They say managing enterprise Windows updates is going to get easier! Press a button and the new OS is pushed out to every device and all applications work immediately without testing or business interruption! If you manage IT infrastructure, this may sound great, but you know it’s not going to be quite that simple.
Microsoft is leading the modern management movement and wants this vision to become reality – using Intune to make updating your company’s endpoint ecosystem as simple as an iPhone update. And they may well do so – but industry analysts warn to prepare for this evolution to take at least 5-8 years.
In the interim, you still need to manage a Windows update every year.
Microsoft provides a lot of tools to get this done: Configuration Manager, InTune and Desktop Analytics being the big ones in the Modern Management suite. But those platforms alone aren’t going to replace the army of consultants you typically use to handle this.
Gaps in the Modern Management process
Think about how much time you spend on these activities:
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Finding out what applications you use – Inventories from Configuration Manager can’t be used out of the box – they’re too messy. ServiceNow – maybe? Is it up to date? How about all those web apps users signed up for?
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Working out what you need to test: Which applications are critical and require testing and which ones are you going to just pilot? Who makes that decision? Does the business know you’re not going to test their stuff before you rebuild their machines?
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Managing hardware refresh: Working out a plan, building, shipping, helping users set-up new machines and chasing down old equipment is a long process. And it just became even more of a logistical nightmare in the remote-working world brought to us by COVID.
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Scheduling: You have to get everyone to agree to the update before the OS goes EOL. Managing the schedules of hundreds or thousands of people is a full-time job during the rollout.
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Reporting: The morning calls. Tracking down status reports. The meetings. The pivot tables. The PowerPoint…
So how will you do all this, year on year, as you transition toward modern management? The answer is to automate the whole process.
Download the ReadyWorks Windows 10 Servicing Planning Guide
Over 50% of the program can be automated
You need to leverage automation to eliminate as many manual, repetitive tasks as possible. We suggest that all of the tasks below can be automated:
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Collecting and analyzing data
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Planning
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Communications
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Scheduling users
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Adding machine to collections and rings
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Rollbacks
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Reporting results
So how do you do this? You really have three options:
1. You don’t. Hire a few people and make this their almost-full- time job function
2. Build something in-house using a workflow system you already have. Certainly possible, but expensive, time-consuming, and who is going to maintain it?
3. Look at a platform like ReadyWorks that has already automated the program and perform a cost analysis between building vs buying (Hint: it’s cheaper to buy)
4. Ease your journey to modern management and find out how ReadyWorks automates Windows Updates from start to finish. Schedule a demo today.
