I started SDM Software back in 2006 with the goal to solve some of the thornier problems of managing Group Policy in enterprise environments. Years of on-the-job experience had shown me the challenges of the “in-the-box” solutions when it came to delivering a reliable end-to-end configuration management system using GP. And while Microsoft had provided good “plumbing”, there were a lot of missing “fixtures”. Over the years, SDM has delivered on many of those, including automation, reporting and auditing. But the one capability that I’ve wanted to provide almost since the beginning, had not quite seen the light of day…until now! Today I’m happy to announce the release of Group Policy Compliance Manager 1.0, or GPCM. GPCM is our first step towards providing you with the end-to-end visibility you need to ensure that Group Policy is doing the job you need it to. GPCM  answers the question,

“How do I know if the policy settings I’ve created are being received by my Windows desktops and servers?”

GPCM provides an easy-to-install interface that allows you to immediately start collecting health and GP settings data against your remote systems. And, it provides powerful search and roll-up reporting to give you insight into what’s going on with GP across your environment.

So, whether you are just trying to track down whether a setting has been received by a particular computer or user, or you need to show your boss that the recent security policy made it to all your critical servers, GP Compliance Manager can deliver the goods!

I encourage you to check out the Sneak Peek video I posted on GPCM last week, to get an idea of how it works, or visit the website and register for a free trial. I look forward to getting feedback on this much-needed capability in Group Policy management!

Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!

Darren