AST ESM extends its integrated mobile management solution

AST Enterprise Solutions Management (ESM), a division of the AST Group, has announced that Novadigm has extended its Radia Mobile Management Suite to embrace handheld devices, including PDAs. Enterprises and service providers can now use the product to remotely manage applications and content on devices running WinCE or PocketPC. AST ESM is the sole distributor for Novadigm in southern Africa.

IT research and consulting firm Meta Group predicts that PDA penetration of knowledge workers in the enterprise will exceed 50% by 2006. As PDA use within the enterprise grows, IT organisations will be challenged to bring these devices under corporate management while controlling related deployment, security and helpdesk costs.

"To meet this challenge, AST ESM will be using products like Novadigm`s Radia Mobile Management Suite for PDAs so that enterprises can reduce support costs, improve application uptime and user productivity, and secure sensitive corporate data from unauthorised use, loss or theft," says Hayden Pinnell of AST ESM.

"To successfully implement pervasive computing initiatives, companies must administer handhelds as part of an enterprise-wide software and infrastructure management strategy, applying equivalent standards of security and uptime to handhelds as to any mission critical device within the enterprise," adds Pinnell. "Companies that provide integrated management solutions that seamlessly incorporate handheld devices help lower costs while assuring productivity."

The Novadigm solution is designed to work with handhelds, laptops, desktops, servers, and other computing devices such as ATMs, point-of-sale terminals and Internet kiosks.

Novadigm`s enhanced Radia Mobile Management Suite installs, changes, repairs, and removes WinCE and PocketPC applications over wireless LAN and modem connections, or through docking cradles attached to networked computers. The new mobile management components can be administered together with other Radia operations through Novadigm`s Radia Management Portal, using the same policy sources for software entitlements as Novadigm`s products for servers, desktops, and laptops. Such policy sources can include Microsoft Active Directory, Novell NDS, any LDAP directory service, and any SQL database.

Radia deploys and manages PDA software and content directly to the device, which increases manageability for the IT organisation and reliable mobility for end-users. Radia also extends Novadigm`s features, including unattended application repair and policy-based desired-state management to handheld devices. As a result, those with wireless LAN or wireless modem connectivity can receive content and application changes immediately, without having to dock their devices to a computer connected to the enterprise network, and automatically, without IT administrator intervention.

With Radia, PDA applications and content can be password-protected before deployment. In addition, applications and data can be automatically removed from a handheld device -- if not accessed in a certain time period or if there are unauthorised attempts to access the device. The PDA-based Radia agent software is itself protected from accidental deletion by users, or intentional removal by unauthorised persons.