Novell ZENworks Suite Adds Store-Like Feature for MSP Customers

IT management software developer Novell this week has unveiled a new product called Novell ZENworks Suite to replace all existing ZENWorks suite/bundle options. The company additionally launched Novell ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3.

The company said its new suite packages asset management, configuration management, service management and endpoint protection into one offering for IT administrators.

Novell Product Line Manager Jason Blackett told MSPmentor that through new features, managed services providers (MSPs) can now "create a 'store' type offering to their customers whereby a customer running ZENworks can subscribe to prebuilt software and policies created by the partner."

"This is something several partners have shown interest in as a way of reducing the amount of time they have to spend on site building bundles and policies while still being able to leverage their institutional knowledge and provide a higher level of service to their customer," he said. "Additionally, partners that may be hosting ZENworks services may also be interested in the new remote management join proxy, which allows them to remotely assist users from anywhere, not just within the corporate network."

Blackett also noted that MSPs have the potential opportunity to leverage new reporting features, provide outsourced incident management for customers and service larger organizations through scalability improvements.

According to Blackett, the new suite will also provide partners with more value, saving them money in the end.

"In almost all cases all of the new functionality that the partner is receiving is happening without any cost increase to them, and in many cases will result in a slight cost savings," Blackett said. "Additionally, the new capabilities mean that partners have more services they can offer to their customers."

The new ZENworks 11 Support Pack 3 was designed to provide better scalability, auditing and patch management to manage more endpoints, the company said. It includes automated patch management policies, improved rights-based management, join proxy, improved software inventory, inventory pruning, Windows 8 support, imaging Enhancements and in-product diagnostics.

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