The latest version of Microsoft’s Desktop Optimization Pack gets “substantial” enhancements in its ability help IT administrators manage encryption, according to the vendor.
MDOP is a suit of virtualization, management and security technologies available as a subscription for Microsoft customers.
The company also announced an update for Microsoft Application Virtualization. Microsoft said the upgrades found in App-V 5.0 SP2 focus on virtualized desktop scenarios.
Upgrades to MDOP 2014 focus around the Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring tool (MRAM 2.5). The upgrades include:
- Enhanced support for Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2: MBAM now includes support for organizations that must adhere to FIPS. MBAM leverages Windows 81’s new FIPS compliant recovery key password or data recovery agent protector. This capability is also available on Windows 7.
- Improved compliance and enforcement policies: IT administrators get more control in enforcing compliance with corporate policies. IT admins can now not only force devices into a compliant state but also enforce automatic encryption and strong password or PIN use (to prevent users from employing PIN such as 12354). The system does offer a grace period for encryption postponement.
- Support for enterprise scenarios: MBAM can be deployed on Windows Server in high quality configuration. The tool also supports load balancing of web components and its database can be deployed to SQL Server failover clusters.
Enhancements App V include the following:
- New application publishing and refresh capabilities that allow the use of existing user profile management tools during app publishing and launch
- Support for parallel deployment and execution of application upgrades
- Improved package conversion rates and VFS write mode sequencer setting
- Availability of more deployment guides and how-to guides
MDOP 2014 can be downloaded here
App-V 5.0 SP2 can be downloaded here