One particular tool - the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) - is something Servo has been working with Microsoft during the first half of 2005. We were approached by Microsoft to join their BDD programme which required technical training and resource commitment. The goal is simple: use technology and processes to help customers migrate to XP and Office 2003.
Servo realise that customers don't upgrade their desktop just because Microsoft say so and we have worked with a number of customers in trying to help them not only understand the technology involved but also the business benefits associated with a structured approach to deploying a workstation.
Lets be honest - deploying desktops cannot be complicated can they? Oh yes - we have to consider for example:
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Different hardware equals multiple images |
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Auditing the network to establish what you have |
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Patch management and what about non Microsoft patches?! |
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Applications - Will they work under XP and what about SP2? |
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Do we have licenses for the desktop and applications? |
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Deployment - How will we do this? How much resource will it take? What is it dependant on? |
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Remote users - How do we deal with them? |
And finally, once we've finished, how can we demonstrate to the business we have delivered business value? How many people find that actually managing a desktop in the 21st century is harder now than in the last century!!!!!!
The desktop is definitely a case of “if you think technology is the answer to your problems, then you either don't understand your problems or technology”.
Moving forward or Back to the Future!
A good place to start is to commit to a Common Operating Environment vision or COE. Simply put it is a line in the sand that says from this point onwards, PCs and notebooks will be built to standards, using standard tools and practices, being managed and deployed using ideally a Microsoft directory service for security, updates and patches.
The BDD is an excellent starting point offering two flavours of solution for large enterprises (500 + seats or more) and for the smaller organisation (250+ users).
What is BDD?
BDD is a collection of proven tools and practices that enable customers to:
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Create a software and hardware inventory to assist in deployment planning; |
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Test applications for compatibility with Windows XP Professional and mitigate the compatibility issues discovered during the process; |
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Test XP Service Pack 2 issues with Firewall and DCOM; |
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Set up an initial lab environment with deployment and imaging servers; |
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Customise and package core and supplemental applications; |
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Automate desktop image creation and deployment; |
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Ensure that the desktop is hardened to improve security within the environment |
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Manage processes and technologies to produce a comprehensive and integrated deployment. |
The BDD is effectively a wheel of processes and best practice which deals with the whole environment for the deployment of a desktop and application.
As you can see there is a lot than can be done with BDD - without investing in tools to do half the work.
How can Servo help?
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Servo created their Business Desktop Programme (BDP) and have started working with some early adopter organisations. We have noticed that whilst organisations are rightly being cautious about desktop upgrades, people do want simplification and control, and the desktop is a place to start. The COE concept is an excellent way to measure the current desktop estate against best practice with tools such as BDD. |
The BDP is a way of identifying customers' needs in the desktop space and brings together the Microsoft BDD plus well developed managed service experience and practical logistics over a number of years.
Through the BDP Servo can review your approach to desktop deployment today and evaluate how BDD can improve your process of deploying a desktop. This can be either through reduced time to deploy or the use of the free tools like User State Migration Toolkit to speed up the collection of user data during a migration so you can successfully give the user their environment back after migration. Another approach taken by some customers is to adopt a Health Check of their application packaging work to ensure that best practice for XP (SP2) is being followed to ensure that their programme for desktop rollout is feasible and not hampered by excessive manual checks and validation. A number of customers have taken some elements of this approach and are beginning to achieve accelerated XP desktop deployment. Visits were made to Microsoft's Centre of Excellence to look at the BDD tool in more detail.
Speak to your Servo Account Manager who can tell you more about the BDD and perhaps arrange for a pre sales consultant to visit you and walk you through the BDD and its benefits. Following this, you may wish to commission a small piece of consultation (typically £5k) for Servo to produce a full review of your desktop deployment approach and perform a gap analysis against the BDD with recommended steps to achieve a Common Operating Environment. Alternatively, you may wish to commission a health check of applications for XP compatibility.
Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/
understanding.mspx for more information on BDD from Microsoft.
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