In the previous parts of this series I’ve talked about budget planning and preparing for Sales Kick-Off. Those are both one-off activities. Important, no doubt, but once they’re done, they’re done. It’s also worth thinking about your on-going activities and looking at how they can be simplified and automated leaving more time and resources available for addressing the needs of your business.
This on-going maintenance topic is becoming (or should be) much more important for, at least, two important reasons:

Security

Clearly, anything security related is going to be a top priority. The time between a security patch being released and deployed to all of your endpoints is a critical data point. You might be able to get a patch out to core systems in a matter of hours but how long does it take to rollout to hundreds or thousands of systems in hundreds of locations? How about if those remote sites have poor network connectivity like an oil rig or small airport?
1E’s Nomad simplifies and streamlines Configuration Manager to remove remote servers and manage network traffic so that updates can be sent to remote sites without the need for complex hardware or impacting business traffic. You can deploy updates as soon as they’re available in what 1E calls “fearless deployment.”

Windows 10 Quality and Feature Updates

Microsoft have announced Windows 10 to be the “last” version of Windows. Rather than creating a Windows 11 or beyond, they are making twice-yearly updates available that include new features. Each Feature Update will be around 3.5GB in size. In addition, they are releasing monthly quality updates that include security and maintenance updates. As they are cumulative. these updates will get larger over time and you should expect them to start at hundreds of megabytes and grow to over 1GB in size. You may be concerned about moving that amount of data around your WAN if you have hundreds of sites to update.
It’s also worth remembering that Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is also following a similar update model and will be rolling out updates twice a year. Often these updates will be required before being able to roll out Windows 10 updates. If you’ve got hundreds of SCCM Distribution Points (DPs) then that can be a daunting prospect.
Again, 1E Nomad’s approach of removing the need for servers removes this complicated SCCM update issue.
Wouldn’t it be great to go into 2017 with a simple, streamlined process for handling this on-going maintenance so that you can concentrate on delivering business value? Even with only a few months left in 2016, it’s not too late to get your infrastructure cleaned-up and ready for the new year.