Recommendations for installing software products across a Wide Area Network (WAN)

Installing software products in general across a Wide Area Network (WAN) can be fraught with many problems. While some large enterprise networks move data at lightning speed, many of them are "cobbled together" from smaller networks, without a well-designed architecture.  Many large corporations have an infrastructure made up networks which were merged together after acquisitions, and these disparate networks sometimes do not mesh well, causing bottlenecks and slow network throughput.  Attempting to install a large piece of enterprise software, like the Micro Focus Host Connectivity products, can lead to potential failures to complete the install, or just consume hours of time when successful.

One recommendation for installing software is to move the install media, or administrative installation point, to the local PC or a Local Area Network (LAN) storage share, instead of from a central location on the WAN.  Copying the install media locally, and then running the installation remotely, can avoid and alleviate some of the bottlenecks which can occur.  The install media for the Micro Focus Host Connectivity products consists of a large number of files and some of the software products take many megabytes of disk storage.  Instead of moving all these individual files across the whole network, they can be deposited (outside of the installation time) near the final install location, ready to be used when the time is right.

Many corporations install software overnight, or over a weekend, and if the installation media is pre-positioned in advance, the install will go forward with fewer possibilities of exceeding the time allotted or experiencing a failure to complete.