The purpose of this positioning paper is to compare Norton Ghost Management Suite and Persystent Enterprise Suite.
Ghost is a PC imaging tool. Ghost stores images as large files with multiple copies of the same files. Supporting Windows, Mac, and Linux, Ghost achieves image deployment by using boot media (floppy or CD). Ghost provides a secure wipe of hard drives which is DOD approved. Ghost also supports multiple partitions. Ghost can create multicast sessions for imaging a large number of machines at the same time. These sessions must be generated on the server.
Persystent Enterprise Suite (PE) is the better alternative, offering high speed imaging, automated repair, auditing and disaster recovery. PE imaging allows for scripting of image installation, joining domains without using sysprep. Persystent's image storage uses single instance storage, reusing files that are common among images. PE imaging can be accomplished using a variety of methods: PXE (Network) boot, CD/DVD deployment, scripted, scheduled installations, reimages, and others. PE further provides a method to save user profiles during the imaging process. Capturing the current state images of every client machine, PE provides easy disaster recovery of the desired state for every managed machine.
