Local software development house PreWorX has expanded its long-term OEM agreement with Novell with the inking of a new agreement to deliver PreWorX Di-NIC OnDisk (DoD) preboot technology to the international company`s ZENworks users.
In traditional preboot environments, all computers on the network need to comply with Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) standards if administrators and support staff are to be given access to the PC before the operating system loads. Using this technology, full PC management can be carried out remotely without input from the user prior to the operating system having loaded.
"If PCs are not PXE-compliant (to be compliant, PXE must be supported by the computer`s BIOS or its network card), have non-standard preboot components or administrators do not want to run the risk of using PXE, traditional Preboot Services cannot be delivered," says Rhys Taylor, executive director of PreWorX.
"DoD is a PreWorX technology that gives administrators an alternative to the PXE requirement."
DoD is installed from a Windows environment and instead of having the preboot agent downloaded from a server at boot stage, using the PXE standard, the DoD installation wizard installs the preboot agent to the boot sector of the PC`s hard drive. Once installed, the preboot agent will activate during the system boot cycle, and initialise the network connection using standard 16-bit NDIS drivers (network driver interface specification) or 16-bit packet drivers.
"In other words, even without PXE compliance, DoD enables Preboot Services participation for any PC," explains Taylor. "Additionally, those users and administrators who have concerns about the security of PXE can now simply use DoD technology."
The PreWorX application not only uses 128-bit encryption to secure all transmitted messaging, but also advanced compression to facilitate quick and secure communications between the PC and server. Additionally, DoD makes the configuration of static IP networks easier and provides more protection against unauthorised PXE-based responses that could be used to gain control of a PC.
An IDC white paper, Quantifying the Business Benefits of Consolidated IT Resource Management reveals that over three years companies using ZENworks saved an average of more than $2.3 million annually from increased IT efficiency and almost $1.2 million from the reduction in IT travel costs and from lower hardware, software, training and outsourcing costs.
Improvements in IT productivity contributed a further cost savings of more than $2.6 million annually and increased user productivity contributed close to $20.4 million. Overall, the average three-year return on investment (ROI) was 1 012%, with the average payback time 98.5 days.
"Preboot technology allows support personnel to accomplish almost any task without leaving their desks, saving time and money and getting users back to work quickly," concludes Taylor. "DoD offers Novell`s ZENworks users another option to make better use of the Preboot Services included in the ZEN package, irrespective of whether the PXE standard is supported on the PC or not."
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