Group Policy Software for Systems Management

Apart from reducing the cost of systems management, Microsoft's Group Policy for Windows users also facilitates convenient software deployment in an active directory environment. It is well capable of handling the complicated electronic procedures of software distribution for companies with a large number of computers. From Group Policy software installation to active directory security, the Group Policy manages all tasks from a centralized source so that software do not have to be activated or altered one PC at a time like before. In recent years, some Group Policy software have been developed to make systems management more efficient.

For many companies, active directory maintenance is often lacking due to the inconsistencies of manual or scripted processes. With an active directory janitor, you can conveniently view all the user and computer accounts of the company and delete those which are no longer in use. This ability to cleanup active directory frees your company system from the extra burden of routinely sending replicated information to obsolete accounts and restores the transference of information to its usual speed.

Despite that most companies make use of remote systems management these days there are still certain functions that cannot be performed efficiently from a remote location. For example, a device is needed for easy 'wake on lan' (wol) and remote restart / shutdown of servers or computers. A gpupdate allows the system administrator to perform all these functions for many computers simultaneously and a detailed report on the status of every computer will also be displayed after a particular command is delivered.

Without the proper tools, it can be rather difficult to perform IT asset tracking. And there are definitely some situations which require a clear record of your company's IT asset, for example, company appraisals, audits for license compliance and systems upgrade and this should be at par with ITIL standards. By using an inventory tool for PC software inventory and hardware inventory, you can observe the information in all your company's servers and computers through a very well-organized format. When used with the gpupdate, the inventory tool will also adopt a wake-on-lan functionality.

There is also a password policy tool which allows you to add more rules when configuring the password filter for increased windows security. To make the list complete, you can make use of the software asset management tool to develop a consistent method to manage your company's software asset and reduce the cost of owning them. These tools will also help to fulfill the criteria laid down by Sarbanes-Oxley and required for SOX compliance.