In an age where every worker in your force has at least one client machine at his disposal at all times, it's an IT imperative to apply the same management standards to these varied, distributed machines as you would to your server and network components in order to keep them operational to a five-nines level.

The ideal client manager is a multi-faceted set of tools that automates client administration responsibilities across a broad range of client types. Longtime standard components of this toolbox include operating system and application version control features such as operating system image distribution, operating system configuration and recovery, remote application installation and patch management. This combined set of functions helps administrators automate these time-consuming and error-prone administrative tasks. Likewise, automated asset inventory and management tools as well as license metering software can help with new compliance regulations. Remote control access to client machines, for either repair or for training purposes, can save a significant amount of support time and travel expenses. Backup and recovery of desktop files can save scads of user and administration time.

Some of the new tricks offered by client management wares since we last tested comprise links to antimalware tools and vulnerability analysis engines and the abilities to manage mobile devices, detect USB port usage to alert administrators to the users who bring "memory sticks" into the office, provide both network access control and some host-based intrusion detection.

In this test of client management tools, while we invited more almost 20 vendors to join in, six agreed to stand up and be judged in our lab: Kace with its two complementary appliances, the KBox 1200 and KBox 2100; LANDesk with its LANDesk Management Suite 8.8; Novell with its ZENworks 10.0, and Symantec submitted its Total Management Suite 6.5 and Security Expressions 4.0, along with a copy of the Endpoint Protection 11.0 antimalware tool. From ScriptLogic, we downloaded its Desktop Authority 7.7 and from Aagon's site we downloaded ACMP 3.3. The other vendors we invited (AdventNet, Attachmate, BMC, CA, Centennial Software, Configuresoft, HP, IBM, Microsoft, NetSupport, New Boundary, Solarwinds and Touchpaper) declined to participate for a variety of reasons. Some were between versions, while others didn't want to compete because their products didn't offer features in each and every category we wanted to test.