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Personal training with a Guru

Personal training sessions are available in store, 7 days a week. You can opt for either 30 or 60 min sessions. A Mac Guru will sit you down gather some information about what you would like to explore in your session before starting. Each session is unique and tailored to your individual requirements.

contact your local store to check availability and book Personal training sessions.

 

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Apple Certified Training

Solutions inc. train professionals on Apple software and creative software that was designed to use the superior capability of the Mac. Whether you're an architect or network administrator, we can enhance your Mac experience and get you qualified to further your career.

As an Apple Authorised Training Centre, you'll get the very best training. We also offer the exams to get Apple Certification Pro status. We have dedicated classrooms at our Hove, Bournemouth and Chichester stores or can come and train you at your own site.

Contact For all Apple and Adobe certified training enquiries contact our training team on: 0844 8751 610 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Apple Certified Mac OS X Lion Training

Apple have announced there new training programme for Mac OS X Lion. At present it includes only the following three qualifications;

Apple Certified Associate: Mac Integration 10.7

Apple Certified Support Professional 10.7 (ACSP)

Apple Certified Technical Coordinator 10.7 (ACTC)

The ACSA (Apple Certified System Administrator) qualification has disappeared completely and there is every likely hood that the courses that made it up have gone for for ever, from now on only Support Essentials and Server Essentials courses will be in certification programme.

As time has gone on Apple have moved to focusing training only in their technologies and their interface. So as the interface simplifies there's less to teach. It doesn't mean that the functionality isn't there, if you have already have an understanding of the underlying Operating System you can modify the UNIX configuration files or make changes on the command line. Apple just doesn't see it as the job of their training courses to teach stuff that is not theirs and you can find out else where. The problem is that this now extends to some of the most fundamental network protocol; DHCP, DNS etc.

There is a window where the Snow Leopard ACSA courses will still be available and this gives an opportunity for those with requirements for a higher level skill set . The Snow Leopard ACSA courses cover the the detail of  the fundamental network technologies as well as detail of Apple's own technologies that are also apparently missing from the GUI in Lion. The interface will still be Snow Leopard but the Command Line is the same and those skills will stand you in good stead for a future with Lion or what ever comes after.

The release of Apple's new Mac OS X Operating System is imminent, but it is not yet absolutely certain what it will bring. The rumour sites have all kinds of nonsense both optimistic and pessimistic.

The biggest change seems not to be with the operating system itself but who it is aimed at and how they will use it. It appears that the underlying functionality is still there, it would be virtually impossible to cut great chunks of it out. Now that Apple are happy with their operating system they have set about simplifying the interface for the user, something that can be seen clearly in the iOS and recent release of FCP X. Apple have long been  touting the "It just works" slogan. The GUI changes that they have made in previous versions of Mac OS X and that it appears they will make in Lion continue this trend.

This fine for your average consumer, but many of Apple's traditional customers have more esoteric and specialist needs, and require an Operating System that provides the tools to allow them to setup and customise to meet their needs.

To do custom configuration these users many no longer have the necessary skills and for a first time in a while Macintosh configuration and usage will require a skilled and experienced technician

In the past with the right tools anybody could change the sparks plugs on a car, now you are lucky if you can work out how to open the bonnet to find them. You need a mechanic who knows what they are doing and has the right tools.

So what does this mean if you are supporting Macintoshes, well much of the easy stuff know how to do will work without any need for your assistance, making the daily need for support smaller. But for the more complicated stuff you will need to ensure that you have the necessary skills to get under the bonnet.

Additionally I think we will find that because some of the control has been taken away from the users that many of them will be reluctant to upgrade immediately, and possibly for some time. The skill set from Snow Leopard that you have built up will continue to be needed, both to support those that haven't upgraded yet, but more importantly it will give the necessary understanding of how the underlying Operating System under Lion works and clues to how make the changes that are no longer possible in the GUI.

So ensure that your Snow Leopard tool kit is polished and up to date as the Lion interface may well not give you the options that you need and you will have to lift the bonnet spanner in hand.

Training at Solutions inc.

Solutions inc. offer a full and comprehensive array of training solutions. From in store seminars in our high street stores, through to to personal 'Guru' sessions tailored to meet your individual requirements and all the way to Apple Certified Training courses. Click on the appropriate box above to discover more about our Mac Enlightenment, Guru and Apple Certified Training.  

SN302: Mac OS X Deployment v10.6

£899.00 EX. VAT £1056.33 INC. VAT

This three-day course focuses on solutions for deploying software, ranging from the installation of individual files to the deployment of complete system images to multiple computers. Students then apply what they've learned to create a full deployment plan that includes testing, hardware and software deployment, auditing and maintenance.

The course also teaches students how to create a tiered Software Update server solution, as well as about third-party solutions to supplement tools provided by Apple. Students get hands-on experience in using tools such as Apple Remote Desktop, Disk Utility, PackageMaker, and System Image Utility and discuss the pros and cons of each for different deployment situations..

Who should attend
This course is for System Administrators who need to know how to streamline the process of installing and configuring a large number of computers running Mac OS X.

 

Prerequisites

Experience Using Mac OS X Client and Server Operating Systems. Completion of Mac OS X Support Essentials v10.6 and Mac OS X Server Essentials v10.6 or equivalent. An understanding of basic IP networking, including IP address, subnet masks, ports and protocols ad working familiarity with the command line interface.

Course outline:

• Chapter 1 - Deployment Planning

  Using the Deployment Planning Template; understanding primary deployment concepts; planning hardware deployment logistics; planning usage management

  Chapter 2 - Deploying Individual Items and Containers

  Mac OS X file deployment considerations; using archive files for deployment; using ARD 3 to deploy items; using disk images for deployment

  Chapter 3 - Deploying with Installation Packages

  Understanding Mac OS X installation technology; creating installation packages; using installation package actions, scripting, and snapshots; deploying and maintaining installation packages; third-party installation tools

  Chapter 4 - Creating System Images

  Understanding system image creation, integrating systems with managed preferences, customizing a system prior to imaging, preparing a system for image creation, creating a cloned system image with Disk Utility; using System Image Utility to create NetBoot, Network Install, and NetRestore images.

  Chapter 5 - Deploying System Images

  Understanding System Image deployment, Understanding the NetBoot service, configuring the NetBoot service, configuring clients to boot with a network disk image, monitoring and troubleshooting the NetBoot service, deploying system images with NetRestore, configuring ASR network multicast, deploying systems with NetInstall, and using System Image Utility workflow actions.

  Chapter 6 - Postimaging Deployment Considerations

  Postimaging client configuration techniques; postimaging server configuration techniques; third-party postimaging configuration tools

  Chapter 7 - System Maintenance

  Understanding system maintenance concepts; using Apple tools for system maintenance; using the Apple Software Update service; third-party system maintenance tools