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Desktop Management Suites: How Suite it Is: Page 9 of 18

Mobile Lifecycle Management Suite 5.2. Mobile Automation, (800) 344-1150, (310) 914-9603.
www.mobileautomation.com

Michael J. DeMaria is an associate technology editor based at Network Computing's Real-World Labs® at Syracuse University. Write to him at [email protected].

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We ran our management server on a dual 2.4-GHz Xeon with 1 GB of RAM running Windows 2000 Server SP3. SQL 2000 was used as a database on the same machine. We ran client software on Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Red Hat Linux and Macintosh machines. We used a Compaq ProLiant 400, Micron Millennia Pro and Dell GX1 for our legacy equipment test. An IBM ThinkCentre M50 and an S40 were used for testing on newer equipment. We used an IBM ThinkPad R40 and ThinkPad T40 for our remote users, and a PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.2.6 was employed for Macintosh compatibility testing.

An Active Directory domain running on Windows 2000 SP3 was used for authentication, and we employed a Windows 2000 box with routing enabled to simulate a remote branch-office link. Our remote office had as many as three nodes, while the main office had as many as eight. All devices were connected via Fast Ethernet.

We graded the vendors in 13 categories, broken down into four major areas: reporting, management, software distribution and price.