Finally received a bigger IT budget. SMS or WSUS?

TechJunky

I was curious what your opinions on the two are.

We are a small company, only 10 networked workstations and 2 Servers in the domain. (1 Domain Controller and 1 SQL Server). However, we are a contracting company for pretty much 95% of the customer base in the state. We need to roll out servers/workstations that are up to date quickly and efficiently. I also want to keep the TCO as low as possible considering I am always bouncing from project to project.

Thanks!

RTmarc

WSUS. No need for SMS in a organization that small. WSUS = Free > *

Use that extra budget in other ways instead of something you don't really need to get by.

sprkymrk

TechJunky wrote:

However, we are a contracting company for pretty much 95% of the customer base in the state.

I'm not sure what you mean by that? Can you elaborate?

TechJunky

We are a Point of Sale Hardware and Software Vendor. Since all Point of Sale hardware is ran off of computer systems we by default obtained all of the existing point of sale companies as regular computer customers. They could go somewhere else, but they decide to stick with our business. So we have since expanded into doing the following.

AD Installation and maintanance
Networking Implementation, design, and installation
Point of Sale Hardware/Software installation and maintanance
Hardware Repair
Wireless Access Installation and maintanance.
Training
Crystal Report Customizations and custom reports
SQL scripting, security, and custom scripting.

So, WSUS sounds good.... Free is always better. I am basically trying to eliminate as much time as possible for setting up new customers. We bid all jobs based on time/materials. So anytime we can speed up the process the better our bonuses are etc.

We use HP G4 and G5 servers for the most part, so the Hardware is always the same so this makes it nice to use the same image for multiple customers and has reduced a lot of time. However, updates always take time and can take anywhere between 1-2 hours due to the amount of hardware we push out a week and our limited internet connection. (512k down)

Smallguy

WSUS is definitely a good option


you'll be getting your update from a sever on your network so really you could set up a gigabit lan to do your updates on as lots of Pc's now come with gigabyte lan cards


images are great time savers

RTmarc

Sounds to me like as long as you have a good imaging solution in place and WSUS running you are set. WSUS will alleviate the issue of workstations/servers downloading patches across your WAN. The WSUS server will do it once and then from there it's just a matter of the client machines downloading across the LAN any patches they need from the WSUS server(s).

RTmarc

Smallguy wrote:

WSUS is definitely a good option


you'll be getting your update from a sever on your network so really you could set up a gigabit lan to do your updates on as lots of Pc's now come with gigabyte lan cards


images are great time savers

+1 on the Gig LAN.

Use the money you save from not buying SMS and the increased budget to upgrade your wiring/switches to a fully support Gig traffic.

sprkymrk

I agree, WSUS will be easier and faster to "set and forget". Use GP to point all clients to the WSUS server, set up the WSUS to automatically download and approve updates, and unless a problem crops up you're done. With SMS you basically have to babysit and tweak it all the time, although in a large environment it's worth it since it will do a lot more than Windows and Office updates.

I kind of use 400-500 as the magic numbers (just personally, but I know situations are all unique). If you have less than 400-500 clients, SMS is an 800lb gorilla you don't need as managing it will take more time and effort than it's worth. More than 400-500 and it will save your helpdesk staff a lot of time.