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SmartDeploy

Score9 out of 10

4 Reviews and Ratings

What is SmartDeploy?

SmartDeploy, now from PDQ.com (acquired January 2022), provides a software deployment solution supporting computer imaging, app deployment, driver management, and Windows migration.

Trust the name -Smartly Deployed by SmartDeploy

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SmartDeploy is generally used for application deployment in UAT and Prod enviornment for our projects. It is utilised to streamline and make deployment process easier and less complicated so as team can focus on only development and not release of the product. Also streamlining deployments makes Knowledge transfer for new team members fast and makes them efficient

Pros

  • Imaging of system to another system
  • application depolyment on server
  • system driver management and dependencies handling

Cons

  • Remote monitoring is useful but has some lagging and functionalities are not upfront to use , making it complicated for new users to be aware just by using the application
  • Windows migration was quite difficult in terms of updates of softwares to be migrated to new system
  • Integration with client systems can be tough as major usage of other softwares is done in most of client systems causing us difficulties to integrate with smart deploy on the same platform

Most Important Features

  • App Deployment
  • Imaging systems with all configuration
  • Driver and dependency management

Return on Investment

  • New application created was deployed by SmartDeploy and saved us 20% of our deployment time on whole project providing us major time to build new functionalities and release product earlier
  • Computer imaging was quite elaborate and yet simple, making it helpful for our client system creation activity. Which helped us bag us new activities of system creation for more projects.
  • Driver management was causing lots of time consumption for system management team. Which in-turn reduced their focus on actual system issues. With SmartDeploy it helped in improving efficiency of 30% for system management team

Alternatives Considered

Docker, Jenkins and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Other Software Used

GitHub, IBM UrbanCode Deploy, AWS Backup

SmartDeploy - Thoughts on Use for Deployment and Upgrade

Pros

  • It allows us to maintain only one image. Much less effort required than storing and maintaining multiple images.
  • LAN deployment works very well with few issues.

Cons

  • User migration from the management console does not work all that well. Many delays in the capture and deployment of user profiles.
  • Would like to see a user migration progress indicator to track progress.

Return on Investment

  • Very fast as an image deployment solution for new PCs. We do not have to create a completely new image when new hardware comes out. This is an amazing time-saver on its own.
  • With offline deployment and some workarounds, this is allowing us to migrate many Windows 7 units, rather than having to upgrade each one or load from scratch or replace it with new hardware.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 365, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365, MS SharePoint