opensource network inventory

The specs on the Lafayette School Corporation in Indiana are daunting: 8,000 students, 750 staff, 20 facilities, and, according to Kevin Little, the district’s CTO and director of facilities, some 4,000 workstations, 350 notebooks, 130 servers, 80 telecom closets, and 8,000 data ports, plus numerous printers. Handling the entire IT administrative load, including deploying and provisioning about 1,000 computers each year, is a staff of four engineers and six techs.

“We had some automation software, but it was bits and pieces,” says Little. “We decided to go with Altiris’ opensource network inventory.” Little’s department uses the product not only for asset management, but also for deployment, patch management, remote control, and desktop snapshots. “We bought the full Altiris enterprise bundle, which includes the Service and Asset Management Suite.”