Easing Your Transition to Windows 7

With the release of Windows 7, companies are looking to upgrade their operating systems without overwhelming their IT departments. For corporations with hundreds or thousands of users this can be a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be.

Traditionally, upgrading your OS involved having someone from IT upgrade each PC on site. This causes a lot of inconvenience and downtime, along with frustrated employees who are ripped away from their work. The process can take weeks or months depending on the size of the organization and the size and skill of the IT department.

Recently, VSM spoke with Citrix CIO Paul Martine about their transition to Windows 7 and gleaned some insights and strategies that can help ease the burden of an OS upgrade on your IT department.

Virtualize - Rather than installing the upgrade on every individual computer, virtualization allows you to do it from one data center.  Hundreds of thin client and networked users can be transitioned at one time. Additionally, your IT department can test the applications beforehand to ensure compatibility and usability with your new OS.

Citrix used virtualization to upgrade over ¼ of their staff, 1400 users, to Windows 7 overnight. “With more and more users on Xen Desktop…that was the easiest transition,” Paul Martine explained. “When we implemented Windows 7, we just did a clean switch. So the next time they logged on they were logging on to a Windows 7 OS…It’s impressive when you think about how easy it is. Once you set up your infrastructure to deliver something through a VDI solution, it just takes such a burden off IT.”

Another benefit to operating in a virtual environment is the elimination of desktop OS sprawl, which can slow down and even cripple stand-alone computers. With application updates arriving frequently, it is useful to update them in one central location rather than at numerous individual workstations. “When you deliver an OS from the data center, you’re delivering a fresh operating system every time the user logs on. And you get consistent performance by doing it that way. So there is a benefit to the user, too.”

Virtualization helps not only with OS upgrades but with all application upgrades, updates and patches. These processes can be performed by one administrator working at one workstation. “I think customers that are using Citrix realize the benefit,” Paul told us. “And it’s not just the OS benefit. If I need to upgrade or patch Microsoft or SAP or any of these other commercial business applications, I do it once from the data center. And the next time someone accesses that application they’re getting the most current version.”

To ease the frustration that some users feel when they are thrust into a different computing environment, companies can host both the new and the old OS on their data center. This allows users to “downgrade” when they are unable to perform a task in the new OS environment and don’t have time to figure it out right away. These users can logout of the new OS, login to the version they are familiar with to perform their task, then switch right back to the new version.

Advertise – Let your employees know what is happening, when it is happening, and what they need to do. By keeping staff informed, they will be better able to handle the transition when it arrives. Detailed information can be delivered in a memo, email, through an internal website, or a combination of these.