Speakers: Anthony Reimer
Level: Fundamental, Lecture
Excerpt: While more modern and flexible deployment methods were “nice to have” for small labs in Education and solo Mac admins a few years ago, they are going to be an essential part of every Mac Admin’s future. This session will describe practical ways to incorporate those deployment best practices (and move away from “Golden Machine” imaging) in situations where commercial deployment solutions are overkill and staff resources are limited. The emphasis will be on free or inexpensive software solutions such as AutoDMG, DeployStudio, Imagr, and AutoPkg(r).
Description: “I’d do it differently if I had the time, but we’re a small operation and our old methods still work.” This has been a common refrain from those deploying small labs in Education and other solo Mac Admins. But lately, those “tried and true” methods of deployment, especially “Golden Machine” imaging, have started to break. Maybe it was System Integrity Protection (SIP) that tripped you up first. Or maybe it was the new volume licensing scheme in Office 2016. Regardless, while more modern and flexible methods were “nice to have” a few years ago, they are going to be an essential part of every Mac Admin’s future. This session will describe practical ways to incorporate those deployment best practices in situations where commercial deployment solutions are overkill and staff resources are limited. The emphasis will be on free or inexpensive software solutions such as AutoDMG, DeployStudio, Imagr, and AutoPkg(r). For those who attended the 1.0 version of this session in 2012, there are a lot of new tools and techniques to share!
About the speakers
Anthony Reimer – Head Technician, Integrated Arts Media Labs – University of Calgary (Twitter: AnthonyReimer)
Anthony has been the Head Technician of the IAML at the University of Calgary since 1996, supporting work with Macintosh computers and other digital technology in Music, Art, Drama and Dance. He has given presentations on technology to artists and non-artists alike at major conferences like this one, MacTech, MacIT, and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. He is one of the founding organizers of the MacDeployment Conference in Calgary. When he’s not busy being a Mac Admin, Anthony conducts Foothills Concert Band and is an avid curler.