About Standard Platform builds

Standard platform builds are frequently undertaken by large corporations, in order to standardise and largely automate the deployment and maintenance of servers, desktop computers and infrastructure framework. Typical tools used include RIS (Remote Installation Services), SMS (Systems Management Server) and Ghost MultiCast. SMEs do not generally have the manpower, finance or expertise for this, but third party solutions are available.

A standard platform build includes the following elements:

Installer - Something which does the actual installation - this may be VB Script, C code, COM objects, screen scraping and replay - or a combination of techniques.
Definition - Tells the installer what to install and where to do so.
Components - Things to install (DLLs, run-times, core server applications, fixes, service packs, etc.)

Benefits

Speed of deployment
Efficient maintenance
Application and system security patches and updates are applied remotely and automatically.
Automated installations can be unattended and guarantee repeatability and reliability
Quick and simple rebuilds
Optimal security and system robustness

External links

MMU standard platform installation
Systems Management Server
Ghost Multicast Server

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About Standard Platform builds

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