In addition, Cognet is a useful mechanism for simplifying Windows 2000 upgrades. On the other hand, agencies with standardized Web-enabled wireless devices or sites that run mixed platforms that include operating systems such as Apple Computer Inc. s Macintosh, Sun Microsystems Inc. s Solaris, and Linux will find that Cognet does not yet support those platforms. If your organization uses Microsoft Corp. Windows-based systems and you want to make the lives of your systems support personnel a bit easier, take a look at Cognet 3.5. Cognet Corp. s automated software management and distribution solution enables systems personnel to centrally manage desktop and notebook configurations, which is more efficient and cost-effective than running around the building to manage those assets manually. Administrators can centrally manage the process, and end users do not have to do anything to facilitate the activation of software.
Network managers can also remove applications for one user or many users, as needed.
In the 3.5 release, the company has focused on supporting the latest Microsoft Windows 2000 and Office 2000 applications. Cognet can accommodate a departmental group of about 25 users or a group of several thousand users that might span an agency. And new agent technology enables mobile users and remote agency workers to receive software updates with ease. Cognet can be set up in either of two ways, depending on the size of the organi-zation. In file-sharing mode, a dedicated Cognet server is not needed, but larger groups may need Microsoft s Transaction Server and SQL Server to use Cognet effectively.