Migration Expert Zone

With native image formats getting larger and IT budgets getting smaller, migration projects often get squeezed in the middle.  The challenge for IT managers is to prepare assets for re-use and to migrate workgroups and workloads to new operating systems quickly, so as to minimize disruption and downtime.  The only way to accelerate these labor-intensive and time-consuming processes is through automation.

Earlier this month, Dell KACE introduced the latest version of its K2000 Deployment Appliance, which automates and speeds deployment and migration projects such as upgrades to Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010.  Dell KACE, the leading provider of systems management appliances, was founded in 2003 and acquired by Dell in 2010.

The K2000 appliance turbocharges disk imaging processes, eliminating manual steps to keep image creation and maintenance to a minimum.  Using its file-based K-image format, admins can edit and store images in its centralized deployment library, which eliminates the need for creating and storing image disks. 

The K2000 also supports off-board storage, which enables companies to store much larger libraries of the popular WIM and DMG image formats.

In one excellent example of the K2000 in use in a smaller organization, Tom Wyman, director of IT at the Mary Institute Country Day School, describes how his small team struggled to upgrade, repair, and reimage over 1,000 student Windows tablet units during the summer break. 

“We rely heavily on the Dell KACE K2000 Deployment Appliance to help us manage our 16 PC and eight Mac images,” Wyman said. “The K2000 allows us to quickly and cost-effectively reimage our PCs... A strong advantage for us now is that with the Dell KACE imaging tools we can modify the images up until the last minute. This reduces our post-imaging tasks, allows us to accommodate late version updates, and frees up my team's time to focus on strategic IT projects."

In a November 2011 survey conducted by Dimensional Research, almost half of Dell KACE K2000 Deployment Appliance users reported achieving return on their investment within three months, and over 70 percent said they achieved ROI within six months.  The solution scored high satisfaction levels with three-quarters of the respondents, too.