Product updates and releases covered in this newsletter:

Endpoint Security 

  • Patch for SCCM

Identity & Automation 

  • Identity Director 
  • Automation 
  • Automation Connectors 

IT Asset Management 

  • Asset Manager Cloud 

IT Service Management 

  • Service Desk 2018.3 
  • Service Manager Cloud 

Unified Endpoint Management

  • Unified Endpoint Manager, Endpoint Security for Endpoint Manager, and Patch for Endpoint Manager

ENDPOINT SECURITY 

Patch for SCCM 2.4 Update 2 is available now 

The latest update delivers even better results through the interface you know well. 

Third-party updates may be more baked into SCCM than they were previously, but you’ve still got a tremendous advantage with Ivanti Patch for SCCM in your corner. In addition to dramatically simplifying third-party updates in SCCM, our latest release of Patch for SCCM offers many advantages we know customers will be excited to take for a spin. 

A standout is the new CVE to Patch List Creation feature. With Patch for SCCM 2.4 Update 2 you can read in vulnerability scan results from any vulnerability vendor, view the identified CVEs and associated patches, and publish any missing patches to the update server for deployment.  

You know the drill: Each time a vulnerability report is handed off to IT, it can take hours of research to identify how to resolve it—time an attacker can make use of to gain a foothold in the organization and access to sensitive data. So, we’ve streamlined this process, helping to protect the environment and enabling IT to focus on more strategic projects. We can take a vulnerability assessment from whatever vulnerability vendor your organization is using—Rapid 7, Tenable, Qualys, BeyondTrust, and so on—find all of the patches that relate to the CVEs on that list, match the CVE information to third-party patches in the Ivanti catalog, and build a patch group of updates IT can quickly approve for remediation in the environment. Our plug-in can scan documents containing plaintext identification of CVEs such as .csv files, vulnerability reports, and more. 

Patch for SCCM Update 2 also lets you manage multiple third-party updates as part of a group. Through the Publish process, selected updates can be added to a new or existing software update group within SCCM. The group can contain third-party updates exclusively or a mix of third-party and Microsoft updates. You can also schedule these groups for dynamic updates from within our plug-in.  

For more information on these and other updates we’ve made, please refer to the release notes. 

Request a Demo: Get more from SCCM. Let us show you how.

IDENTITY & AUTOMATION

Identity Director 2018.3 focuses on flexibility and ease-of use 

Several customer and partner requests added in the latest release 

New features and enhancements have been added to Identity Director 2018.3 to provide IT admins greater flexibility and make the solution even easier to use. Many of these new capabilities originated from ideas submitted directly by customers and partners. 

Read on for more details on the new capabilities included in the latest release. 

Referenced Entitlements by Organization

In addition to being able to view People by their Organization and Entitlement, IT admins can now view the Entitlements by Organization. 

Recurring Trigger

There may be times when you want, for example, to allow a trigger to run on every Friday of every month. Or request access reviews once a quarter. This new feature gives you more flexibility with the option to schedule a delivery trigger on a recurring time basis. You can set both the day(s) of the week, the interval, and the frequency (minutes, hours, days, weeks, months). This capability is especially useful for attestation. 

Tags for Ivanti Automation

With this new feature, IT admins can add custom tags to invoked runbooks in order to identify why the specific runbook has been invoked. This makes it easier for IT admins to know who called what in Automation and the purpose. For example, for an ‘add to group’ runbook, tags could be added to identify what group, for whom, and why. 

An IT admin can use the tags to filter runbooks in Automation without needing to drill down into each runbook detail, making it easier and faster to get the information they need. 

Multiple Conditions on Compare Attribute 

You can now combine multiple compare workflow actions into a single Compare Attribute, using both AND/OR logic. 

Logic Preview 

This new functionality allows you to see what the outcome of multiple conditions will look like—making it easier to understand the effect the logic will have on the workflow actions or qualifications. 

Delivery Trigger can be AND/OR when based on a Person Attribute

People Attribute triggers can include multiple attributes with both AND, and now, OR relationships.

Global Attributes and Data Connection dependencies shown

This feature shows which global attribute is linked to a specific data connection.

Data Connection support for Global Attributes

The last release gave IT admins the ability to populate a Person table attribute from an external data source. The current release extends that functionality with the ability to populate a Global table attribute from an external data source and use the information directly in a service request.

For example, end users may need to report expenses to another cost center besides their own department. This extended functionality provides a flexible way for IT admins to retrieve information regarding their costs centers in service store, tie this information to a Global attribute table, and then use this information in a service so that end users can report their expenses on another department outside of their own when needed. 

Custom end user translations for User Portal 

The latest release now allows customers to add an unsupported language to Identity Director static and dynamic text. While this additional language would not be a standard language supported by Ivanti, this feature gives the ability to the customer to add the custom language and then have it appear on the User Portal for translations. This improves the end user experience and increases the usability of the end users’ entitlements.

To take advantage of all of these new features, enhancements, and more, download the latest version of Identity Director from the Ivanti Community download page. 

Automation 2018.3 is now available 

Release focused on runbook and Management Portal improvements  

The latest release of Ivanti Automation 2018.3 builds upon previous releases with continued enhancements to the web Management Portal as well as the addition of new features that have been requested by partners and customers. 

Runbook Tags 

As Automation becomes more integrated across the entire portfolio, users can tag runbooks with extra information when invoking a runbook. Then, when using this new feature in Automation, users can filter runbooks in the Job Overview without needing to drill into each runbook detail. For example, you could tag an invoked runbook from Identity Director with the Product and Person (“Identity Director, John Smith”), then search all the runbooks in Automation for the ones that include that Person (“John Smith”). 

Runbook Parameters Enhancement 

Users can now view runbook parameters in the order of job execution rather than alphabetically. This enhancement helps provide IT admins with a clearer view of how the parameters are being used and can identify issues quicker. 

Prepare for Image Task 

The latest release adds a task to automate the deployment of virtual images as part of an Automation runbook. With this new task, IT admins can fully automate the image building process, for example, for XenApp or VDI projects. 

Management Portal Enhancements 

Multiple built-in tasks (Linux/Unix, Active Directory, Exchange Server, and SSH) and support connectors are now available in the web Management Portal. 

Download the latest version of Ivanti Automation from the Ivanti Community download page. 

More Automation connectors coming soon to Marketplace

New and enhanced ITSM connectors 

New and updated Automation connectors for Ivanti solutions and third-party software are continuously being developed and made available on the Ivanti Marketplace. The latest connectors to be released soon are:

  • Ivanti Service Desk connector – a new connector to enhance incident management 
  • Ivanti Service Manager connector – extended to support service requests 

These two connectors are included in the new Automation Standard edition, a free version of Ivanti Automation that’s available to Ivanti customers with active maintenance. Details on Automation connectors can be found in the Ivanti Marketplace. 

IT ASSET MANAGEMENT

Optimize use and performance of IT assets and contracts from purchase to disposal  

NEW Ivanti Asset Manager Cloud solution  

IT Assets are assigned, reassigned, and moved from one location to another depending on business dynamics. Keeping tabs on hardware is a challenge for Asset Managers.   

Here’s a truth bomb:   

  • 30% of IT fixed assets are missing and cannot be found. [1]
  • 53% of all data loss and systems downtime is caused by hardware failure. [2] 

Wouldn't it be great to always have a complete picture of your IT Assets – where they are and how they’re performing so you can make the most of your IT investments?  To construct a complete picture, it’s critical to monitor your IT assets from procurement to disposal.     

We are excited to announce the release of our brand new ITAM solution, Ivanti Asset Manager Cloud. It’s an enterprise-grade hardware asset management solution that keeps tabs on your contracts while tracking lease, warranty, and financial information to ensure your IT assets are optimized and secured. 

Built for complete asset optimization, Ivanti Asset Manager Cloud features: 

  • Asset manager repository. Enables consistent management – from procurement to purchase order, receipt, deployment and disposal. Also allows the assignment of asset information, including identifying data, lifecycle status, stock, location, and warranty information.  
  • Powerful asset data importing capabilities. Provides prebuilt support for discovery sources including Ivanti Endpoint Manager, Ivanti Data Center Discovery, and barcode scans. Users benefit from automatically populated consolidated asset data, easily compare actual and discovered asset values and generate exception reports for simplified alignment and reconciliation of asset location discrepancies. 
  • Cost and contract visibility. Assigns financial ownership to report on IT spend and takes the guesswork out of asset refresh requirements by calculating and tracking asset age and value. Enables enterprises to view and manage the complete list of contracts in their environment tied to individual assets.  
  • At-a-glance product catalog. Provides visibility into purchased and assigned assets, current stock levels, or active orders to increase speed to provision while reducing service desk calls. 

[1] M. Day and S. Talbot, "Data Validation the Best Practice for Data Quality in Fixed Asset Management," (White Paper) Asset Management Resources

[2] Data Loss and Downtime Costing Enterprises $1.7 Trillion a Year: Survey

IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Service Desk 2018.3 improves insight 

Focuses on Ease of Use 

This latest release of Service Desk continues to hit on the easy button; easier to gain insights, easier to do get on and do the things you need to do. In addition to a host of fixes, 2018.3 includes the following enhancements. 

Drill through records 

Analysts don’t have time for multiple clicks and searching for information – we get it. Now they can simply click once to drill through to related records in Workspaces and find the information they need immediately. For example, when an analyst creates an Incident and adds a user, now they can delve deeper into records related to the user. With one click, they can find out more information about the user that will be help resolve the incident. For example, see the assets assigned to the user.  

Filter on dates 

Continuing the theme of what you need in Workspaces to make life easier, we’ve spent some time extending the filtering capability of query results. In 2018.3 it’s possible to specify a date, for example to view any incidents raised against a specific date. 

Change the Homepage per group 

We know you want to give your teams the best experience possible, as they do their jobs. Personalizing their views to show them what’s relevant is key to a good experience so we’ve added the ability to set a different default dashboard for each group of users. That means, no longer will everyone be presented with the generic “Support Home” Dashboard. Those in the Change Managers, HR, Facilities or any other group can be assigned a group Homepage dashboard for a more relevant experience and insights, making this a valuable feature for all. 

Ivanti Service Manager Cloud Operations Expands  

New UK-based Data Center opens  

Ivanti has just started operations at a new enterprise-class data center based in the United Kingdom (UK). This new state-of-the-art center is an AWS data center and will support Ivanti’s cloud-based services and solutions such as Ivanti Service Manager. 

For existing customers of Ivanti Service Manager Cloud, there will be no change to current operations or the location of their data. New UK-based Service Manager Cloud customers will be signed up for this new data center. Data and operations for new customers will reside and stay in the UK, meeting the need from UK government entities and other organizations who will require their data remain in the UK.  Future options for existing customers to migrate to the UK data center will be communicated as details become available. 

The new UK-based data center joins Ivanti’s network of existing data centers that span across the US, EMEA and APAC regions. Each data center is designed and operated to provide a resilient, secure, high-performance environment for Ivanti Service Manager Cloud customers. 

UNIFIED ENDPOINT MANAGEMENT

The main theme for this soon to be released 2018.3 Unified Endpoint Management and integrated Security version is modern management that supports modern OSs, like Windows 10 and macOS.

The main theme for this 2018.3 Unified Endpoint Management and integrated Security release is modern management that supports modern OSs, like Windows 10 and macOS. This modern management release also includes increased patch intelligence and feedback from your end users about recently deployed patch performance on their devices.

Another advanced feature you’re sure to enjoy is the ability to leverage Microsoft AutoPilot—a modern management capability to more easily provision new Windows 10 devices. Ivanti’s integration makes it possible to use AutoPilot to deliver a device from your hardware vendor to your end user that is immediately production ready, all without the use of an OS image or Microsoft Intune. We also updated multiple macOS features and made it easier for you to deploy the Ivanti advanced agent through mobile device management (MDM).

To find out more, see our What’s New in 2018.3 information on the Ivanti Community.

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