Windows 7 migration challenges and best practices for large - Dell

Windows 7 migration challenges and best practices for large enterprise and public sector Dell can provide a holistic Windows 7 migration strategy mapped to customer requirements, underpinned by proven experience, comprehensive services, and automated tools.

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Executive Summary Today, IT managers worldwide are accelerating their efforts toward planning for and migrating to Windows 7, and the next 12 to 18 months will be critical. In fact, Forrester Consulting recently completed an online survey of 200 large enterprise and public sector organizations in the US, Canada, and the UK with 1,000 or more employees, commissioned by Dell, concerning their migration plans for Windows 7, and the study found that 93% of firms planned on completing their enterprisewide migrations before 2014. But firms are facing a number of migration challenges, including: 1) a lack of governance over their application library and the pervasiveness of rogue applications that are not managed by IT, but are critical to the business; 2) overcoming application compatibility issues associated with both third-party and custom-developed software; 3) overcoming web-based application compatibility issues associated with the upgrade to a modern browser (e.g., IE8 and IE9); 4) automating a “zero-touch” deployment strategy; 5) preparing for future cloud computing and application and desktop virtualization strategies; and 6) determining which users to target first and how best to tailor end user training given the shrinking delivery window in which IT can empower its workforce.

The study survey found that organizations with centralized IT environments offer a better chance for a successful Windows 7 migration due to better governance over their application libraries. Dell believes that Windows 7 provides IT managers with an ideal opportunity to gain control over their end user computing environments by following industry best practices, such as application reduction, accurate software licensing monitoring, reducing local administrative rights, automating PC and OS deployment, and leveraging desktop and application virtualization where appropriate. Additional benefits can be gained through strategic outsourcing of planning and migration functions. Let’s face it; most organizations don’t have extra IT resources to turn to for inventorying, testing, and remediating their applications for Windows 7 or next year’s Windows 8. In fact, most firms that are largely standardized on Windows XP haven’t been through a similar effort in five5 years or more and may lack the key personnel who led these projects previously. Organizations should consider turning to Dell, which has systems that can unleash the full potential of Windows 7 and thorough end user computing migration expertise and experience from planning and testing to imaging and final rollout, including application compatibility testing and remediation.

Enterprises Are Upgrading To Modern PCs Powered By Windows 7 Mainstream organizations traditionally take 12 to 18 months before they’re ready to deploy a new Windows desktop operating system to their workforce. Despite the overwhelmingly positive consumer reception Windows 7 has experienced, the OS has proven to not be an exception to this well-established code among IT managers supporting complex infrastructure environments. We’re now more than 18 months after its general availability release in October 2009, and Windows 7 adoption within the enterprise market is accelerating rapidly. In fact, 77% of the IT decisionmakers rated a desktop OS upgrade as a critical or major priority over the next 12 to 18 months. Forrester Consulting’s online survey of 200 large enterprise and public sector organizations in the US, Canada, and the UK with 1,000 or more employees, commissioned by Dell, targeted firms that had already migrated at least 20% of its users to Windows 7 to ensure they can share actual costs and benefits realized with the upgrade. Of the firms surveyed, 10% were actively piloting Windows 7 to their IT administrators and end users, 81% were actively deploying it across the enterprise, and the other 9% had already completed their enterprisewide migrations. IT managers worldwide are facing a hard deadline to be completely removed from their largely Windows XP environments by April 8, 2014, when Windows XP’s extended support phase from Microsoft comes to an end. That means many organizations do not have time to wait for the normal four-year hardware refresh cycle and will need to deploy Windows 7 to both existing and new PCs.

Windows 7 migration challenges and best practices for Large Enterprise and Public Sector

IT Managers Are Facing A Number Of Windows 7 Migration Challenges IT managers who support hundreds, if not thousands, of applications quickly realize the complexity associated with delivering a modern PC experience built on Windows 7 due to its impact on the applications, infrastructure, support processes, and IT staff and end users. And the migration to Windows 7, in particular, represents a unique challenge for two reasons: 1) it’s the first major OS transition in the past five to eight years, as firms move directly from Windows XP to Windows 7, skipping Windows Vista entirely, and 2) a significant number of applications that work in XP will need remediation for Windows 7.

enterprises knowingly support an average of 1,370 applications worldwide across a mix of delivery architectures (see Figure 1 and see Figure 2). And keep in mind that these figures don’t include the rogue and unmanaged applications that IT doesn’t yet govern.

applications that need to be governed by IT. IT managers must also test applications in a nonproduction Windows 7 test lab, and Dell recommends considering the impact Windows 7 has on custom-developed applications in addition to off-the-shelf or

Figure 1: Firms support, on average, 1,370 total applications worldwide

IT managers often face the following Windows 7 migration challenges: • A lack of governance over their application library and the pervasiveness of rogue applications. One of the first steps firms need to take in the preparation for Windows 7 is to assess the state of their application ecosystem. This usually entails inventorying applications, tracking down application owners, tiering applications, testing for compatibility, and then remediating applications via retirement, upgrading, recoding, shimming, and virtualizing. What makes this particularly challenging is that most firms are moving from Windows XP, and historically, IT had to provision a larger percentage of users with full local administrative rights than perhaps they would have preferred due to limitations in the OS. This enabled users to introduce many rogue, or unmanaged, applications that the business now relies on to function. This explains why 46% of firms are very concerned about inventorying their apps and getting control over all of the applications the business depends on, which will go a long way in reducing application bloat and lessen the need for local administrative rights. According to the survey, large

Figure 1. Base: 200 IT decision-makers responsible for desktop OS migration strategies Source: A commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell

Figure 2: An average user is provisioned with 35 “thick client” apps plus 15 Web apps


• Overcoming application compatibility issues. IT managers must conduct an application inventory to identify all of the

third-party apps and whether their hardware and device drivers are compatible. This process is one that 43% of firms haven’t completed 3


in at least three years, and those that have leverage a variety of sources for application inventorying, including client management scans (73%), departmental head surveys (41%), user surveys (39%), Microsoft’s Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) (24%), and other tools (6%). • Overcoming browser compatibility issues. IT managers often overlook web-based applications when evaluating their readiness for a Windows 7 migration and all too frequently underestimate IE8 and/ or IE9 as a barrier for upgrading. In fact, IE8 and IE9 require developers to conform to rigorous standards and rules. Consequently, there are serious problems in getting the older-style (e.g., IE6) applications to run on the newer browsers. • Assessing hardware readiness. IT managers are often tasked with conducting a full asset inventory to understand which client hardware is Windows 7-capable. Considerations IT managers must keep in mind include the costs to maintain your aging hardware, peripheral support, 32-bit versus 64-bit support implications, and whether the firm can benefit from an alternative computing strategy, such as application and desktop virtualization. • Determining the right migration strategy. IT managers must determine whether Windows 7 is part of a broader PC replacement cycle or whether it’s an opportunity to extend the life of its existing assets by an additional one to two years. Desktop engineers must test and package applications, spec , and build; certify images; and automate the deployment process with supporting tools and infrastructure. IT managers often struggle with defining a single automated solution for campus, remote, and home offices that are highly scalable because of low infrastructure requirements. Firms must be able to drive continuous improvement, so when they’re ready to upgrade users to Windows 8, it will serve as almost a nonevent. 4

• Preparing for the future of cloud computing and application and desktop virtualization. With server virtualization now wellestablished in the world’s data centers, IT managers are turning their attention toward client virtualization to address some of their toughest computing challenges. But there’s often conflicting guidance and endless architectures to consider. Because there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for all user types and application workloads, IT managers are finding that it will take a combination of technologies and vendor solutions to deliver the richest computing experience to your distributed and increasingly mobile workforce. Firms often require help with their implementation planning, with everything from infrastructure requirements, build, and configuration to application sequencing, image creation, virtual desktop provisioning, and user migration schedules and timescales. • Determining which users to target first and end user training. IT managers and training consultants must expose their users to what has or has not changed within the new applications, teach new or enhanced shortcuts and file/folder management practices, and discuss new tools, even troubleshooting and support tools for IT administrators. But it’s not Windows 7 that IT managers are doubling their efforts against but rather the new “ribbon” UI in Office and multitabbed browsers in the form of IE , Firefox, and Chrome that are receiving the most attention. And IT is delivering this training through a variety of delivery mechanisms, such as lunch and learns, departmental training, eLearning and instructional DVDs, “Welcome to Windows 7!” kits, banners and posters, kiosks and live demos, 2-minute tips and tricks videos, and even Mac versus PC parody commercials.

Centralized IT Environments Offer A Better Chance For A Successful Migration To overcome these Windows 7 migration challenges, IT leaders are revisiting their PC life cycles and incorporating industry best practices, such as: • Tying migrations to a larger PC replacement cycle and deploying 64-bit hardware and software. Sixty percent of firms are exclusively deploying Windows 7 on new PCs, and an additional 29% are taking a hybrid approach, meaning they’re deploying Windows 7 both on existing PCs when they’re capable of running it and new PCs when it’s more cost-effective to replace the hardware. Hardware renewal should be tied to the migrations to deliver the greatest return, and firms should embrace 64-bit hardware due to the performance, security, and stability benefits. • Gaining control over your application library is a critical second step to a successful Windows 7 migration. IT managers should start by scanning their networks and discovering applications that reside on corporate PCs. Incomplete lists can unexpectedly delay migration plans upon discovery. Centralized IT administrators should be tasked with removing applications with overlapping functions and engaging application owners as necessary. The survey found that 27% of firms will save $1 million or more annually due to a better understanding into their application libraries (see Figure 3). • Investing in application compatibility testing and remediation tools and managed services to decrease the cost of deployment. Tools and managed services are available that can test applications for compatibility with Windows 7. The optimal approach is to test in a real-world environment with a production ready image running Windows 7. After testing on-


Figure 3: 27% of firms will save $1 million or more annually


premises, web-based, and virtual applications, administrators can assign applications with green, amber/yellow, or red status based on whether the application is natively compatible with Windows 7; not natively compatible with Windows 7 but there’s a known workaround, such as shimming or repackaging; or not natively compatible with Windows 7 and there’s no known workaround, meaning the application is a candidate for retirement,

replacement, redevelopment, or virtualization. The study found that approximately half of applications require some amount of remediation to be made compatible with Windows 7 (see Figure 4). • Centrally managing the application rationalization process and investing in web and virtual applications. Decisions must be made on which applications should be retired, upgraded, shimmed, recoded, or virtualized, and IT managers

Figure 4: Half of locally installed apps are natively compatible with Windows 7


must work hand-in-hand with their application owners within the business. Firms should centrally manage the user acceptance testing, which should be done by application users themselves. While the continued shift to web-based and virtual applications (e.g., Microsoft App-V, Citrix XenApp, VMware ThinApp) will lower complexity over the long term, the study found that 62% of firms consume between six and 18 months for the application compatibility testing and remediation process to complete (see Figure 5 and see Figure 6). • Reducing local administrative rights whenever possible to remove unnecessary application bloat. Most firms deploying Windows 7 are standardizing their users on the standard user account as opposed to an administrator account as a means of limiting rogue and unmanaged applications and reducing ongoing support costs. In fact, 67% have rated themselves as very concerned (i.e., a 7, 8, 9, or 10 on a 10-point scale) about inventorying their complete PC applications list and getting control over rogue applications. • Embracing automated deployment approaches (e.g., light or zero touch) and managed services and support. Firms generally choose between a high-touch, mediumtouch, light-touch, and zero-touch deployment approach when migrating to Windows 7. High-touch deployments are not automated and require manual intervention at most stages as opposed to zero-touch approaches in which all processes are automated. Although most IT managers strive for a zero-touch deployment, just 5% succeeded and only 25% were able to deploy with a light-touch approach. Determining the right approach is heavily influenced by the IT resources available across sites, whether the sites are in low-bandwidth locations such as home offices or branch offices that are very complex to support and often require separate processes, the number of users 5


within the environment, and how well-managed the local network is. Achieving light- or zero-touch deployment is absolutely possible, but it requires application packaging as a prerequisite. • If the skills are missing internally, consider extending relationships with strategic third-party vendors. Over the next 18 months, 75% of firms anticipate completing their enterprisewide Windows 7 migration. But completing it on schedule requires understanding the potential, making informed decisions, laying the path for success, and executing with minimal disruption. Half of the firms surveyed will leverage thirdparty assessment and migration/ deployment managed services, and approximately one-third of the overall Windows 7 migration budget will go to vendors with a strong Microsoft partnership, extensive Windows 7 expertise and experience, and services for any and all phases of the transition (see Figure 8).

Centralized IT Environments Offer A Better Chance For A Successful Migration

Figure 5: Firms embrace Web and virtual apps as means to reduce portfolio complexities


Figure 6: 62% of firms take between 6 & 18 months to test and remediate apps for Windows 7

Desktop and application virtualization has existed across a number of flavors for more than 20 years and over its history, has suffered from false starts as IT managers struggle with the cost and complexity of the solutions. This has been exacerbated by vendor, media, and analyst hype on solutions that haven’t lived up to expectations. But there are a number of compelling factors converging today that are driving it to mainstream adoption status, including the pressures to lower ongoing costs, the immediate demands to support employee-owned devices, and the longterm vision of becoming device- and OS-independent. Arguably, the most compelling justification for IT executives is that for more than 20 years, you’ve been locked in a seemingly never-ending rip-andreplace refresh cycle — turning over 6



Figure 7: 67% of firms are concerned about application inventorying


Figure 8: Firms strategically outsource application rationalization programs

desktops and laptops every three to five years. And when you need to deploy a new Windows OS, you’re forced to invest millions of dollars to prepare your software and hardware ecosystem for native compatibility with the OS. And at the end of the day, what’s your reward? You’ll have to do it all over again in another three to five years when systems reach end of life. Desktop and application virtualization, when used together, will reduce the dependencies that OSes have on the hardware and applications have on the OS and will enable firms to gradually move away from this never-ending rip-and-replace cycle IT leaders facilitate all too frequently. Windows 7 is driving an inflection point today, and we recommend IT teams to use this time to prepare for future computing environments.

Firms Should Embrace Dell Windows 7 Managed Services Dell can provide a holistic migration strategy mapped to customer requirements underpinned by proven experience, comprehensive services, and automated tools. Dell offers a comprehensive set of services and the expertise and experience to enable a smooth migration to Windows 7 — from planning and testing to imaging and final rollout, including application inventory, rationalization, compatibility testing, and remediation. The Dell ProConsult Application Inventory and Analysis service identifies the applications in your environment while comprehensive Windows 7 Application Compatibility


Readiness (ACR) testing can determine whether locally installed and webbased applications are ready to work with Windows 7. Dell can also help with software rationalization and identify those that should be retired before migration — helping organizations to reduce costs during the migration and gain control over their application libraries and standards. For applications that fall into the amber/yellow category based on the ACR results, Dell can provide 7


application remediation services to prepare the applications for Windows 7. Dell can also package the application library for Windows 7 to enable automated deployment and reduce ongoing PC management costs. For organizations whose migration plans include virtualization, Dell can design and implement solutions to meet the requirements of their individual environments, including virtualization software tools from Microsoft, Citrix, and VMware. Dell Virtual Desktop as a Service (VDaas) provides a cloud computing environment to further simplify management and reduce IT costs. Although Windows 7 migration is a major concern for organizations, these and other Dell services are designed to help IT staff leverage the Windows 7 migration as a “trigger event” to fundamentally get control over the application library, automate deployment, and reduce ongoing IT management costs. By taking advantage of these services, following best practices when preparing for a migration, and understanding the available remediation options, IT administrators can help ensure a smooth and successful transition and begin realizing the benefits of Windows 7.

Conclusions Windows 7 is the first OS that firms are aggressively pushing to existing PCs as well as new PCs. Automation is reducing the cost of deployment to the point where IT managers would rather standardize on the new OS quickly rather than wait for the PC refresh cycle. But because approximately half of firms’ existing applications are not natively compatible with Windows 7, firms are risking project delays or failures if their applications aren’t thoroughly discovered, tested, and validated for the inevitable enterprisewide migration to Windows 7. And because very few companies have application testers sitting around idle waiting for an OS upgrade that arrives every three to 10 years, firms need to find the right balance of investing in internal and external resources where appropriate to ensuring the most secure, manageable, and flexible end user 8

computing environment for your increasingly decentralized and mobile workforce.

Recommendations According to Dell, IT managers should start with a four-step approach to striking the right balance between enabling business productivity without compromising security, manageability, and cost. Specifically, IT managers should: • Conduct a workforce technology needs assessment. Technology is a differentiator in today’s business world. Providing your employees with the tools they need to do their job is critically important. Why? The proper tools can decrease your timeto-market by making your workers more efficient. They can help workers effectively collaborate. They can entice prospective employees. The key is selecting the right tool kits for the workforce. And in this task, IT leaders need to be more sophisticated because employees have a greater understanding of technology thanks to exposure to software and devices in their personal lives. To do this, IT leaders must ground their decisions in a deep understanding of the issues affecting individual workers. Progressive firms are conducting workforce technology needs assessments as the first step — among other technology initiatives, such as Windows 7, PC refreshes, client virtualization, and cloud computing — in defining their next-generation client computing strategy. This fact-based segmentation initiative helps firms understand which workforce technologies map to which user segments and which users can be empowered through consumerization. • Define the next-gen client computing strategy with Windows 7, consumerization, and BYOD in mind. Once the workforce technology needs assessment is complete, IT more clearly understands the requirements of its

workers and can start designing its next-generation client computing strategy based on these unique requirements. At this stage, firms must: 1) decide on the appropriate device platforms such as Windows 7 and application policies, and 2) recruit the appropriate stakeholders in the business, legal, HR, and finance departments to develop and enforce these policies. • Embrace desktop and application virtualization as enabling technology for the next-generation platforms. Client virtualization and cloud computing can help IT managers bring a measure of control to an increasingly chaotic environment while not stifling employee flexibility and innovation. By leveraging these emerging technology tools, IT managers can support user choice and manage the essentials of consumerization. While in parallel, firms must aggressively upgrade users to modern desktop environments powered by Windows 7 to reduce costs, maximize productivity, and improve business efficiency and customer satisfaction. • Update organizational policies to empower workers while protecting the integrity of the business. IT managers must collaborate with their legal, HR, and finance departments as well as line-of-business managers to determine whether and how their existing policies can be extended to their modern client computing environments. The resulting policies must be agreed to by all users who wish to be included in pilots such as the BYOD programs, IT should require the approval of their direct managers as there may be chargeback and support implications, and users should be encouraged to go to their self-service website or portal for program enrollment, getting started instructions, and ongoing support.

Learn more about Dell’s Windows 7 migration strategy by visiting:

www.dell.com/Win7 ©2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. V090211