There are 3 major deployment types available for use in the KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA). They are complementary solutions that excel in different situations. 

Scripted Installs

• Leverages the drivers and drivers_postinstall shares during the deployment
  
• Requires volume license source media
  
• No initial preparation other than creating an unattend using the wizard and uploading the source media
  
• Customization is done via pre- and post-installation tasks
  
• Can be deployed via unicast
  
• Windows Only
  

System Images

• Leverages the drivers_postinstall share during the deployment, if enabled.
  
• Initial preparation must be done prior to image capture (e.g. sysprep - see the System Images Best Practice KB)
  
• Customization can be done to the image itself and via pre- and post-installation tasks
  
• Windows and Mac
• 2 sub-types: K-Image and Native (WIM for Windows and ASR for Mac)
  
  

K-Image

• Image files are stored individually in the SDA hashstore and are de-duplicated across all images
  
• Less space used for multiple images that have identical files
  
• Slower imaging when deployed in full
  
• Ability to perform a delta deployment (great for image refreshes)
  
• Ability to use the Image Browser function to make changes to your image files
  
• Can be deployed via unicast
  

WIM and ASR

• Image files from a partition are stored within a single compressed WIM or DMG file
  
• Requires the image master to have enough free space to capture the image locally
  
• More space taken for multiple images (unless they are duplicated)
  
• Faster imaging, especially with the KSWIM Toolkit (Windows unicast only). For more details see the blog post
  
• Can be deployed via unicast or multicast (single partition only)
  

More information on the differences between K-Image and WIM can be found in this KB article