Author Archives: Adam Smith | Product Marketing Manager

User-Oriented IT Conversation In Red Rock Country

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The LANDesk Management Suite and Security Suite release coming this summer was code named Balanced Rock. Here is a picture of our Product Management team and a few others standing under Balanced Rock in Arches National Park.

Sometimes we like to mix a little fun with our work at LANDesk. A few weeks a ago, our Product Management Team took their motor homes and camping trailers and headed to the red rock country of Moab for a few days. The goal was to plan out a future product releases that fit into our Secure User Management Solution.

What Does User-Oriented IT Mean to You?

During the planning session, we talked a lot about User-Oriented IT and the requirements this vision will drive in the next level of features in LANDesk’s Total User Management and Secure User Management Solutions. One exercise we went through asked the question of the team, “What does User-Oriented IT mean to you?” We mapped out different phrases and themes from this exercise and we got a pretty good idea of what Product Management thinks. I’d like to ask the same question of our Blog readers, “What does User-Oriented IT mean to you?” We’d really like you to be a part of this ongoing User-Oriented IT discussion.

Are Users More Tech-Savvy or Is Technology More User-Oriented?

Part of the conversation around User-Oriented IT within the industry is that the new generation of workers is more tech-savvy than those of past generations. That notion perplexes me a bit. After we returned from a hike to Corona Arch (made famous with World’s Largest Rope Swing on YouTube), I put the question out to our Product Management team “Are users more tech savvy or has technology become more user-oriented?”

There were heavy arguments on both sides of this conversation. Someone pointed out that young people seem to know how to pick up anything and get how it works. Another countered that the technology is getting to the point where anyone can pick up a device and get how it works.  I think it was our User Experience guy that said it was a convergence of both. Think of the Smartphones and tablets today, a child or an older person who doesn’t use computers can pick them up and easily get how to interact with the technology. Another point made was to take a look at how teenagers are often the power users and utilize so many different social apps in order to communicate. In fact, there seems to be a constant shift and evolution in what apps are popular. So I again invite you to comment, “Do you think the next generation of workers is more tech-savvy or is the technology is getting more user-oriented?”

Does User-Oriented IT Mean a Shift in Power or Balance?

Finally, some within the Product Management group thought that User-Oriented IT is an example of the pendulum swinging a little too far over to the user and that there are plenty of things IT does that don’t really impact the user directly. I was quick to point out that within our User-Oriented IT story that isn’t the case. We realize there is a balance between user choice and freedom with IT control. There is a balance of what IT does for the infrastructure and delivery of business critical projects and giving users an experience where they can trouble-shoot, solve, and request services they need. So I offer you the following questions: Does User-Oriented IT give you the impression that the user gets more of the power or that there is a balance? How do you see User-Oriented IT playing out in your organization?

In the end, our Product Management team did a lot of planning, made important decisions about new features and defined much of what will be coming within the next couple Secure User Management releases. However, the conversation continues and we still want your input, so please comment on the following three questions we were debating in the Red Rock canyons of Moab:

  1. What does User-Oriented IT mean to you?
  2. Are users more tech-savvy or is technology becoming more user-oriented?
  3. Do you think User-Oriented IT takes power away from IT or strikes a balance between the user and IT?

3 Things to Look for in a User-Oriented IT Solution

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User-Oriented IT is more that handling the challenges of BYOD, it’s using the BYOD challenge to drive your IT operations and service organizations into a better model for achieving higher service levels and user satisfaction—a better model for maximizing user productivity and simplifying IT operations.

Oriented IT is a vision for providing all services, support, and resources people need — anywhere on any device. There are at least three things to look for in a User-Oriented IT solution. Each area addresses a different need within the IT organization. These three areas include:

  1. User-Oriented Management
  2. User-Oriented Licensing
  3. User-Oriented Freedom balanced with IT Control

The first, User-Oriented Management, refers to being able to look at a user within the management system and instantly know all the devices, applications, and resources assigned to that user Is it easy for you to click on a user object in your management system and see whether they have an Android or iOS device? Do you know what system it is running and then from the same object, see what laptop they have, what software they’re running and whether or not that software is in compliance? The benefit of User-Oriented Management is reducing the amount of time to solve problems and increasing the user productivity. This is especially helpful to the IT Administrators in their day-to-day activities.

User-Oriented Licensing, the second area, refers to future-proofing IT budgets. Buying fully integrated management solutions isn’t easy when they are based on the number of devices because it’s difficult to know how many devices users will bring into your work environment.  With User-Oriented licensing, you just have one SKU and that covers the user no matter how many devices they personally carry. That way the only thing that will increase your license count is if your business is growing and you’re adding additional users, which is a good problem to have. IT Directors and CIOs will appreciate the simplicity and the predictability of User-Oriented Licensing as they create the budgets each year for their organizations.

Finally, User-Oriented Freedom with IT Control means striking the right balance between allowing users to have whatever device, application, or service they need, while maintaining the integrity of IT resources and data. IT control also means leveraging better endpoint security, security compliance, power consumption, hardware optimization and consistency, licensing compliance, and change and release management. These added levels of control build greater trust in the overall IT organization.

User-Oriented IT is more that handling the challenges of BYOD, it’s using the BYOD challenge to drive your IT operations and service organizations into a better model for achieving higher service levels and user satisfaction—a better model for maximizing user productivity and simplifying IT operations.

Anemic or Robust Data

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Would you rather have robust or anemic data before you make a decision?

I don’t know about you, but I feel more confident about decisions that are based upon data—especially when I know that the data is robust and not just information that comes from one source. And that confidence just makes everything flow better and faster, because I’m not second-guessing my decisions and neither is anyone else.

The same is true with data about your IT systems. If you only rely on scans of what’s out in your environment, then you only have one point of reference to your assets. Sure you might know what’s out in your network, but you don’t know how it got there, when it came into your network, how much you paid for the asset, how much it’s costing you to use that asset, what the licenses related to software are, and more.

If you want to be proactive with getting the best and most robust data out there, you need to gather information from all the resources you can. For instance, when you buy a new asset—let’s say one hundred new license of software—how are you able to track who gets the software and the effective license for that software? If you don’t have something like Software License Management and Data Analytics, then the road to getting the information you need will be rough and hard to follow. Data Analytics will not only track the software for you, but it will enter all the information from the vendor about the software.

The same would be true of a new hardware asset, like a printer. Data Analytics can connect via Cloud Aggregators to pull information from the manufacturer about the warranty information, so you know when warranties expire.  Plus you would be able to connect to data that gives you greater descriptions, and data about the lifecycle of the product, such as the number of pages printed. Once all the data is gathered, at the time you purchase the asset, you are ready to put the asset into service and begin the lifecycle with robust, strong data that will help you report and monitor assets along the asset lifecycle.

So I’ll put the question to you, would you rather have simple data gathered through a scan, or more robust data that comes from multiple resources in the cloud such as vendors, manufacturers and resellers? Knowing is half the battle and Data Analytics is something you should look into.

Where We’ve Been, and Where We’re Headed

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I looked at my itinerary and realized that I couldn’t remember what day it was, what city I had just come from, where I was at the moment, or where I was going. I had to stop and take a deep breath, relax, and then try to remember the last place I’d been.

One day, early in my career, I stood in an airport looking to catch a connecting flight. People were rushing all around me. I looked at my itinerary and realized that I couldn’t remember what day it was, what city I had just come from, where I was at the moment, or where I was going. I felt anxiety rising inside me and had to stop and take a deep breath, relax, and then try to remember the last place I’d been. It was a big relief when I remembered what city I had just come from because I was able to figure out where I needed to go.

I’ve had a similar lost feeling in convention centers during IT industry shows because every company there was saying the same thing. So much so that it was hard to tell company A, B, and C apart. The messages are the same because the companies are trying to solve the same IT problems. The challenge I have when hearing people say such similar things, is that I often can’t remember if one said it differently than the other.

What sets LANDesk apart is that we’ve  been solving IT problems for longer than most of the companies have been around. So here’s a little statement that helps me and hopefully will help you remember where LANDesk has been and how we’re solving IT challenges right now: Intelligent Choices Deliver Greater Control and Services.

If you need to, rinse and repeat that statement seven more times and you’ll have it down.

Intelligent: Management Intelligence

Where have we been? Using patented discovery and inventory capabilities to know and report what you have and how it’s configured.

Where are we now? A SmartVue app that shows the value and work IT is performing to everyone, including your execs on their smartphones and tablets. Also there are contextual inspectors for more efficient IT administration.

Choices: Any User, Any Device

Where were we? Managing PCs, Macs, Linux and Unix

Where are we? Managing the same desktop platforms but even better – i.e. increased Mac support with Mac code that was even being developed on a Mac. We now also support iOS, Android and Blackberry. And we give you choices on how to license those devices, by node or by user.

Deliver: Deliver Software, Patches, OSs and Remote IT

Where were we? Distributing software and patches automatically to users anywhere they connect to the Internet.

Where are we now?  Wake up any machine across the WAN to automatically perform distributions and patches. Remote control anyone with any device using HTML 5 remote control – enabling you to collaborate and resolve issues with multiple people while remote controlling.

Control: Security, Compliance, Power Management and Hardware Optimization

Where have we been? Host Intrusion Prevention (HIPS), security dashboards, software license compliance, saving megawatts of power and money, integrating management with top PC vendors.

Where are we? Geo-fenced device blocking, integrated third party anti-virus and encryption, software reclamation, and integrating management with tablet vendors.

Services: Service Management and Self-Service

Where were we? ITIL verified on all 15 v.3 processes; delivered via SaaS, Premise or Hybrid implementations.

Where are we now? Service Catalogs that know what you have and what you’re entitled to and a Mobile Analyst app that helps you solve incidents anywhere from your tablet or smartphone.

It’s good to know where we’ve been, so we know where we are and where we’re headed. LANDesk has been there solving IT’s greatest challenges for users, that’s why we have a 90%+ approval rating from our customers.

Where are we headed?

LANDesk is developing more User-Oriented IT solutions so you can maximize your user productivity and simplify your IT operations. I guess Intelligent Choices do Deliver Greater Control and Services for IT.

Live, Love, LANDesk!

What a Party It Was With Our Customers

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Do you know the feeling that comes from the build up to a big event or holiday and one where you work so hard to make sure everything is just right? Then the event or holiday goes just as planned and now you wonder what to do next? That’s how I felt this morning after spending nearly a week in Las Vegas for Interchange.  But what I miss most is interacting and learning from our customers. We learn as much from you as you learn from us during all those breakout sessions, labs, and keynotes.

It was such a wonderful event to spend with LANDesk customers. I really believe LANDesk is pushing even harder to be more customer focused and here’s why:

1) Acknowledging those within LANDesk who focus on customer successes

2) Letting our customers tell our story

3) Getting more extensive feedback from customers.

To make the party even bigger, LANDesk also had their Sales and Marketing conference the Saturday and Sunday before Interchange. In the conference, Mike Hall, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, recognized a few people for their work producing customer success stories that highlight the many ways customers use LANDesk solutions. We also featured several customers videos. No one tells our story better than our customers.

I was also fortunate to work with a team during Interchange that gathered surveys, interviewed customers on video and interacted with several customers. The information we gathered will help our teams at LANDesk make better decisions and communicated better with our customers. We also had a team of User Experience engineers letting customers test the latest software to get their input, which will help us create more intuitive and easier to use products.

No company could ask for better customers than we have at LANDesk and we thank all our customers for partying, learning and sharing their insights and wins with us at Interchange. I just wish the party could go on – well there’s always next year. If you’d like to share your story, successes, insights or feedback with LANDesk, please contact us and let us know your thoughts.

It’s Not the End of The World, But the Beginning of a New Year

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We know the world keeps on churning and we keep doing our jobs in IT but changes are coming.

We had a lot of fun with the end of the world scenario here at LANDesk (see our End of the World? videos Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 if you missed them). Since we survived, this is a good time to think about and appreciate the great things we have in our IT life.

First, we are engaged in a world that gives us more information we could possibly consume in several lifetimes. Second, since we work in IT, we make sure everyone can get the answers to anything they want. Third, since we have all the answers, life is now much easier than it was even five, 10, or 25 years ago. Fourth, now that we have the easy life, we can A) kick back and relax or B) try to solve another problem with all that knowledge we have, which would then start the process over again. If you’re in IT, then you probably picked option B. It’s just what we do.

If you picked B, then we’re starting anew. What will that mean in 2013? New goals, new plans, new budgets and new ways to do our job? Hopefully, that will mean solving challenges in a new way, like being able to give users more choices, but maintain control over your IT environment and data.

We know the world keeps on churning and we keep doing our jobs in IT. As my colleague Melanie wrote earlier this week, LANDesk products should give you the ability to choose the first option and kick back and relax more. But I also hope you can help make everyone in your organization more productive on any device, anywhere in the world with LANDesk.

At least that’s what we’re striving to do at LANDesk.

Sexy Core Management Chalk Talk Video

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OK, maybe core management is sexy to those in IT. But we had a great time producing this chalk talk video with Doug Knight, Vice President of Systems Engineering. This core management chalk talk describes how our light infrastructure helps simplify managing, securing and supporting a distributed network environment.

In this chalk talk Doug talks about the following:

  • Going server-less on your subnets
  • Get mobile – let them wander, we’ll still manage and secure your users
  • Go under the covers with how things like software distribution, OS migrations and patching are easier to manage
  • Fake a PXE with a PXE Proxy for easier OS installs, updates and migrations
  • Watch it all happen in less than 13 minutes and see various scenarios where LANDesk can reduce costs and help you make the user the intelligent endpoint in your business.

Watch this very informative about one of LANDesk’s extremely effective technologies for managing distributed business environments. And then let us know what you think.