THE CHALLENGE:
Installing software on one computer takes time. Rolling out applications to many users across the company is a real challenge. Managing ongoing application, security and virus updates can take up so much time and manpower that other tasks are left undone. And every time a new update comes out, the process starts again. |
Automated installs required Manual software installation gives IT the greatest levels of control, but also takes the most time and requires the most record-keeping. As companies grow, however, automated software distribution becomes the only real answer, especially for companies with more than one location. Effective automation is more than copying files. It’s selecting targets for distributions, scheduling the task, and monitoring task completion. It’s installing the right application to a new user’s computer based on a defined set of user policies. It’s distributing to mobile as well as desktop machines. It’s automatically tracking licenses so you can ensure compliance. Maintain security/preferred state Once software is installed, effective automation means maintaining the preferred state for both users and machines. It’s getting virus updates and security patches out to targeted computers fast to reduce vulnerability to mischief. It’s keeping applications healthy and up to date — without IT intervention. If the system doesn’t address new installs, ongoing security updates, and application patch management, it’s just another partial answer to a complex problem that will require more of your time to plug the holes in the system. Infrastructure impacts Distributing some software packages requires a huge amount of network bandwidth. If you distribute a 120MB application suite to 100 users, you end up using 12 gigabytes of network bandwidth — enough to choke most networks. Some systems use dedicated servers replicated at different places on the network to create local application availability. That added hardware infrastructure is expensive and requires extensive setup and maintenance — losing much of the time and money saved by moving to an automated system in the first place. Increased success rates Sometimes software packages don’t reach their targets. Mobile users can be disconnected from the network, some machines might be powered down, and others may crash part way through the process. So you end up redistributing the same package to many of the same users. With even a ten percent failure rate, distributing a single application can take days or weeks. If you’re dealing with thousands of computers, that can stretch out even further. No time to wait If the application or patch is critical, you have to closely monitor the process to make sure everyone receives it in a timely manner. Asset management tools can help you figure out who didn’t get the package, but you still need to reschedule the job, wait for it to finish, then check it again. In other words, you do the same job twice. And you spend a lot of time supervising the process. Control the process Automation by itself doesn’t really solve the problem. You need to be able to tightly control what happens and when. Whether you’re deploying new applications to many users across the network, distributing patches or updates to only a few targets, or maintaining the preferred state for a single machine, controlled automation can help. The best solution will give you the ability to create a set of standardized application and update packages, tie those packages to a set of directory policies or machine attributes, then let the system automatically install packages to maintain those policies — without massive network impact, infrastructure requirements, or supervision. Return to top of page >> | 
