Need to move from RM CC3 - what should I move to?

[Gatt]

**Puts RM Hat on**

 

*cough* as an RM employee, I would have to recommend CC4.. TBH, whilst our school isn't using it, all the other schools here are.. without any issues with CC4 itself - lots of the issues were due to the task of converting all LA schools to RM in such a short timescale (new Servers, PCs in places, user migrations to CC4, etc..)

 

From my exposure to CC4, (I believe its now on SR2?) it has been good, it is as stable as any other system can be and I think it gets a lot of undeserved critisism at times especially when it was first launched (very buggy i believe)..

I cannot give a complete breakdown of CC4 as I don't use it on a day to day basis, but what I don't hear round here are schools complaining about how *** CC4 is - quite the opposite is true in fact

 

**Takes RM Hat Off**

 

I, personally, prefer a vanilla network as I find it very rewarding when I get systems such as SCCM and Exchange 2010, etc up and running

At the end of the day - it's a choice (unless you are a BSF School where RM are contracted - i think our school is an exception since our network was shown to be so damned reliable.. )

 

If you are already on CC3, and if everything is working, then I would suggest migrating to CC4.. However, If its NOT working correctly and there are lots of un-happy people out there, then maybe it's time for a Vanilla network

 

Bear in mind that with Vanilla - if it goes wrong - there is no-one else to turn to (trust me - it does go wrong and I did get shouted at a lot!), with CC3/CC4 - you have the entire RM Support team who will help

 

Try and weigh up the Pro's and Con's - especially financially (SLT/SMT are more interested in this part) - how mcuh will it cost to upgrade to CC4 compared to building a Vanilla Network? Migrating user accounts from CC3 to Vanilla, Do you need extra licences, software, etc that you currently use with CC3...

 

It may be easy to say "Move to Vanilla" - but is it as easy to actually do that?

[TechMonkey]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm so pleased that I'm not on my own in the minefield of upgrading/changing networks!

I work as an IT coordinator at a small primary school and have a fairly limited knowledge about networking an IT solution for a wireless classroom and an ICT room. Our school currently runs on RM CC3 which we would like to upgrade to CC4. However, after receiving a few quotes from RM I'm more confused than I ever was and feel that their quotes are extremely overpriced. As a result, i was thinking about switching to a different network management (Vanilla, EIS, Viglen), hoping to find something cheaper and yet easy to manage. Unfortunately, we only have a technician available at our school once a week for about 4 hours, which means working with RM network makes sense.

I was just wondering if there is anyone with some similar experience or solution to our problem. We are looking into upgrading our server along with the licenses and changing from Windows XP to 7. Also, we are looking itno buying 20 additional laptops for our classes. Those would be purchased from pc world business.

The BIG question is - will I get a better solution than RM anywhere else, provided that my technician can only work those 4 hrs a week?

Thank a lot for your help!

 

Maybe talk to your Feeder secondary? Maybe they can come to some agreement where they can help out. The minimum they can do is meet with you and give some advice, maybe look at what you have and give you some options.

[russdev]

Also if primary school ask your account manager about two options about to release for primary schools first is SimpelyWorks which is a multipoint server solution and the new cc4 primary solution about to be released. If pm your customer ID will ask someone to give you a buzz about it before I leave for pastures new.

 

Just for info as new do not work at RM work for RM pioneer school (well till 31st March).

 

Russ

[GrumbleDook]

Is there anyone in Northants with a full Win 7 CC4 network? Looking to move forward from CC3 in the near future (large secondary with 3 IT staff including the NM) and need to retain ease of management. Network infrastructure is capable, workstations are capable, and I've seen plenty of windows 7 CC4 stations: would like to see a full size network in use. We're looking at other options for the network too, but easy of management/lack of troubleshooting for a very light IT team is top priority

 

Ask this afternoon ... I'm pretty sure there are some, but can ask RM if needed.

[synaesthesia]

Will do cheers

[simpsonj]

Having done this very thing over the summer holiday I would say this: it all depends on how much time you've got in your school to dedicate to troubleshooting network issues.

 

We work with a company called Softegg who provide technical support, and they setup the servers to allow for a Vanilla network, but I had to do the workstation/user side of things, and it took the entire summer holiday to sort out (creating images that worked, setting up WDS, setting up KMS, transferring old users, creating new users, creating a working mandatory profile, adjusting GPOs to work with Windows 7, setting up Printers etc) and I'm still ironing out the kinks in the system.

 

You can definately emulate, or indeed improve upon, an RM system and spend less money doing so. For instance, App Deploy does exactly the same as the RM method of creating applications to roll out across the network. However, the time it takes to setup the network, and the knowledge you might need to gain, has to be a large consideration imo.

[the_quick]

Few things I have already done. I have test domain environment, have working so far

users with right GPO for their tyep - Students and Staff - still polishing a bit

exchange,

WSUS

and now will focus on SCCM for workstation deployment, still got FOG servers (which is brilliant) that I can use to re image workstation.

 

My biggest problem now is to move all the users to new environment, will try to do it with some test users.

 

Regarding moving from CC3 to CC4. At the moment we are paying almost £4,500 for so called secondary support - in last financial year we made 3 calls, which only one was resolved by RM, two remaining ones I managed to fix my self. This makes it very expansive call . Of course we had RM with quotes, but paying for another batch of licenses and installation almost 26 grand makes me uneasy. In last few month working on test domain I learned so much, that I feel more confident with AD than ever before.

 

Still I have contacts with companies, who can help me when I'm stuck - rather than paying for support contract, I can pay them per call.

 

I already talked to guy from school near me and he can help us with move as a private consultant during the summer, for very attractive fee. So for me no for RM.

 

In response to primary school, if you don't have technician on site all days, I would stick with some kind of management services, maybe contact CSE, their quote was cheaper than RM and their solution is closer to Vanilla - for example you can use WSUS, rather than wait for RM to test new updates

[edutech4schools]

In response to primary school, if you don't have technician on site all days, I would stick with some kind of management services

 

I currently look after 4 primary schools (used to have 13) and vanilla is much easier to look after than any bolt on service. A properly set up vanilla server is easy to manage and just works. Once you start adding in other layers that try to do essentially the same as windows can already do, you run into issues.

[synaesthesia]

for example you can use WSUS, rather than wait for RM to test new updates

 

 

Feel obliged to point out here that RM are doing you a huge service there Updates *do* go wrong. If you just WSUS it, you only have yourself (well, other than MS) to blame. With the RM system (which is still WSUS, just proxied via RM first for their approval/release) you can shout at them if something goes a little bit pear shaped

[Gatt]

If you are looking at using SCCM, then I would strongly suggest integrating WSUS into SCCM - that way you can test your updates first on a few test PCs, then its really easy to retarget the same update list & deployment package to a different collection

 

I have 3 "main" update lists - Applications, Windows Client OS & Windows Server OS - all of which I update half termly, then each week I create "weekly" lists (date & timestamped) of the same groupings.. This makes it easier to find and pull any updates that start causing problems

 

Pretty much everything I do is via SCCM now - Software Distribution, OS Deployments, Software Updates, etc..

Edited March 14, 2011 by Gatt