One of my past gigs was to update more than 1000 WinXP machines to Win10. That included deployment, in-processing the old computers, re-imaging the suitable ones and either prepping the old ones for disposal or building up a boneyard to repair the near obsolete ones where it was worth doing so.
Along the way, I also built a networked imaging system, created and maintained a catalog of the most recent drivers for each system type, built up automated installers that would customize the new system for it's assigned department. On a good day, I could get 20 machines deployed and 14 imaged. Imaging was mostly limited by space and the switch ports I had available on the bench.
When my gig was up, troubleshooting and ticket resolution time had plummeted. If it wasn't a quick fix, it was way faster to just swap the system for a clean one and do a networked re-image of the misbehaving system. Since the imaging was automated, you'd spend about 5 minutes kicking off the service and then it would work on its own. Once you had a replacement candidate, bring the system into the domain and kick off the appropriate installer. About 30 minutes later (and no attention on your part at all), you had a machine ready for the field and that particular job role.
I will say that working on enterprise networks is a PITA. Everything is silo'd and very few folks are allowed significant powers across systems. I had to get the network guy to allow the new PC to work on each port. If the network docs weren't accurate, that was a huge PITA. The DNS guy had to let systems live in their own segmented network for re-imaging and package delivery and give a policy to keep them from automatically dropping out of the domain if they weren't active for a while. The AD guy had to provision a group for systems that were prepped but waiting to be used. At least he let me move them into the right place once deployment was complete. :D
The system was horribly inefficient. Things that were really not that difficult often took a week to get done because you had to grab the attention of so many people. But at least it was extremely secure.
One of my past gigs was to update more than 1000 WinXP machines to Win10. That included deployment, in-processing the old computers, re-imaging the suitable ones and either prepping the old ones for disposal or building up a boneyard to repair the near obsolete ones where it was worth doing so.
Along the way, I also built a networked imaging system, created and maintained a catalog of the most recent drivers for each system type, built up automated installers that would customize the new system for it's assigned department. On a good day, I could get 20 machines deployed and 14 imaged. Imaging was mostly limited by space and the switch ports I had available on the bench.
When my gig was up, troubleshooting and ticket resolution time had plummeted. If it wasn't a quick fix, it was way faster to just swap the system for a clean one and do a networked re-image of the misbehaving system. Since the imaging was automated, you'd spend about 5 minutes kicking off the service and then it would work on its own. Once you had a replacement candidate, bring the system into the domain and kick off the appropriate installer. About 30 minutes later (and no attention on your part at all), you had a machine ready for the field and that particular job role.
I will say that working on enterprise networks is a PITA. Everything is silo'd and very few folks are allowed significant powers across systems. I had to get the network guy to allow the new PC to work on each port. If the network docs weren't accurate, that was a huge PITA. The DNS guy had to let systems live in their own segmented network for re-imaging and package delivery and give a policy to keep them from automatically dropping out of the domain if they weren't active for a while. The AD guy had to provision a group for systems that were prepped but waiting to be used. At least he let me move them into the right place once deployment was complete. :D
The system was horribly inefficient. Things that were really not that difficult often took a week to get done because you had to grab the attention of so many people. But at least it was extremely secure.
It's good to be secure but sometimes, I would like things to move faster. Wish we could do both. LOL