Collapsing Miles Through Technology

When you’re responsible for the uptime of PC’s and servers that are 1000km from a central site it’s not only about monitoring machines at that point; it’s also about remote resolution.

Dennis Evans, owner and president of Dennis Computers in Queensland, Australia, a system provider of Intel server and desktop solutions throughout the continent, manages instances of unanticipated downtime or issues through solutions provided by SyAM Software. The company’s System Area Manager is the product of choice for SMBs who need an affordable, easy-to-use, easy to learn systems management tool for managing servers, PCI RAID storage systems, desktops, and notebooks.

“What’s key for my clients is catching issues before they became problems, being proactive, rather than reactive,” said Dennis. “For example, for one of my client’s sites I got an urgent email from a device installed with System Area Manager. I got on the phone with the client and told them their hard drive was about to fail. Sure enough, during our conservation the hard drive did just that.”

Dennis, who builds solutions for desktops and servers and then manages them, including their storage requirements, supports a range of customers, some of whom have as few as 3 PCs to as many as 600 in schools, including medical institutions, hospitals, doctors’ offices and petrol station chains.

As such Dennis manages all aspects of his clients’ IT function areas including backup and system availability.

“That particular site – the one where the hard drive failed – had a single IT technician on staff. While the technician supports the desktops, I manage all of the integration and backend system support,” said Dennis. “For most clients that’s a value-add they find especially helpful.”

Good Things Come In Three: Monitoring, Alerting, Remote Resolution

Dennis manages these sites with a triad of SyAM Software solutions including monitoring, alerting and remote resolution. These include:

SyAM Software’s systems level monitoring tracks fan speeds, temperature, voltage power redundancy, single-bit and multi-bit memory module errors, network connectivity and physical intrusions. This allows administrators to know if users are adding applications or hardware devices that may be causing issues.

SyAM Software’s alerting capabilities allow administrators to choose the best course of action to resolve issues. . While the monitoring features noted above track system parameters, the alerting functions notify administrators when operations exceed definable thresholds. Alerts at the system level can be sent to email, SMS/pager, the central event log, SNMP, and system event log (MOM).

Finally –remote resolution capabilities impacts the productivity of administrators by reducing or eliminating the need for desk-side visits. Administrators can literally “take over” a machine at the keyboard, video, mouse level and reconfigure systems properly, a feature Dennis has used and is infinitely grateful in having.

“I will get a call from a client that can’t do a task. With SyAM being integrated into their system, I can open up a VPN path, accessing their machines remotely from my site and get straight on to their desktops and show them how to do something,” said Dennis. “It’s a very streamlined process.”

Importantly, remote resolution and intervention is a key to Dennis’ success in the SMB space.

“One of my newest clients is a petrol station chain, which has locations that vary from as far as 400km south of my site to nearly 400km north,” explained Dennis. “To support server and system uptime they use multiple private networks that converge in a central hub. With SyAM incorporated into those systems they can now manage their entire network from that central hub to their remote locations without having to physically drive to each office. SyAM is not only a problem solver; it’s a time-saver.”

Managing Storage, Saving Power

Dennis has also leveraged SyAM’s storage management capabilities, reducing complexity by allowing all PCI RAID systems to be managed through a single console.

“One of my clients has 35 sites and 5 servers and it became quite evident, through SyAM, that the workstations didn’t have enough hard drive space or, for that matter, RAID. They were constantly at 95% capacity. Using SyAM, I recommended adding more RAM into the systems and optimizing their RAID configuration. Their performance as well as capacity increased accordingly,”

In addition to relating to clients his ability to proactively monitor systems Dennis also has the benefit of leveraging SyAM’s Power Management solution – which allows administrators to shut down servers and PC’s when they’re not needed, saving energy as well as dollars.

System Area Manager’s Power Management capabilities can help reduce a company’s power consumption by as much as 40% or more. It allows administrators to create power policies for desktops and notebooks and enforce them without any intervention by end-users.

“PCs are sometimes left on for maintenance updates as well as monitoring their availability,” said Dennis. “When that’s complete and the administrators leave they can now turn their PC’s off. They can also, through SyAM, schedule them to turn back on, as needed.”

In addition to power management, SyAM Software’s Management Utility allows him to easily deploy the software to customer sites, remotely patch systems and update BIOS versions.

Dennis not only benefits from monitoring client systems remotely, but also being able to market SyAM directly to those clients who prefer to monitor their systems themselves.

“For doctors’ offices, for example, which typically do not have a full-time technician on staff, remote monitoring and management is cost-effective,” said Dennis. “The petrol stations, on the other hand use SyAM to monitor themselves, in a large part because they have the manpower on staff . In many ways it’s a win-win situation for both.”

vPro In Its Sights

Most recently Dennis began using SyAM Software and Intel® vPro™ Technology solutions which furthers his remote management capabilities because of the power that the Intel® vPro™ technology brings.

“We’re just now experimenting with remotely ‘pushing out’ images, especially out to the petrol stations, rather than driving them out to the individual sites. That way, once they traverse the private network the images are received and captured locally, accelerating, among other benefits, remote resolution.”

He added, “To be competitive as a system provider requires the ability to do more for clients than simple break/fix,” said Dennis. “Having SyAM System Area Manager be a part of the services I can offer clients – complete with its end-to-end visibility for their servers, systems, and PCs – ensures their peace of mind as well as my own success. There’s quite simply nothing else like it out there today.”

About Dennis Computers

Dennis’ Computers is an Intel Certified Server and Systems builder, mainly specializing in the sale, implementation and support of servers, storage and workstations for small to large networks. The company also builds servers, storage solutions and workstations for several other IT companies in the region. As VMWare partner we are moving clients to ESX solutions which require a SAN/NAS for Vmotion/HA/DRS and DR. For more information visit: www.den-computers.com.au

Getting More Done with Existing Resources

Like most IT managers at small- and medium-sized organizations, Joe Martino, technology director for Shepaug Valley Regional School District 12 in Connecticut, manages a diverse IT infrastructure with limited resources. Their systems receive fairly hard usage in lab, classroom, and administrative environments. Furthermore, the machines are left on for long periods of time, resulting in wasted energy, a build-up of temporary files, and inefficient use of cache and swap space.

“Originally, we were looking for a way to cut our power costs and ensure that our machines are performing optimally,” says Martino. With 300 PCs spread across five campuses, the district felt that they could save a considerable amount of money if they found a solution that could remotely power down the systems after hours. “But in the evaluation process,” he notes, “we discovered a new way to manage our infrastructure that not only cuts power costs and optimizes performance, but also extends our management capabilities and increases the effectiveness of technology across the district.”

District 12’s PC lifecycle is longer than most larger organizations — generally five years — so the desktop fleet experiences a higher-than-usual number of age-related failures. Martino’s staff of three technicians is kept very busy with hardware and software installations, regular maintenance, break-fix repairs, software management, and security. Covering all these needs with finite people and dollars is a constant challenge. “We see two or three PC failures per week, for any number of reasons — hardware failure, misconfigured software, inappropriate downloads, you name it,” observes Martino. “Simple problems like these can take two hours to fix, including travel time.” Unexpected events, such as a virus infection across the network, can quickly complicate things and tie up staff for days. Asset management is also a challenge: simply knowing what systems are deployed, where they are located, and how they are configured.

“SyAM Software’s tools and Intel’s vPro processor technology have radically advanced what’s possible with simplified system management.” Michael Mazzariello, Director of Alliances, IFS

An Advanced Solution Tuned to a Medium-Sized Infrastructure

Martino turned to Integrated Financial Systems (IFS), a North Haven, Connecticut solution provider focused on multiple vertical markets including banking, finance, and education. As an experienced integrator of system management solutions and a leading distributor/reseller of SyAM Software tools, IFS had the background to analyze District 12’s infrastructure and recommend tools that could help. “District 12 wanted to reduce their energy costs, but we immediately saw a bigger opportunity for them,” says Michael Mazzariello, director of alliances for IFS. “Their situation is not unusual — a diverse infrastructure with multiple usage models, being managed with limited resources. The latest management solutions, particularly SyAM Software’s tools and Intel’s vPro processor technology, have radically advanced what’s possible with simplified system management. We knew we could deliver the power savings they were looking for…and so much more.”

“[The] proactive capabilities will make a huge difference in our efficiency as we prevent problems or catch them while remediation is simple.” Joe Martino, Technology Director, Shepaug Valley Regional School District 12

SyAM Software’s solution provides advanced PC and server management with unprecedented remote capabilities that cut management costs significantly and reduce downtime. To do so, SyAM’s software takes advantage of the hardware-based capabilities of PCs with Intel® vPro™ processor technology. “We knew the combination of SyAM Software and vPro-based desktops would bring proactive capabilities to prevent problems; enhanced remote management to lower the cost of management and reduce power consumption; and better asset management capabilities to lower total costs over time,” notes Mazzariello.

Simple but Powerful

SyAM Software’s solution is simple to install and to learn, and was therefore well-matched to a medium-sized deployment like District 12’s. It consists of two functional components:

• System Area Manager: A web-based management console that provides a single interface to manage all systems and RAID storage across the infrastructure, as well as real-time status.
• System Client: An intelligent agent that dynamically discovers and monitors IT assets, hardware and software configurations, and operational sensors on a single computer.

SyAM Software’s solution leverages the unique capabilities of PCs with Intel vPro processor technology. This advanced technology lets administrators manage PCs more effectively than they could in the past:

• Hardware-assisted remote management technology: Reduces the need for costly, time-consuming deskside visits by remotely configuring, diagnosing, and repairing PCs, even if the system is off or down.
• Remote inventory management: Reduces time-consuming manual inventory of hardware and software, more securely and capably than software-only solutions — even if the system is off or the OS down.
• Proven hardware-assisted security technology: Enables proactive protection that helps guard against data loss and disruption, including the ability to isolate infected PCs from the network, repair them, and reconnect them remotely, even if the PC is off or down.1 The solution also identifies missing security software or updates and then installs the appropriate patches to resolve the issue.

With these potential benefits available, Martino agreed to launch a pilot of the SyAM Software and Intel vPro processor technology solution within District 12’s existing infrastructure.

Increasing Productivity, Lowering Cost

After IFS installed the System Area Manager on District 12’s administrative server, they deployed three HP dc7700* Ultraslim Desktop PCs with Intel vPro processor technology and loaded the System Client intelligent agent on each of the PCs. “Installation was very smooth, and training from IFS was straightforward,” says Martino. “The SyAM Software interface is simple and easy to use. All in all, this is a very easy solution to deploy.”

Very quickly, the significant benefits of the solution and the resulting productivity increases became apparent to Martino and his team:

Simplified asset management.Beginning at installation, the SyAM Software Deployment Utility discovered systems across the network. From there, hardware and software changes are tracked automatically and vulnerability queries can be made. For the PCs with Intel vPro processor technology, this asset tracking is done regardless of power state or operating system health. As a result, District 12 can maintain a full picture of system configurations, health states, and utilization levels.

Proactive monitoring and extensive reporting. One of the greatest impacts of the solution is the ability to proactively monitor systems and usage and therefore prevent problems before they occur. Martino’s staff can now monitor PCs for temperature variations, memory utilization and errors, disk health and pending failure, CPU utilization, network connection problems, and the presence of power redundancy. “These proactive capabilities will make a huge difference in our efficiency as we prevent problems or catch them while remediation is simple,” says Martino. In addition, the solution’s extensive reporting capabilities help the IT staff to track usage, see trends, and identify bottlenecks — making planning for upgrades much more accurate.

Remote system management. The SyAM Software and Intel vPro processor technology solution lets the IT staff do more from their desks — and do it more quickly. For example, Martino recently did a software installation on an administrator’s PC without interrupting the user, as opposed to a standard remote desktop session where he would have had to bump the user in and out repeatedly during the process. “With the vPro PC, it took 5 minutes; normally it would take an hour,” he notes. His staff also does a fair amount of OS “ghosting” — booting a system from an external device. Now, they can ghost from a remote server, rather than having to physically carry a CD out to the PC, saving a substantial amount of time.

Remote problem resolution. These same remote capabilities deliver unprecedented diagnosis and repair abilities that speed resolution and lower the cost of remediation. The remote console gives full Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) control of any managed system through the web browser, allowing the technician to remotely take over the machine at the keyboard, video, and mouse level. Intel vPro processor technology adds the ability to do this regardless of the system’s power state or OS health. “The ability to work on systems that are powered off or have a broken OS will be huge for us,” says Martino. He estimates the remote capabilities will eliminate at least half of their deskside visits, as well as shorten the time-to repair and improve uptime for end users. “The positive impact on our service levels will be significant,” he notes. And when a deskside visit is necessary, the technician can bring the right parts and get the repair done without repeat visits.

Advanced hardware-based defenses against viruses and malware. Intel vPro processor technology includes hardware-based filters that can prevent viruses and trojans from reaching the OS. In conjunction with the SyAM Software solution, it can automatically isolate a problem PC and allow remote remediation using an “out-of-band” channel underneath the OS if necessary, so that a hung system can still be fixed. “This is so much more effective and efficient than the usual drill,” says Martino, “a mad scramble to get the infected PC off the network, then an onsite visit to diagnose and patch it. A spreading virus can bring us to our knees on multiple campuses in minutes.”

“We discovered a new way to manage our infrastructure [that] increases the effectiveness of technology across the District.” Joe Martino, Technology Director, Shepaug Valley Regional School District 12

Significant power savings and power-related rebates. PCs with Intel vPro processor technology include the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor, which delivers up to 40% performance improvement and greater energy efficiency.2 So whenever the PCs are on, District 12 is saving power versus older PCs. However, the SyAM Software solution includes the Power Management Utility that allows IT administrators to easily create power policies and schedules that automatically and gracefully power PCs down after hours. The resulting energy-cost savings can be considerable. “For a single high school, we could easily have 70 systems left on all night,” explains Martino. “Now, we can automatically shut them down between 5 PM and 7 AM. Over a 40-week school year, that saves the district $10,000 per year.” In addition to this significant savings, IFS worked with District 12’s local power utility to evaluate the SyAM Software and Intel vPro processor technology solution and eventually got it certified for rebate incentives from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund (CEEF). “This will help fund the future growth of our solution and increase our ROI,” says Martino. “IFS did an awesome job on this!”

IT Services Improved with No Increase in Resources The SyAM Software and Intel vPro processor technology solution is allowing Martino’s team to deliver a higher level of service and get more done with the existing staff. The increased level of productivity enabled by the solution lets them reduce the time to complete IT support calls and handle more calls in a day. At the same time, it helps to identify potential problems and prevent them from blossoming. “This solution gives us powerful new tools to manage our hardware and software environment,” observes Martino. “It allows us to adopt a call center and help desk model, with faster response times and lower cost.” And in terms of the future? “The SyAM software is affordable and scalable, so we’ll continue to deploy it across our environment,” he says. “And as our PCs make it to end-of-life, we’ll eventually be adopting vPro technology across the board.”

For More Information

For more information on SyAM Software solutions contact SyAM Software at edu@syamsoftware.com.

To discover how much money you can save using SyAM Software, see the SyAM Software Savings Calculator at www.syamsoftware.com/power-calculator.

For more information on Integrated Financial Systems, visit the web site at www.i-f-s.com.

For more information on Intel vPro processor technology, see www.intel.com/vpro.

The Education IT Dilemma

The need to supply higher levels of IT services to students, faculty, and staff has never been greater. Whether users reside in classrooms, libraries, laboratories or off-campus, IT administrators must balance the needs of the user with budget realities.

Systems are scattered and constantly changing; hardware is modified and software applications are installed and updated. Sometimes these are beneficial and necessary changes made by IT staff … and sometimes they’re detrimental and unauthorized. When the help desk receives a call, will the administrator know the root cause of the issue? Is it an isolated event or the first of many calls demanding resources? With many systems left on over night and over weekends, energy and budgets are wasted. These systems may provide an unauthorized entry point to confidential information leaving the school open to security breaches and compliance violations.

How can a small IT staff proactively manage a dynamic and remote environment touched by thousands of people daily? How can it conserve energy, preserve its budget, and mitigate risk when systems are out of sight and out of mind?

Region 12 Takes a Pro-Active Approach

Regional School District 12 serves the residents of Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington, Connecticut. The technology department, led by network manager Joe Martino, is responsible for managing 300 PCs and 10 servers located within Region 12′s 5 schools. Typically, two to three systems a week have hardware or software issues. It requires time and effort to travel to the sites (located within a 64 square mile boundary) to diagnose and resolve the problems. A second visit is often necessary to resolve a hardware issue, costing the school money.

Joe’s goal was to reduce the amount of time and effort needed to solve problems. He knew that reactive systems management was not efficient. He knew he had to become pro-active … he had to know the exact makeup of the environment, the location of each asset, and its exact configuration. He needed a powerful tool that would allow him to:

• See the environment, in real time and historically
• Be softly warned of potential issues
• Be interrupted by critical issues
• Remotely diagnose problems
• Remotely RESOLVE the problems

The Solution

Integrated Financial Systems (IFS), a SyAM Software technology partner and trusted advisor within the education sector, realized that Region 12 needed remote management and system health monitoring to resolve their problems. IFS identified SyAM Software’s System Area Manager and Management Utilities as a powerful yet surprisingly easy to use and inexpensive solution.

“Energy cost savings have allowed us to maintain our technology budget for the students.” – Robert Giesen, Business Manager, Region 12 School District, Connecticut

The solution provides what Region 12 needed, and it was quick to deploy across the network using SyAM Software’s Management Utility. The browser based interface was easy to use and required no training; giving the IT staff an immediate understanding of, and access to, all of their systems. Now that the systems are monitored and the central alerting configured the IT team at Region 12 will know of issues in advance, essential for providing higher levels of service.

Michael Mazzariello, Director of Alliances for IFS, stated that, “Joe now has a powerful tool at his disposal which provides him with even more control of his environment. He knows where his IT assets are, their operational status and a history of changes and identified issues. Joe also has remote access to his IT assets from anywhere using a web browser.” Mike went on to say that, “using the SyAM Software Management Utilities, Joe can now identify vulnerabilities across groups of systems and patch them remotely without leaving his desk or disrupting the class.”

With many systems left on overnight, IFS saw the opportunity to save its client hard dollars. The SyAM Software Power Management Scheduler would quickly deliver the potential savings, by creating and enforcing power policies for the automated shutdown-power on of a specific PC or group. “Relying on faculty and administration to save money and energy by manually shutting down their PCs each evening was not efficient. Inevitably many systems were forgotten and left on,” stated Martino. Once the scheduler was in place, the risk of a security breach through systems left on after hours was lessened.

Joe now keeps the reins on the ever increasing energy costs. These savings allowed Region 12 to stretch their technology budget. He went on to say, “IFS worked with Northeast Utilities (CL&P) on Region 12′s behalf to have this project evaluated and certified for incentives from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund (CEEF). Because actual power usage would decline, the CEEF helped fund the initial investment in the SyAM Software.”

Expanding Remote Management

Joe now has a tool that provides real-time monitoring, alerting, IT asset tracking, and remote resolution to operational systems. His next step is to have out of band management access even to non-operational systems. With savings from reduced energy costs, the school was able to implement new platforms which further improved their service levels.

As part of the project’s extension, SyAM Software, the IT team from Region 12, and IFS extended systems management with deployment of Intel® vPro™ technology. The out of band effectiveness of the vPro AMT (active management technology) and the SyAM Software solution enable manageability, even when a PC is powered off or an operating system is unresponsive. Joe and his staff can now use the same SyAM interface to remotely power PCs on and restore them remotely from an image stored at the service center; again, without having to leave their desk.

On-site visits previously necessary to resolve problems are eliminated or significantly reduced, and efficiencies are greatly improved. Joe now has a tool that provides real-time monitoring, alerting, IT asset tracking, and remote resolution to operational systems. His next step is to have out of band management access even to non-operational systems. With savings from reduced energy costs, the school was able to implement new platforms which further improved their service levels.

As part of the project’s extension, SyAM Software, the IT team from Region 12, and IFS extended systems management with deployment of Intel® vPro™ technology. The out of band effectiveness of the vPro AMT (active management technology) and the SyAM Software solution enable manageability, even when a PC is powered off or an operating system is unresponsive. Joe and his staff can now use the same SyAM interface to remotely power PCs on and restore them remotely from an image stored at the service center; again, without having to leave their desk.

On-site visits previously necessary to resolve problems are eliminated or significantly reduced, and efficiencies are greatly improved.

The Result

By implementing SyAM Software’s System Area Manager and System Clients across Region 12′s PC’s, it became easier for Joe and his team to increase system availability, improve accountability, maximize system resource utilization, and reduce total cost of ownership.

Regional 12′s return on investment for the IFS/SyAM Software solution is quickly being realized through energy savings and increased productivity. (See the power savings estimate on the right.)

As the Region 12 School District continues to refresh its environment with Intel® vPro™ platforms; power management, service levels and system utilization will significantly continue to improve.

“Relying on faculty and administration to save money and energy by manually shutting down their PCs each evening was not efficient, many systems were forgotten and left on. SyAM Software’s Power Management feature made this difficult task simple.” – Joe Martino, Network Manager, Region 12 School District, Connecticut

Proactive system management from SyAM Software unleashes the power of Intel® vPro™ technology and Intel® Active Management Technology. The Intel® Solutions Summit helped launch their solutions into the small-to-medium business (SMB) and enterprise markets, building rapid success.

Who

SyAM Software develops proactive management technologies for both client and server systems that it tailors to the individual branding and localization needs of global system and IT appliance suppliers, managed service providers, and IT service and solution providers.

What

SyAM Software’s system management products include free downloadable local clients for laptops, workstations, and servers that interface with Desktop Monitor Central and Server Monitor Central, providing administrators with the ability to manage a large population of systems simultaneously.

Why

These solutions unlock the power of remote management for IT departments and service providers, enabling dramatic cost savings and increased efficiency.

Why Intel

Intel® Active Management Technology and Intel® vPro™ technology underlie the key functionalities of the software solutions from SyAM Software. The two companies have worked together closely to ensure that the hardware and software aspects of the solution work together optimally.

The System Manageability Dilemma and Opportunity

A major portion of many IT budgets is spent maintaining and supporting existing systems, leaving a small minority of resources available for innovation and growth. Budget constraints limit the abilities of many organizations to meet their strategic goals, causing many initiatives to be delayed. Common inefficiencies associated with system and network management include everyday support operations requiring technicians to make excessive desk-side visits, as well as asset management and license compliance being handled by outdated manual processes.

Tools available for managing multi-brand IT environments only provide reactive capabilities, dramatically limiting administrators’ efficiency in managing those environments. Additionally, these tools are costly and complex to set up and use, poorly suiting them to the SMB marketplace, which faces the same complex IT problems as enterprises. These management inefficiencies, together with the downtime associated with system maintenance or upgrades, negatively impact the bottom line.

Automating help-desk support for operations such as password resets and common configuration tasks has enabled many IT organizations to cut costs significantly. Extending that automation to the next level, by enabling support organizations with extended remote-resolution tools, can further reduce the workload on support organizations. To be optimally successful, those tools must overcome three traditional obstacles that have existed with remote-management solutions:

• Offline machines. Since many maintenance operations take place during off-hours, it is inevitable that some client systems will be powered off, which typically interferes with overall administration tasks, forcing desk-side visits or interruption of the workday.

• End-user tampering. End users often intentionally or inadvertently interfere with the system configuration, thus affecting its operation and limiting or eliminating its ability to function correctly.

• Reactive problem-resolution mode. Excessive end-user calls to help desks raise administrative costs and cut productivity.

SyAM Software and Intel have teamed together to create a world-class solution consisting of both hardware and software components that deliver a complete means of addressing these issues globally in multiple languages. SyAM Software and Intel have been working closely at various levels on unified manageability solutions for Intel servers and desktops.

With SyAM Software’s ease of use, Intel platform support, scalability, and affordability, considerable opportunities exist for Intel Channel Partner Program members to deliver solutions to market that help their customers solve the issues associated with inefficiencies in system maintenance and support. From the provider’s point of view, delivering complete solutions offers the potential to increase their margins by differentiating their offerings in the market segment and adding substantial value to their customers. From the end customer’s point of view, initial investment in the means to decrease ongoing support costs can be a sound business choice.

Intel is including SyAM Software products with the Intel® vPro™ technology motherboards, and the companies are working together to drive these products into the market segment through Intel’s worldwide channel network of resellers, solution providers, managed service providers, and OEMs. Intel is committed to helping software partners like SyAM Software get their solutions to market through a variety of programs and events that help to ensure industry adoption.

SyAM Software Puts Intel Platform Technologies to Work

To address the need for proactive monitoring, alerting, and remote management of servers and client machines, SyAM Software developed a line of products that optimally take advantage of Intel platform technologies for these purposes. These tools provide both local and centralized management for 32- and 64-bit systems running both Windows* and Linux*:

• Server Monitor Local, Desktop Monitor Local, and Notebook Monitor Local – a single tool to manage all brands of servers, PCI RAID storage systems, desktops, and notebooks within an IT environment. This free product can be downloaded and installed to manage one system at a time.

• Server Monitor Central and Desktop Monitor Central - a single tool to manage all brands of servers, PCI RAID storage systems, desktops, and notebooks. This feature-rich product can be downloaded and installed in just minutes, to manage up to 500 systems simultaneously through a single console. License options scale from 1 to 500 systems.

Centralized monitoring based on SyAM Software solutions provides a comprehensive, standards-based set of monitoring, alerting, and management functions by means of a lightweight, browser-based client. A management console provides a single interface for all platforms and access to an in-depth hardware sensor, software applications/processes, RAID management, and the ability to remotely manage systems from graceful restarts and shutdowns. It also provides the capability to remotely control the keyboard, video, and mouse of a system from anywhere using a web browser.

Through the same interface, SyAM Software provides out-of-band manageability through Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) and Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT). These capabilities further enable remote resolution, even when systems are in a nonoperational state.

Asset monitoring down to the level of serial numbers of hardware and software versions, including software and hardware change tracking, is centralized and automated, with integrated reporting support via HTML, XML, or CSV formats. Management event logs capture performance and other operational data, which can feed planning and analysis operations, helping to match budgetary and strategic requirements with operational results. Using these solutions, administrators can keep up to date with the full scope of operations across the network, including being alerted to performance, security, and maintenance issues as they arise.

SyAM Software solutions dramatically enhance remote resolution and provide predictive failure analysis capabilities across the entire network. These capabilities are effective over multiple brands and models of server, desktop, and laptop hardware running both Windows and Linux operating systems. They also extend to storage resources, with integrated RAID management that allows you to keep track of physical and logical disk utilization, making changes as needed, with assistance from proactive monitoring and alerting resources. Reports on all systems are available on a real-time and historic basis from anywhere on the network, using a simple browser interface.

“Our partnership with Intel extends beyond product development to delivery of our products and support through Intel’s channel. Our relationship is continually expanding into new geographies, markets, and areas. Intel’s assistance was key in the introduction of strategic partnerships with Arrow Europe for Pan European Distribution and Lifeboat Distribution for North America Distribution. Our distribution partnership with Intel’s desktop division on vPro clearly shows our company’s and technologies’ ability for global solution enablement.” Nick Thickins CEO and Founder SyAM Software

SyAM Software solutions can scale from SMB environments to large enterprise infrastructures with existing management frameworks, enabling customers to rapidly take advantage of the SyAM Software product functionality and obtain better value from their hardware investment.

Through Intel’s program for software partners, SyAM Software received direct engineering support from Intel throughout the development of these products, helping to ensure that they achieve a high level of functional integration with the Intel platform features on which they depend. Another aspect of the joint engineering work involved in the development of these products was extensive tuning to ensure optimal performance. The solutions are specifically optimized for use with Intel® Centrino® mobile technology, Intel® vPro™ technology, and Intel® Dual-Core technology.

Intel Platform Technologies Provide the Solution’s Foundation

Intel has adopted a platform approach that seeks to identify the key business needs and challenges faced by businesses, IT organizations, and end users. Those factors are the primary drivers for the creation of new technologies and features in Intel platforms. Intel has developed a number of discrete hardware technologies that it has incorporated into its processors, chipsets, and other building blocks, directly addressing those needs. To bring the full potential of these technologies to market, Intel engages in extensive enabling work with software, hardware, and service providers. These relationships help both to ensure smooth integration of the whole solution and to enable global marketing advantages.

One of the primary platform technologies developed by Intel under this philosophy of directly seeking out customer business needs is Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT). This set of hardware capabilities allows far more robust remote system manageability by means of a three-part ‘discover, heal, and protect’ methodology:

• Discover. Intel AMT allows administrative consoles to poll systems, even if they are powered down or have an inoperable operating system, to obtain hardware and software inventory information from each system’s nonvolatile memory.

• Heal. Proactive alerting notifies IT of a system problem, even when the system is down, allowing IT to respond by remotely rebooting the system to a diagnostic platform for problem resolution by either down-the-wire repair or efficiently dispatching a technician when needed.

• Protect. Through out-of-band communication, system software version numbers can be checked and, if necessary, system software and virus protection can be remotely updated with the most recent patches and virus definitions.

Another of these platform technologies, Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), complements Intel AMT by providing a substantial hardware assist to virtualized environments on both client and server machines. This hardware technology simplifies and increases the robustness of software-only virtualization solutions, helping IT organizations create multiple independent, hardware-based environments within a single machine. Using this capability, IT organizations can create dedicated, tamper-resistant service partitions that can run administrative tasks transparently and beyond the control of end users.

Intel vPro technology incorporates Intel AMT and Intel VT for the business PC, together with enhanced security capabilities, such as the ability to isolate machines that have been infected with viruses from the rest of the network, helping to contain the threat and damage associated with security breaches. The combination of these technologies, which Intel has now incorporated into its mainstream platform offerings, offers the potential to cut costs by adding manageability while also enhancing security. Tremendous opportunity exists for integrators, OEMs, and MSPs to benefit by offering these capabilities to their customers.

Intel Solutions Summit Helps SyAM Hit the Ground Running

In March 2006, SyAM Software released version 3 of its products worldwide. That spring, the company participated in three separate Intel Solutions Summit events, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, Isle of Rhodes, Greece, and San Ya, China. By forging relationships through these events with fellow participants on three continents, SyAM drove its products to market and helped generate a projected US$2M in sales for 2006/2007. The relationships with Intel’s OEMs and Resellers that developed through these events have been invaluable to the success of the product release. Kevin Regan, SyAM Software vice president for North American sales, said “Intel was instrumental in introducing us to distribution partners, as well as Premier members. Without Intel’s partnership, it would have taken years and extensive resources to make this progress.”

The Intel Solutions Summit is open to about 1,500 first-tier member companies, known as Intel® Channel Partner Program Premier members. The Premier members are the top performers of Intel’s global distribution network of more than 170,000 Intel Channel Partner Program members. Each of these companies is a reseller of Intel products, and the events provide an opportunity several times each year for those members to gather and learn about the latest Intel products and technologies and to network with each other. The large and growing member participation in these events provides unique matchmaking opportunities for software companies to showcase their solutions and develop business relationships with Premier members.

Relationships that Move the Industry Forward

SyAM Software’s close engineering work and co-marketing with Intel helped to drive solutions into the market segment. Intel Channel Partner Program members can incorporate SyAM Software into their product offerings, adding value to their hardware solutions, or enabling Premier members to perform managed services to their end users. This combination of technologies allows remotely managing sites, performing root-cause analysis of problems as they arise, as well as remote resolution of the problem, reducing travel costs and resource utilization.

“SyAM has been an active participant in Intel’s program for software partners, which provides software vendors development tools and resources to enable applications on Intel technologies.” Amy Barton Marketing Manager Intel Software and Solutions Group

For example, these capabilities can include taking full keyboard/video/mouse control of remote systems and guiding on-site users through trouble resolution, dramatically cutting the costs to resolve issues, as well as the mean time to repair. The solution can also be used to remotely power-down systems, which can provide cost savings in its own right, as well as assisting in network maintenance such as when powering down all client systems at a site to support a server operating-system upgrade. Moreover, the logging and reporting provided by the environment can help service providers to quantify operational activities to their customers, such as number of tickets resolved and mean time to repair.

Intel software partners like SyAM Software are finding worldwide opportunities to increase sales, add services, and access new market segments and revenue streams by marketing and selling to Intel Channel Partner Program members, to deliver complete solutions to their customers.

To find out more about SyAM Software solutions, visit www.partners.syamsoftware.com To learn more about Intel® vPro™ Technology, visit www.intel.com/vpro To learn more about the Intel® Software Partner Program, visit www.intel.com/partner To learn more about the Intel® Channel Partner Program, visit www.intel.com/go/alliancecenter