ITC Infotech, Heineken and Insight took part in a webinar on the 22nd September 2011 which discussed in detail the issues, risks and processes associated with migration to Windows 7, from each perspective
Although Windows 7 is rolling out quickly to favourable reviews from a consumer perspective, 75% corporate enterprises are yet to complete their migration to Windows 7 and many are in the early stages of planning. This is because, from the enterprise perspective, like any major update or operating system migration, migrating can be challenging, time consuming, and costly. In any case, all enterprises will need to set about migrating to Windows 7 because it promises the productivity, reliability, performance and security enhancements they need, and primarily because Microsoft has scheduled a tight April 2014 deadline to pull out enterprise support for Windows XP.
This webinar hosted by ITC Infotech in association with Heineken International and Insight addressed issues and risks associated with successful on-time migration to Windows 7.
Webinar Highlights
• Issues and risks associated with a federated and distributed enterprise- strategies that hold promise to manage the transformation- A case study of Heineken International
• Typical challenges of planning and migrating to Windows 7
• Challenges of full enterprise rollout-A case study of Insight Enterprises.
Issues and Risks Associated with a Federated and Distributed Enterprise
Heineken International– Windows 7 Migration Case Study
Heineken is one of the world’s leading brewers with a wide international presence through a global network of distributors and breweries. Heineken owns and manages one of the world’s leading portfolios of beer brands.
With a portfolio of globally distributed operating companies, Heineken has a very federated and distributed enterprise IT landscape. The organization has 48,000 workstations running over 2000 windows applications.
Heineken started the Windows 7 upgrade in January 2011 with the support of ITC Infotech at the 2nd and 3rd level to:
• Standardize and globalize the workplace environment
• Attain the flexibility to cope with local diversity
• Improve user experience and decrease TCO
Issues and risks Heineken faces as it migrates to Windows 7
Application compatibility, ensuring applications will install and run predictably on Windows 7, is at the heart of Heineken‘s Windows 7 migration issues. Simplifying the management and deployment of applications during Windows 7 migration poses the most time consuming challenge. Another key issue Heineken faces is managing the change in terms of the time it will really take individuals to adapt to the new features and functions and be able to operate with the same speed and efficiency as they do now. Heineken also battles with the risk of not being able to complete enterprise wide rollout by April 2014(when Microsoft plans to pull out enterprise support for Windows XP).
Issues and Risks Associated with a Full Enterprise Rollout
Insight Enterprises - Windows 7 Enterprise Rollout Case Study
Insight is a global provider of information technology (IT) hardware, software and service solutions to business and public sector organizations with Operations in 21 countries, serving clients in 191 countries worldwide. Evidently, Insight had a very distributed IT landscape with applications portfolio of over 200 applications. Insight was using Windows XP with the latest service place and was quite sceptical about the Windows rollout. Along with the upcoming expiration of enterprise support for Windows XP, the company was motivated by an opportunity to acquire new tools for tightening network security, accelerating PC performance, and improving employee productivity to move forward with a companywide upgrade to Windows7. Also, the company placed an emphasis on minimizing the impact of the upgrade on employees.
Challenges faced by Insight Enterprises in migrating to Windows 7
Ensuring application compatibility and deploying applications for optimal performance and functionality posed the most challenging and time-consuming challenges. The IT team spent months before the deployment performing readiness testing on more than 200 applications. Memory was surprisingly an issue with the OS running extremely slow on less than 2 Gb.
Typical Challenges of Planning and Migrating to Windows 7
• Application compatibility
• Hardware compatibility
• Assessment & remediation of applications and hardware
• Project planning
• Windows 7 deployment
Benefits of Migrating to Windows 7
Windows 7 offers desktop and server optimization, management flexibility faster PC performance, while strengthening its network security capabilities. Deploying Windows 7 offers gains in productivity across the organization as more employees take advantage of enhanced desktop tools and simplified access to network resources. A central benefit of Windows 7 is its extensive cost savings, which can be as much as 20% in direct costs and impressive IT cost savings with MDOP. So even though Windows 7 migration has key benefits for an organization, the risk of failure and the enormity of the project may be intimidating and can have significant impact on an IT organization in terms of time, budget and internal reputation.
The ITC Infotech Approach to Windows 7 Migration
ITC Infotech has a clearly defined process of helping organizations migrate to Windows 7. This involves determining client readiness by checking hardware and application compatibility, ensuring security from a policy and governance perspective, image engineering, migration and deployment, and finally operation of application - end-user acceptance and helpdesk support.
