FrontRange, the only provider of Hybrid IT Service Management solutions, announced today a significant upgrade to its HEAT® Desktop & Server Management (DSM) platform. Advancements in this new release include advanced patch management, Windows 8 support and improved enterprise-grade scalability. After an extensive beta program, HEAT DSM 7.2 is now generally available.

“As a FrontRange certified partner, the enhancements included in HEAT DSM 7.2, such as advanced patch management, are crucial in delivering the most technologically advanced solution to our customers,” said Jochen Schoetterl, managing director and senior consultant of abtis Desktop & Deployment. “With HEAT DSM 7.2, we are committed to delivering the most superior applications that cater to our customers’ need for increased scalability and superior performance.”

HEAT DSM’s new Advanced Patch Management capabilities enable customers to automatically scan their entire software environment for vulnerabilities. As a result, IT administrators are constantly aware of and ready to respond to potential threats to their multi-vendor application infrastructure. HEAT DSM 7.2’s Advanced Patch Management identifies vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft and third party applications and automatically downloads and packages required patches for remediation. Patches can be properly tested and piloted in advance of being released to production servers. Based on the severity and priority of a given threat, patches and service packs can be auto-approved and instantly deployed to avoid long-term exposure to immediate threats. In addition, comprehensive patch status and vulnerability reports are provided.

“Organizations are reducing the attack surface and the time to security by standardizing and improving the automation of vulnerability remediation,” said Terrence Cosgrove, Research Director at Gartner. “Organizations have increased their focus on patching and securing client-side applications, as these are increasingly used to facilitate attacks.”

HEAT DSM 7.2 also provides comprehensive out-of-the-box support for Windows Server 2012 as a managed client platform as well as Windows 8 Operating System Deployment (OSD). This includes:

• OS configuration templates

• Identification of Windows 8 source files

• Support for Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) 4.0

Windows 8 Client Enhancement support is also provided, including:

• Support for Plug and Play (PnP) on Windows 8

• Service interaction with Metro UI

• Use of the Windows 8 notification system to inform clients about pop-up and shell tray icon messages

Enterprise-grade scalability is another key advancement in HEAT DSM 7.2 that now supports over 100,000 concurrent clients. The new release provides critical load balancing and fault tolerance for all web service access modules in the platform. Plus, it provides dramatic performance and pre-caching enhancements to the system console that is beneficial to large-scale environments that display folders and views with high object counts.

“HEAT DSM 7.2 delivers our customers essential process automation, unified management and compliance enforcement advantages,” said Udo Waibel, chief technology officer at FrontRange. “The platform accelerates software packaging and provisioning tasks that can reduce software deployment times considerably. The unified management capabilities across physical and virtual clients can reduce IT costs substantially and its policy-based management and automated compliance enforcement help reduce troubleshooting efforts dramatically.”

About FrontRange

FrontRange is the global leader in Hybrid IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions for organizations of all sizes. With its suite of HEAT applications, FrontRange is the only ITSM provider in the world that delivers Service Management software with fully integrated Voice Automation and Client Management capabilities on-premise and in the cloud. HEAT manages millions of service interactions a day for more than 15,000 leading organizations around the world. HEAT enables customers to deliver world-class service while maximizing operational efficiencies with reduced cost and complexity. FrontRange is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., and can be found at http://www.frontrange.com/.

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