Mass IT Deployment Tips

InstallAnywhere

If you're a developer looking to perform a mass software deployment of a Java or .NET application in a multi-operating system environment, then you should consider using InstallAnywhere. It is a software packaging solution that makes it really easy to package your Java or .NET product in an installer that works on many operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

Unfortunately, InstallAnywhere is simply a software package utility and won't help you with your mass it deployment needs, as it will not push out new software to systems in your organization.

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Use and Image to Install, then Remotely Administer Your Systems

The best way to do a mass system deployment on a set of machines that have very similar hardware is to create a disk image on one machine with all the software that each machine will need and then to simply copy that image right onto the other machines, performing the entire install in one fell swoop!

If you're trying to create a Windows XP runtime image for mass it deployment, Microsoft has a detailed, step-by-step procedure on their MSDN website:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/xpehelp/html/xetbshowtocreaterun-timeimageformassdeployment.asp

Once the systems are set up and running, the image has done its job, but there is unfortunately no really simple way to perform mass remote management of the set and perform updates across the board. For those purposes, you should use a remote administration software package such as SupportDesk Pro or GoToMyPC. They allow you to log into remote machines and perform software configuration, updates, and installs, and the best products even allow you to work on multiple remote machines at the same time.

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Multi-System Control

Looking for an end-all to the mass it deployment woes? Unfortunately, there aren't any industry-standard alternatives to either nagging your user base or simply doing multiple software upgrades yourself, computer by computer. Major IT corporations such as IBM have internal mass software deployment software that they use, but not that they sell readily.

The best you can do is to use remote administration software that has multi-system control, such as SupportDesk Pro, or even the lighter AccessDesk. They allow you to take control of a set of remote computers and perform software installs and upgrades. Another solution worth looking into is ManageSoft, which can perform some automatic updates of standard client software configurations.

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Automatic Updates

One of the most time-consuming aspects of system administration is performing mass software deployment updates on the set of systems being administered. Sysadmins are therefore pretty excited about software products that have an auto-update feature built into them, as it saves a great deal of their time.

If you want a sysadmin to push his company to adopt your software, you would be wise to include such a feature. Fortunately, you don't have to write the code from scratch, as products such as Zero G's PowerUpdate make adding that capability much easier.

Automatic software updating is sweeping the industry and saving an enormous amount of time and money on mass it deployment, and soon enough any software not including the feature will have a difficult time being adopted by the corporate world.

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System Images Make Mass System Deployment Easy

Do you need to roll out a mass deployment of a complete computer configuration to your company? Rather than spending the time to put new software on every computer under your jurisdiction, you might want to create a single system image that you will copy onto every computer.

Though this mass system deployment does not work very well if the hardware on which the image will be copied is varied, it could save you a great deal of time both for the installation and, later on, for supporting those computers, as you'll know exactly what each of your users started with.

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