Suite New ZENworks Arrives

March 7, 2014

The long-awaited ZENworks 11 SP3 release arrived a few days ago and it is chock full of new goodies. There is way too much to talk about in one note, so I'll cherry-pick a few items today and cover more in my next message.

ZENworks Suite Licensing - Novell has simplified the licensing for ZENworks into the ZENworks Suite. I'm not going to go into all the ins and outs, but basically instead of buying ZENworks Configuration Management and a lot of add-on products, you get most of everything for one price. You can investigate the details here. For me, there is, of course, one big headline here - ZENworks Asset Management is part of the entitlement. That means no more extra cost for asset management. Now everyone can start to evaluate software usage and save money through reallocating licenses and smarter purchasing. Everyone can be prepared for the inevitable software license audit. Want to learn more? Let's talk!

Improvements to Software Recognition - ZENworks software inventory now looks at Add-Remove-Programs data and the MSI database on Windows devices to discover more software. When you look at the Detailed Hardware/Software Inventory report for a device, several extra columns have been added to the right of each row in the software section detailing where each application was discovered. Some will show up with multiple hits, which is expected. More software recognition supports better software asset management!

With ZENworks 11 SP3 the ZENworks Reporting Server add-on for advanced reporting has been replaced by ZENworks Reporting 5. Based on the Jaspersoft engine, the new tool includes all of the capabilities of the old server and more. Reports created in ZENworks Reporting Server will need to be converted by hand to the new format prior to upgrading your systems to SP3, or in a development environment outside of a production SP3. Training classes for the new ZENworks Reporting 5 begin this month.

Heck - I'm breathless with excitement just writing about those three new features, and there's so much more in this release!

Upcoming Training Events

The availability of ZENworks 11 SP3 highlights the need for training on new features in the ZENworks Suite. Many ZENworks customers now have access to ZENworks Asset Management for the first time, and ZENworks Reporting 5 is new functionality for all ZENworks customers and partners. Novell has recently added a number of training events for each of these products over the next three months - too many to list individually here. Please see the Events page on my website for dates and descriptions of the courses, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

IAITAM Notes

My session "The Zen of Software Asset Management" has been accepted for the IAITAM Spring Annual Conference and Exhibition at the M Resort and Casino in Henderson, Nevada, April 29 - May 1. You can read a description of the session and link to the IAITAM registration page from my Events page (see link above).

In addition, as this note goes to press, I'm in the "crossing the T's" phase of becoming certified to present the IAITAM Certified Software Asset Managers course. There's information on the IAITAM Training page on my website and this will be updated soon with more information. A group of Novell and Attachmate employees went through the class last month and were quite pleased. They're already putting the training to use explaining to ZENworks customers how their new ZENworks Asset Management entitlements can help them.

Spring is just around the corner - hope it's headed your way!