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To help with the evaluation of server management tools, we’ve crafted a functionality checklist ideal for comparing the coverage of suites and specialist tools. If an organization has identified the kind of server management it needs, the checklist can help determine whether a suite or a collection of specialist products is most appropriate.
Note that no one product (or even suite) will cover all of the areas listed. There will be many overlaps in functionality, and vendors will define what they do in often contradictory ways. In other words:
These categories are intended to be used as guidelines and can be modified to best suit your needs.
We also have not weighted the importance of any of these areas, as only you can determine what is of primary importance for your organization.
| Product 1 | Product 2 | Product 3 | |
| Application Deployment and Management (May include functions of an application server) |
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| IT Asset Management (E.g., catalog, valuation, and life cycle) |
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| Availability, Error, and Problem Management (Primarily monitoring system errors) |
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| Backup and Archiving Services (E.g., security, federal compliance, and data management) |
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| Batch Processing (E.g., scripting and large scale deployments) |
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| Change Management (Primarily for applications and program updates) |
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| Configuration Management (Initial software installation and configuration) |
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| Cluster Management (Server farms and other clustered configurations) |
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| Data Center Management (Coordination of data managers and other data operations) |
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| Desktop Management (E.g., user desktop software, licenses, and configuration) |
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| Disaster Recovery (On-site, off-site, and other recovery schemes) |
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| Enterprise Systems Management (Coordination of many or all facets of server management) |
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| Event Automation (E.g., Using server events to generate e-mail) |
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| File Transfer Management (FTP and other file transfer control) |
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| Job Scheduling (Local and remote server jobs management) |
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| Load, Stress, and Performance Management (Testing and monitoring of server activity) |
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| License Management (Software and hardware license record keeping) |
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| Network Management (Monitoring, analysis, and troubleshooting) |
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| Patch and Update Management (For commercial software and hardware changes) |
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| Printing Management (Control and monitoring of print-related services) |
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| Security Management (E.g., firewall, spam and spyware, and anti-virus) |
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| Storage Management (Management of many kinds of storage devices) |
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| User Management (User registration, policy management, and monitoring) |
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| Web Systems Management (Web server resources and other services) |
