Highly complex and often heterogeneous system landscapes that have grown over time make it increasingly difficult for administrators to track configuration details and software versions. Software distribution, change management, and release management have become core activities of IT departments today. When it comes to network and system components, however, software-based management coupled with change logging still has a long way to go.

The device provisioning module of theGuard! Business Service Manager meets all the necessary requirements and integrates seamlessly with existing IT infrastructures. theGuard! allows you to centrally manage configurations throughout the entire IT infrastructure, no matter the device type or vendor. Predefined, customizable workflows, e.g. with approval routines, facilitate the daily management of configurations and provides full visibility and traceability of device configurations. Configuration macros can be used to define and automatically execute tasks
In combination with the asset & inventory management or change & configuration management features of theGuard!, it is also possible to, in keeping with the ITIL V3 standard, integrate the configuration data of active components into the structure of your IT operations as integral components of business services.

• automatically reads out of configuration data – irrespective of the vendor
• compares present configurations against past configurations and/or reference configurations
• logs and warns of changes
• automatically loads complex network configurations and new firmware releases (software distribution)
• provides editable configuration macros and scripts including online testing/plausibility checks
• seamlessly integrates with existing systems for the management of networks, systems, changes, and configurations