Connect with Viewfinity featuring Gartner Research on recent trends related to how organizations are revisiting PC control policies and increasing desktop lockdown.

Gartner states, “Survey results and feedback from Gartner clients show that organizations are increasing the number of PCs that IT controls by removing administrative rights and using other measures to control PC configurations.” This practice reduces system vulnerability by allowing end users to use only the applications and desktop functions that are deemed safe. However, to avoid merely shifting support calls related to unstable PCs to a high frequency of incidental type calls, companies should consider privilege management tools that will allow them to manage by user type or role.

Read this eNewsletter and learn more about PC lockdown policy trends, as well as best practices and approaches for various types of organizations.

https://www.viewfinity.com/Resources/WhitePaperSignup.aspx?cid=GartnerPMNewsletter

-New OS Image Deployment, Patch Management, Privilege Management and Interactive Dashboard Features Continue Viewfinity’s Commitment to Customers-

Waltham, MA – June 14, 2010 – Viewfinity (www.viewfinity.com), the innovator of privilege and systems management, today released version 3.0 of its solution suite. Nearly 3 months after its debut launch into the market, Viewfinity continues to make good on its commitment to customer-led product development and to build products that are critically needed in the market.

See the new features and updates in a live webcast demonstration, June 16th at 11:45 am ET

Register here to attend: http://www.viewfinity.com/Resources/LiveDemo.aspx?reg=sm

Additional Viewfinity features / functionality include:

· Privilege Management: administrators can create policies that will execute scripts without needing to assign local administrator rights to the end user; identify applications that require administrator rights, and permit or block the use of child processes

· OS Deployment: creates an exact disk image of the laptop/desktop including the operating system, configuration files and all applications and deploys the image to multiple systems simultaneously, making it ideal for rapid bare-metal installations (OS deployment via Acronis Snap Deploy)

· Patch Management: fully manages the distribution of updates released through Microsoft Update to computers in your network as well as mobile computers not connected to the internal network

· Viewfinity Dashboard: provides a quick view into the operations and status of the company assets through live monitoring of select desktops and servers to identify problematic areas

· Windows 7 OS Deployment with Viewfinity User Migration: a valuable add-on to the Acronis image deployment software for domain based migration of user personal settings, application settings and user data files to prepare for and perform the migration from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7.

Viewfinity also complements traditional systems management, such as SCCM, by offering new flexibility to manage administrator rights for locked down computers.

Viewfinity Systems Management solution can be delivered from a web-hosted platform or installed on premises. All desktop management is done through a secure and encrypted HTTPS connection which provides the ideal method for managing PCs for remote and mobile workers. Its web-hosted platform is also ideal for proof-of-concept evaluations because it eliminates the need to build a complex server environment to evaluate or deploy the software.

Online registration is available for trial evaluations here: http://www.viewfinity.com/SaasStart.aspx

Tags: Viewfinity, Desktop Management, Systems Management, Patch Management, OS Deployment, Software Deployment, Privilege Management, SaaS, Windows 7 Migration

About Viewfinity

Viewfinity is the innovator of systems and privilege management via cloud-computing, allowing IT professionals to focus on managing systems and not the platform's infrastructure. With the cloud model, IT can be up and running quickly to provide management, support and control for desktops, servers and laptops. This makes it extremely cost effective and easy for IT to support local as well as mobile workers.

Viewfinity uses virtualization technology as the foundation to simplify and automate deployment and management of applications, licenses and assets. Viewfinity also complements traditional systems management by offering compliance adherence to flexibly manage privileges for locked down computers. Viewfinity's cloud approach delivers immediate and long-term value, scales with business need, and eliminates the equipment, training, and substantially higher costs of on-premise implementations. Based in Waltham, MA, information on Viewfinity systems management solutions can be found at www.viewfinity.com.

Over the weekend I had to test a couple of products so I can recommend a solution to a real problem for one of my clients. One of my clients that runs a chain of farm implement dealerships (the green kind.)

The major problem my client is having is that one of their programs requires local administrative privileges. I think probably because it does direct hardware calls. Some of the users have laptops they have to take out into the field to hook up to farm machinery to perform diagnostics. This has presented a problem.

Privilege Elevation Made Simple… | My Life as an IT Guy

A great article by Dwain Kinghorn:

http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/newsletters/viewfinity/issue1/article.html

All organizations agree that locking down desktops allows IT to control and protect the entire distributed desktop environment. This practice reduces system vulnerability by allowing end users to use only the applications and desktop functions that are deemed safe. However, to be a worthy business policy, lockdown must support true cost savings.

Read the rest:

http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/newsletters/viewfinity/issue1/index.html

I believe the attacks on Google (Operation Aurora / “Hydraq”) created a watershed moment that has raised the visibility on how ineffective traditional signature-based antivirus solutions really are.

There’s no shortage of vendors delivering solutions for application control / whitelisting. Most application-control vendors control whether a given file can be executed or not.

Application Control / Whitelisting Interest is Growing Rapidly

If you’ve been following the news lately, you are already seeing us making some serious inroads into the industry for Cloud computer.  Today, NetworkWorld adds us to the top 15 companies to watch:

Read it here:

http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2010/ndc3/051010-ndc-cloud-companies.html?page=7

You probably already know (at least you should) that Viewfinity’s Privilege Management application is key to securing your environment.  It provides a comprehensive feature set not included in similar offerings.  Viewfinity’s Privilege Management application allows you to lockdown your company’s computing assets while still allowing end-users to work with the proper rights they need to stay productive.

But, what you may not realize is that enforcement of rules is immediate.  As long as the client computer has access to the Internet, the rules are enforced immediately.  No need to wait for a GPO to update across a large network, or even to force the end-user to interrupt business productivity to reboot the computer or logon and logoff for the GPO to take effect.  Viewfinity’s smart client application handles the immediate enforcement of new rules that you setup just by connecting to the Viewfinity cloud over an Internet connection.

Viewfinity has developed a best-of-breed application to ensure you have complete control over your environment and that your business remains agile and secure.

If this is something you are interested in, take a look through the subsequent pages located here:

http://www.viewfinity.com/Products/PrivilegeManagement/Default.aspx

WALTHAM, Mass.--Viewfinity (www.viewfinity.com), the innovator of systems and privilege management via cloud-computing, was named a finalist in the Seventh Annual MITX Technology Awards today. The MITX Technology Awards recognize emergent and innovative technologies developed in the New England area, as well as the individuals and organizations responsible for driving these advancements. The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the country’s premier Internet business and marketing association.

Viewfinity Cloud-Based Systems and Privilege Management Named as Finalist for the 2010 MITX Technology Awards

We all know that eliminating Admin rights on workstations is a best practice for securing the environment.  I find it amazing, though, that even though we know it, we have a hard time implementing it.  There are a number of reasons, and when you get right down to it, the reasons are definitely valid.

For most its an issue of driving up the cost of support.  There are number of poorly written apps on the market that require admin rights to install, and sometimes those apps require admin rights to even run properly.  Supporting these scenarios can take additional time and resources, and ends up frustrating both IT and the end-user.  It really is a huge dilemma.  Its a serious pain point that *someone* should address.

Well, guess what?  Viewfinity has addressed the issue – and addressed it in a way that makes the issue completely manageable so that you can lock-down your environment, protect your corporate assets, and all while elevating the level of service you provide.

In a recent article, OSNews said:

“Of the total amount of security vulnerabilities put out by Microsoft in 2009, across all versions of Windows and Office, 64% are mitigated by removing administrator rights. Microsoft published 190 security vulnerabilities last year, and 121 of them are thwarted by running without administrator rights.”

That’s a serious statement and something worth addressing.

When you get a chance, check out how Viewfinity can solve your desktop security issues:

http://www.viewfinity.com/Products/PrivilegeManagement/Default.aspx