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Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance v6.0

The Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance addresses systems management tasks: device discovery and inventory, software distribution, patch management, software asset management (SAM), security audit and enforcement, service desk, power management and more. The K1000 v6.0 builds on Dell's endpoint management solution to provide endpoint security functionality that improves threat assessments through unified discovery, inventory, asset management and reporting for near limitless infrastructure platforms. The K1000 provides device discovery and agentless management to the product using a high quality asset management feature to help overcome inefficient endpoint risk management. It auto-discovers networkwide hardware and software configurations through managed agents or agentless network scanning for a complete device inventory. The tool uses a variety of protocols used to discover and interrogate network-connected devices.

Detailed configuration information is captured for desktops, notebooks, servers, printers and networking equipment, such as routers and switches. Once a thorough network scan is completed, the K1000 helps identify vulnerabilities across all endpoints and enforces compliance with company policies across OS platforms and devices, such as desktops, laptops and servers. The security audit and enforcement features provide prebuilt policy settings for improving security. These include enforcing Internet Explorer security and anti-virus settings, blacklisting the running of specified executables, and patch reporting. The K1000 also includes an easy-to-use, wizard-based scripting capability that enables creation of custom security policies without needing to learn a scripting language. As well, the solution provides easy-to-use configuration policy management and enforcement using scripts for Windows, Mac and Linux systems. Scripts can be conditional, multi-dependency and multi-stage to greatly simplify policy management and can be created to target individual nodes, a specific group of nodes or an entire network.

In addition, the security audit and enforcement capabilities include both OVAL-based vulnerability scanning and security content automation protocol (SCAP) scanning and reporting for compliance to Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC). They can also be configured to scan for and detect malicious software and configurations and establish automated remediation steps. K1000 security audit, compliance and configuration policy features are integrated with the entire range of other K1000 functionality, including computer inventory, remote administration, software distribution, help desk, patch management and compliance reporting. This integration increases the ability of the tool to neutralize security vulnerabilities. The K1000 can also perform security remediation for remote systems though remote administration. In addition, the ticket archiving and configuration history features enable IT organizations to create and maintain an accurate audit trail.

Documentation provided by Dell to install and configure the appliance included a getting started, setup and admin guides, as well as instructions on finding more resources on the company's website. In addition to documents, the company provided a support portal. Installation was performed via a hardware appliance. After initializing the appliance, a simple set of instructions were provided to get the system operational. A very nice set of PDF manuals made operating the system very easy to operate. The KACE K1000 presents a well-designed product with a highly intuitive dashboard that made navigating the functions a snap.

Product maintenance is included with every purchase. Maintenance includes access to product upgrades every six months and 24/5 worldwide unlimited email and phone. Additionally, there is access to an online support portal, product downloads, a knowledge base and product guides. Further, Dell provides KACE data feeds: bug fixes, major releases of patch subscriptions, patching and product updates. Maintenance costs come in three options: three years for 17.50 percent of purchase price, four years for 16.63 percent of purchase price, and five years for 15.90 percent of purchase price.

Product title
Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance v6.0
Product info
Name: Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance Description: The Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance addresses systems management tasks: device discovery and inventory, software distribution, patch management, software asset management (SAM), security audit and enforcement, service desk, power management and more. Price: Starts at $8,900 for the physical or virtual appliance and 100 managed computers. K1000 SaaS (a hosted option) is available on a sliding scale and starts at $6.50 per managed computer and includes training, support and maintenance.
Strength
Excellent dashboard and ease of use.
Weakness
No weaknesses to mention.
Verdict
A good product at a good price. Our selection for Best Buy.

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