BigFix Enterprise Suite 6.0 Extends Reach Into Vulerability Management, Complance, And Desktop Management

Published 9th May 2006

Hants, United Kingdom – May 9, 2006 — BigFix, the leading provider of enterprise security configuration management solutions, has released version 6.0 of its BigFix Enterprise Suite, increasing the software’s value in enterprise-scale deployments via new and enhanced vulnerability management, compliance reporting, asset tracking and software deployment solutions. The major platform release delivers a wide set of security, configuration and reporting functions for server, desktop, and mobile device management and builds on the capabilities of BigFix’s locally-resident agent to act as a universal policy and reporting engine...

Centralised Platform for Security Configuration Management

The new version of the BigFix software arrives as enterprise IT and information security managers recognise that operational and security functions have become intimately intertwined and that sound information security practices cannot be separated from good overall management of IT assets and processes. The new version of BigFix Enterprise Suite enables IT departments to deploy a single infrastructure and select from a diverse set of instant-on capabilities to perform functions ranging from software vulnerability remediation, through desktop management, to corporate governance compliance reporting.

The BigFix Enterprise Suite has achieved widespread recognition as the world’s most innovative and cost-effective approach to managing the security of desktops, laptops and servers at enterprise scale across heterogeneous IT infrastructures. The new capabilities in the BigFix 6.0 platform build out from this competency by consolidating previously discretely delivered services into an extensible, integrated solution. This move improves the quality of endpoint security configuration management service delivery while lowering costs of infrastructure operation and management.

Customer-Driven Roadmap
BigFix has worked with customers to evaluate product requirements and has developed its roadmap to meet and anticipate customer needs for new features across security and configuration management functions. BigFix Enterprise Suite 6.0 brings to market a comprehensive set of most requested new features to extend the value of BigFix’s security configuration management solutions. Key innovations in BigFix Enterprise Suite 6.0 include:

Policy Baselines — This powerful feature enables IT teams to evaluate and monitor devices against a set of enterprise standard configurations and to automatically remediate or provision non-compliant devices in accordance with enterprise or group standards. By grouping multiple policies into BigFix Baselines, administrators can reduce the complexity of managing devices and more easily conform to rapidly evolving configuration requirements and best practices requirements.

Role-based Workflow — This new capability proves the foundation for separation of duties between functional groups within the enterprise and for process flow within a function group.
Dashboards and Reporting — BigFix 6.0 offers new real-time executive dashboards as well as extensively expanded reporting. Dashboards include a selection of at-a-glance overviews covering most critical information for security and compliance including antivirus coverage health and status, spyware infection and remediation status, patch compliance, and other key metrics.
Software Usage Tracking — This capability improves compliance visibility and can drive substantial cost savings by reducing purchases of underused .shelfware. and avoiding penalties and disputes regarding over used software.

Asset Classification — The new software expands asset classification capabilities to include automatic classification by device properties and also by specific classification by business function and other customer-defined criteria. For example, devices used by financial staff, senior executives or staff in different countries may require management and reporting regimens that differ in the kinds of software used, configuration requirements, or regulatory or commercial requirements that apply to the devices.

Wake-on LAN and Deploy and Activate — IT administrators can assess and remediate devices that may have been shut down by end users at the end of a work day or holiday using the new BigFix wake-on LAN features. This capability enables administrators to wake up computers, install applications, remediate security issues and execute any necessary reboots with minimum disruption of end-user productivity. Deploy and Activate enables IT staffs to pre-distribute software, patches, and other large downloads to devices and BigFix relay points and to apply the software changes at a later time to accommodate enterprise change windows or to minimise end-user impact.

Customer, Analyst and BigFix Management Comment
"BigFix is clearly listening to how customers are using its solutions," Doug Tamasanis, manager of network systems and security, Kronos Incorporated. "The BigFix platform can deliver multiple security configuration management functions from a consolidated infrastructure. With version 6.0, BigFix is building in new features and benefits that will help drive more management functions from the BigFix platform."

"BigFix has long been ahead of the curve in recognising that IT operations and data security functions are converging, and the BigFix Enterprise Suite 6.0 once again demonstrates the company's commitment to this vision. The inherent flexibility of the BigFix architecture is one of its most valuable attributes. This flexibility allows for considerable expansion and growth of the BigFix approach, and differentiates BigFix from single-function point tools in many ways. For the enterprise, one of the key values of this approach is that it opens the path for several more generations of capabilities as the BigFix roadmap continues to advance, which helps make BigFix a very forward-looking investment for IT," Scott Crawford, senior analyst, Enterprise Management Associates.

"In many of our customers, security functions are moving into operations, driven by compliance imperatives and the need to insure the security of their networks against the background of more threats targeting more entry-points in the enterprise," said Gregory Toto, vice president, product management at BigFix. "To help them improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their IT operations, we continue to expand BigFix security and configuration management capabilities delivered on the single-agent BigFix platform. Customers that have seen the BigFix Enterprise Suite 6.0 release tell us that the new features including baselines, workflow, and reporting capabilities are on-target for their security configuration management requirements."