Active Directory® for Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Technical Reference

Chapter 11. Introduction to Group Policies

One of the most common topics of conversation among people paying for the setup of a corporate information technology (IT) infrastructure is the total cost of owning computers. Companies have calculated that the initial purchase or lease price of a computer is only a small part of the cost of managing and maintaining that computer over the years it will be used. The primary cost is the cost of the people managing those computers. If all client computers must be manually administered, the cost of owning those computers can very quickly grow to an unacceptable level. For many companies, the answer to this problem is to use some form of automation to manage computers. As much as possible, companies want ...