Adaptiva Releases Enhancements to IT Efficiency and PC Power Management Suite

Today Adaptiva released customer-driven product enhancements to the Adaptiva Software Suite. These updates accelerate the financial and IT efficiency benefits of Adaptiva’s enterprise-class software and include VPN support, simplified process for merging offices, additional virtualization and multi- and auto-push content, tool improvements and additional client health checks.

“Adaptiva develops and maintains strong partnerships with our clients where we collaborate to generate even greater value for our IT efficiency and PC power management software suite,” said Dr. Deepak Kumar, president and chief technology officer at Adaptiva.  “These enhancements are the result of an open dialogue and further demonstrate Adaptiva’s commitment to consistently deliver a simple, elegant and mature best-in-class solution.”

Adaptiva OneSite Enhancements

  • VPN Support. System administrators can now create or mark an office as a VPN in the Network Topology Perspective. Clients falling within the VPN offices will produce appropriate network behaviors.

  • Simplified Office Merging.  Merging smaller subnet offices into a large office was a manual process. Now this function can be performed directly from the Network Topology Perspective with a few simple clicks resulting in even more efficient network bandwidth usage.In Office Object Explorer, select 1 or more offices as shown below to merge into the target office:

The image below shows the central office after merging 1 and 2 offices:

  • Additional Virtualization. Virtualized object explorers provide a faster user interface (UI) startup. Microsoft ConfigMgr collections, packages and offices are now virtual. This accelerates the speed required to load these objects in the Workbench creating a smoother administrative experience—even if there are thousands of objects.
  • OneSite Downloader Tool Improvements. A completely asynchronous and multi-threaded version of the  tool is now available, which allows dozens of ConfigMgr packages to be resolved concurrently, accelerating the OS image deployment operation. In addition, the asynchronous discovery count can be controlled by administrator, enabling the ability to precisely tune the level of multithreading required.
  • Multi- and Auto-Push Content.  Content push policy now has the power to perform multiple content pushes. It also performs auto content pushes when content changes after it is created. 
  • Content Push for OSD Task Sequences. Administrators can now drag and drop an entire Task Sequence into a Content Push policy, leading to the pre-staging of all the images, packages, software updates and all other content that is required for the Task Sequence to execute across the WAN. This allows Operating System Deployment to be performed in remote branch offices, without requiring any server infrastructure or local IT staff.

Adaptiva Client Health Enhancements

Two new health checks to Client Health Explorer: BITS service startup failing and WSUS service missing. The addition of these health checks further completes the comprehensive scheduled or instant health checks performed by Adaptiva Client Health.

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System Center Universe 2012 Recap

January 19 was a coming out party of sorts for the new Microsoft System Center 2012 suite of management product. Microsoft unveiled it’s new licensing model for System Center and two days later, System Center Universe commenced.

Movers and shakers behind System Center 2012, including Wally Mead and Travis Wright, gathered together in one place and simulcast to user groups around the world. In depth-presentations and demos of each product in the suite were showcased along with solutions from supporting vendors. The crowd “oohed” and “aahed” over the new, clean UI of the System Center suite. They were dazzled by the awesome orchestration capabilities of Orchestrator and deploying applications to an on-premise private cloud or a public cloud in a single click with Virtual Machine Manager.

 The first speaker of the day was Wally Mead, senior program manager for System Center Configuration Manager and 20-year Microsoft veteran. Wally showed off the great new functionality in Configuration Manager including the Application Model, Role Based Access Control and simplified software update management.

Jason Sandys

Jason Sandys, Adaptiva Director of Solutions Engineering & Microsoft MVP was appointed to the Ask the Experts Panel at SCU 2012

Among the sponsors, Adaptiva was proud to support this event and showcase its own suite of products that extend functionality for the current System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and the soon to be released  System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. Reducing complexity, proactively remediating client health issues and enforcing environmentally friendly PC usage, Adaptiva’s suite of products is a perfect complement to Configuration Manager in any organization.

For more information on Adaptiva, visit our website or email info@adaptiva.com.

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Adaptiva Sponsors System Center Universe 2012 and Announces Appointment of Jason Sandys to Experts Panel

We are thrilled! Adaptiva director of solutions  engineering and Microsoft MVP, Jason Sandys, was appointed to the System Center Universe 2012 Experts Panel. Adaptiva is a sponsor of the event and will also be attending and offering demonstrations of its IT efficiency and power management solutions, which easily extend the functionality and manageability of Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager.

Jason Sandys is a 17 year IT veteran supporting Microsoft-centric solutions and currently
serves as director of solutions engineering at Adaptiva. A frequent presenter at Microsoft TechEd and the Microsoft Management Summit, he is a contributing author of “System Center ConfigMgr 2007 Unleashed,” and is currently working on his next publication. Prior to Adaptiva, Sandys held the position of managing consultant for Catapult Systems.

Join Jason at System Center Universe! Visit with Jason at SCU and take a few moments for a free demonstration of Adaptiva OneSite, Companion, Green Plant and/or Client Health!

What: System Center Universe and Ask the Experts Panel

Where: AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, 1900 University Avenue, Austin, Texas 78705

When: Thursday, January 19. The conference begins at 8am CST and the Panel begins at 4:45 to 5:30pm

Who: Jason Sandys, Director of Solutions Engineering and Other Distinguished Panel Experts

About the Event: System Center Universe 2012 is a one-day globally available technical event which focuses on System Center 2012 products and new capabilities resulting from
these releases. For more information or to register, visit www.systemcenteruniverse.com.

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Adaptiva Appoints Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations

Veteran Technology Executive Named to Leadership Position for IT Efficiency and Power Management Solutions

Adaptiva is pleased to welcome high-tech veteran, Todd Floyd to serve as vice president of worldwide sales and operations. Floyd joins the Adaptiva senior leadership team to further ignite the sales and expand growth of its IT efficiency and energy management software solutions.

“Todd is a tremendous asset for Adaptiva with his extensive background in creatively and effectively increasing revenue growth through sales initiatives,” said Dr. Deepak Kumar, president and chief technology officer at Adaptiva. “With Todd’s talent and experience, we are adding a critical piece of our leadership team and will accelerate the momentum of our next generation IT efficiency and PC power management software.”

A seasoned sales executive in the technology arena, Floyd comes to Adaptiva with an
extensive background in building and managing global sales teams that exceed revenue goals. Prior to Adaptiva, Floyd launched the Pacific Northwest Region for BMC Software and quickly attained membership in the BMC President’s Club for outstanding achievement in sales. Throughout his career, Floyd has held senior sales positions and routinely exceeded sales goals by triple digits for high-tech firms including Endeca Technologies, Siebel Systems, Parametric Technology and Xerox.

“Adaptiva represents a rare opportunity as our solutions elegantly increase IT efficiencies for large distributed networks and easily expands the functionality of Microsoft ConfMgr,” said Floyd “With the exponential growth of large global networks, coupled with the need to optimize IT operations, Adaptiva is well positioned to experience dramatic growth and I
look forward to helping continue this progress.”

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Adaptiva Welcomes Chérie Wentz Blehm as Director of Marketing

I have great pleasure in announcing that Chérie Wentz Blehm has joined Adaptiva as our Director of Marketing.

In addition to her MBA and extensive experience with companies like TappIn, Docusign, and Microsoft, she brings with her a set of shared core values that define us as a company: Integrity, Passion and Technical Excellence.

Chérie will be involved with defining our conversations with existing and future customers.

On behalf of my colleagues and all our customers, a very warm welcome aboard!

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Adaptiva OneSite Wins 35,000 Seats with State of Illinois

Adaptiva IT Efficiency and PC Power Management Solutions

Adaptiva OneSite increases IT efficiencies, reduces costs and eliminates server infrastructure

Adaptiva OneSite wins once again. This time it’s a 35,000 seat deployment at the State of Illinois. We simply offered a cutting edge product at a fair price, and let the customer do their own comparisons.

We just keep doing what we do! Smile

 

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Adaptiva OneSite – SCCM 2012 Support Statement

Adaptiva IT Efficiency and PC Power Management Solutions

Adaptiva OneSite increases IT efficiencies, reduces costs and eliminates server infrastructure

There has been a lot of curiosity about our plans for supporting SCCM 2012 in Adaptiva OneSite.

We have so far expressed a general commitment to supporting SCCM 2012 within 90 days of RTM, barring any major late-breaking design or schema changes.

Soon after the release of SCCM RC1 in late October, we had announced our detailed OneSite plans, which you can see here.

Today’s post provides an updated SCCM 2012 support statement for Adaptiva OneSite.

Current Features

All OneSite features continue to work unchanged with SCCM 2012. The underlying schema changes are detected and handled automatically.

You can install OneSite in under five minutes on an SCCM 2012 Site, from start to finish.

The administrative experience continues to be as seamless as before. All SCCM objects, new and old, are available from inside the Adaptiva OneSite Workbench; the object explorers automatically refresh in real time, and you can drag and drop everything everywhere, as long as it makes logical sense.

On To The New Things

Complete support is provided for the new Application Model. An Application Explorer is included. As you create, modify, or delete Applications, OneSite detects your changes in real time, and take appropriate action, as it does for other types of content: packages, software updates, and images.

Applications automatically download on demand to your remote locations using OneSite P2P and bandwidth harvesting technologies. All advanced OneSite content management features – compression, byte level differencing, disk space harvesting, automatic cache management, and daisy chaining – work unchanged for Applications.

You can pre-stage Applications to any part of your network using OneSite Content Push policies. You simply open the Application Explorer, and drag and drop the desired Application into a Content Push Policy. The selected Application is added to the Content Push policy, and is pre-staged to the selected collections on the schedule(s) you specified.

Packaging

We plan to ship a single common version (Version 2.1) of OneSite that works transparently for SCCM 2007 and SCCM 2012. It will figure out the differences during installation, and automatically adapt itself depending on what you’re running.

Version 2.0 of OneSite is currently available under evaluation license upon request directly from Adaptiva. It is fully supported for lab use on SCCM 2012 RC1. If you have a Microsoft support plan for SCCM RC1 in production, we will support you in production.

Upgrade from Version 1.3 and Version 2.0 to Version 2.1 will be fully supported, and will be a simple 5-minute process. All cached content in branch offices will be automatically preserved.

Release Dates

Version 2.1 will be available within 90 days of SCCM 2012 RTM by Microsoft.

Support

Microsoft’s support for pre-release software can sometimes vary depending on the program through which you’re participating. Our support for OneSite will generally match or exceed your current level of Microsoft support for SCCM 2012.

Version 2.0 releases are fully production worthy. If you’re testing SCCM 2012 RC1 in production, we’ll happily support OneSite in production for you.

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Content Hash Mismatches in ConfigMgr 2007

Why do hash mismatches occur in ConfigMgr? If I could authoritatively answer that question then I could probably fix the issue and answer countless posts in the forums and mailing lists – most of which seem to have different fixes or causes. There are a handful of very good blog posts on troubleshooting and resolving this issue though including this one on Organic Fertilizer, SCCM: Content hash Fails to Match, and this one titled ConfigMgr (SCCM) Hash Mismatch Issue.

Even with a couple of hotfixes and all that is known about hash mismatches, it still seems to crop up and plague every ConfigMgr 2007 hierarchy – that is except those using a true Alternate Content Provider like Adaptiva’s OneSite.

OneSite completely replaces the content distribution model in ConfigMgr which is at the heart of the issue and thus side steps the issue completely. OneSite does in fact use its own secure hash algorithm to verify content so that it cannot be tampered with or corrupted in transit or once delivered; however, OneSite’s algorithm and process for calculating the content’s hash value has never exhibited any of the seemingly random issues that crop up in ConfigMgr’s native content distribution process and hash generation. OneSite directly acquires content from the site server (the package source directory actually) and then securely distributes the content to the targeted clients as needed.

In our many customer production and lab environments and our own lab environments, we have never had a single case of this issue. No muss, no fuss, no mismatch.

OneSiteAdvantage: OneSite.

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Adaptiva OneSite Wins Down Under

As you probably already know, competition is intense these days between 1E Nomad  and Adaptiva’s OneSite products.

As we continue to hand out defeat after defeat to our much bigger and older rivals, things are getting pretty warmed up.

I blogged of our win at Australian retailing giant Coles in this blog.

Now we have won against 1E Nomad at Red Cross Blood Service Australia, helping them manage deployments for their fleet of machines spread across the whole continent.

Disclaimer: All copyrights and trademarks are property of their owners and are used here for identification only.

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Adaptiva OneSite Scores Another Huge Win At Coles, Australia

Continuing our string of wins against our traditional rivals, Adaptiva’s OneSite product has once again won against 1E’s Nomad product at Coles, Australia.

With 100,000 employees and 2000 stores spread across the continent, Coles are a retail giant, and are known as the Walmart of Australia.

As a retailing giant, Coles faces severe Systems Management challenges that are common to this industry segment, and were looking for a product that would allow them to extend their SCCM capabilities across the WAN to a large number of remote locations.

They ran a thorough evaluation of 1E’s Nomad product against Adaptiva’s OneSite. We participated in a full lab deployment, followed by a production pilot on the LAN, and then a second production pilot across a heavily used production WAN link.

OneSite proved itself with flying colors, and it was greatly satisfying for me to watch our technology coming alive and meeting some pretty severe requirements that Coles’ operational needs generated.

I have blogged the Coles SCCM/MDT Task Sequence WAN scenario here: http://adaptiva.com/blog/?p=83

As we welcome the SCCM team at Coles on board, we’d like to thank them for taking the time to look closely at the actual products – not just marketing literature and sales pitch.

We’d also like to thank our trusted partners Dilignet, who have worked tirelessly to help and support us.

Legal Disclaimer: All copyrights and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here for identification purposes only.

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