Software Deployment Definition and Why Every Business Needs it

The definition

Software Deployment can in simple terms – be defined as the sum of all technical activities, human procedures, configurations and automatic mechanisms employed to get a software-system up and running perfectly.

It is considered – the last step in software development as it gets the software-system ready for the targeted audience.

Why Do You Need Software Deployment?

If you want to be a network administrator, get ready to manage a computer network inside the company. ‘To manage a computer network’ often means to:

• ‘Administrate’ it (a network manager has to make the inventory list of the objects connected to the network, keep his eyes on the devices connected to the network and make necessary adjustments to the software products operating on the network);
• ‘Operate’ it (a network manager keeps track of the network performance and tries to predict and troubleshoot all possible faults on it);
• ‘Maintain’ it (a network manager fixes the facilities on the network);
• ‘Configure’ it (a network is configured by the network manager to meet the requirements of a certain service).

Managing a computer network inside the company often means deploying new programs on the network. Though this duty of the network administrator doesn’t seem to be a complicated one, it always consumes a lot of time and energy if it’s done manually.

Of course, it all depends on the size of the computer network to be managed, but even the smallest networks cannot be managed properly without special software deployment tools. So what is a software deployment tool and why is it often used by network managers?

Why Can a Software Deployment Become a Real Nightmare for Network Managers

As we have already stated above, deploying new programs on the network is a tedious and backbreaking job. However, it’s not the only reason why network managers don’t like it.

Software deployment may become a real nightmare if:

• It is a job task of a particular employee in the company (Software deployment can be done by a particular person from a deployment team. Every time when this person is on a leave, you may face certain problems with deploying necessary programs on your network because no one else can do this);
• Deploying new software products on the network may drag the attention of your IT specialists from the more important job tasks (Deploying new software is an important job task. However, it may be less important than troubleshooting some problems or putting into operation a new working station on the network);
• Software deployment is done only by the staff of the company (When you let your network managers do the installation of the new programs on the network without using any special tools, be ready that it will be an error-prone process as even the most experience network managers do make mistakes).

If you want to avoid all these problems while installing new software products on your network, you may use a special software designed for deploying programs on the network.

Several Reasons to Choose Automatized Software Deployment

Choosing special software to install on the network has its benefits, and here are some of them:

It saves your time.

When you use a special software product to deploy other software on your network, you save your time because the installation process can be completed much quicker than if it’s done manually.

In addition, it doesn’t require special knowledge or training, and you can ask anyone from the deployment team to do this. The process is a repeatable one and can be scheduled whenever it’s needed.

It enhances security.

Automatized software deployment can improve security of the computer network as it can configure roles for the permission sets and may be used for managing extremely important groups of machines.

For instance, you may set additional security protocols to secure sensitive or mission-critical tasks.

It may be used for tracking users’ activity.

When you deploy new programs on the network, you may also use this process for monitoring actions made by the network users.

For instance, you may obtain all the necessary data for performing the historical user activity analysis and find out whether the application functions properly.

It may be used for scanning a network.

Managing a computer network often starts with making an inventory list of the things connected to the network: it can be either a list of appliances or programs that run inside the network.

If you need to get a list of the software installed on the network, you may use a special application deployment program to scan it.

Using such kind of program has loads of advantages, as it’s able to:

• Scan the whole computer network or only particular devices connected to the network;
• Make the process a repeatable one (you may configure, schedule and initiate the scanning procedure as many times as you actually need this);
• Store and sort the data about the programs operating on the network according to various categories;
• Search for a particular program installed on the network;
• Detect malicious and dated programs running inside the network.

Total Software Deployment: Why Should I Pay Attention to It?

When you require a remote deployment kit and you don’t know which one to choose, we recommend to pay your attention to Total Software Deployment (TSD) created by Softinventive.

This software deployment product may be used either for a single program installation or for deploying multiple packages on a number of computers.

The packages and computers to be involved in the deployment process may be specified by the network administrator and the deployment is initiated by a single click.

TSD can offer three modes of software deployment:

• You may deploy new programs with the help of silent switches (When the deployment process is initiated, TDS tries to select a necessary installer from the 21 commonly-used installers);
• You can use the snapshot method (TDS keeps track of the computer state before the installation procedure and after it. Then these two snapshots are compared and the difference is stored in the installer);
• You are able to choose the macro deployment method (the deployment process is marked by TSD and a special installation macro is made).

Using an automated software deployment seems to be quite beneficial, and once you’ve got interested in it, you may try your hand with TSD and see how it works.