Altiris, RIS/ADS, Ghost...Which one?

[Guest]

*Hope this didn't post twice-Said an error occurred when I sent this*
I've been in IT Desktop Support for over 8 years and at this particular job
for 3 years now. We only use Dell computers/laptops/servers. WinXP SP2,
Win2K3 Server environment. We're a multi-million dollar company whose
recently gone stingy. The three Network Admins here are flat out lazy and
restrictive on resource access. We currently have Altiris for imaging. Before
Altiris, we used RIS for imaging...from a Win2000 Server (a dinosaur 5 y/o)
box. I don't have rights to Admin either solution. I ONLY download images
from Altiris. I upload and download images on RIS. Needless to say, I've
grown overly accustommed to our RIS server because it offers better
flexibility in 'this' environment and doesn't involve our Network Admins.
However, the newer NIC drivers of the latest and greatest PCs/Laptops of
today obviously aren't installed on our 5 y/o RIS server so I'm starting to
have to rely on Altiris (Network Admins (uploading) for imaging. The jury's
still out on that solution (Altiris). The download is never streamline. So
just recently we have a new Director onboard who's getting that Network Team
whipped into shape and has tasked ME to decide which is the best 'imaging'
solution between Altiris, RIS, Ghost and ANYTHING ELSE on the market AND is
giving me greater access to manager our current imaging solutions (almost
Admin level rights!). This is foreign territory for me. Please help! I've
used Ghost before but have found RIS to be just as straight forward. My
question is that I'm looking for ideas on desktop imaging solutions. What
does everyone reading this recommend or use more so than another and why?
Thanks in advance for your response(s)!!!

 

[Guest]

WAIK - It's free, it's fast, it's flexible, it's relatively easy, and it's
supported.

MS built a solution for this exact purpose. It combines its own vista based
customizable boot disk (winpe) which makes adding drivers a snap, an imaging
tool (imagex) that's win32 fast, a imaging format with single instance
storage and layered images (.wim) for smaller images, a server based
deployment method (WDS), and all the instructions and labs to learn how to
put it all together (Windows Automated Installation Kit). Go to micorsoft.com
and search for WAIK to get all the info. One peice of advice - Don't get lost
in the documentation, just downloaded the tools and set them up in a test
environment. The rest is pretty intuitive, especially if you have experience
with RIS. The days of Altiris and Ghost are running out fast.

It also has it's own support community on these boards:

http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...A58-DB24-0D4E-994D-92E1AEC0ED7B&lang=en&cr=US