New KACE™ Appliances End Mac Systems Management Discrimination

Business Wire, June 30, 2009

First Integrated Cross-Platform Management Solution to Eliminate Hardware and Software Prerequisites

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- KACE™, the leading systems management appliance company, today announced new technology breakthroughs for its award-winning KBOX™ family of systems management and deployment appliances. Reinforcing itself as the leader in cross-platform systems management, the new appliances allow organizations to enjoy as rich of a management experience for Mac as they have traditionally enjoyed for Windows. Additionally and an industry-first, KACE’s appliance-based architecture allows organizations to avoid the cost of additional hardware and software required by today’s management solutions to support the Mac platform. With this release, KACE is creating an IT environment where Mac OS can be supported as an “equal citizen” alongside Windows, without added cost or complexity.

“We continue to witness a steady increase in the use of Macs in the enterprise,” said Rob Meinhardt, CEO and co-founder for KACE. “With our new KBOX Appliance releases, we are delivering robust, seamless cross-platform systems management support, effectively ending Apple management discrimination in the enterprise. Whether Mac or Windows, organizations can now manage both equally through a quick-to-deploy and easy-to-use appliance.”

New capabilities of the latest KBOX Systems Management and Deployment Appliances enable easy-to-use management of both current and forthcoming versions of Windows and Mac OS, including Windows 7 and Snow Leopard. Use of Macs in the enterprise is expected to grow even greater with the upcoming release of Snow Leopard. In fact, a recent survey performed by the Information Technology Industry Council revealed 68 percent indicated they will allow their end-users to deploy Macs as their predominant corporate enterprise desktops over the next 12 months—double the 34 percent that responded to the same question in 2008.

Some of the major new features and updates for the new KBOX Systems Management and Deployment Appliances include:

• Mac Imaging through innovative K-Imaging technology which eliminates redundancies in the capture, storage and deployment of disk images during provisioning of the systems saving IT administrators a tremendous amount of time and their company money;
• New software metering support for the Mac, helping companies manage license fees via thorough analysis of software utilization;
• Enhanced policy-based configuration management for Mac that enforces OS and application settings through pre-packaged policies and an easy-to-use scripting wizard, reducing security risks and improving system reliability.

“Consumerization is driving an increase in demand to use Macs at work, which is becoming more suitable for business use,” said Terrance Cosgrove, senior research analyst at Gartner. “As a result IT organizations should evaluate cross platform management solutions as they consider adding formal support for Mac.”

KACE saves its customers both time and money. Systems managers are increasingly forced to wear many hats throughout the day to work on a myriad of IT functions. KACE helps consolidate these functions by providing a single appliance for all projects, while delivering easy-to-use, comprehensive systems management that is affordable. The KBOX family of appliances fulfills all of an organization’s systems management needs, from initial computer deployment to ongoing management and retirement.

“With a cross-platform management solution as robust as KACE, I feel much more comfortable bringing Macs into my environment, which is predominantly currently populated by Windows machines,” said Chaitanya Mahajan of American Center for Physics.

Pricing for the KBOX Systems Management Appliance starts at $9,900. The pricing for the KBOX Systems Deployment Appliance starts at $4,900. The next-generation of both products will be generally available in August 2009. To learn more about the new appliances, attend KACE’s free “Mac Images in the Enterprise: No Longer an Illusion!” webinar on July 16, 2009. To register, go to https://kace.webex.com/kace/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=829633418.

About KACE™

KACE™ is the leading systems management appliance company. The award-winning KBOX™ family of appliances delivers easy-to-use, comprehensive systems management capabilities. KACE customers usually install in one day and enjoy the lowest total cost compared to software alternatives.

KACE is headquartered in Mountain View, California. To learn more about KACE and its product offerings, please visit http://www.kace.com or call 1-877-MGMT-DONE.