Apple Updates Desktop Management Tool

Key new features include Remote Software Installation, which enables administrators to remotely install new software to groups of Macintosh computers simultaneously over a network, and Remote Network Startup Disk, which lets administrators set any number of Mac OS X clients to start up from specified NetBoot or Network Install disk images on a remote server.

Version 1.2 also features Automatic Update, which enables automatic upgrades of Apple Remote Desktop clients over a network, as well as improved security, including encrypted control and KeyChain support to safeguard passwords and private data.

Available now, Apple Remote Desktop 1.2 carries a list price of $299 for a 10-client edition and $499 for an unlimited-client version. For education customers, pricing starts at $149 for the 10-client edition and $299 for the unlimited-client version. The update is free for existing users of Apple Remote Desktop, the first version of which was introduced in March 2002.

With the Remote Desktop update, Apple continues its recent focus on the server/back-office side of the computing equation. In February, the company unveiled Xserve RAID, a 3U rack-mount storage system with 2.5 Tbytes of storage capacity, plus upgraded models of its Unix-based Xserve 1U rack-mount server, including single and dual 1.33GHz G4 processor versions. And in March, Apple unveiled a cluster configuration for the Xserve, slated to ship this month.