5 Tips on Planning a Migration to Windows 7
|
|
|
Too often, when it's time to plan for operation system migration and deployment, IT managers find they don't have the time to plan ahead. Sometimes, it's also hard to figure out exactly whose job the planning is. But, planning is crucial to making the migration happen smoothly. And, as companies migrate to Windows 7, it's especially important for them to understand that planning the deployment is crucial.
When we talk planning, we aren't just talking about sitting down with pen and paper and creating a document which talks about things such as vision, scope and design of a migration project," said Annette Dow, chief executive officerof Binary Research International, a provider of Windows migration training and products. "When working with network administrators, the practical, hands-on tasks required to prepare for the migration are what concern us."
Dow gives five reasons your IT department must plan ahead for the migration to Windows 7.
It has to work the first time. If you're the person responsible for this migration, your head will be on the block if things go wrong. You need to convince the organizationthat planning is essential or else warn them to be prepared for a possible disruption to operations. If you think you don't have time to plan and prepare, how on earth are you going to find time to fix a nonfunctioning migration?
It's different this time. –It is different this time. The installation process, the way in which configuration settings are created and stored, the size of the images, the use of a file-based imaging tool are all different. You need to learn about those differences and the implications for how you actually have to do things and what infrastructure is required.
So many tools to understand and use. –Microsoft has done a great job of including a range of tools to assist with the move to Windows 7. But for those going from using a utility such as Symantec Ghost Solution Suite to the Microsoft tools, the learning curve is significant. You must have time to learn which tool you use for which stage in the process and then, of course, how to use it.
Some fundamental decisions have to be made pre-deployment . For example, License activation options have changed since XP. With the options of the Key Management Service or Multiple Activation keys, an organization must decide which activation option is best suited to their environment before any deployment of the OS. Another key consideration is whether you are going to use the Microsoft tools for imaging and deployment, or should you use a third-party tool such as Symantec Ghost Solution Suite, Altiris or the like?
It is a perfect opportunity to tighten up other aspects of your network,but you’ll need time to prepare for this. When making a significant change to an environment, it is often also a convenient opportunity to implement new security policies. These new security policies may include disk space policies, login policies, desktop policies and security policies.
