10/01/2002
Los Alamos, New Mexico is ground zero for the nation’s bomb research scientists, but it’s also the center of a complex IT infrastructure, which includes the latest technology as well as legacy Mac, every flavor of Unix, Next, even Windows 3.x Intel 8088 systems that, if still capable, remain in use. The job of maintaining them is what desktop specialist Mark Wingard calls “cat herding,” which is made easier among the Windows platforms with deployment of Systems Management Server. As desktops are migrated upward, including consolidation of older Windows NT servers and clients to Windows 2000 and Active Directory, SMS’s role becomes even more invaluable.
Listen to Mark describe the challenge of wrangling the desktops and the long migration process as newer Windows versions are brought online.
Mark Wingard, MCSE, MCT, CTT, works as a desktop management specialist for a major research laboratory, where he's the Active Directory
architect and leads the SMS deployment effort for an enterprise with around 10,000 users. He’s been a network professional for more than 14 years, and an MCP since 1992. He has written numerous articles on SMS and desktop management issues for MCP Magazine.