Software Deployment that works nice with Workspace? | C2C Community

Software Deployment that works nice with Workspace?


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We have Workspace Enterprise and ~300 pcs.   Currently I’m running around with a USB making them all company owned devices and putting GCPW & Drive for Desktop on them so we can ditch local admin accounts on all the PCs.  I’ve only been here a couple months so don’t blame me for the previous setup but it is my problem to fix.

We were 50 people and 30 PCs 3 years ago and now are 300 and 500 so we need to start acting like a real IT department sooner rather than later because we’re growing.  No AD or anything, Workspace and a remote desktop support software are our only real tools so far.  And Workspace Enterprise wasn’t until Jan or Feb.   I’m really just a “help desk” type job and the company has no other IT people besides a couple other help desk like myself so designing and rolling out some big huge changes is a help desk duty here.. heh.

After I’m done with that I’d like to make the next deployment much easier and explore in depth the kinds of management tools that the admin panel offers, etc.  Especially remotely installing software much smoother. I know it can do a few things on it’s own but sometimes there is 3rd party tools that integrates nice and makes the process smoother.   None of the three of us here have experiences with these types of projects to draw from.  

I’m curious if anyone else has been in our boat and what helped.  RMM Software that works well with Workspace?  Does Workspace do a good enough job of it on it’s own?  What common mistakes should I try to avoid?   


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Hi @AdminBenjamin, I think our team could help you out! Send me a note if you want to chat > alarimer@umzuzu.com 

We often refer clients to JumpCloud, it is popular for those infrastructures without a traditional AD and is a bit more robust than Workspace current capabilities.

-Andrea

 

 

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@steve-c2c Can you help get Benjamin rolling with the Workspace crew in C2C. 

@Jesse Can you share your SMB CTO perspective on how @AdminBenjamin might approach and get ahead of this as his org grows but IT resources don’t quite keep up with the pace. 

@ChristianNewman Perhaps you can share a few ideas and lessons learned.

@alan.muntadas I am sure you have some perspective on his questions :)

 

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@JBranham thanks for the shout out.

@AdminBenjamin : what is the overall app landscape? mainly SAAS tools with a few exceptions? or rather mainly local client apps that need regular babysitting ?  of course, if you have mainly a SAAS setting, planning forward, with Chrome Enterprise and Google Workspace Enterprise, you will be able to manage it all from the Console… but if you are in the latter, a non AD based RMM is a good way to go.  You just want to make sure that the Google Console always remains your core IDP, so as to expand on it rathar than to replace it.

 

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@alan.muntadas Yeah, SaaS is 95% of what we do but the 5% is a lot of work since our 300 PCs are spread out in 60 different “offices” and then a bunch more WFH so it’s not all in one building unfortunately.  And every time we do things manually it’s us + one person on the other end doubling up the wasted time.    New AV software & new Remote Desktop software are on the list and it’d be nice to get those installed easier so if I can find a cheap deployment tool that works nice with Workspace it’d be a blessing.

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I find Chrome Remote Desktop can do the trick in most cases - and agree that looking forward, Chrome Enterprise should be part of the plan, centralizing all management to the admin console. There could even be an opportunity to ditch locally-installed software as well if you’d consider taking Chromebooks for a spin. @Jesse has gone deep down that road due to pandemic WFH and is pretty delighted with the performance and manageability.

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Thanks, the Chromebook/Boxes we have we quite like and we’re hoping to phase out Windows as they get older and need to be replaced.  But that’s a couple years of slowly phasing out most as they bought a ton of laptops in 2020 when WFH started in earnest. 

Has anyone tried the installs here:  https://support.google.com/a/answer/10065085?hl=en?    It’s been on my list of things to test out and see how practical it is but I’ve been waiting for a day without things going on so I can really dig into it.  The scripting and such inside it isn’t something I’ve used before so I’d have to do a lot of digging around before I’m comfortable with knowing if the fault is mine or just an incomplete system.

We recently had a customer who went full on Enterprise Plus and we implemented GCPW. There are some inconsistencies in the integration between Google and Microsoft, as InTune and the OMA-URI rules are in the Microsoft domain. Still, the policies and user management work well and one by one the installations and App management are going well. Google is working constantly in that direction and as I can see, more and more stuff can be managed centrally and easily.

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Awesome, thanks.  It seems to be going well so far for us and I quite like it. 

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+1 to @DobAngel 

We have customers leveraging Workspace to manage their Windows 10 devices.

So unless you have Mac (or different/old windows version), you should consider Workspace to manage your devices.

Here is some more context-:

1. We have a lot of pre-built apps in our SAML apps catalogue, along with flexibility to create custom SAML connection with your app of choice.

2. You may consider SecureLdap for your ldap supported apps, so Workspace act as "Ldap as a Service" for you.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/9048516?hl=en

It can also be used to authenticate Mac via Google.

3. You can leverage password vaulted apps for apps which do not support modern authentication protocols like SAML or OpenId.

https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/9178974?hl=en

https://youtu.be/pSJofD3FLDo

 

 

 

 

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Thanks @Goldyarora, your website was one of the first I found when I got this job and needed to learn about Google Worskpace and how it can be used to enhance things here instead of just email.  Wanted to say thanks so much for all you wrote, it was a huge help.  I got a promotion since last posting here on this site!

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We use CloudReady to “ChromeOS” PC’s as we are transitioning over to chromebooks/ChromeOs over multiple countries. Works very well.

But you need a plan for those 5% windows native applications like Cameyo/XenApp/etc and secure there aren’t any “windows device required” for legacy partners (banks or governments).

And Papercut for printers

Thanks, the Chromebook/Boxes we have we quite like and we’re hoping to phase out Windows as they get older and need to be replaced.  But that’s a couple years of slowly phasing out most as they bought a ton of laptops in 2020 when WFH started in earnest. 

Has anyone tried the installs here:  https://support.google.com/a/answer/10065085?hl=en?    It’s been on my list of things to test out and see how practical it is but I’ve been waiting for a day without things going on so I can really dig into it.  The scripting and such inside it isn’t something I’ve used before so I’d have to do a lot of digging around before I’m comfortable with knowing if the fault is mine or just an incomplete system.

Hi Benjamin,

 

I saw your post and this caught my attention and I am experiencing what you encounter before. We are also implementing GCPW in our company and we are unable to find a solution or step on installing application in Custom Settings We have tried 7-zip as example from Google and it is failing. Can you help us out how did you do it? Do we need to have the installer saved in the cloud?

 

Appreciate your response.

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