Corporate customers are deploying Windows Vista now, and Dell Services wants to help you understand the features of the new OS and how to plan your Windows Vista deployment.
technology brief
A Windows Vista FAQ
indows VistaT is working its way 4. How should companies plan Dell and Microsoft can help customers go onto corporate PCs, and IT or- a migration? through that testing, validation, and reme-ganizations are taking measure Companies need to start planning ear- diation process on a very accelerated pace.Wof its benefits, and what it will take to deploy ly, because Windows Vista is a significant If customers have already packaged their it on thousands of PCs. The Dell Managed change in terms of organization, applications applications it is very likely that what may Services group has been working with Win- and hardware. These are key areas where Dell not function is the packaging itself. With the dows Vista and helping customers plan de- can help. Rather than trying to create their changes to Windows Vista, like User Account ployments. Ziff Davis Media spoke with Jim own plan, Dell can help companies with a Control, if someone assumed different levels Ginger, Senior Manager for Dell Application plan that says, "Here is the best practice for of administrative privileges within the packag-Services, and Kevin Hanes, Senior Man- how to approach a problem like this.'' ing software, those packages could fail. We es-ager for Dell's Product Management Group, 5. What key factors should compa- timate that as many as 40% of packaged appli-about Windows Vista migrations. nies consider before a Windows Vista cations may need some level of repackaging. 1. What makes Windows Vista unique? deployment? Dell will look at customer applications, Windows Vista has some major rewrites Assess organizational readiness. Will the see which ones don't function, and then see and new functionality around things like se- help desk be prepared to respond to system if some basic level of remediation-such as curity. That type of change has a profound im- issues and users questions that may arise? changes to how it installs-will help. If the pact on the applications that run in Windows. Has IT determined if the applications and application requires a rewrite, Dell will also Applications that may have run perfectly in hardware are ready to migrate to Windows look at the alternative of virtualization.previous versions may act differently with the Vista? Is the deployment process optimized? 7. How can companies make application User Account Control within Windows Vista Will end users see this new operating system packaging and testing more efficient?or within the new Internet Explorer. for the first time they turn on the machine, Whether it's for a Windows Vista migra-2. How quickly should companies or will they do some training first? There are tion or another project, customers really need move to Windows Vista? a lot of pieces to organizational readiness. to go through an application rationalization. If companies want to implement Windows Dell offers a Windows Vista readiness as- Customers may provide Dell with a list of Vista in the summer of 2008, they should sessment that is designed to help a customer 3,000 applications, but there can be four or start migration planning and application test- understand these key areas and close the five versions of an application. This is the ing now. Companies should assume a 12-18 gaps. A small investment up front can save perfect time to test the most recent one to get month timing window for when they want to tremendously downstream. that deployable, and eliminate all the others. deploy, given the security changes and the ap- In addition, companies need to standard- With basic rationalization, we believe that a plication testing that will be needed. ize on as few PC images as possible. It's the customer may be able to eliminate anywhere 3. What training will people need? number one area where any customer can from 20 to 25% of their applications.The user interface itself is different, so optimize. Organizations with 20 to 50 images 8. Why do companies need services for even from an end-user perspective things are need a formal approach to reduce the num- their deployment?going to behave differently. From an IT shop ber of images. They also have to recognize One of the reasons customers turn to con-perspective, organizations are going to have to that with Windows Vista t... [download for more]
