Optimization and security of infrastructures

By: Osvaldo Callegari*

Currently IT departments need to know what license they have installed inside their computers. This requirement is indispensable so as not to waste investments in software in an unknown way.

Within the company there may be computers that do not use certain programs, which are approved under a license or provision of services, this clearly reflects an undocumented operating cost of licenses.

On the other hand, it is important to highlight the need to have security on all devices, to avoid the known difficulties involved in data management.

No less important is the control of changes in the equipment, since the hardware inventory can be very high if the control is not carried out. Another point to highlight is the centralization of processes either in hardware or software. With these three thoughts we analyze and put into practice the control and security of infrastructures. As is classic in our analytical column, we take as a reference products from the market with a certain trajectory.

Increase efficiency
When the infrastructure of a company is composed of hundreds or thousands of workstations, the task of carrying out the inventory becomes impossible or at least very difficult and fallible if you do not have an adequate tool.

InvGate.net is a tool that will allow you to automatically obtain the information of all computer assets, saving an immense amount of time and effort. The result will be not only to optimize the human resources of systems so scarce today, but also to efficiently allocate the existing technological resources in the company's assets.

Make smart decisions
Technological advances and corporate changes put managers in the constant need to make fast, creative and intelligent decisions, for which it is essential to have complete and updated information instantly.

InvGate.net not only relieves all the information you will need with just one click, but also records all the changes that occur in the technological infrastructure, triggering warnings, alarms, orders and even showing historical information, which will allow you to manage and make decisions that will translate into concrete and verifiable achievements.

Within the security of infrastructure applications we can highlight the importance of knowing when a device is released from the network, in the case of a USB drive, or some element related to the information is modified, this is verified through a messaging system informing the supervisor of what happened. Having control of the network's inventory generates an objective look at current investment or modification needs.

The application of infrastructure control systems directly impacts future decisions of equipment expansions or modifications. Let's detail the point-by-point benefits of incorporating an infrastructure application:

Safety:
- Control of devices, insertion, removal of keys, USB, disks etc.

Management:
- Disk capacity control
- Temporary file cleaning
- Computer use
- Inventory
- Control of installed devices
- Origin of installed devices
- Change control
- Control of updates of installed devices
- Licensing
- Control of installed licenses
- Type of license installed
- License usage statistics
- Remote management
- Centralization of all processes
- installation and uninstallation of applications remotely
- control of unauthorized software
- uninstallation of unauthorized software

- Versatility of implementation. It can be implemented invisibly and centrally "Agentless" or as a resident agent on your computers.

- Integration with centralized user management structures (Active Directory, LDAP, Open LDAP, Samba, Novell)

- Firewall Friendly, does not require configuration of additional ports.

"SnapShots" historical information management, InvGate.net allows you to view, navigate, and compare the status of your infrastructure to a particular date. You will be able to analyze the degree of growth, evolution and fulfillment of the objectives related to your IT platform, comparing the Current vs. gace six, twelve months or the time you define.

It does not require additional scripting engine, Database or WebServer licenses.

- Null Implementation Curve. The implementation of InvGate.net can be done in less than four hours.

- Administration of access profiles. InvGate.net allows you to create different access profiles, so that you can limit access to the sections of InvGate.net you want.

- Financial information management of each computer asset, whether PCs, Servers, Routers, Software Licenses, etc.

All the information is in a single repository and is web enable, so you only need a browser to access InvGate.net (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera)

Supported Operating Systems
- Windows Vista x86 and x64 All Versions
- Windows XP up to SP2 + updates on x86 and x64
- Windows 95 / OSR1 + updates (Requires Windows 95 SP1, IE 4 + Active Desktop and Winsock 2.1)
- Windows 98SE + Windows ME updates + updates
- Windows 2000 Professional up to SP4 + updates
- Windows NT 4 Server / Workstation (Requires SP6a, IE4 + Active Desktop)
- Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server and DataCenter Server up to SP4 + updates
- Windows 2000 Small Business Server Premium Edition up to SP4 + updates
- Windows 2003 Server Standard and Enterprise up to SP1 + updates, Release 2, and SP2 + updates over x86 and x64
- Windows 2003 Small Business Server Premium Edition up to SP1 + updates, Release 2 and SP2 + updates on x86 and x64.
- Linux RedHat
- Linux Ubuntu
- Linux SuSE

Main features
Updated and detailed inventory of Hardware and Software, devices and fixed assets at each station.

- Control of changes and sending alarms.
- Financial information and depreciation calculation.
- Management of license assignment.

- Updated reports of: Hardware, Software (Blacklist, Whitelist), Licensing, Network, etc.

- Customizable report generator.

- Historical information about your IT assets.

- Management of Software lists. (White / Blacklist)

- Alarm Dashboard

- 100% Web interface

It Inventory
InvGate.net IT Inventory allows you to have the knowledge of everything that happens in your IT infrastructure instantly. It is the optimal tool for network administrators. The IT Inventory module automatically discovers the Hardware and Software of all workstations using various technologies.

In this way you will get all the detail of what hardware each workstation has (Serial numbers, Ram Banks, Etc),as well as all the software.

Thanks to InvGate.net IT Financials, you will gain control over the distribution of your budget and the investment made in each of the cost centers.

In this way you can generate reports by department / cost centers, calculation of the annual depreciation of your IT assets (hardware, devices and licenses).

Likewise, you can count on a detailed analysis of the investment made in each of the sectors of your organization and in this way be able to identify deviations or changes in the projections.
InvGate.net IT Financials has the following benefits:

- Control and alarms on expiration date of guarantees.
- Calculation of the annual depreciation of each IT asset.
- TCO control and investment grade performed by Cost Centers
- Total TCO on each Workstation (hardware, software and other devices. e.g. Telef. IP, mobile, PDA, etc).

This way you will be able to estimate the total cost that each new income of personnel infers in the company.

IT License Administration
InvGate.net IT Licensing Management is the only license management solution that includes real licensing schemes (installation, CPU, OEM, Open Select, etc.), you can also obtain reports of projection of licensing investment, assignment of licenses to certain groups of computers, cost analysis for license renewal and maintenance contracts.

One of the most common mistakes that IT managers make is acquiring more licenses than they really need. There is also the risk of not buying enough, generating a legal risk, of which there is no notion of the degree of exposure of the company.

The Licensing Management module manages the different types of licenses, either programs or operating systems. Relates licenses to the software and manages their use.

IT alarms & Cmdb
InvGate.net, it monitors all changes to your organization's workstations. Changes in software, hardware or equipment assignment are plotted on the alarm summary board, so that your organization will get a clear view of the status of each alarm and the critical level of them.

Easily and intuitively you can configure the criticality and escalation levels for each type of alarm. You can choose which person(s) on your computer you want to notify via Email or SMS according to the type and criticality of each alarm.

For example, if a workstation detects the installation of software and it belongs to the Whitelist, it is likely that you want to dismiss that alarm, but if on the contrary that software belonged to the Blacklist, you will surely want to notify your help desk team. It is also not the same that they add RAM in a Workstation to detect a lack of RAM.

Each change generated on each of the stations and Servers will be reflected in the alarm log with its corresponding number. of ticket.

You will be able to view the entire history of changes and alarms of a particular workstation and thus gain control over all configuration changes of each of your IT assets.

Summarizing, in part, the characteristics of the product analyzed here, we can say that we would be in a position to do financial analysis, change control, increase network security, control licenses, their use and expiration and in turn optimize them.

As my dear reader always knows, we put a reference product to generate a healthy concern within the IT departments. In the next article we will present a case study related to the application of infrastructure control systems.

Note 1: The functionalities presented in this article belong to INVGATE ®, for more information you can go to the website. www.invgate.com

Note 2: The products and brands mentioned in this article are registered from their respective companies.

* To contact the author of this article you can write to [email protected]