26 Feb Why on-boarding new students and their devices is no longer a nightmare

Institutions with large and constantly changing/increasing numbers of IT users such as universities know the pain of deployment: be it setting up new laptops or rolling out software updates – it can be a nightmare for administrators or at least a night shift.

Universities live with constant change. The students change, lectures change, tutors change and so does the IT that supports exchanging contents, mail or general information. Anyone who has ever sat up all night to set up the new PC/laptop or went through hours of tedious work to have all necessary updates installed to be able to seamlessly work with all resources and colleagues can clearly imagine what it means to roll out new programs or updates on hundreds of laptops and PCs. Human error is predictable in such a scenario and it might also be the case that not all relevant devices are at hand to install the needed program. In a nutshell: Deploying new software and configurations to multiple systems is a complicated, time-consuming task.

But universities and their administrators don’t need to despair because there is one simple solution to the rescue: Acronis Snap Deploy. And yes, it’s a telling name because the tool helps you deploy software like a snap. The tool saves time and resources by provisioning hundreds of tablets, PCs or servers simultaneously.  Snap Deploy is ideal for rapid bare-metal deployments to a large number of PCs or servers, as well as effortless on-going redeployment to the same hardware. The well-established disk-imaging technology helps administrators to create an exact image of any standard configuration you choose— – including the operating system, configuration, files, and all applications – and simultaneously deploy an image to multiple machines in one easy step.

So, no more worries about how many devices need an update or how many new students need to be set up. Everyone relying on a PC or laptop can now be rest assured that the needed update will be deployed on time with no further headache. Working on campus with an up-to-date device has never been easier. Snap Deploy supports different operating systems for Windows PCs, Windows tablets, Windows servers, and Linux.

Another huge benefit is the time saving. With high-speed dispatch, administrators can rapidly deploy a single image to multiple machines via unicast or multicast from a centralised management console. Furthermore, IT staff can deploy to live Windows machines and avoid having to boot each machine from network or CD manually.

Snap Deploy Summary:

Ease-of-Use

A simple and intuitive wizard-driven user interface saves time and reduces mistakes.

Multiple Operating System Support

Deploy to Windows PCs, Windows tablets, Windows servers, and Linux.

High-Speed Dispatch

Rapidly deploy a single image to multiple machines via unicast or multicast from a centralized management console.

Deploy to Live Machines

Start deployment to live Windows machines (and avoid having to boot each machine from network or CD manually).

Dissimilar Hardware Support

Provision the same image to dissimilar hardware, even to different machines! Acronis Universal Deploy technology injects the appropriate settings, HAL and drivers necessary for successful initial booting. Now included FREE with your purchase!

Flexible Deployment Methods

Leverage manual, automatic, user-initiated, and scheduled deployment modes. You can deploy a standalone image even if your system is not on a network. Additionally, Wake-On-LAN automatically boots your PCs for deployment, ensuring that you always stay on schedule.

Machine-Specific Configurations

Customize configurations and assign individual settings to each tablet, PC, or server. Monitor the status and pre-configure new machines identified by their MAC address.

Flexible Boot Options

Boot your bare metal machines from customizable media using CD, DVD or flash drive, or from self-configurable Acronis PXE Server with network boot.

Flexible Licensing

Choose from multiple licensing options to maximize your investment! We offer a per-machine option for deploying a specific system multiple times. We also offer a per-deployment option should you want to deploy multiple systems just once.

More convincing than all our facts can only be references. Derek Findlay, Computing Support Officer for the University of Aberdeen, states: “Prior to purchasing Snap Deploy, it would take us up to two hours to image a single PC, not to mention the time it takes to create a master image that is under 4GB. Using Acronis, it now takes just under one hour to image a PC, and we no longer have to worry about the master image size.”

With Acronis Snap Deploy large deployments become a piece of cake and admins no longer have to sit through endless nights thus making university IT real easy.