Novell, Symantec and Dell have outlined updates to their systems management tools to account for uptake of technologies such as virtualisation and Windows Vista.

Novell’s ZenWorks Virtual Machine Management lets firms manage virtualised environments on Linux, Unix, Windows or Novell Open Enterprise Server hosts using VMware, Microsoft or Xen hypervisors. Administrators can dictate policies, automate processes, provision workloads and create business continuity routines.

Virtualisation management is likely to become a fast-growing area as companies consolidate servers.

Symantec also boosted its capabilities in this space with the launch of a new component of its Veritas Server Foundation suite that lets firms automate the control of applications across physical and virtual environments.

Ronni Colville of analyst Gartner said virtualisation can compound the level of management complexity. “Customers need cross-platform systems management solutions for both virtual and physical machines,” she added.

Novell also released ZenWorks HPC Management to control distributed supercomputing. Meanwhile, ZenWorks 7.5 Asset Management lets firms assess their preparedness for both Vista and Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.

Dell also described a new systems management plan that will see it work more closely with a range of specialists. The Unified Management Architecture scheme aims to offer a modular approach to management tools.