Software Catalog
-
This might be out of scope for what you all have to deal with, but I'm trying to corral a software environment (municipality with ~2000 users). Have any of you used a software package (doesn't have to be free) to provide users with a catalog so that they can go to a central web page and put in a need and identify a supported and licensed (by IT) piece of software that could meet that? I know the ask on this is high, but I figured I'd toss it out here.
-
@Kelly said in Software Catalog:
This might be out of scope for what you all have to deal with, but I'm trying to corral a software environment (municipality with ~2000 users). Have any of you used a software package (doesn't have to be free) to provide users with a catalog so that they can go to a central web page and put in a need and identify a supported and licensed (by IT) piece of software that could meet that? I know the ask on this is high, but I figured I'd toss it out here.
SCCM can do this. It actually does a really good job. The other one is VMware Workspace One but I think that does some app virtualization as well.
-
@coliver said in Software Catalog:
@Kelly said in Software Catalog:
This might be out of scope for what you all have to deal with, but I'm trying to corral a software environment (municipality with ~2000 users). Have any of you used a software package (doesn't have to be free) to provide users with a catalog so that they can go to a central web page and put in a need and identify a supported and licensed (by IT) piece of software that could meet that? I know the ask on this is high, but I figured I'd toss it out here.
SCCM can do this. It actually does a really good job. The other one is VMware Workspace One but I think that does some app virtualization as well.
SCCM can present an end user interface? We do have Workspace One. I haven't dug into it yet because we were grandfathered in as Airwatch customers.
-
Maybe I'm overthinking things but your approval / licensing process is going to come into play on this.
I'll be perfectly honest that I've not had to admin / oversee the app management side of SCCM, but in a previous gig I was doing helpdesk and deskside in an SCCM environment. In that environment the user wasn't able to view / install a managed application until they were added to the appropriate security group in AD. So the request / approval part was done via helpdesk ticketing, not an SCCM catalog. If you're licensing the target applications for everyone or if controlling access isn't a concern then I could see SCCM working.
-
@Kelly said in Software Catalog:
@coliver said in Software Catalog:
@Kelly said in Software Catalog:
This might be out of scope for what you all have to deal with, but I'm trying to corral a software environment (municipality with ~2000 users). Have any of you used a software package (doesn't have to be free) to provide users with a catalog so that they can go to a central web page and put in a need and identify a supported and licensed (by IT) piece of software that could meet that? I know the ask on this is high, but I figured I'd toss it out here.
SCCM can do this. It actually does a really good job. The other one is VMware Workspace One but I think that does some app virtualization as well.
SCCM can present an end user interface? We do have Workspace One. I haven't dug into it yet because we were grandfathered in as Airwatch customers.
Yep, Software Center. It's a really good tool not just for what your describing but also for application deployment troubleshooting.
-
@notverypunny said in Software Catalog:
Maybe I'm overthinking things but your approval / licensing process is going to come into play on this.
I'll be perfectly honest that I've not had to admin / oversee the app management side of SCCM, but in a previous gig I was doing helpdesk and deskside in an SCCM environment. In that environment the user wasn't able to view / install a managed application until they were added to the appropriate security group in AD. So the request / approval part was done via helpdesk ticketing, not an SCCM catalog. If you're licensing the target applications for everyone or if controlling access isn't a concern then I could see SCCM working.
You can do this either way. You can do this out-of-band like you describe. You can also do this in-band by deploying an application with approval. When the end user finds it in software center they click the "Request Software" (or whatever is says) button and that sends an alert to ConfigMgr (and an email if it is configured). An approval admin would then go through and approve/deny requests. It's a decent process but ConfigMgr can be very slow at times.
-
Thanks for the feedback @coliver and @notverypunny. I have some digging to do. I'm hearing rumbling that we may already have SCCM licensing.
-
LAN...something did this for us at a place that I used to work. Worked really well. Sorry that's not super informative.
-
For the opensource side. https://www.opsi.org may have something of what you're looking at. I tested it out in the past but SCCM fit with what the management was looking to do.
-
@coliver said in Software Catalog:
For the opensource side. https://www.opsi.org may have something of what you're looking at. I tested it out in the past but SCCM fit with what the management was looking to do.
Just to be clear, I'm not as concerned about the deployment side of things (yet). Do how much is opsi and SCCM: Software Center oriented around end users and how much around administration? I know it should be part of the fabric. I'm just trying to modernize some processes that have been enshrined in the halls of familiarity, and this is the first step for us.
-
@Kelly said in Software Catalog:
@coliver said in Software Catalog:
For the opensource side. https://www.opsi.org may have something of what you're looking at. I tested it out in the past but SCCM fit with what the management was looking to do.
Just to be clear, I'm not as concerned about the deployment side of things (yet). Do how much is opsi and SCCM: Software Center oriented around end users and how much around administration? I know it should be part of the fabric. I'm just trying to modernize some processes that have been enshrined in the halls of familiarity, and this is the first step for us.
Software Center is almost 100% end user oriented. If you are looking to automate this without hands you wouldn't even expose the interface. I think Opsi is the opposite. I don't think, if I recall, it has any real means for the end users to request applications outside of a really bad web interface... even then I may be mistaken.
-
@coliver said in Software Catalog:
@Kelly said in Software Catalog:
@coliver said in Software Catalog:
For the opensource side. https://www.opsi.org may have something of what you're looking at. I tested it out in the past but SCCM fit with what the management was looking to do.
Just to be clear, I'm not as concerned about the deployment side of things (yet). Do how much is opsi and SCCM: Software Center oriented around end users and how much around administration? I know it should be part of the fabric. I'm just trying to modernize some processes that have been enshrined in the halls of familiarity, and this is the first step for us.
Software Center is almost 100% end user oriented. If you are looking to automate this without hands you wouldn't even expose the interface. I think Opsi is the opposite. I don't think, if I recall, it has any real means for the end users to request applications outside of a really bad web interface... even then I may be mistaken.
That's good to know. I had only done some surface digging into Software Center, and then when I hit the opsi website it looked as you describe it now, so I wanted to be sure that I was communicating clearly. Thanks.
