As for John’s comments about fully integrated “inteligent” solutions ie whereby the solution brings all parts of the puzzle together and actually manages the situation. This is exactly what we have been pushing to achieve for the past 10 years and have recieved nothing but opposition from nay sayers within the industry. John, watch this space, we are doing it.

We offer solutions that will scan thousands (unlimitted) of nodes at the rate of 250 nodes per second. Browser based that do not install on any machines on the network, not even the host. They cannot conflict with anything as they are not installed anywhere on the network AT ALL!

Where is the future for agent based? Where can the technology go? Regardless of how you do it you still have to push code around the network in large contiguous blocks just to deploy. The returned data is moved likewise. The argument that it (agent based) gets results in real time is entirely bogus on the basis that just because the agent gets the info in real time is irelevent; how long does it take to get the data to you, where it gets acted upon? Who wants to hear “I could have told you that an hour ago”? We provide data at your fingertips in seconds, and only generate a 1.5% hit on a 10 base T (and who has that bandwidth these days).

Then there’s change control and compatability testing. After all if you are going to deploy code into your estate you have to be sure it wont do what it did to Bill Patterson above. With agentless, no code deployment, no incompatability; eliminate the whole change control/ testing issue and the costs that go with that.

The days are numbered for Agent based solutions, whereas agentless is still in its infancy; At 50,000 nodes in 10 minutes over simple broadband from a laptop over wifi (in tests), we can audit the internet!

Sorry did I get carried away then?

To reply to Ruud Hartog above. There are agent based tools that can report on all types of IP devices also.

How are you collecting usage data? Our technology (Express Software Manager) has the option of being deployed as an agent-less solution, but most of our customers prefer to deploy the client so they can collect comprehensive software usage statistics and control application launches. As a vendor, I’m interested in hearing which agent-less solution you chose, and what kind of usage data you’re able to collect? Thanks!

Jeff Kelsey,
VP of Products and Services
Express Metrix

I would be interested to know which product you finally chose, and if you have a few minutes an end user review would be great too. You can find the link here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5M4OlHcfRFM6QFjayDFdhQ_3d_3d

So forgive me, but if you are still considering agent based solutions for the completeness of data, thats wrong, the agentless companies know who they are competing against and they are doing a better job of it.

But of course the agent based vendors will always draw attention to “the lack of detail” from agentless solutions or, as has been mentioned, their inability to provide real time use statistics; The detail issue I disagree with as there is no reason why agentless cannot gather the detail; other than it takes time and would slow down what is already considered to be a slow process ie agentless auditing.

However these questions and issues are what motivated us many years ago to create a hyper speed agentless solution. A solution which can access in excess of 250 network nodes per second and return data at the rate of 6,000+ computers per minute. Due to this speed we can run audits agentlessly and repeatedly on a per minute basis and due to this we can not only gather any information that an agent based solution can but we can also create real time use statistics. All without deployment, change control, lab testing , impact on users or impact on network. In addition the speed gives us a very precise definition of “Now”

To my mind, and of course I am biased, this would seem like a magic bullet solution; however I must confess, that if the asset is not connected to any network anywhere then we cannot audit it; but if it is we can, anywhere in the world; at over 1 million boxes per hour.

Personally I do not understand why customers would invest in hardware to provide maximum performance in business tasks, only to then handicap that investment by lobotomising it by driving various agents into its memory. In the constant pursuit of maximising assets one would think that any solution that provides the same results without a performance cost or degradation of that investment has to be the better option; but then, as I say; I am biased.

For me the question is not agent based or traditional agentless; both are passé.

As a vendor of agent-based SAM technology, I’d like to respond to Pat Durkin’s comments: First, he implies that there’s something inherently “slow” about agent-based technology. This is a common misconception based on a long history of large, bloated agent-based framework solutions. Fortunately, most agents of today are small, streamlined, and run silently on end-users’ systems. And while every situation is different, once clients are deployed (yes, this can take some time), the collection and delivery of data is no slower than agent-less methods.

The more important point relates to the delivery of business value–we have yet to encounter an agent-less technology that offers accurate software usage statistics. Accurate application usage data is nothing short of critical when it comes to driving down licensing and support costs, and ensuring that money isn’t being spent on software that’s not being utilized. Speed, while certainly important, does not necessarily equate with business value–it’s the *depth* and *quality* of information that delivers the most tangible and significant business benefits.

All that said, there is no “right” answer. The right technology solution depends on your goals, resources, and environment. Just make sure to do your research! Good luck!