Systems and Software Deployment
Helping Reduce the Time and Cost of Information Technology Deployment
The need to effectively deploy and manage digital assets across an organization in a timely, automated and cost effective way has continued to grow. Mixed operating system environments have become the norm. The number of applications that must be supported have multiplied. And given the sheer quantity of associated drivers, prerequisites, patches and configuration settings that must be seamlessly applied across a variety of desktops, laptops and servers to maintain these systems, and successful IT deployment has landed squarely as one of—if not the—top challenge for systems management professionals today.
Manual approaches, once sufficient in a time of more simple and homogenous environments, are simply too cumbersome, time-consuming and prone to human error to remain effective. Point solutions, while providing some relief, lack the ability to provide a comprehensive and centralized point of control. Add to the mix poor economic conditions, which restrict the ability to travel to remote offices and cast an ever-increasing emphasis on reduced overhead, and cost effective systems deployment truly becomes a critical issue for today’s IT support organization.
The Solution
The Dell KACE Family of Systems Management Appliances are designed to save you time and your company money by providing a means to help accomplish your systems and software deployment tasks in a way that is comprehensive, easy-to-use and affordable. With the KACE K1000 Management Appliance and the K2000 Deployment Appliance, time-consuming manual OS and software deployment tasks can now be automated, centralized control is available even for remote systems, and the margin for human error and ensuing labor-intensive correction activities are virtually eliminated. KACE Appliances help ensure your organization deploys IT assets effectively, even in light of their increasing number and complexity.
- Network OS install helps enable the remote provisioning of desktops, laptops or servers via network OS installation, regardless of computer hardware configuration. Network OS install, also known as scripted installation, helps provide reliable, managed deployment in heterogeneous hardware environments and a more efficient means for building and maintaining gold master configurations. Applications and files can be integrated with scripted installation allowing for complete systems provisioning. The K2000 also maintains an integrated library to ease archiving and management of complete remote setups, including cross platform gold master configurations.
- Software distribution helps save you time with the remote distribution and installation of applications, service packs, updates, and hotfixes to Windows, Mac and Linux desktops and servers. Flexible distribution takes the place of time-consuming manual tasks, even across large distributed networks and remote locations. Updates can be managed through the use of dynamic groups and "filters" which allow almost unlimited control over which machines are addressed and when. Real-time Active Directory and LDAP group deployment integration is also provided.
- Patch management helps provide rapid, accurate and secure patch management, allowing you to proactively manage threats by automating the collection, analysis and delivery of patches throughout your organization. The K1000 utilizes patented Patchlink Patch Fingerprint Technology™, which includes the world's largest patch repository, to help ensure the highest level of accuracy in the detection of security vulnerabilities. In addition, the K1000 provides access to pre-tested operating system (Windows, Mac) and application patches. Administrators can more easily control the scanning and distribution schedule of patches through the K1000 UI, in order to help minimize business disruptions.
- Configuration and policy management helps provide comprehensive and easy-to-use configuration management and policy enforcement using K-Scripts and shell scripts for Windows, Mac and Linux systems. Policies and shell scripts can either be run on schedules or immediately. The K1000 is equipped with a point and click K-Script creation wizard, and supports out-of-the-box prepackaged scripts and policies for Windows.
- The user portal enables users to self-serve through a software library for download of approved titles on an as-needed basis, as well as access to an IT knowledge base. The user portal helps save time with user scheduled downloads and installations and helps provide cost savings via enhanced direct end user services.
- Remote site replication and remote administration helps provide users with an effective means to manage remote offices without the need for dedicated hardware or IT personnel at those locations. The capabilities can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of managing a multi-site organization, helping to eliminate shipping of hardware and travel expense for support staff. K1000 Remote Replication supports UNC addresses, DFS sources and HTTP locations.
- K-imaging is an innovative file-based format that helps eliminate redundant transfers, saving time in the capture, storage, and deployment of images. The K2000 helps you to more seamlessly manage and deploy images on Windows and Mac platforms from a single web-based console.
- User state migration helps centrally capture, store, and deploy user-specific settings and files to make operating system migrations and computer upgrades run as smoothly as possible. Administrators can easily designate a user state to be deployed alongside an image or network OS install. As a result, the K2000 helps reduce the risk of losing valuable information during deployments. Furthermore, K2000 user state migration helps reduce the cost associated with a deployment by minimizing end-user downtime, because users will not have to back up and restore their files and settings before an operating system or computer migration.