Hardware-Independent Imaging has a Following

Hardware-independent imaging (HII) is a strangely popular subject with our customers these days but it doesn't seem to get much attention outside of the IT folks in the trenches. Why is it becoming an expected and necessary tool in the box?

My guess would be: 1. Proliferation of notebook PCs. IDC predicts the notebook share of the client PC market will reach 50% by the end of the year 2. Customer choice. Customers want the flexibility to choose the technology that best fits their requirements. This might mean sourcing heterogeneous form factors from various vendors, Often customers stick with what they know from a single vendor, but everybody likes to have options. When it comes to a system management product, they want the flexibility to service a heterogeneous environment. Solutions like HII provide this flexibility.

Stark State College of Technology, in Stark County, Ohio, is a good case in point. Stark's student population more than doubled in the past five years; but the IT staff did not. With 8,426 credit and 3,000 non-credit students, the U.S. Dept. of Education ranked Stark as the 7th fastest growing two-year college in the nation in 2006.

The need to manage a vast fleet of computers, many of them mobile and all of them needing to be imaged and maintained remotely, was the challenge. What did they do, and what can we learn? Jeff Lash, Director of Academic Technology Services, offers several key points of advice:

• Utilize Altiris technology to build a single, hardware-independent image that works on every machine regardless of make or model. Lash said, "We can load the images over the network without visiting a single computer. We save hundreds of thousands of technician hours a year on this task alone."
• Move to unified hardware. Stark struggled with the brand of hardware they were using, along with the whole growing issue of "vendor decentralization." The solution: They switched to Dell, and on the hardware front, life has been swell ever since.
• Use a good partner. Stark selected Symantec with the help of ITS. They completed the proof of concept in early July 2007 and were so enthused they wanted to roll it out at the end of August for Fall semester.

For a closer look at Stark's implementation, you can find the full case study here. Let us know if you'd be interested in speaking to Jeff Lash. He might be available now since he's not spending nearly as much time imaging PCs.