Omni Manager

QED's flagship offering is Omni Manager, a hosted service-based offering that provides endpoint anti-virus, anti-spyware, Web filtering, usage monitoring, and more via a centrally managed, vendor-hosted service.

With Omni Manager, individual client components are distributed to the machines that will be protected/monitored; deployment can be performed via Web download, E-mail delivery, CD install, or Web-based deployment via a directory plug-in component enabling admins to deploy the client over the Web to any machine in their domain. When the endpoint machines are online, these clients automatically communicate with the central server (which is hosted by the vendor), via SOAP based messages over SSL-encrypted connections. The clients receive from the central server such items as signature and policy updates and software upgrades, while at the same time transmitting to the central server information detailing the usage of the machine (applications used and the amount of time spent in each, machine asset information, and IM conversation monitoring). The client then enforces on the endpoint the policies received from the central server both when the endpoint is on and offline.

Administrators manage the policies and configurations of the clients via a vendor hosted, Web-based control center; through which they can also generate reports such as individual usage activities, machine overviews, hardware and software inventory, etc. The control center is hosted and managed by the vendor in data centers featuring server clusters protected by dual independent power feeds, dual battery string UPS systems and 2 Megawatt diesel generators.

Capabilities and functions of the platform include anti-virus and anti-spyware protection (courtesy Kaspersky), Web filtering and blocking by URL (the client connects to the hosted DB upon each request for a Web site, and the categorization of the requested URL is returned as a result for comparison to administrator defined policy), application usage monitoring rounded to the nearest minute, IM controls and conversation monitoring, hardware and software auditing, software change tracking, and local firewall enforcements for control of P2P traffic.

New to the platform is the supported ability to query and report a machine's BIOS level service tag information.

Pricing is $52 per user/machine per year (for up to 99 users/machines), with support for unlimited administrators. The price includes all updates, maintenance, and support.

Contact the vendor for further information.