Today’s topic will drive us beyond our common field of experimentations to try envisioning how Windows 10 new deployment scenarios can impact our job of deployment specialists.
Much things have already been said about upgrade scenario aka "the deployment pro. job killer" but I won't cover that one today. Instead i will be focusing on the other new deployment method available with Windows 10: provisioning !
If you were impressed by upgrade scenario, provisioning will leave you speechless: Imagine one of your user ; alone in a city far away from any support center, who just lost his laptop and have a business critical appointment next morning to sign THE deal !
How can you help him ? Provisioning to the rescue !!!
Tell him to go to the nearest computer store to buy a laptop of his choice, Send him a small file to execute, and within few hours, his laptop will transform to Enterprise edition of Windows, remove bloat-ware, install business apps, make the PC compliant with your corporate policy, join the domain, download back his files , and finally allow your user sign his deal on time !!!
God, you’re such a wonderful IT pro !!!
Yes, that’s so nice that it sound unbelievable, but truly, with an heavy load of work and a cloud infrastructure, this can be achieved today !
Note that I went beyond Provisioning only capability, but let alone, provisioning is able to
- change Windows edition
- apply policy
- set vpn/wifi connection
- install application
- install certificates
- configure windows settings
- etc..
Not bad if you ask me, so why do I come with a so negative title ?
Because there is a big technical defect in this scenario: Provisioning works only between Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows !
If this limitation can technically be understood (I guess that Pro and Enterprise share the same core files, while Home is slightly different), it really makes no sense !
I won’t say that it’s impossible to buy a PC with a Pro edition, but let’s face it, almost every PC sold in stores are loaded with Home edition, and if you can find one, not sure that the hardware will suit your needs or your wallet! Is there any point investing time and money in a solution that have a so low rate of transformation…
Some of you may say that this use case is very limited and you are right, this one is more or less Microsoft marketing hype, but provisioning exist for a purpose. His big target is BYOD ! But for the very same reasons, do you think it will have much chances to succeed…
Breaking… While writing this post I just came across a twiter discussion between Johan Arwidmark and Aaron Parker about OS Deployment future trend. Yohan has an interesting prediction on provisioning that seem to go in the same direction (Yes, surface ship with Pro edition):
@stealthpuppy My prediction: 10% Upgrade, 10% refresh, 78% new computer, 2% provisioning (of which 100 % are surface).
— Johan Arwidmark (@jarwidmark) June 25, 2015
Provisioning is a born dead product, the idea was amazing but not targeted to the right audience ! Don’t waste your time on it, there are so much things to learn around windows 10 !
Speaking about BYOD, no one remember this born dead Microsoft white paper aimed to solve BYOD by embedding your corporate image in a user owned device running windows 8 with Hyper-V ? Do you want to known why it failed? Hyper-V is not available on Home edition…