Product updates and releases covered in this newsletter: 

Automation

Endpoint Security

Global Academy

Identity Management

IT Asset Management

IT Service Management

Ivanti Cloud

Unified Endpoint Management


AUTOMATION

Automation 2019 Q3 Release Adds New Connectors  

New Automation connectors with this release include:  

  • Slack connector for user management. With this connector, administrators can automate the provisioning and management of users within Enterprise Slack environments. 
  • Updated Service Manager connector includes helper tasks to query incident parameters to help customize the connector for a customer’s environment. 
  • Amazon Web Services connector for creating & deleting EC2 instances. Administrators now can now provision and delete EC2 instances via automation 


ENDPOINT SECURITY

Security Controls 2019.3 offers improved admin control 

Security Controls 2019.3 is available now on early release. With this release, you’ll get patching and application control enhancements for better admin control.  

We’ve boosted the Linux patching capability with the addition of a new Linux agent. This agent provides a dynamic response to requests for scans or deployments.  

More from the patching world includes further enhancements to the Rest API framework, enabling customers to manage agents via APIs.  

To simplify the management and maintenance of application control configurations, we've introduced versioning. Admins can now manage which configuration versions are pushed out. They can also track changes in versions, view comments, export configurations, and more offering better control and greater visibility. 

Visit our online documentation to find out more details about what’s new. 

New Patch Intelligence connector for Security Controls 

If you missed it in the cloud section of this blog, we’ve connected Security Controls with Ivanti Cloud. This integration is a game-changer for continuous vulnerability management. You can now pull your patch data from Security Controls into the Patch Intelligence, cloud-based analytical tool. For the first time, IT operations and patch admins can filter out the patch noise to get insights and make assessments in the context of their environment. Find the patches that need applying and to which of your machines, with ease.   

Marketplace update: Application Control Snippet for Microsoft Teams  

The introduction of snippets solves the problem authorized apps blocked with application control capabilities by overriding the Trusted Ownership feature. This first snippet provides the recommended configuration to unlock Microsoft Teams. It’s available for free for Ivanti Security Controls and Ivanti Application Control. Download the snippets package from Ivanti Marketplace. While you are there, take a moment to check out the many other tools you can get your hands on. 


GLOBAL ACADEMY

Ivanti® Global Academy is a comprehensive, self-paced training environment that enables customers to be successful with Ivanti products. Our online platform delivers role-based content that allows users to learn what, when, and how they want.  

Ivanti customers can request a free account by emailing [email protected] to access limited content. To gain access to our full catalog, you can purchase a subscription from the Global Academy Store or contact your sales representative.  

Latest Releases 

New Global Academy Courses  

We’ve got another fresh batch of new courses ready for consumption! This month, we have a whopping 24 new training courses for Ivanti Cloud, Security, Asset Manager, and Momentum Webinars, in addition to 2 new Learning Paths for Asset Manager.  Access these courses via our new Course Catalog, which provides you with convenient hyperlinks. 

Expanded Blended Learning 

We continue to expand our high value, high flexibility Blended Learning Paths to enable customer success. These new learning paths include on-demand content, as well as Instructor-led activities where learners participate in live discussions and hands-on virtual labs with technical experts and certified instructors.   

Customers have the flexibility of taking the on-demand content on their schedule, anywhere, anytime. They also have the high value interaction of live training and peer networking opportunities in the instructor-led activities. 

Current Blended Learning paths are available for Service Manager and Endpoint Manager, with additional Blended Learning paths coming later this year. Click here to learn more about our Blended Learning program. 


IDENTITY MANAGEMENT

Identity Director Releases Public Beta of Single-Sign-On Capabilities in 2019.3  

Feature Addition, Self-configurable, On-premise Installation in Identity Director 

Big news as Identity Director’s 2019.3 release includes a public beta of an optional Single-Sign-On (SSO) feature, allowing users to move between services securely without having to validate credentials each time. Identity Director’s Master Installer is updated with Identity Broker (a former RES product) as an optional component to provide SSO integration and is production ready and stable. It includes:  

  • Updated UI for seamless integration within Identity Director  
  • Automatic configuration of Identity Director  
  • Updates Identity Director identification of users’ point of access and provider  

Continued development of Identity Director’s new SSO functionality in Q3 2019 means you can now integrate both Management Portal and User Portal with your own SSO identity provider. The component is an additional on-premise installation that is self-configurable with Identity Director. Aside handling out of the box integration with big vendors like Okta and Azure AD, it will support swift development cycles in adding additional vendors, as needed.  

The technical preview brings a few major benefits to the customer:  

  • User experience: Users can move between services securely and uninterrupted without specifying their credentials each time.  
  • Security: The users’ credentials are provided directly to the central SSO server, not the actual service and therefore the credentials cannot be cached. The central authentication point – the SSO service – limits the possibility of phishing.  
  • Resource savings: IT administrators can save their time and resources by utilizing the central web access management service application and web developers receive a complete authentication and authorization framework that they can use to build secure, user customized services. 


IT ASSET MANAGEMENT

Updated asset fulfilment workflows, new request offerings, and more with Asset Manager 2019.3  

The Asset Manager 2019.3 release provides many new updates for IT organizations to effectively manage and optimize their IT assets such as new request offerings for software, consumables and bundles, software certificates asset subtype, and improved stability. It also lets users assigned the Asset Mobile role to place an asset request for themselves or for others from the Self-Service Portal website. Furthermore, with 2019.3 the workflow for asset fulfilment has improved which updates quantity levels for Product Catalog items automatically when you fulfil asset requests for customers or procurement. To learn more about the new capabilities, view the on-demand What’s New Webinar and download the release notes from Community. The on-premises release of Asset Manager 2019.3 will soon be available to download from the Community here. 

Software Insights in Ivanti Cloud: Software Dashboards visualize software usage and provide EoL, upgrade details, and opportunities to reclaim  

Software Insights is the new software inventory and dashboard service built in Ivanti Cloud using existing inventory connectors. It analyzes inventory data to provide multiple levels of dashboards, charts and recommendations about licensable software. It provides in-context inventory information across the client and server estate. Together with Ivanti License Optimizer and Ivanti Asset Manager it shares consistent, clean and recognized data for licensable software between Ivanti ITAM applications.  It can also be used in conjunction with Ivanti Endpoint Manager to provide valuable insights into software inventory information. Check out this solution overview video to learn more about Software Insights.  

How can you have both a surplus and a shortfall of licenses? Find out how License Optimizer gives you clarity 

Take just a couple minutes, to check out the latest License Optimizer videos to help you optimize your software estate: 


IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Ivanti Service Manager 2019.3.1 On Premises Release Coming Soon  

The latest version of Ivanti Service Manager for on-premises deployment will soon be available for download. The 2019.3.1 release delivers improved security for API access, UI enhancements to continue improving the user experience, and an enhanced mobile app so your analysts can be even more productive while on the go. 

Are you looking for ways to improve the security of your Service Manager system? Then you should look at the security improvements we’re delivering in this release. Now you’ll be able to lock down which IP addresses have API access to your Service Manager system. This will protect you from unauthorized and non-approved access, even from someone outside the organization who may know about your API use. Now your administrators can enter specific addresses or a range of addresses for access for both REST and SOAP APIs so you can secure that communication channel. 

Have you been looking to have a bit more flexibility in configuring the self-service UI for your users? If yes, then you and your users should like what we’ve done with Service Catalog and the Portal. Now users can now toggle between the card view and list view in Service Catalog, depending on how their preference. For the Self-Service Portal, you can now easily hide the announcement bar if there’s nothing new to announce to your users. You can also move it around if you don’t want it always at the top of the page. Also check out the added flexibility to configure multiple images and the background of your Portal to provide a more branded experience. 

When your analysts are on the go, do they want an easy way to stay on top of their work? Point them to the Service Manager mobile app that’s designed just for them. With this app they can view, update and work on their incidents and other tasks. No need for them to be tied down to their desktop or laptop anymore if they want to stay productive with tools like filters or saved searches.  

Learn more about the release by viewing the “What’s New” webinar for Service Manager and Asset Manager here. Stay on top of the Serviced Manager 2019.3.1 release date and other updates by checking the Ivanti Community. When available, you’ll be able to download the 2019.3.1 release from the Community here.  

Find more Service Manager documentation in the Product Documentation section of the Ivanti website. 


IVANTI CLOUD

Patch Intelligence— Now with Endpoint Manager Patch Data 

The Ivanti Cloud team along with the other Product Teams continue to deliver data for greater insights within Ivanti Cloud. This is especially true this month as Patch Intelligence gains the connector to Ivanti Endpoint Manager, Endpoint Security for Endpoint Manager, and Patch for Endpoint Manager. A similar connector is also providing security data from Ivanti Security Controls, as previously described in the Endpoint Security section of this newsletter. The new features built around having this data include the Unpatched Devices Column and the My Environment View. The added data and features provide customer with the ability to: 

  • Understand the risks of patching in terms of threat and reliability 
  • Easily identify devices with missing patches  
  • Prioritize patch testing and rollout to mitigate business continuity risk 
  • Filter Ivanti patch content data in Patch intelligence relevant to their environment 
  • Help reduce time to patch 

Ivanti Cloud Software Insights 

Software Insights is a new capability that is well noted above in the IT Asset Management section of this newsletter. See the overview video here.

Smart Advisors Reconciles CSV Device Lists with Other Data Sources 

Smart Advisors includes a new CSV Devices Chart and a CSV Devices toggle within Device Reconciliation, which means you can now bring in data from any spreadsheet and compare it with other data sources such as Active Directory, CDW, SCCM, or Ivanti products. Try it by creating a CSV Connector within Ivanti Cloud, and then going to Device Reconciliation. 


UNIFIED ENDPOINT MANAGEMENT

Endpoint Manager Annual Release Schedule Announcement 

As we continue to develop and enhance Ivanti Endpoint Manager, we are always striving to find ways to more quickly deliver solutions and value to our customers.  We recognize the need for a predictable release schedule.  As such, today, we are announcing a new release schedule for Ivanti Endpoint Manager. The new release schedule will consist of a major yearly release typically in Q2, that will receive service updates throughout the year.  Service updates will be cumulative and may contain new features.  This will allow us to deliver value quicker and provide better support for market changes such as an OS release.    

This change to our release schedule will benefit Ivanti Endpoint Manager customers by:   

  1. Having a predictable yearly major release.   
  2. Receiving multiple service updates throughout the year that are cumulative.   
  3. Updates are able to deliver features as well as service updates reducing the time to deliver value and add support for additional platform items.   

Currently, the latest major release of Ivanti Endpoint Manager is 2019.1. This version was released in June of 2019 and will accept all future service updates. We are encouraging all Ivanti Endpoint Manager customers who have not deployed Endpoint Manager 2019.1 to make the update. The next major release of Ivanti Endpoint manager will be Q2 of 2020. If you have additional questions, please reach out to your Ivanti representative.