Does anyone have experience with update management software like System Center Essentials, Altiris, LanDesk, etc. ?

I need software similar to the above that will be able to manage clients on a workgroup that is outside of our AD forest. We can open up ports (thats how we got our backup software to work) but otherwise these systems are isolated.

Unfortunately, from what I'm reading, most of these programs require that all nodes be in the network.

I'm new to the IT field, so let me know if I didn't explain this right.

The problem your going to have, is most of these software choices use broadcast/multicast traffic to establish connectivity, which requires the local network to be accessible by the server/master.

What exactly is the target of what your trying to do? Maybe there is an application that doesn't necessarily do everything they do, but accomplishes your goal that doesn't rely on broadcast traffic.

if it was linux, all you would need it to connect to an online repository