Anyone use Specops Deploy?

[cookie_monster]

I came across this and it looked good anyone tried it or currently using it?

 

http://www.specopssoft.com/products/specopsdeploy/

[robknowles]

Hello,

 

I did trial it last summer and it was very good, unfortunetly it was expensive (even with the educational discount).

 

Rob

[cookie_monster]

Hi Rob

 

Can you remember approx how expensive?

 

Cheers.

[jammur44]

We have used specops to deploy software onto active directory machines with no problems at all. We bought the package for use in our high school labs - some 17 of them and the product has performed excellenty - their tech support people are as good an any I have found in the industry and I've been a tech director going on 11 years now -- and, no, I don't own any stock or have any relatives working for them.

Tullahoma City Schools

Tullahoma, Tennessee

[meastaugh1]

I don't use Deploy, but I do have Password Policy and can confirm that their support on the whole is very good, they definitely know what they're talking about.

[Mr.Ben]

I purchased this product just over three months ago.

 

I'm NM at a small special school (150 kids) with around 110 machines, mainly laptops. I can only praise SpecOps, even though it is expensive. We paid about £8 per client with support.

 

I would suggest cheaper alternatives if you are a bigger school.

 

As for its use - fantastically easy. It got me over all of the problems with software distribution that I was having. It uses BITs to transfer data, so if a user turns a PC off during downloading of the program its ok. Also if the user turns off during install specOps will restart on the next reboot.

 

The reporting tools are excellent - Far better than anything else that I've seen. It's nice to know that the program has gone out to your machines, and which it has failed on (very few - 1error in three months).

 

I have only found a couple of programs that refuse to be snapshot - but if their original installers have silent options you can use the 'legacy' options in specops, or if they are really awkward you could start an autoit script to press the correct buttons.

 

The only thing that I haven't found out about yet (and I'm sure there is an answer) is that installs are delayed by 15mins when they are detected.

[cookie_monster]

@ Mr Ben

 

When you say "I would suggest cheaper alternatives if you are a bigger school" do you have any in mind?

 

Cheers.

[Mr.Ben]

For one

 

Microsoft SMS. The cost of this would be £70 for the server license and about £5 per machine for the CAL.

 

Or my personal favourite: ZenWorks (Forgive me for being unsure about this on windows networks, as my previous position was in a Netware based school). The cost of this was around £2 per seat.

 

But for ease of use, SpecOps did blow both of these away for me.

[cookie_monster]

Yes i've read that SMS is very good but a pain to deploy due to it needing it's own infrastructure and it doesn't really work with AD. I thought it was more expensive than that though.

 

Cheers.

[wbarnes]

We use SpecOps Deploy and Microsoft SMS 2003 here at Bloomsburg University.

 

We're in the process of transitioning from SMS to SpecOps Deploy completely, since it's so much easier to use and support.

 

Since it's based of Group Policies, it's very easy to see what machines / users in active directory is going to get this deployment. We've been using it for a few years now, and it's just wonderful. It lets us use MSI files and MSP patches with ease, and still kick off the setup.exe with command line switches for things like Adobe CS3 and Office 2007...

 

I'm very happy with this purchase for our University!

--Bill