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Our company is just recently getting back into imaging at any level. We used to use Symantec Ghost for a while, but after there were enough problems (Windows machines having odd errors after a couple weeks, none having the same issue, failing to boot after ghosting, etc.) my supervisor put an end to it.
As of right now, we're getting in & setting up about 15-20 new computers each week in the worst way. Our PCs come from Dell & Lenovo with Windows pre-activated, and when we get them in, we just go through normal out-of-box setup, uninstall the bloatware, then install & configure our programs for a default profile. This is done to each PC individually. That's not including returned PCs where we format the drive, install from a Windows 7 USB, install the drivers (after I hunt the things down for each model), and continue on with installing our programs, etc. Needless to say, this is quite inefficient.
As for our setup, 99% of PCs we deploy use Windows 7 x64 in a mix of Dell desktops, Dell all-in-ones, and Lenovo laptops. For any other OS, we can just set those up individually. I'm trying to get this new system ready within the next couple weeks/months to use with another system we're just starting up to push out updates (among a few other things, but that's just the relevant part). We're trying to get everything standardized here, as we're expected to nearly triple in size over the next couple of years and grow more beyond that. If you're trying to figure out how we've gotten this far without someone to specialize in deployment, I don't know either.
I'm looking into other solutions, and I came across MDT, SCCM, and a few other programs & acronyms I've never seen before. I'd like to get started on using these, but there seems to be just a TON of info out there and no place to start at the level of someone just learning what MDT even stands for. I guess when I.T. gets to a specialized enough, the amount of online help easily found diminishes. I'd just like to have a place to start, maybe even an old but relevant tutorial, just something. I've seen some of BJTechNews' videos on youtube, but that's about it. Is that really all there is to it?
I'm grateful for the informative response addressing everything I believe I need to get going on this! I'll be checking these videos out and looking at other options closely, but I probably won't get the chance until next week. I've been given my new project of scouting out Dell Kace as of this morning, and K2000 seems like it could be useful as well. As long as I get a combination that works smoothly and isn't too much trouble to keep up with, I'll be happy. So much up in the air, so little time, and so few people working on this... wish me luck, I think I'll need it. – PCI-J – 2014-03-04T18:22:39.057