Delta Airport Consultants Reduces Imaging Time from 4 Hours to 45 Minutes, and Gears Up for Smooth Migration Windows 7.
| Industry: |
Civil Engineering/Airport Design |
 |
| Number of PCs: |
80 |
| IT Challenge: |
Faster Deployment of Work-Ready PCs |
| Solution: |
Persystent Suite |
Q&A with Steven Hart, Director of IT, Delta Airport Consultants:
How large is the IT department at Delta Airport Consultants?
You could say we’re an extremely streamlined IT operation at Delta Airport Consultants. I work in conjunction with another full-time IT associate and one part-time IT technician. Together we oversee about 80 workstations (a mix of desktops and laptops) and 16 servers, spread across our 9 office locations nationwide.
What do you like most about working for Delta Airport Consultants?
It really is a great place to be every day. The company is growing at a very smart and steady pace. In fact, we’re setting up an office in Albuquerque now. Folks here love what they do and know what they’re doing. They’re not just civil engineers, they’re people who live and breathe flying. The company has 17 licensed pilots on staff and 5 corporate aircraft, which is pretty unusual. There’s an excitement and enthusiasm that you just don’t find in a lot of companies. This year, we were ranked #8 by CE News as one of the nation’s “Best Civil Engineering Firms to Work For.” I thought we really deserved that acknowledgement.
Was there a compelling event that drove you to search for a product like Persystent Suite?
We really needed to shorten the time required to configure a fleet of new machines outfitted with the latest version of AutoCAD Civil 3D, which we had to deliver to project engineers scattered throughout our 9 offices. That’s the main reason why we decided to go with Persystent Suite initially. With the new machines we’ve just deployed, Persystent saved us at least a week or two of applying patches and otherwise setting up the systems.
How are you using Persystent Suite in your environment?
Again, for us, it’s all about Persystent Suite’s high-speed imaging capabilities. From an IT perspective, we pride ourselves on making sure our engineers have the latest, greatest tools to work with. Of course, when you roll out computers outfitted with really sophisticated software, the imaging process on multiple computers can be a daunting task. We love how much faster we can provision and upgrade computers with Persystent Suite. Using Persystent took what was a 4-6 hour process down to about 45 minutes to configure and image each machine. And if a machine fails, Persystent allows us to go back to an earlier saved image and make the repair.
What do your IT plans include in the near future?
Our big IT plan at the moment is a move to 64-bit Windows 7 machines. When the time comes, we’ll really be relying on Persystent Suite to create baselines on all of our PCs and roll them out as fast as possible. We’re also moving toward a virtual server infrastructure to provide more convenient backup recovery and reduce hardware and power requirements.
About Delta Airport Consultants
Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Delta Airport Consultants, Inc, which was established in 1978, specializes in site selection and design for new airports, as well as a wide range of airport expansion and upgrade projects. The firm employs approximately 80 professionals located in 9 offices across the country.
Delta’s staff of aviation professionals includes civil and electrical engineers, airport planners and environmental specialists. The firm’s clients range from general aviation facilities to large hub, commercial service airports. Recent projects for the firm have included design and expansion projects at Las Cruces International Airport (New Mexico), Lancaster Regional Airport (Pennsylvania) and the Raleigh-Durham International Airport (North Carolina), among others.
About Persystent Software
Founded in 2002, Persystent Software has been instrumental to organizations in government, healthcare and education sectors with limited resources to support a high ratio of employees to IT staff and 24/7 business uptime. Persystent Software solutions ensure that end-user desktop and laptop computers are always available and fully functional – whether in the office or on the road. Persystent Software has developed the world’s fastest automated PC recovery product that restores application and operating system (O/S) files that are corrupted, changed or missing with just a simple reboot of the computer.
For more information on Persystent Software and its solutions, visit: www.persystent.com.