CSED 430 Assignment 3
Due: December 13, day of the final 
(although it will be accepted anytime until I HAVE to get grades in)

Pick ONE of the following commercial supplements for Windows Server management:

	Novell ZENWorks, novell.com/zenworks
	
	ScriptLogic Desktop Authority, Active Administrator, etc
		scriptlogic.com, links at left
		
	Avocent SonicAdmin, avocent.com (tools for managing laptops)
	
	Systemtools.com Hyena
	
	Some similar tool you choose (there are LOTS out there)
	
and describe the following in a paper (3-6 pages):

    (a) what the product does, in terms of windows lab functionality

    (b) what features, if any, are now provided in some equivalent form 
        by Windows Server itself.

    (c) what features, if any, are inconvenient (or worse) in Windows 
        Server itself, thus making the product useful or essential.

For (a), please try to be concrete. For example, on the ZENworks "features"
page it lists as "features" that ZENworks helps you "lower IT support costs" 
and  "efficiently manage desktops". As descriptions of features, these are 
useless; tell me what the product DOES that will lower support costs, and
what it DOES that makes desktop management more efficient. For example:
"ZENworks allows any application to be installed remotely and thus saves me
from having to manually install software on each machine". (I'm not sure that's
actually something ZENworks does, btw, at least not for ANY application.)

In other words, your what-it-does descriptions should be aimed at a 
technical windows administrator rather than a non-technical executive.
Another example of technical aim might be "ZENworks allows me to replace 
(part of) Microsoft Active Directory with the non-proprietary LDAP directory 
system, thus allowing support for non-Microsoft systems". 

Focus on the parts that would be relevant in a windows lab setting,
though you don't have to restrict yourself to the classic desktop-system lab 
supporting freeseating (any user can log in to any machine). A "lab" in which 
each user is assigned a laptop is quite reasonable to consider, if the features 
you're interested in are only applicable in such a setting.

For (b), a classic example might be DeepFreeze: the core feature of restoring
all files upon reboot is now available through the Microsoft Disk Protection
package. In this case, be sure to address (c) thoroughly.

You may, btw, choose "narrow-purpose" tools such as CenturionGuard or DeepFreeze,
but in those cases you'll really have to look hard at what functionality these
offer that isn't available within Windows. (They *do* offer such features.)
In other words, when the core product functionality is now covered in (b),
ie is now part of Windows, be sure to emphasize part (c): why would anyone buy
this product, if Microsoft offers the same features bundled in?