Shane Faber has been a web developer, systems engineer and networking professional since 1996. He took his original Altiris training at the corporate headquarters in Lindon, Utah and has earned the Altiris ACE and AAC certifications. Working as a consultant and at times, directly with Altiris and Symantec Professional Services, he has provided support to government, corporate and education customers ranging in size from 100's to 1000's of seats.

Supporting Altiris projects has taken him all over the United States, Japan and in 2004, to Baghdad, Iraq. Everybody has different priorities and challenges that are unique to their network. Let's face it, that's why you're looking at a product like Client Management Suite in the first place.

Benefit from his experience with CMS6 and CMS7. Get the CMS 7.5 Cookbook for all the latest tips on the new features.

Configuring and troubleshooting the Altiris solutions in a Microsoft environment varies from customer to customer and network to network. Active Directory, domain structure, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, IIS and SQL are all involved, not to mention server hardware configuration, the plethora of PC models in use and the infrastructure supporting all the physical locations. This is not a recipe for a one-size fits all solution!

Over the years I have helped customers successfully address many kinds of HW and SW issues. Some problems come up over and over while others are quite unique. I have seen a lot of things go right and a lot of things go wrong. Maybe I can save you some time and trouble, too.

Altiris was one of the first Windows management toolsets to be fully ITIL certified. Some organizations have legal requirements to satisfy (HIPPA, SOX, etc.) while other simply want automated alerts so they know when to prepare for lease renewals and other expiring contracts. This is one area where Altiris has always been ahead of the competition.

When Mary leaves the company, what equipment needs to be recovered? Where is it? Which items will be retired and which items will be recycled for assignment to other users? Is any of the equipment leased? What about the software on her computers? Where are the software licenses? These are the kinds of questions that the Asset Management Suite is designed to answer. Software compliance, contract management, external data source connectors and flexible resource configuration are all included. This capability combined with your Servicedesk data is what gives you the real TCO picture.