Central Server and Administration Console

What is centralized IT management?

Centralized IT administration means an organization’s network and technology resources are all stored in a single, central location users and IT administrators alike can access. It comes with several benefits compared to a decentralized approach (which are covered in the next section). 

In a centralized network, an organization’s users are connected to a central server storing complete user information and network data. This centralization is both virtual and physical. Not only can IT teams navigate software, licensing, and more from a single location, the organization’s hardware is also physically stored in a single location. In a decentralized environment, hardware would be stored across multiple locations, often requiring duplicates. 

With centralized IT management, IT teams can control and support end users and their accounts from anywhere because they are all connected to the central servers. Centralized user management in Linux, Windows, and more can lead to faster troubleshooting and support for end users. With a centralized remote support system, IT teams can easily connect to users' units remotely to resolve issues no matter what department they’re in or where they’re located. It also means IT teams can take care of essential (but routine) tasks more easily and ensure every device and system has been installed, updated, and patched correctly. 

Why is centralized license and user management important?

Centralized license and user management is important because it can save organizations money, reduce IT workloads, simplify license management, and much more. The specific benefits of centralized server management include:

• Improved productivity of IT staff: When you leverage centralized IT administration, your IT teams can access better oversight into the technological aspects of your business, which makes basic tasks simpler and faster. A great example of this is the software installations, updates, and many security patches essential to maintaining the functionality of an organization and its devices. These tasks can take significant time and effort in a decentralized IT setup where staff would need to manage each location separately. With centralized server management, IT teams can apply all the updates and patches to a single server farm. 
• Better flow of information: Centralized server management and other centralized IT structures make it easier to share data across departments within an organization. This leads to better collaboration and knowledge sharing plus fewer data silos. 
• Lower hardware costs: Every company wants to lower its costs—particularly its hardware costs, which can add up fast. When you use centralized server management, you can keep all your servers and other networking equipment in a single location. This leads to fewer hardware costs because decentralized management means having the same equipment distributed across multiple locations, which means extras and duplicates of hardware often need to be present at each location. When you increase redundancy, you increase costs. By embracing centralized server management, you can reduce redundancy.
• More visibility and simplified scalability: This may seem obvious, but by putting all your servers and other technology under the power of a single centralized administration tool, your IT teams can get deeper visibility into your hardware and your network at large. The same benefits a centralized license manager offers when it comes to software licensing can be achieved on a larger scale with general centralization of servers and administration.

How does centralized IT administration work in Dameware?

Dameware Remote Support and Dameware Mini Remote Control are remote support solutions that can be deployed with the Dameware Central Server (DCS) and Administration Console to create a centralized IT server management console. 

Managing all Dameware Remote Support (DRS) and Mini Remote Control (MRC) users from the Administration Console is simple for IT pros. The tool delivers centralized user management features including the ability to:

• Synchronize your Dameware user list with Active Directory
• Enable single-user sign-on
• Centrally manage Dameware users and permissions
• Assign permissions to users who need to support computers outside the firewall
• Initiate Internet Sessions where IT technicians can support remote end users who are outside of your network

Beyond user management, DRS also incorporates many of the other advantages of centralized IT administration. It works as a centralized license manager, letting IT teams manage the organization’s Dameware licenses from a single location. And when you deploy the DCS, you can centrally manage and share a Global Host List. This list can speed up the deployment of Dameware across locations and streamline service delivery. You can modify the Global Host List to include sub-lists for easier access to and categorization of computers across your organization’s departments. 

With the Dameware Remote Support console, all it takes is a single click to view the software versions and updates on a device in your network. You can also easily view, remove, start, stop, or install services onto a machine from a centralized location right through the DRS console. 

When you use Dameware Remote Support (DRS) and Mini Remote Control (MRC) with the Dameware Central Server (DCS) and Administration Console, you get the advantage of a remote support tool combined with a centralized IT management solution.