Also: Symantec rolls new version of pcAnywhere; Tally Systems releases compliance suite.
As part of its ongoing efforts to woo public sector customers, Microsoft has begun giving governments tools for collaborating and sharing technology information with other organizations so they can learn from each other’s experiences and cut development costs.
Under a program called the Solutions Sharing Network, Microsoft is helping provide public sector clients with a community-based portal for sharing best practices, application source codes and other development information. The software maker is providing interested public sector customers with the tools for free, but the client organizations are in charge of the content, maintenance and procuring of any necessary hardware, Microsoft said.
The Solutions Sharing Network works on top of Microsoft’s SharePoint Portal Server software. It gives users a sort of community forum where they can post ideas, code, white papers and screen shots, and share them with organizations that have common technology needs.
Symantec this week will make available Version 11.5 of its remote-control software pcAnywhere. The software lets system administrators access and take actions on remote servers and desktops via a peer-to-peer, encrypted connection.
With this release, Symantec improved encryption and the speed at which it can transfer data between administrator and host machines. The software sends data between machines at 256K bit/sec, using the Advanced Encryption Standard. Previously, the package supported the RC4 encryption algorithm at 128k bit/sec. Symantec also expanded its platform support to include Linux systems. Now systems managers can remotely access Linux and Windows machines from Linux and Windows machines and vice versa.
Scheduled to be available in December, pcAnywhere 11.5 is available for enterprise customers for $90 per seat based on a 10-seat license with volume discounts available.
Tally Systems recently released TS.Census License Compliance Suite 3.2, which gives users a single place to track the software they own, the software that they have installed and how it is being used. The suite is designed so corporations can accurately assess licensing needs and control costs.
Tally has updated the Software Compliance Module with tools to integrate license purchase data from SHI and SoftChoice directly into the suite. The module also has license allocation reports for anything from a full enterprise to a single workstation. The Usage Module now tracks usage of server-based software. The Asset Inventory tools include support for Active Directory, and Tally also has integrated its remote client installation tool into the suite.
The software is available now and costs $21 per seat per 1,000 users.
