Let's talk Windows migration. We are 13 years into the 21st century, and you'd have thought that in this age where if you have the means, you can get buy a ticket and travel to the International Space Station, that migrating corporate distributed PCs estate onto a new OS, being Windows 7 or Windows 8, shouldn't be one of those long-winded, resource-hungry and technically-challenging projects.
After all, Windows migration is not rocket science and organizations around the globe have already been through a few PC OS migration rounds since the days of Windows 95.
Yet, recent data published by NetMarketShare surprisingly revealed that Windows XP is still installed on 37.19% of the worldwide desktop OS market (as of July 2013).
As a technology, Windows XP is certainly showing its age in terms of security, performance, and look and feel. Today, Microsoft is constantly reminding customers that the end of the XP extended support is looming fast.
So why has Windows XP proven to be so resilient?
It's because IT organizations perceive Windows migrations as a complex, time-consuming and manually-intensive program, which can get in the way of other business priorities. Complexity is compounded for large companies which operate across an intricate infrastructure that covers multiple locations and has to cater for multiple work environments (such as mobile workers, remote workers etc.
An OS migration can still be run efficiently and in a timely manner as 1E has demonstrated at many organizations around the world by migrating very large PC estates, with more than 100,000 end-user devices using 1E software.
Throughout numerous engagements, 1E consultants have identified three major hurdles in organizations' initial approach to Windows migration, which make such projects more inefficient than necessary:

  1. Lack of automation and network-based deployments Too many organizations are still relying on shipping USB drives and DVDs, or have inefficient OSD process designs
  2. Poor infrastructure Organizations are facing increased risk of failures due to redundant Distribution Points (DPs), Branch Distribution Points (BDPs) and caching devices
  3. Efforts to rationalize, remediate and deployed applications on the new OS environment are too often underestimated Organizations lack ways to map the right applications during OSD and are not using self-service capabilities to enforce rationalization.

1E's products and services address all these challenges. The 1E Solution for Windows Migration is proven to accelerate, automate and significant reduce costs for large scale Windows 7 migrations. 1E's approach is to extend and enhance Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr), as well as reduce and simplify its infrastructure and operational costs.
In the meantime, you can find more resources and guidance on how to accelerate Window Deployment by clicking here.