Avocent Extends Market Leadership in PC Lifecycle Management, Endpoint Protection and IT Service Management

LANDesk® Management Suite 9 and LANDesk® Security Suite 9 Enable Complete Asset Management, Easier Windows 7 Migrations, Layered Endpoint Security

LONDON, UK. – November 10, 2009 – Avocent Corporation (Nasdaq: AVCT), a global leader in IT operations management, today announced its updated management platform with the release of LANDesk Management Suite 9 and LANDesk Security Suite 9.  Together, Avocent’s two flagship software solutions continue to build upon its strong IT service management offerings driving ROI in mere months by enabling better, more informed business decisions and simplified infrastructure management.

At a time when software audits and security vulnerabilities are fast increasing, the enhanced, award-winning solutions continue to build on Avocent’s market leadership by delivering the next generation in PC Lifecycle Management and Endpoint Security Management.  Organisations worldwide can significantly reduce their IT infrastructure’s total cost of ownership and be able to more simply manage their IT assets with these two powerful solutions.

“LANDesk 9 provides a very broad range of capabilities in a single integrated solution,” said Andi Mann, VP of Research with leading IT analyst firm, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), “and the new features are smartly focused on delivering real business goals – like ROI, security and compliance, productivity, asset flexibility, and executive insight.  This is a major new release with plenty of very positive business and financial value.”

LANDesk Management Suite 9 and LANDesk Security Suite 9 are expected to be generally available in December 2009.  The upgraded solutions, with numerous new features and functionalities, reduce risks and software expenses, while increasing productivity in several key areas, including:

- Software Asset Management – reducing costs and ensuring compliance in connection with preventing or responding to software audits.  LANDesk Management Suite 9 is a complete software asset management solution with advanced discovery, control of software licenses, and information to help make better, more informed business decisions and more tightly manage software license costs.
- Windows 7 Migration – readiness and assessment, application compatibility, and minimal end user disruption.  The new version, which supports migrations to new operating systems such as Microsoft® Windows 7, allows IT directors to implement hardware independent imaging best practices for efficient provisioning in a mixed hardware platform environment. User profiles and settings can also be easily migrated and managed through the new Universal Migration Assistant utility.
- Endpoint Security – hardening and protecting the environment with a layered security approach to prevent data loss and ensure regulatory standards enforcement including PCI compliance.  LANDesk Security Suite 9’s layered approach ensures unparalleled vulnerability detection and remediation of local and remote users with location aware security policies.
- Simplified Management Infrastructure – to address complex distributed environments, expanding workplace boundaries and the overall need for better centralised control of desktop IT operations. With the enhanced LANDesk Management Suite and Security Suite Solutions, CIOs, IT directors and systems administrators are better equipped to manage today’s networked assets in both physical and virtual environments.  Organisations can proactively control IT assets, as the solution features robust, detailed reporting for centralised and decentralised IT environments.
- IT Process Automation – to define and execute consistent, repeatable processes on an opportunistic, as-needed basis in order to keep systems up to date, lower operational costs, reduce risk, and improve service delivery. 

“Avocent LANDesk’s leadership and many innovations in IT operations management have come together to deliver on our customer promise,” said Steve Daly, executive vice president and general manager of LANDesk.  “Not only are they built on a proven integrated management platform, but they are proven to reduce costs and risks at organisations from mid-size to enterprise level.”

Among the many new features and functionalities are new compliance capabilities that comply with the latest industry specifications, including supporting ITIL v3 discipline and, unparalleled remediation capabilities, extended role-based administration, and multiple data source reporting. To learn more about LANDesk Management Suite 9 and LANDesk Security Suite 9, please visit www.landesk.com/nine .