Windows 7 and Fed IT: When, and how, will the great migration begin?
With Windows 7 being implemented across the world, initial reviews coming in have been positive for the latest Microsoft Operating System. Much like 2000 was to NT, and XP was to, dare I mention, ME, Windows 7 is a huge improvement from the Apple’ish OS of Vista. While Vista was not terrible, most scorned Fed IT Administrators had learned their lesson in past OS migrations and waited for a SP or a new release to hit the streets. The result was most staying on XP until Windows 7 came out. Enter today’s Fed IT market, and the mass migration to Windows 7, mainly from XP, is slowly starting to begin.
Most IT administrators and end users are agreeing that the new look, feel, and functionally of Windows 7 is worth the migration. Now the big question is how do you migrate to Windows 7 efficiently and without a lot of down time? As with most IT admin who are used to the technology, Altiris, or in today’s branding it is called Symantec Endpoint Management, is a great option to use when migrating to Windows 7. Symantec Endpoint Management can utilize their imaging and deployment tool called Deployment Server (or DS for short) to create, capture, and deploy imaging at mouse click rate! Another nice feature of DS is that it lets you utilize which ever imaging engine you prefer – from Ghost, to ImageX, or its flagship image engine called RapiDeploy, DS will get you up and running on Windows 7 in no time.
Yes, Windows 7 has finally hit the Fed IT space, and with the help of such tools as DS we will all be happy campers once the first image hits the first PC or laptop.
Take a quick look at the step by step doc located here: Windows 7 Migration Data Sheet
Note – The doc lists seven quick steps to implement Windows 7, a coincidence? I think not!
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