Austin-based SpiceWorks announced last week that version 4.5 has come out of beta, and the final is shipping. This is the 17th software release in 3 years for the company, and contains a handful of great new features. The tool contains support for HTTPS/SSL, so that it can manage networks outside of your firewall with a secure connection. Scan schedules can now be customized in about every way you can imagine, including dates and time, IP ranges, subnets, specific devices, and any combination of those you could imagine. The help desk features have gotten more robust with rules-based routing and queueing. A new SQL Server widget allow the monitoring of databases around the clock, and the network map can now be customized and edited. Lastly, all this is now available in 11 different languages.

Spiceworks revolutionized the world of IT support for small and medium sized businesses with a free tool for IT managers that is supported by advertising. In addition, the system makes use of crowdsourcing techniques to surface common issues and to generate ideas for new features. Spiceworks boasts over 800,000 business users.