KACE Systems Management Appliance: Patch Management Overview and Analysis

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Company description

KACE was founded in 2003. It was acquired by Dell in 2010 and was a solution offering within the Dell Software Group. In 2016, Dell divested it to privately held Quest Software.

Product description

The KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) provides patch management capabilities for operating systems and applications through scheduling and one-time push of patches to keep end-user devices secure. The SMA uses Smart Labels to automatically group discovered and provisioned endpoints by vendor, operating system, department, and location. The SMA can be configured to feed only the patches for the OSs and application versions you have in inventory. It provides flexible scheduling for patch detection and patch distribution and reports on success/failure.

The appliance also includes endpoint management features, including: hardware and software discovery, inventory, software installation, scripting, software compliance, security scans, and server monitoring. It encompasses computers, servers, mobile devices, Chromebooks, printers, projectors, and practically any networked device. It also includes the Systems Deployment Appliance, which automates operating system imaging and reimaging.

“Rather than using multiple point solutions, KACE SMA puts everything all under one pane of glass, supporting multiple OSs and hardware vendors,” said Ken Galvin, senior product manager at Quest KACE.

Markets and use cases

KACE was built to solve business problems for mid-market customers. However, it can scale to support large implementations. The company does not offer industry-specific versions, but has a large presence in the education, healthcare, government, financial, and other markets.

Applicable metrics

A maximum of 20,000 machines can be patched in four hours.

Intelligence

The SMA provides patch management that allows an administrator to detect missing patches, use Smart Labels to target the appropriate computers, and schedule patching to start when it least affects your users.

Method of delivery

The SMA comes in hardware, virtual appliance and “as a Service” models.

Agents

KACE SMA supports the use of agents as well as agentless technology.

Pricing

No pricing details provided.