up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

As an IT Administrator have you allowed deployment of the Microsoft Silverlight browser plugin within the domain you are accountable for?

Please state reasons for your decision.

i.e.

  • Allowed regardless.

  • Allowed as business required it for intranet application.

  • Disallowed as dont trust it or Microsoft.

  • Disallowed as we have no cause for it.

If disallowed and a valid business case was presented to you would you then consider installing it? Would there be any caveats to this decision?

link|improve this question
This is a question I think that belongs BOTH on SF and on stackoverflow.com. I'm sure you'll get some great answers over there as well. – squillman Aug 18 '09 at 17:39
@squillman: I am a stackoverflow user, today I came up against an IT policy whereby a potential customer would not advocate use of our product as we use silverlight for some RIA functionality. I am trying to guage from the IT admin point of view why someone would intentionally block the use of silverlight as I can see no good reason – crowleym Aug 19 '09 at 12:05
feedback

4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

I have Silverlight installed on each of my personal Windows machines and have not yet observed, or heard of, any real reason for disallowing it on company machines. As far as I am concerned, policies should be imposed only where there is a good and definable reason, not just because I or someone else distrust Microsoft or don't like some particular bit of software. As admins we need to be in control of our systems but we don't need to be absolute dictators.

link|improve this answer
I voted this up and want to note my agreement in writing as well. – Carl Campos Aug 18 '09 at 22:49
feedback
up vote 5 down vote

It's available via WSUS so we've deployed it because it's easy.

I would say if you are running a Windows shop (which you are, presumably) and you are going to use the "disallowed because I don't trust Microsoft" argument, you've got bigger problems than you realise.

link|improve this answer
That argument was just an example, see comment on main question. – crowleym Aug 24 '09 at 9:55
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

If you've deployed Java or Flash plugins I don't see any reason not to also deploy Silverlight. The days of Microsoft ignoring security practices are in the past.

link|improve this answer
I am a stackoverflow user, today I came up against an IT policy whereby a potential customer would not advocate use of our product as we use silverlight for some RIA functionality. I am trying to guage from the IT admin point of view why someone would intentionally block the use of silverlight as I can see no good reason. – crowleym Aug 18 '09 at 21:41
Their problem may not be specifically with Silverlight. It may be the fact that requiring any client-side component that they don't already deploy is too much overhead. New desktop software may require security approval, a deployment plan and maintenance/patch plan. They might have the same problem if you were using PDF's but they didn't run Acrobat Reader (IMHO, Reader is one of the biggest security problems on the desktop outside the browser, but that's another discussion). – Doug Luxem Aug 19 '09 at 1:53
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

From an Education IT admin point of view, we would deploy Silverlight regardless through WSUS. We run approx 300 apps to provide teaching and numerous online resources for students. Which can change on a six month basis. So somewhere along the way it is going to be required. We do have an IT policy to block certain items, but not Silverlight.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.