This week, Altiris introduced its Server Management Suite 6.0. The product (priced at $253 per managed server) automates management of initial deployment and provisioning, inventory discovery and reporting, performance and availability monitoring, and patch management. The new release adds security features and consolidates management capabilities from a single console. Such a strategy could assist companies seeking to decrease the cost and complexity of managing diverse server environments.
New Server Management Suite 6.0 features include: improved support for Windows and Linux bare-metal server deployment as well as customized deployment and management of HP, Dell and Fujitsu Siemens Computers server blades; improved patch management; integration with patented Altiris recovery technology; and extended monitoring support for Sun and Red Hat platforms.

Altiris has also announced the new Altiris Management Suite for Dell Servers. According to the company, the suite provides integrated management software to optimize server deployment, monitoring and OS patch management. The software helps automate previously labor-intensive hardware lifecycle tasks. The new suite is an extension of the Altiris and Dell alliance to integrate solutions that deliver improved solutions for enterprise systems management.