Altiris 6 was an enterprise systems-management release built around three connected suites: Client Management, Asset Management, and Server Management. A shared .NET infrastructure, inventory repository, and central Altiris Console linked work across acquisition, deployment, day-to-day support, and retirement. This is a look at the product as reviewed in 2004, not a recommendation for current deployment.
What Altiris 6 was
In a review published March 19, 2004, InfoWorld’s Mike Heck described Altiris 6 as a suite of tools for managing client computers, IT assets, and servers. Rather than treating each task as a separate utility, the release connected them through shared infrastructure and an inventory repository. Administrators could use a central web console to access asset information and remotely manage desktops, mobile devices, and servers.
Heck’s review opened with the estimate that an IT asset’s sticker price represents only about 20 percent of its lifetime cost. The review did not identify an original study or data source for that estimate, so it is best understood as the reviewer’s framing for the product’s life-cycle approach, not as an independently established statistic.
How the three suites divided the work
| Suite | Managed domain | Capabilities described in the 2004 review |
|---|---|---|
| Client Management Suite 6.0 | Workstations and other client devices | Inventory, configuration management, operating-system migration, software delivery, user self-service, rollback, and recovery. |
| Asset Management Suite 6.0 | Hardware and software assets | Asset and license tracking, identification of idle or underused equipment, and links between asset records and help-desk incidents. |
| Server Management Suite 6.0 | Servers | Server deployment, management, and monitoring from the Altiris Console; the review says version 6 added Red Hat Linux, Sun Solaris, and blade-server support. |
Client Management: deploy, support, and recover workstations
Client Management combined inventory and configuration tools with software and operating-system deployment. The review describes hardware and software inventory reports, asset-cost analysis, remote operating-system upgrades, migration of user settings (which the article called a workstation’s “personality”), and software delivery.
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Migration and application delivery
Heck recounts using a wizard to migrate systems to Windows XP Professional and install Microsoft Office 2003. Authorized employees could also use the Altiris Software Portal to download applications that administrators had qualified. These examples document the products and operating systems in the 2004 review; they do not establish compatibility with current Windows releases or applications.
Rollback and recovery
The review says the recovery feature stored a compressed disk image in the Altiris SQL database and recorded incremental changes on a schedule selected by the administrator. That history made it possible to roll a workstation back to an earlier configuration state. The description presents recovery as part of ongoing client management, alongside deployment and support.
Asset Management: connect inventory to support decisions
Asset Management tracked hardware and software, flagged idle or underused systems, and recorded software-license use. The review describes reallocating unused licenses rather than leaving them tied up on systems that no longer needed them.
It also describes linking a computer’s asset record with help-desk incidents. A pattern of unusually frequent incidents could help identify failing hardware; incident trends could also expose problems with a custom application. Helpdesk Smart Tasks gave agents resolution tools based on incident type, while Web Administrator for Windows let them inspect system details and run applications remotely.
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Server Management provided deployment, management, and monitoring through the Altiris Console. According to InfoWorld’s review, version 6 added support for Red Hat Linux, Sun Solaris, and blade servers; the reviewer reported no major functional changes otherwise. The review does not specify supported versions of those operating systems or provide a complete compatibility matrix.
What the shared console added
Bringing the suites together meant administrators could work with inventory and management tasks through common infrastructure rather than separate product consoles. Heck reported that automated server installation took under an hour in his setup, that the console was localized in six languages, and that Quick Start Manager and task-based setup aids were available. Those are observations from the reviewer’s 2004 installation, not general performance guarantees or current specifications.
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Performance claims and review scores
The performance figures in the review have different sources and should not be read as controlled benchmark results. Heck explicitly wrote, “I wasn’t able to perform a large test of scalability and speed improvements.” He reported that Altiris customers said they could roll out software to up to 500 workstations per day; the article does not describe the customer sample or independently verify those reports. An Altiris representative, separately, claimed version 6 was 40 percent faster than the prior release. That was a vendor-representative claim, not a speed measurement by the reviewer.
| InfoWorld category | Score | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 7.0 | 15% |
| Value | 8.0 | 10% |
| Interoperability | 8.0 | 25% |
| Manageability | 9.0 | 25% |
| Scalability | 8.0 | 25% |
| Overall | 8.1 | Not stated |
The scores and weights are those published in InfoWorld’s 2004 scorecard. The review’s scalability score should be read in light of Heck’s stated inability to conduct a large scalability test.
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Upgrade compatibility was a planning concern
Heck reported that components from earlier versions were not compatible with Altiris 6. Organizations upgrading therefore needed to plan coordinated updates to the suite components and agents, rather than assume existing installations would continue to work unchanged. The review does not give a detailed migration sequence or identify which individual legacy versions were affected.
What the review’s life-cycle claim means
Heck concluded that Altiris 6 was “one of the few solutions to address the entire life cycle from acquisition to retirement.” That is his evaluative characterization, not an independently established comparison across the market. The practical basis for it in the review is the connection among client deployment and recovery, asset and license records, help-desk context, and server administration through a shared console.
Because the review dates to 2004, it establishes what the product was described as doing at that time. It does not establish whether Altiris 6 is currently available or supported, what it costs today, or whether it works with modern systems.
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