Toyota & the UIUUniversal Imaging Utility Drives Home Single Image Cloning at Toyota New Zealand Automobile company achieves consistency and simplicity with hardware-independent Windows® image For nearly three years, Toyota New Zealand had been searching for a way to improve the process by which they cloned their computers. Specifically, they needed to reduce the time and effort spent on creating and maintaining multiple hard-drive Images for its wide variety of desktop and laptop configurations. They ultimately found a solution in the form of a new software program known as the Universal Imaging Utility, or UIU, from Big Bang LLC, which has allowed them to deploy a single Master Image across all hardware configurations. Toyota's discovery of UIU arrived just in time for a "trial by fire", as the company was about to roll out 220 new machines and software upgrades. Multiple Hardware Configurations Created a "Logistical Nightmare" With six locations and over 200 people on staff, Toyota New Zealand had begun using software disk imaging eight years ago as a means of quickly and efficiently deploying a consistent operating environment to all PCs in the organization. Although vastly more efficient than the manual process of deployment, disk imaging has one major drawback: Images created on one hardware platform can not be easily deployed to another. This problem is particularly prevalent on laptops, where even essentially similar machines often have different drivers and therefore require different Images. For example, an HPNC8000 laptop and an HPNC4000 laptop would require two separate Images to be maintained. Toyota NZ's extensive hardware inventory resulted in the company creating and maintaining 25 separate Images. Each Image took three to four hours to create, and each one needed to be modified every time new upgrades and patches were released. In addition, there was the logistical problem of deployment. As a new Image was rolled out, Administrators had to ensure that they were installing the correct Image for each machine. If they chose the wrong one, the error message wouldn't appear for around 20 minutes, when the program reached the point of installing drivers. At that point, the technician would have to start the whole process over again. A final challenge was ensuring consistency across all Images. With so many separate Images, it was not uncommon that simple settings differed from one machine to another (for example, the way the operating system processes deleted files). While these inconsistencies may not have been mission critical, they were definitely noticed by Users and reflected poorly on the IT department. Keep It Single Binary Research International has been in the cloning business since 1997. BRI's former parent company (Binary Research Ltd. of New Zealand) developed Ghost, effectively inventing the software cloning industry. Even though Ghost was acquired by Symantec Corporation, BRI has remained in the cloning field by offering training and consulting in the use of Ghost. Having worked with cloning software longer than any other company, BRI is in a unique position to know about the gap in the disk imaging process and recognized the potential of the UIU solution. Big Bang LLC (the UIU developers) and BRI signed a worldwide distribution agreement in 2004, whereby BRI handles the sales and marketing for the UIU. When Toyota New Zealand learned about the UIU, Team Leader Dion Woisin was ecstatic. All of the issues they were experiencing with disk imaging could be effectively resolved by using the UIU to help prepare a single Master Image. "Maintaining all of those separate Images was starting to become a nightmare," he says. "We needed a solution that was simple yet thorough, and we were thrilled to finally find one just before a major rollout." The rollout in question was a complete upgrade of all PCs at Toyota NZ, a process accomplished around once every three or four years. Fully aware of the challenges presented by multiple Images, Toyota NZ management was quick to sign off on Woisin's purchase of the UIU licenses. Immediate ROI The UIU is a utility that prepares the master machine so that the Image created with your cloning software can then be deployed smoothly and reliably to multiple hardware platforms. In this case, Woisin and his team used UIU in conjunction with Altiris to deploy core applications such as Windows XP, Office 2003, WinZip and Acrobat Reader. "There is no doubt that UIU more than paid for itself during this rollout," he says. "We were able to deploy an identical Image to all staff with a minimum of effort." IT staff found UIU simple to use right out of the box. While the rollout took five months, Woisin says the pre-work would have been substantially longer without the benefit of UIU. They were also impressed with UIU's extensive driver database. In fact, Woisin says UIU fulfilled all of TNZ's needs perfectly. "When we were maintaining all of those separate Images, we would do a rollout and within two or three months, everything would be out of date," he says. "Looking back, I don't know how we coped prior to getting UIU." The application is allowing Toyota NZ to continually improve its processes for machine upgrades. For example, time saved on maintaining multiple Images can now be better spent developing an automated system for the installation of non-core applications. About the Universal Imaging Utility The UIU is developed by Big Bang LLC, a Milwaukee, WI-based software training, consulting and development company and pioneer of hardware-independent imaging. Big Bang has partnered with Binary Research International, Inc., of Glendale, WI and its English subsidiary - Binary Resource (UK) Ltd. Binary, a developer and provider of IT Training and a Distributor of software, is best known as being part of the company that developed Ghost, the world's first software cloning utility. Learn more about Big Bang on the web at www.UIUforYou.com.
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