device management: SOTI MobiControl

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It’s been a bit of a 'security' weekend for me - I got a mail from Rick Engle Friday about security (BTW Rick is one of the most device hungry geeks I have had the pleasure of meeting) and he pointed me here (https://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=3909) for a new article on security.

Although this article doesn’t really say new stuff it does cover the subject from an interesting angle, a bit like a decision tree. There is a link from that page to a new product from SOTI that looks very interesting: https://www.soti.net/default.asp?Cmd=Products&SubCmd=MC

I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks to offer real-time remote control of devices which is very cool:

<snip>Remote Control SessionIf an administrator notices that a device is online by looking at its icon, and is interested in monitoring what the device is being used for, he can simply right click on the device icon and select the 'Remote Control' menu option. MobiControl will then open up a Window that displays a Remote Control session to the device, allowing the administrator to see what is happening on the screen of the device, and control it if need be. For more information about using the MobiControl Remote Control/Helpdesk features click here. </snip>

 remote scripting, remote DOS box (I presume this is a remote command shell rather than full DOS!). Makes me wonder how big their device footprint is. They claim support for both Smartphone and Pocket PC as well as a large list of embedded devices. SQL 2000 / MSDE is required for the server software to run and MSDE can be downloaded and installed as part of the software from the site - not sure about the licensing requirements for SQL 2000 but I would hope the licensing requirements are built into the SOTI price. The software can be run internet facing - e.g. you can control Smartphones over GPRS - but this does require a control port to be opened on the firewall.

There is a 30 day trial download option for this software I will give it a go and post the results.

Marcus