5 ways to reduce advertising network latency

Desktop Machines fail. Hardware has a lifespan, and hard disks have a shorter life than most. Heads crash, bearings wear out, and motors fail – and data gets lost. The resulting downtime is lost productivity, information workers away from their data and their applications.

There may not be as much of an effect on your business as losing a server, but it will have an impact on business processes – while the PC is out of service, and while users get their repaired and reinstalled desktop working just the way they want.

That’s why many businesses have standardised on common desktop images. Users can install what they like from the usual approved list of tools, but if anything goes wrong, all that’s needed is either a quick re-image or a new hard disk that’s ready to go. IT time is kept to a minimum, but users will need to handle customisation and data recovery themselves.

Common desktop images are easy to build, but they’re harder to keep up to date – as well as handling operating system updates, they also need to be kept up to date with the latest drivers and the latest application patches. You’ll also need one for every different PC type in your business, something that’s harder than it seems, as what might seem to be the same model could have a very different configuration.

The very image

Windows PCs can take advantage of the Windows Image install options introduced with Vista, applying drivers as part of the install. Tools like Microsoft’s Windows Deployment Service can deploy these images, handling joining the image to a domain and installing key applications.

Your users will be online in minutes, on their new hardware. Roaming profiles will connect them to server hosted data directories, getting them productive quickly. Keeping image files up to date can be handled offline, patching your core image in minutes rather than hours.

Virtual desktops

Desktop recovery can be even quicker with virtual desktops. Not only does user state live in the network, along with their data – so do their desktop and applications. All you need to do is deliver a new machine, pre-configured with a base image and a VDI client and, as soon as your user logs on, they're right back where they need to be, ready to carry on where they left off. Getting a user back on line can be as quick as rolling a trolley to their desk and swapping out failed hardware with new equipment.

Keeping desktop images current is also easier, as you’re able to just manage one virtual machine, with user desktops held as deltas, simplifying storage requirements at the same time as reducing the time needed to deploy patches and updates.

If you’re able to get a user’s desktop back online quickly, then you can use similar techniques to get new users up and running quickly. Common OS images are easy to deploy, as are standard application bundles.

Tools for the job

Desktop optimisation tools let you apply role and group rules to the bundles deployed – and application virtualisation tools can stream new applications to user desktops as soon as roles change or as soon as projects and tasks require access to new applications. Automated processes can image a PC once it’s connected to the network, with little or no manual intervention required.

Virtual desktops and modern image deployment tools simplify the process of deploying and redeploying software to users, but that does mean you’re going to need to be ready with a library of supported images and software. It’s a change in the way IT has managed user PCs and applications, but it’s a change that means that users are kept productive, from their first day at their desk and through hardware failures and system corruption. ®

5 ways to prepare your advertising infrastructure for disaster