Configuration Management

Mis-Configured Systems Steal Productivity and IT Budget

Managing server, workstation, and laptop configurations reduces help desk calls, improves uptime and employee productivity, and makes it easier and more efficient to distribute software and patches. Shavlik NetChk Configure provides a fast and easy on-ramp so even resource-starved businesses can get up and running in 30 minutes or less and immediately start to realize the benefits of standardizing configurations.

Free tools from Microsoft are not enough!

When it comes to managing configuration settings for the Microsoft operating system, many organizations naturally turn to Active Directory and Group Policy Objects (GPO). GPO can be a powerful tool for deploying policy settings. But GPO falls short for these reasons:

• Any number of issues can block proper GPO application, ranging from inadvertent corruption of local security policy files to intentional alteration by a savvy end user trying to circumvent controls
• As policy counts increase, it’s easy to make configuration mistakes — either in the policies themselves or in the priority ordering and inheritance that come into play as multiple layers of policies are applied
• GPO lacks reporting – Just defining the necessary policy settings isn’t enough. In order to measure the effectiveness of your program, you have to be able to prove your rules are applied correctly. Gartner estimates that 65% of successful attacks exploit configuration mistakes.

Streamlined and consistent configurations save money

Today’s fast-paced, dynamic networks mean change routinely outpaces the ability of IT departments to manage configuration settings, leading to gaps between “official” corporate policy and the reality on the network. Mis-configured systems are more likely to experience downtime or security problems that expose data to exploit or internal misuse. And a relatively small percentage of computers, usually those that allow the user too much control, generate the lion’s share of virus and spyware incidents.

Mis-configured systems sap your IT budget by making it more difficult to roll out software or deploy patches. Mis-configured systems generate more calls to the help desk that require IT staff to remove malware and bring the system back into conformance.

Configuration management is critical to perform but Shavlik Netchk Configure does it more efficiently and effectively, allowing businesses to spend less (less time, less money, less IT staff) while measurably improving employee productivity, reducing downtime, and eliminating costly help desk calls due to configuration errors.

“Clear return on investment due to ease of administration, right out of the box! With other products we would have required at least one additional full time systems administrator. Shavlik delivered a solution with the capability to automatically map our system configurations directly to PCI compliance requirements. We now have the visibility and the confidence that the auditor will simply tell us what we already know.”

Desktop Manager, Global Hotel Group

The value proposition for managing configurations — The Shavlik difference

• Fast time to implement – Install and start finding mis-configured systems in 30 minutes or less. Start realizing the value of managing configurations in days rather than weeks or months.
• Visibility and accuracy – You can’t manage what you can’t see. Shavlik’s unique agentless technology allows businesses to discover all physical and virtual machines, not just those managed by active directory.
• Easy to manage and easy to administer – Centralized management frees up critical IT staff to work on things that can’t be automated or on initiatives that build business and add to revenue bottom line.
• Automatically fix mis-configured systems – Detecting mis-configured systems is not enough. To lower operational costs, it is critical to automate fixing those gaps. Netchk Configure fully automates the process from scanning to fixing to ensure increased configuration policy conformance, lower operational costs, and reduce the impact on IT resources.