Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/98946
ILTA's 2012 Financial Management Poll Results In the Beginning In the early days, it was simple: install a shared copy of Windows 3.11 on a server and copy that instance down to countless workstations. With the release of Windows XP, the inherent technology of these systems made a shared model untenable. This period saw law firms that wished to deploy a standard image turning to imaging tools like Ghost or True Image. These solutions relied on the creation and maintenance of a "master" image inclusive of all firm applications, with each image tied to a point-in-time hardware set. The downfall of this setup is that it is not hardware agnostic, and you need to maintain continuous image updates with the release of updates, patches, etc. With the gradual demise of XP and the ascendance of Windows 7, firms began to look for a more streamlined process to deploy and manage workstations, while upgrading to the latest versions of Microsoft Windows and Office Suite. We cannot ignore the fact that this move to a Lite-Touch rollout method has gained steam since the start of the global economic recession in 2008. All firms are trying to do more with less and employ automation wherever possible. Many have elected to use Microsoft tools, such as the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) or Microsoft System Center Manager (SCCM), to sequence a baseline Windows 7 image and layer on application packages to physical hardware. As expected with any distributed model, this vastly improved the deployment process; however, the management and maintenance of physical workstations continue to prove challenging. ILTA White Paper 23