide a common interface for managing many disparate supportprocesses. The more comprehensive the solution suite, the better it will be able to support business

requirements and maintaining productivity. However, the most comprehensive solutions may be outsidethe budgetary constraints of many mid-sized organizations. Identifying the solution most benecial

to a business requires balancing both breadth of support and cost-effectiveness. Organizations are

advised to carefully review and prioritize their own business requirements and determine budgetaryconsiderations before undertaking a product evaluation.


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To assist in the review process, EMA has evaluated ve of the most popular software-based automated

client management suites:

Numara Asset Management Platform version 10

IBM BigFix Systems Lifecycle Management

LANDesk Management Suite 9

Symantec Altiris Client Management Suite 7.0

Microsoft System Center Conguration Manager 2007 R2

Identied here is a comparison of the product suites abilities to support some of the most important

features needed by mid-sized organization along with a full infrastructure cost analysis for each. This

information, along with knowledge of organizational requirements, should assist in providing a startingpoint in the determination of the most appropriate platform to adopt.

Functional ComparisonMethodologyThe features evaluated by EMA were independently determined to be those that would most effectivelysupport mid-sized business in client lifecycle management. Each vendor in the evaluation was invited

to review the results of their product listing and provide any comments, corrections, or additionalinput prior to publication. In order to be acknowledged as meeting the requirements for each function,two criteria needed to be met:

The feature needed to be documented as existing in the current release of the solution suite.Claims of meeting a feature requirement without supporting documentation were rejected.

The feature needed to be self-contained within the current release of the solution suite. Features

available in a different product set from the same vendor or from a third-party vendor were notconsidered applicable, as including these would signicantly and unfairly impact the cost analysis.

Due to space limitations, EMA did not attempt to evaluate how well each product performs inproviding these features, and organizations are advised to perform their own comparison analysis onany functionality deemed critical.


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Key:

= Yes = No = Partial

General Functionality

Numara BigFix LANDeskSymantec

Altiris CMSMicrosoft

SCCM

Agent based solution Single Client Agentfor all features

Ability to operateagentless

Single, centralized

console

Web accessibleInterface

Wizard BasedSolution

Role BasedAdministration

Self-Service Portal Direct Integrationswith other productsfrom the samevendor

All ve solution suites install lightweight processes, called agents, on managed clients to collect

data and perform automated tasks. Numara, BigFix, and LANDesk all claim the ability to perform

the breadth of their endpoint management functionality with the use of only a single agent oneach endpoint, minimizing their impact on client performance. Some features in the Numara andSymantec solutions, such as inventory discovery and security scans) can operate without any agent.

All the products are managed from a centralized, Web-based console that can identify users basedon their job function or role and all provide Wizard-based tasks to simplify the managementprocess. All vendors but Microsoft provide a self-service portal allowing users to initiate activities

such as for software downloads or maintenance requests. The client lifecycle management solutionsfrom Numara, LANDesk, Symantec, and Microsoft can also integrate directly with other managementproducts offered by the same vendor.


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Supported Platforms



SCCM

Windows

Mac OS X Linux

CentOS

Debian

Mandriva Oracle Enterprise

Linux

Red Hat

SuSe

Ubuntu

zLinux

95% of all business workstations are Windows based, so it should be no surprise that all ve solutions

provide extensive support for Windows platform, from legacy editions dating back ten years or more

to the latest release, Windows 7. Microsoft only natively extends support to its own operating system;however, the remaining four solutions in the study also provide support for Mac OS X and a variety

of Linux platforms, though not all features supported in Windows are supported on the alternativeplatforms in most cases.


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Inventory & Asset Management



SCCM

Asset Discovery Centralized AssetDatabase

Application Discovery

Software Metering

License Management

A core requirement for any lifecycle management service is the accurate identication of managedhardware and software assets a much more extensive task then might be initially assumed consideringthe vast number of different system types, operating environments, software versions, and licenseinformation in use in a typical support stack. All ve solutions provide strong capabilities in their

inventory detection and asset recording capabilities. Software metering has become increasingly popularfor its ability to identify and reclaim unused application licenses to signicantly reduce operational

costs. All but BigFix offer software metering capabilities today.

Deployment & Migration



SCCM

Remote Deployment Bare Metal Provisioning Automated DrivePartitioning

Image Creation andManagement

Editable Images

OS Migration

Application Provisioning

Software Rollback


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All evaluated solutions are able to deploy a complete system environment to supported clients; however,Microsoft is unable to install bare metal clients (i.e., systems with no existing operating environmentinstalled). Numara and LANDesk are also able to automatically partition disk drives prior to system

installation. The most common method for deploying an operating environment is to rst build it ona gold master server and then copy the environment bit-for-bit into an encapsulated package called animage. Independent images can be built for all endpoint system types or a fewer number of master

images can be built and then customized to address differences in endpoint congurations. All but

BigFix allow deployment images to be edited. Numara, LANDesk and Symantec are able to deployimages simultaneously, allowing multiple systems to be installed at the same time.

With the recent high rate of adoption and planned deployments of Windows 7, migration has becomea popular element for simplifying the transition to the new platform (particularly if the endpoints needto move from the aging Windows XP). Recognizing the importance of this feature, all reviewed vendors

now provide comprehensive migration capabilities. All ve product suites can also automatically deploy

and congure individual software products. Numara and BigFix include the additional capability

of being able to roll-back an application installation or update in the event it adversely affects theproductivity of the endpoint.

Service Management



SCCM

Change Detection/Reporting

CongurationEnforcement

Remote Access Directly manage clientover the internet

Automated PowerManagement & PowerPolicy Enforcement onall supported platforms

Ensuring the continuous and effective operation of managed clients is the role of service management.All surveyed solutions can enforce standardized congurations and ensure the client will not drift from

established baselines. Numara, BigFix, LANDesk, and Symantec also actively monitor client system

to identify when, where, and by whom changes to the client congurations have been performed, soinappropriate alterations can be promptly identied and remediated.

All ve solutions include remote access capabilities so that client systems can easily be accessed for

maintenance and repairs. Although BigFix and LANDesk are able to perform management activitieson remote clients over the internet with the assistance of a connection server situated outside thecompany rewall, only Numara is able to directly extend full support capabilities outside the rewall

and over the internet without the need for any additional hardware.


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Automated power management solutions have grown in popularity due to the appreciable operationalcost saving they can achieve. EMA primary research has indicated, on average, roughly $30 per desktopcan be saved each year by simply introducing automated power management policies that ensure client

systems are powered off during non-use hours (such as evenings and weekends). Given the hundredsor thousands of workstations employed by mid-sized businesses, this can quickly add up to a signicant

value, often justifying the cost of the lifecycle management product alone. All but Microsoft provide

the capability of automatically setting workstation power settings and ensuring they do not change onWindows platforms. BigFix extends this capability to Mac OS systems. Only Numara is able to providethis feature for all supported Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

Security & Compliance



SCCM

Automated PatchManagement

Continuous PatchEnforcement

Application WhiteListing

Application BlackListing

Security AssuranceReporting

CongurableCompliance

Reports

Out-of-the-BoxComplianceReports

Endpoint security begins with patch management ensuring all client operating system vulnerabilities areclosed to prevent unwarranted access and malware propagation. Although Windows can be congured

to automatically download patches, the process can severely degrade network performance if initiated

on a large number of client system simultaneously. Automated patch management features includedwith all ve solution sets allow patch sets to be staged locally at the business site and distributed in a

way that minimizes network performance impacts. The solutions are also able to ensure all supported

clients are current on the latest patch versions.

Other than patch management, Microsoft provides few security features natively in System Center

Conguration Manager, preferring to offer broad security capabilities in its separate Forefront Endpoint

Protection suite. Symantec also offers separate comprehensive security packages, but includes somesecurity capabilities in the Altiris suite.


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Government and industry regulatory compliance initiatives such as SOX, HIPAA, and PCI caninclude some very challenging requirements for mid-sized businesses to achieve with purely manualprocesses. Automated compliance reports provided natively by the Numara, BigFix and LANDesk

solutions signicantly simplify the process of collecting proof of compliance by providing either pre-generated reports or enabling customized reports on client security, access and utilization. Symantec andMicrosoft both offer compliance reporting capabilities as part of additional software solutions suites.

Financial Comparison

Pricing ModelsClient management solution suites are primarily priced on a per managed endpoint basis; however,some solutions, such as those offered by Microsoft, charge additional fees for the management serverlicense. Represented in the chart below are Manufacturer Suggested Retail Prices (MSRPs), thoughit should be noted that some vendors and channel partners offer discounts on bulk orders that can

substantially reduce the sticker price of the solution suites. Check with the individual vendors for anaccurate price quote for any planned implementation. At the time of this writing, IBM has indicatedit is reviewing licensing and maintenance costs of BigFix and expects to announce alterations to its

pricing model. For this reason, BigFix has not been included in the nancial comparison.

List Price Maintenance

Numara AssetManagementPlatform

The 6 modules reviewed in this analysis(Inventory Manager, Deployment Manager,Remote Manager, Compliance Manager, PatchManager, and Power Manager) collectively have abase list price of $60 per managed endpoint.

Annual pricing is scaledbetween 14% and 25%purchase price dependingon length of contract andtotal cost of purchase

LANDesk

$80 per managed endpoint (MSRP); discounts

available with average selling price reported byLANDesk as roughly $30 per managed endpoint.

25% purchase priceannually

SymantecAltiris CMS

$95 per managed endpoint (MSRP); discountsavailable.


MicrosoftSCCM

$1,321 for Conguration Manager Server 2007R2 with SQL Server Technology. Can support upto 25,000 managed endpoints. $41 per additionalendpoint.


Infrastructure Cost ComparisonPurchase costs only comprise a portion of the total cost of ownership in any automated management

investment. Infrastructure costs associated with hardware acquisition, maintenance costs and requiredsupporting software licenses also play a signicant role. The charts below provide an indication of

how these infrastructure costs can affect the total capital expense based on documented infrastructure

requirements. Not represented are costs associated with ongoing operational expenses such as thecosts for data center environmental conditions and support personnel but these should also beconsidered for a complete cost analysis.


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Numara LANDeskSymantec


SCE

Primary Server/Console:

Cost estimated at $2,000per server to meet commonrequirements

$2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $2,000

Remote Servers

Cost estimated at $1,200 perserver

N/A N/A N/A

$1,200for every

500 nodessupported

Server/Console OS:

Windows Server 2008 Standard($1000 each)

$1,000 $1,000 $1,000$1,000 per

server

Client Access Licenses:

Pack of 20 ($800 each)N/A N/A N/A

$800 forevery 20endpoints

Server/Console SQL License:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008Standard ($6,000 each)

$6,000 $6,000 $6,000$6,000 per

server

Server/Console Maintenance

Microsoft Software Assurance(25% p.a)

$1,750 peryear

$1,750 peryear

$1,750 peryear

$1,750 perserver per

year

Server hardware conguration requirements (CPU, memory, storage, etc.) were very similar across

the solutions, so a common cost estimate was able to be fairly applied. In addition to the primary

centralized server, however, Microsoft requires remote servers (with lesser hardware requirements).Each Microsoft primary and remote server can support up to 500 managed endpoint. Perhaps themost signicant infrastructure cost factor is with the need for Microsoft Client Access Licenses

(CALs) which can add up very quickly to extensive costs in large support stacks. Symantec andMicrosoft require a CAL for each supported endpoint in order for them to communicate with themanagement server.

Total Implementation Cost ExamplesTotal licensing and infrastructure costs vary with infrastructures scaled to different sizes. The charts

below provide an indication of these total cost comparison differences with three different supportstack sizes. Pricing includes the necessary cost to perform all the functionality included in this

evaluation. Maintenance costs have been annualized over a period of six years to exemplify theirexpense over time.


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Supporting 500 EndpointsEstimated costs for all infrastructure resources necessary to implement the client management solutionssuites to support 500 endpoints for 6 years:



SCCM

Client Management Solution $30,795 $40,000 $47,500 $9,370

Client Management SolutionMaintenance Contract for 6Years

$16,629 $30,000 $35,625 $7,028

Infrastructure Costs $14,250 $14,250 $14,250 $34,250

Total Cost $61,674 $84,250 $97,375 $50,648

Supporting 1000 EndpointsEstimated costs for all infrastructure resources necessary to implement the client management solutionssuites to support 1000 endpoints for 6 years:



SCCM



$26,302 $60,000 $71,250 $14,055


Total Cost $95,347 $154,250 $180,500 $100,495

Supporting 5000 EndpointsEstimated costs for all infrastructure resources necessary to implement the client management solutions

suites to support 5000 endpoints for 6 years:



SCCM



$94,834 $300,000 $356,250 $70,275


Total Cost $334,879 $714,250 $845,500 $499,275


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EMA PerspectiveMid-sized businesses traditionally have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to automatedsystems management solutions. Lets face it the most comprehensive solutions are typically designed

and marketed to large enterprises under the assumption that that is where the revenue lies. In truth,however, the large enterprise market is saturated with management resources. EMA primary researchindicates 75% of the top 1000 businesses employ automated management suites as a central part oftheir IT operation. Conversely, only about 10% of the 100,000 mid-market businesses in the US alone

have introduced automated solutions, providing a large open market for product growth.

By offering a Web-based solution that fully integrates service management

with asset management, Numara has established a platform that is easy

to use, comprehensive in scope, and can achieve prompt ROI.

Numara clearly understands this, having developed a solution focused on mid-market needs. TheNumara Asset Management Platform achieves the breadth of the requirement outlined in the

EMA analysis for this market space and offers the solution suite at an attractive price. By offering aWeb-based solution that fully integrates service management with asset management, Numara hasestablished a platform that is easy to use, comprehensive in scope, and can achieve prompt ROI. Itshould also be noted that this solution is designed to scale to the needs of the business. The eight

products in the solution suite Inventory Manager, Deployment Manager, Vulnerability Manager,Remote Manager, Compliance Manager, Power Manager, Device Manager, and Patch Manager can each be purchased independently to meet the support needs of the organization, and yet allthe products are fully integrated and able to utilize a single common endpoint agent. This offers a

great deal more exibility for budget-conscious mid-sized businesses than the common all-or-nothing

bundled solutions. Numara understands that at the heart of most mid-sized businesses are the clientworkstations that enable employee productivity and facilitate business protability. By employing

automated management solutions that can address the most critical endpoint lifecycle managementrequirements, mid-sized organizations simplify their IT support operations, reduce costs and empowertheir business to compete against their larger competitors.

About NumaraWith more than 55,000 customer sites worldwide, Numara Software is a global leader in delivering

practical, exible solutions that allow IT organizations to improve service to their end-users. Numaras

integrated IT service management and IT asset management software platforms enable organizationsto efciently automate a wide variety of IT related tasks and processes using interoperable solutions

from a single, proven vendor. Widely known for its dedicated focus on ease of use and affordability,

Numaras IT solutions deliver fast time-to-value, increased control, and reduced risk for small businesses

to large companies.


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About Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

Founded in 1996, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a leading industry analyst rm that provides deep insight across the full spectrum of IT

and data management technologies. EMA analysts leverage a unique combination of practical experience, insight into industry best practices, and in-depthknowledge of current and planned vendor solutions to help its clients achieve their goals. Learn more about EMA research, analysis, and consulting servicesfor enterprise IT professionals, lines of business users, and IT vendors atwww.enterprisemanagement.comor followEMA on Twitter.

This report in whole or in part may not be duplicated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or retransmitted without prior written permission ofEnterprise Management Associates, Inc. All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgement as of this date and are subject to change without notice.Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. EMA and Enterprise Management

Associates are trademarks of Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

2010 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. EMA, ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES , and the mobius symbolare registered trademarks or common-law trademarks of Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

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Documents

EMA_Numara-LifecycleMgmt