Migrating to Windows 7 Successfully

The end of Windows XP is near Citrix Shares 5 Steps to Seamlessly Migrate to Windows 7

April 9, 2012 Kuala Lumpur - The end of Windows XP is near. Since Microsoft announced its intention to discontinue support for the decade-old operating system by April 2014, many organizations are scrambling to arrange their migration to another operating system.

Microsoft is doing its part to encourage users to get started on the migration by offering them extended support for its Windows 7 operating systems all the way till 2020. Microsoft is also stressing the need for XP users to migrate to Windows 7 before they move to the recently unveiled Windows 8 to ensure no gap in support – an approach which is backed by research firm Gartner.

Given it takes at least a year and a half to plan for and deploy a new operating system, organizations need to move fast whether they like it or not. Yaj Malik, Citrix Area Vice President for ASEAN shares five steps to a successful migration.

1. Identify business priorities
Having clarity on the strategic imperatives of the overall organization allows one to use technology to help meet the business priorities. This exercise should be done jointly with IT decision makers and the representatives of various business units in the organization.

2. Establish user segmentation
A quick user segmentation exercise to assess all the users and align their work habits and requirements with appropriate desktop delivery technology would be useful to identify which user groups can benefit from the new environment fastest. Typical segments include task workers, guest workers, remote workers, and such.

3. Assess endpoint hardware
The goal of an endpoint hardware examination is to assess user’s device capability to determine if and how it can be utilized after migrating to a Windows 7 platform. The analysis requires looking at all device capabilities, matching them to the requirements of Windows 7, identifying those that need replacement, purchasing new hardware, and installing the corporate-approved operating environment and applications needed for productivity.

4. Manage applications
When migrating to a new operating system, a major challenge is the validation process to confirm that existing applications can continue to function on the new operating system. Organizations should consider investing in application management tools that can help provide information about application portfolios, accurately predicting application behavior on new technology platforms by automating application testing, compatibility and remediation. For example, Windows 7 would require applications to be compatible with the 32-bit or 64-bit operations for them to work. Applications built on a 16-bit architecture will not work on the new operating system and many business critical legacy applications will no longer run. Additionally, not all organizations can afford the time and/or investment to re-platform these applications.

5. Adopt desktop virtualization
The Windows 7 upgrade process can be greatly simplified using desktop virtualization, which enables organizations to quickly and easily achieve the secure, mobile and cost-efficient environments they require. Organizations can also continue to leverage existing investments in current hardware infrastructure. Through desktop virtualization, IT can create a standardized Windows 7 desktop image, identify and create an optimized profile environment, build the appropriate support resources for the users, and migrate the user data and settings into the new virtualized environment.

Windows 7 rollouts are often completed in phases in large organizations, consuming months of IT staff time and creating rolling downtime for users. Desktop and application virtualization can take an event that would normally create serious downtime and reduce that to a short interruption. This is music to the ears of IT teams everywhere, who will have no trouble dealing with subsequent moves to Windows 8 or other operating systems in the future.