ACTIVE DIRECTORY MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Our readers chose NetIQ's Directory and Resource Administrator (DRA) as the Best Active Directory Management Tool.
NetIQ DRA lets you easily and securely delegate administration tasks to your help desk and other users in your organization. DRA provides an easy-to-use interface designed to ensure enterprise security, significantly reduce the overall cost of administration, and increase administration efficiency in your environment.
DRA provides the following features:
- Easy-to-use Web console designed for the casual administrator
- Rules- and roles-based administration that can span OUs, domains, trees, and forests
- Enforced business polices and automate repetitive tasks
- Detailed logging of all actions and comprehensive reporting
- Part of a comprehensive secure administration suite
APPLICATION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TOOLS
In a category with many contenders, NetIQ's AppManager earned nearly 30 percent of the vote as Best Application and Operations Management Tool.
With AppManager, IT personnel can take control of their e-business environments by pinpointing performance and availability problems, providing critical diagnostic information for troubleshooting and enabling easy service level and performance reporting.
From its central, easy-to-use console, AppManager provides a comprehensive solution for centrally managing the health, performance, and availability of more than 60 Windows and UNIX server systems and applications—from the physical hardware to business-critical server applications that include Exchange, SQL Server, Oracle, SAP R/3, Lotus Domino, Solaris, Linux, Apache, and MQSeries.
ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
By a wide margin, our readers say that Microsoft's Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 provides the best solution for managing assets.
With SMS, you can easily reconcile software purchases with what's been deployed or what's in use. IT administrators can take advantage of the built-in software inventory features of SMS, in addition to the information provided by Web-based reports.
SMS collects in-depth inventory data, by using Windows Management Instrumentation, for hardware and software on all Windows systems. A reporting engine offers a large variety of pre-built reports that you can view from any Web browser. Intelligent scanning checks executables for details such as manufacturer and version, rather than relying on a library database.
CHANGE AND CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Microsoft's System Management Server (SMS) 2.0 also won a Readers' Choice Award in the category Best Change and Configuration Management Tools.
The scalability, simplicity, and integration with the operating system make SMS a comprehensive change and configuration management solution for Windows environments. Whether you are getting inventory reports for a handful of systems or sending new software to tens of thousands of computers across the world, SMS can scale to meet you needs.
SMS takes advantage of Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and the Microsoft management console, making them core services, and also uses Windows services, security, and interfaces.