Small and medium businesses (SMBs) face a number of unique challenges, especially in IT management. Key among these is the difficulty and cost of devoting scarce IT resources to routine management of distributed desktop software – including application installation, updating, patching, inventory management, etc. From IT staffs up to the CEO, this has a direct impact – on strategic focus, tactical capabilities, service response time, staffing requirements, duration and costs of downtime (both real and opportunity costs), time to onboard new staff, and more.
Approaches for centralizing management of desktop software across a distributed environment will solve many of these problems, and are a critical step in IT maturity for SMBs. Such solutions include:

• Imaging – where an entire system, complete with all the required software (OS, drivers, applications, etc.), is created and saved as a complete system image, for subsequent deployment to a new desktop
• Application virtualization – a flexible method of distributing applications in a way that hides their physical characteristics (e.g. where it is running, how it is installed, where software settings are saved, etc.)
• Native installation – the process of installing software (manually or automatically) using the standard vendor-provided installation routines

Each of these approaches has it benefits, and its downsides, and each is well suited to some specific use cases. Most SMBs will benefit from more than one approach. Automated na­tive installation is likely to be a core methodology, with imaging and virtualization more likely to fill the gaps, especially for some key use cases.
Regardless of the methodology, however, when compared to manual software manage­ment and desk-side support, all of these approaches will save time and money, improve service to end users, and improve IT efficiency.

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