Novell has announced the general availability of its ZENworks 11 product in a bid to bring the four products within its endpoint management portfolio into one unified platform: ZENworks Configuration Management, ZENworks Asset Management, ZENworks Patch Management and ZENworks Endpoint Security Management. The company's aim is for this product to be seen as a so-called "single pane of glass" for IT administrators to manage devices, patch applications, secure endpoints, and track software license compliance.

Built (as is the current norm) to straddle physical, virtual, and cloud environments while meeting short-term needs such as Windows 7 migrations, ZENworks 11 is designed to approach identity-based management based on who is using devices and where those devices are located.

Claiming to offer higher levels of productivity and security, other features in ZENworks 11 include the ability to configure Windows power management settings, perform out-of-band power management tasks using Intel vPro monitoring, maintenance, and management technology — and manage and patch Windows and Linux devices all from a single console.

"Whether migrating to Windows 7 or managing remote offices, ZENworks 11 allows organizations to manage users, minimize interruptions, and improve service levels. ZENworks 11 is core to our WorkloadIQ strategy and is specifically designed to grow and evolve as the emerging intelligent workload management market evolves,”" said Jim Ebzery, senior VP and GM for Security, Management and operating platforms at Novell.