by ezs | May 26, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks
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A short while ago I wrote about Windows Vista and some of the implications it has for organisations.
Since then there have been several developments. At the start of May 2006 the analyst firm Gartner mooted that Vista will ship en masse in the second quarter of 2007
A research note released this week from Gartner Inc. predicts that Microsoft Corp. will miss its target to ship Windows Vista on PCs by January 2007. According to Gartner, Vista won’t be broadly available to customers until the second quarter of 2007
InfoWorld, 2 May 2006
The report document is here; there is a fee for the original.
There has also been a lot of commentary from many bloggers – from Robert Scoble to MiniMicrosoft – and a lot more.
All of this commentary – from analysts, press and bloggers – is having an impact with CIOs and their teams. I am seeing a lot more customers planning to refresh to Windows XP SP2 during 2006 and stay on that new platform for ‘a while’. The general impression is that Vista is still a ‘moving target’ – not helpful for planning purposes.
Written at: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I promised in my last post on Windows Vista that I would comment on on large area of any desktop refresh – application refresh and validation.
In the last six or seven years we have seen several phases of this process – moving from DOS to Windows 3.1; moving from 16 bit Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 or NT4; and moving from NT4 to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Each of these desktop OS changes introduces a fresh round of application testing.
Here is the typical process – one that is being followed my most organisations.
- Select a new standard desktop OS
- Most customers are at Windows XP professional or are rapidly re-standardising on this platform.
- I have recently seen a wave of ‘third generation’ Windows XP refresh projects – for deployment in 2006 and to be in place until 2008-2010
- Usually a combination of SYSPREP, ZENworks Imaging and ENGL tools are used to create a universal image.
Inventory the current list of supported and deployed applications
- We see more usage of tools such as ZENworks Asset Management helping here
- Most organisations have ‘hundreds’ or ‘thousands’ of applications
Pragmatically evaluate whether there is a consolidation in applications possible
- Aquisition and expansion historically means that applications are duplicated
- Lax standards and non-centralised, departmental purchasing also leads to multiple solutions being in place
- Consolidation can lead to license savings and more financial muscle in negotiating a better deal
(re) package applications
- Many IT organisations are now squarely focussed on packaging applications as Microsoft Installer (MSI) packages
- ZENworks includes the Macrovision Installshield Admin Studio – this is really helpful – and can move NAL snapshots (AOT/AXT) to MSI packages
Test
The next post will cover the re-packaging and test phase of this process – one of the largest areas of time expenditure – but also one of the most vital. I’ll talk about how good process and procedures will really make this successful.
Notice how nothing so far has been ZENworks specific? Everything here is really for any customer deploying XP and refreshing their standard desktop. My final post will be to tie this all together with ZENworks glue and magic – and show how we can make it very, very efficient and cost effective.
As always – I’m looking for your feedback and updates – comments welcome.
Written at: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
by ezs | Apr 26, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks
Several articles on this blog have referred to the Cool Solutions Wiki – http://wiki.novell.com.
If you have not used a Wiki before – you may wonder what this weird and wonderful sounding thing actually is.
I’ll try and give some background – and finish with a plea for content!
Written at: Toronto, ON, Canada
Put simply (again – quoting Wikipedia – itself a wiki)
A wiki (IPA: [‘wi??.ki??] or [‘w?.ki??] [1]) is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit all content, very quickly and easily, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative writing. The term wiki is a shortened form of wiki wiki which is from the native language of Hawaii (Hawaiian), where it is commonly used as an adjective to denote something “quick” or “fast”.
The Cool Solutions Wiki is a central spot for all of that ‘other important information’ that should be shared across the community. Sometimes created by Novell people; most often by you – our customers, partners and developers.
The content is as good as the community. Like one large ‘pot luck meal’ – if we all bring something good we’ll have a feast. The vast majority of wiki sites become the body of knowledge for the broader community – I’ve already plugged Wikipedia – but other sites as diverse as the WordPress Codex to Science of Spectroscopy use the Wiki structure to facilitate rapid and broad information sharing.
Sounds like a public information film eh? All very co-operative and liberal.
Take a look at the Novell Cool Solutions Wiki – and think for a moment. Do you have a morsel of information that can be shared? Can you spare a minute or two to jot it down.
I’ll especially plug the ZENworks part of the site – I’m just writing a lab guide or ‘Cook Book‘ on ZENworks 7 Linux Management. I’ve also created a ‘Call for Content‘ – where you can take the lead and start sharing your information. It’s a work in progress; a living body of documentation.
Let me know your comments, feedback and whether the Cool Solutions Wiki is useful. I’ll see if I can whistle up some ‘Evil ZEN Scientist’ T-shirts for the best few articles that get written as a result of this post. Bribery always works.
Written at: Toronto, ON, Canada
by ezs | Apr 10, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks
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This is the start of another series of blog posts – this time around managing desktops and laptops – and what will happen in the future with Windows Vista.
In the words of Microsoft’s own marketing – we’ll try and “Bring Clarity to your World”
Written at: Draper, UT
First to the basics – the versions of Vista and hardware requirements.
There will be at least five versions of Windows Vista – although only two of these really seem suitable for businesses: Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise.
It seems that the proliferation of choice will be confusing at best. Will most customers choose the Business edition? Enterprise?
The next piece of the puzzle is hardware requirements. As always – take the ‘minimum requirements’ as just that. Analysts and beta testers alike are giving the following recommendations:
- general knowledge worker – Pentium 4 class machine, 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, 1Gbit ethernet, accelerated graphics capability
- ‘power worker’ – Pentium 4 class machine; dual core and 64 bit ideal, 2GB RAM, 100GB HDD, 1Gbit ethernet, accelerated graphics capability
Now I have talked to enough of you to know that this is a tall order. Most organisations are currently working to a three year replacement program for laptops and a four, five or six year replacement cycle for tethered desktop machines. One other factor in this equation is that almost every IT team did a refresh of hardware and OS in 1999. (Remember that!)
This has led to the “Y2K + 5″ phenomenon – hardware was replaced on the desktop in 2004/2005 – and will next be replaced in 2008/2009/2010. Laptops are due for replacement this year – following a first round of replacement in 2003.
These two factors combined are significant:
- confusion on choice of Vista desktop
- massive costs (replacement and just churn costs) of desktop hardware
Already enough to make you think twice.
In the next post I will talk about another area to consider – application support. I’ll dive into some of the murky details of getting applications supported on Vista and why this may be another roadblock for some customers.
As always – comments are welcomed.
Written at: Draper, UT
by ezs | Mar 28, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks
Post BrainShare and it’s back to real work!
Today Novell released the online demonstration of ZENworks Asset Management. This runs in Firefox or Internet Explorer – and lets you see the power of ZENworks Asset Management live – without having to install a single piece of code.
Take a look – and let us know what you think. We will be posting a ‘walk through script’ in the next day or so – that will let you get the most from your time online.
Written at: Draper, UT
by ezs | Mar 24, 2006 | evilzenscientist, fun stuff, Novell BrainShare, Uncategorized
BrainShare is over for another year.
I’m sitting having a beer with Alan Murray and listening to goth and alternative music at Murphy’s Bar in Salt Lake City. A fine way to wind down.
Written at: Murphy’s Bar, Salt Lake City, UT
by ezs | Mar 22, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks
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I have been working all week on a ZENworks lifecycle demo and session – part of this involves delivering a consistent Windows XP SP2 operating system to workstations, in an automated, hands-free manner. Certainly this toolkit has saved us days of time in building our demonstrations.
Part of the solution has seen us integrate the ENGL Imaging Toolkit into our demo; this allows the creation of a ‘universal image’ – it works well. In our demo we have a single 800MB Windows XP image that can be delivered to any type of hardware – Dell, IBM, HP, Lenovo, whitebox and even VMware.
The ENGL Imaging Toolkit has a great write-up in the current Novell Connection Magazine. Read it here.
[STOP PRESS – ENGL were awarded Novell EMEA Partner of the Year at BrainShare 2006 this week]
Written at: BrainShare 2006, Salt Lake City, UT
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