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Third Parties Feature New/Upgraded Tools at TechEd

A crowd of third-party software firms – including Borland (see related story) and IBM Tivoli -- announced new and updated products on the first day of Microsoft’s annual TechEd 2005 conference in Orlando.

Handle Batch Jobs From Your BlackBerry

Advanced Systems Concepts, inc. (ASCI) announced it is shipping a new Java-based client for accessing its ActiveBatch 5.0 batch processing facility via the latest RIM BlackBerry devices. ASCI’s new Java-based ActiveBatch Wireless Client is supported on a complete range of BlackBerry models, including all 5000-series, 6000-series, and 7000-series products, the company said.

Additionally, the Java wireless client features a new management console, as well as the ability to identify jobs by label (job name) via the command line to make it easier to access jobs via names rather than job ID’s. ActiveBatch 5.0 starts at $3,000. The ActiveBatch Wireless Add-in is $995.

GPOVault Lets IT Pros Delegate Group Policy

DesktopStandard Corp. said it is shipping GPOVault, a package that lets network administrators securely delegate group policy change and configuration management for Windows desktops to others while retaining control over deployment. GPOVault integrates into Microsoft’s Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), providing unified management and change control over corporate policy enforcement tasks.

GPOVault Enterprise, costs $1,400 per domain, including one year of upgrade assurance and technical support. A single GPOVault server can support an entire Active Directory forest or any lesser segment, the company said. GPOVault supports group policy management for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 on Active Directory networks and runs on any computer with GPMC installed.

IBM Tivoli Tools to Use MS Security Analyzer

IBM Tivoli announced its intent to leverage Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) 2.0 with future releases of IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager and IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager.

Both products leverage and extend MBSA to discover the state of Microsoft hotfix levels, to target deployments, and to distribute and install hotfixes, as well as to report on the vulnerability status of Microsoft end points, an IBM statement said.

PatchLink Update to be Updated

PatchLink announced it will integrate Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) 2.0 with PatchLink Update in order to provide Microsoft users with increased protection against network vulnerabilities. Availability of the PatchLink Scanner Integration Module version that supports MBSA 2.0 is planned for the third quarter of this year, according to the company.

The PatchLink Update security management console will enable administrators to view results from MBSA 2.0. The company also announced it has negotiated a deal with Microsoft that lets PatchLink market an integrated PatchLink Update with SQL Server 2000.

ScriptLogic Releases Updated Active Directory Tool

ScriptLogic said it is shipping Active Administrator 4.0, a comprehensive management and auditing solution to enable administrators to efficiently manage Active Directory security and group policy in Windows 2000 and 2003-based networks.

New features in 4.0 include object-level backup and restore, which lets administrators schedule backups of all Active Directory objects in a domain on a highly-granular basis. This effectively provides Active Directory with an “undo” function, enabling administrators to recover from accidental deletions of AD objects such as users, computers, and groups. Active Administrator 4.0 can also manage, search, back-up and restore all security information on objects within Active Directory.

Additionally, ScriptLogic announced it is shipping the latest release of Enterprise Security Reporter. Version 2.5 adds the ability to automate report generation for creating scheduled reporting frameworks and audit trails of security reports.

About the Author

Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.

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