Dell Inc. has announced the next incremental software update to its endpoint systems management appliance, the KACE K1000, to be rolled out in March, pushing – above all – cross-platform integration.
Here’s a look at the new features in the 6.3 upgrade.
Agentless comes to Windows
The key focus of Dell KACE’s 6.0 update last year has been agentless inventory, to allow for a large variety of networks including those with non-compute devices such as printers, projectors and network tools to be monitored behind a single pane.
With Dell expanding agentless functionality to Windows servers and PCs, the company hopes to allow more businesses than ever to “proactively” maintain and control their IT.
Formerly inventory was only available on Mac, Linux and Unix systems. According to Dell, the update even integrates server monitoring logs and alerts between Windows, Linux and Unix servers.
Chromebook support
But the integration doesn’t end there. As one of several Google partners manufacturing the Chromebook, Dell saw it fit to bring the search giant’s line of notebooks into its management platform.
Thanks to Google’s recently-public APIs, the company was able to add management, reporting and monitoring capabilities for the laptop. While still niche – the Chromebook accounts for only 1% of all PC sales, they seem to be popular in educational environments.
As the variety of connected devices increase, Dell even has plans to allow for specialized devices such as X-Ray and MRI machines to be monitored using KACE.
While mobile devices are currently managed separately through Dell’s Enterprise Mobility Management platform which works in conjunction with KACE, the company said that it has seen demand for convergence and will look into merging the technologies, though not in the near future.
Pricing
In terms of pricing, Dell continues its tiered on-premise and cloud service options, with base K1000 pricing starting at $8,900 on-premise or $6.50 per system per month. Additionally, the company offers server monitoring at either $2,000 with license for 200 servers or at $85 per month. Lastly, for every 250 Chromebooks and non-compute devices, an Asset Pack costs $1,250 or $50/month.
