SmartDeploy Reviews

Pros

In the realm of utilities SmartDeploy is a breath of fresh air in that it handily does the job it was designed to do in a straightforward and reasonable fashion. IT would be a lot more fun if everything worked like SmartDeploy.

Cons

In certain cases the components of a package get baked into the package and if a component is updated the packages containing that component have to be re-edited in order to pull in the updated component/content. There should be a way to dynamically "refresh" packages when there is a component change. This is a small complaint that is easy to navigate, and I am sure SmartDeploy will add the "refresh" concept I am looking for at some point.

Alternatives Considered

KACE, Macrium Reflect Workstation, EaseUS Todo Backup, ManageEngine OS Deployer and System Center

Reasons for Switching to SmartDeploy

There are three things that set SmartDeploy apart from the competition: 1. The use of virtual machines as reference systems. 2. The platform pack/driver catalog. 3. Overall ease of use. If you can install Windows and Windows apps, you can deploy images using SmartDeploy.

Pros

I have used SmartDeploy to manage deployments across multiple machines, and it has been a game changer for our IT operations. It is incredibly user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that simplifies the process of creating and deploying images across various devices. It's hardware-independent imaging saves time by eliminating the need for multiple images for different configurations. The automatic driver management ensures the right drivers are installed seamlessly, reducing the chances of deployment issues.

Cons

While SmartDeploy offers many useful features, the initial setup can be time-consuming and may require a learning curve, especially when configuring deployment packages and capturing images. Additionally, the pricing can be a bit steep for smaller organizations, which might find it less cost-effective compared to simpler alternatives. Although it's great for Windows environments, its limited support for Linux and macOS can be a drawback for teams with more diverse operating systems.

Pros

I like the cloud integration. The problem is that they don't really tell you how to finalize the cloud integration.

Cons

I dislike the lack of documentation. Then when you try to get customer support, it takes forever to get an issue resolved. It feels like you have to explain the issue in multiple emails before you get a response that actually help.

Pros

SmartDeploy is extremely easy to set up and use, and there are numerous recordings and different assets on the off chance that you need help. It has an extraordinary UI contrasted with other imaging arrangements, and organizations are quick and practically blunder free. It is extremely easy to import pictures and make answer documents utilizing the implicit wizards, and you can set up custom or unattended organizations and reimage PCs distantly. Driver packs are refreshed routinely, which saves a ton of time since you don't need to find and import them all physically.

Cons

The only real con is that it costs more than other solutions, but you definitely get what you pay for with this product.

Pros

Ease of use is by far the best thing about this product. From start to finish, continued use and alterations, it's just so simple. Someone without a deep understanding of computers and how deployments work could pick up this product and create their first image with little struggle at all.

Cons

The only con to Smart deploy would be creating a VM and capturing the first image. However, this was only a struggle because our current VM software was on the list that had special steps to take. But even that only was fairly simple if you set up VMs often and know a little about how they work.

Pros

I love that each model has a pre-built platform pack with all of the drivers included. It even goes so far as to flash the BIOS. What imaging software does that?!

Cons

I really have no complaints. Once I saw what SmartDeploy had to offer and how easy it was to implement, I was all in.

Alternatives Considered

Acronis Cyber Backup

Reasons for Choosing SmartDeploy

We were running an old version of Acronis and it was time to update.

Switched From

Acronis Cyber Backup

Reasons for Switching to SmartDeploy

The ease of use made it a no brainer for a one-man band like myself.

Pros

Ease of use, Most Drivers updated automatically and the Imaging feature is very user-friendly. No need for additional software is a plus!

Cons

Would like to see more Built-in Reports.

Alternatives Considered

Acronis Cyber Backup

Reasons for Choosing SmartDeploy

More powerful than Acronis and it is an "All-in-One" tool.

Reasons for Switching to SmartDeploy

Ease of use and more functionality. Drivers are automatically uploaded into Smart Deploy and the continued development of the product to increase work efficiency.

Pros

SmartDeploy can be used to easily and quickly image multiple PCs onsite. It's possible to customize deployment by adding applications or features at time of install. A group of hardware models can be imaged from the same flash drive as long as the correct platform packs are downloaded.

Cons

The use of the SmartDeploy flash drives requires our team to be onsite using our LAN connections to domain controllers. Also if we update the image which is done quarterly, all flash drives at our various sites much be reimaged.

Pros

I love the idea that the Drivers are separated from the image itself. I can use the image to different brands and model computers (except Mac) and just either download the driver pack (ppk) from SmartDeploy or create your own.
I started using their Cloud Deployment, and it is amazing. A user can download the 600Mb payload to a flash drive, boot to USB and voila... SmartDeploy will pull everything it needs from your Cloud Service (OneDrive for me). They have forums and videos that are very helpful.

Cons

I haven't seen anything I don't like about the product. No annoyance or instances that will scratch my head.

Pros

SD is always improving on their product. It's easy to use and the user interface is simple. The time it takes to image a machine is minimal. Even though we tell our users that it takes longer to image a machine - because then they'll just start getting demanding if it takes longer than 3 hours.

Cons

I don't utilize it to it's full potential. That's more a con about me than the software. It may do this now, but creating a golden image from a live machine would be awesome. Or just being able to do an image of a live machine and then snaps. So if something happened to that computer, I could just reimage it with that backup image/snaps.

Pros

With budget cuts, we've had to stop doing massive system refreshes and are now purchasing smaller amounts of systems as funds become available. We are a Dell house, but due to the new purchasing strategy we are getting a more diverse set of Dell models. Fortunately, for us, SmartDeploy has allowed us to tackle that diversity by use a single common image for about 12 different models (which include desktops/laptops and tablets). We only have 1 image to maintain, instead of 12, and if we get a 13th model, then we simply download the PPK (package of specific drivers) from SmartDeploy, add that to our image package and off we go. That is what we like most about this product, but there are a plethora of other items that has made SmartDeploy a huge success. We chose SmartDeploy about 4 years ago, after researching and comparing it in live tests with Symantec and Acronis. We had it up and running in production in about a day. Thanks to a very logical image creation and deployment process, we created a VM using VM Workstation, downloaded the necessary PPK's (driver packages) for the specific machines we had a need to image, and then created a USB stick which contained all necessary image components. Within 30 minutes, we had imaged 3 different models and realized our imaging problems from before were over. What a beautiful thing.

Cons

Would like to be able to snap an image of an existing system and save for re-deployment. To my knowledge, that option has not been made available....yet.

Pros

Our deployment system is consistent now
Customer service is responsive when there are issues

Cons

We are a static IP shop and SmartDeploy is ideal for DHCP so we are not as able to use the unattended features but we have 350 PCs across our entire environment so it's not a deal-breaker at all
Customer Service is in Portland and we're in Chicago - 2 hour delay if I have issues in the AM

Pros

The best features are the ability to quickly setup all components necessary for imaging your systems easily.

Cons

So far have had excellent success with the software and have only had 1 incident in which support did not fully resolve my issue.

Pros

The ability to create and deploy images across multiple platforms using driver packs instead of images with specific hardware is awesome. I used to have to keep images for each of our hardware builds. Now I just keep track of a few driver packs and all images become universal for all of our different systems.

Cons

Creation of platform packs for Individual mother board builds was not as easy as I had hoped, but found that default platform packs from my main vendor builds, were intelligent enough to let me load these images on motherboard builds as well. Worked out in the end.

Pros

This is a decent product for a mid-size to large company. If you run your company on just a few images, then this is the software you need. The pros are that it is very clean and simple looking and easy to use. Tracking of licensing, computers, and users are very easy. They provide frequent updates to keep up with constant Windows updates and the download client handles more than one user or admin.

Cons

The major cons I have with it is that it often conflicts with antivirus software and drivers do not always apply or are available.

Pros

Driver Management, WDS Integration for PXE booting. Offline Media Creation.
Very simple and effective tool. I come from SCCM 2012 background and it literally took me just couple of hours to learn this tool. Applying the driver packages/WMI queries are all automated. Boot Image creation is simple and the NIC drivers are automatically added during the boot image creation.

Cons

Need to have a better license management by selected users from the organization rather than contacting SmartDeploy each time to manage the licenses.

Pros

Customer Service is super helpful. The software itself is excellently integrated to allow you to install and deploy as you would like to any PC you would like.

Cons

Not really about the software, but, that I had not found this software sooner.

Pros

Ease of use - Walks you through the entire process with step by step guides
Support - Quick response with detailed answers
Upgrades - Large improvements and extra features added with no additional cost

Cons

Have not ran into issues in which support has not been able to assist.

Pros

It took only am hour or so to learn how to use the software. Within a day of playing around you can easily become an expert. Smart deploy is constantly getting better and better they are always adding new features to help bridge the gap between it and SCCM. As far as imaging goes it has the same features as SCCM. However it lacks the system management aspect that SCCM offers. But for not having to learn anything, and a simple install process no servers to deal with this is much better

Cons

I used to work in a SCCM environment and those images were 100% complete. The PCs would join the domain via WIFI. Smart deploy has trouble with WIFI domain join, but works great if the PC is plugged into an Ethernet connection. Via SCCM the network admin was able to get all software and customization to happen over the SCCM image. With smart deploy some software cant be part of the image such as most anti-virus software, it has to be a post image task.

Pros

Speed, configuability. Overall value! Frequent upgrades and new features.

Cons

License report is not updated when machine name is changed.

Pros

Easy to use. Works with all my OS platforms. Able to support all of my 150+ devices including mobile devices.

Support is top notch.

Cons

Price is all i can conplan about at this time.

Pros

Great imaging software. Only thing I find discouraging is the time it takes to bring in patches/updates from Microsoft.

Cons

Great imaging software. Only thing I find discouraging is the time it takes to bring in patches/updates from Microsoft.

Pros

Platform packs make it easy to deploy the same "golden" image to multiple hardware platforms without any extra work on your part.

Cons

My only problem is that I have pushed out driver updates to machines with the "allow user to defer the update" selected and users have reported that their machine rebooted on them in the middle of working and never displayed a confirmation window for the update.

Pros

Easy to use and eliminate the common problems you usually have when deploying images, Smart Deploy is adding cool features that make your life and your work easier.

Cons

No cons really, the customer support is good and they have good guides in the smart deploy website that solve the problems you could have.

Pros

SmartDeploy's best feature I think is the ease of building and deploying images. Our team have saved so much time and resource with our large Windows 10 deployments. Driver management is a great feature as well.

Cons

We wish that we have more visibility and additional information into the status of a machine being reimaged on the console. Currently, only an icon next to the machine indicates that it is currently being reimaged.