Greetings,

  I know this is a security forum which means that many of you have seen, worked with, or operated a Network Management Systems. I am in the process of choosing a system (Altiris at the moment) and would like to know what are some things to consider both from a security and non-security standpoint.  I manage a primarily Dell shop of about 150 endpoints both XP SP3 and Visa SP1 across 5 sites connect via VPN.

The key features are:

•    Helpdesk/Ticketing with a  client web interface
•    Inventory: tracking, auto-discovery, auto-update.
•    Management: Imaging, patch management, software metering, vPro ATM

I have looked at Spiceworks 3.0. It is a very nice product, but lacks in customization of the Helpdesk/Ticketing web interface, disk imaging, patch management components. The actual ticket tracking and inventory management were fine.

In short, what have you seen that worked well, and what did not.

This is for a non-profit organization; therefore I need to be wise in what spend.

Thanks,