Next big OS migration will require planning

Plan well ahead for major deployments, says Matt Fisher

Fisher: Moving to a new OS requires careful planning

There is often a delay before mass adoption of an application or business tool. Normally this is because of a need to save money, find out about others’ experiences, or wait for initial problems to be resolved.

Many companies may be looking to delay migration to a new OS for at least a year and thinking that it’s not something to worry about today. However, businesses may need to start planning rollouts well in advance.

Small glitches can cause project overruns, wasting time and money.

Legacy infrastructure can cause critical compatibility issues due to its age and resulting complexity and results in the need for automatic methods to migrate and manage an operating system.

At a time of reduced IT headcount and increased pressure on costs, many businesses can be unprepared for this bottleneck.

The entire process can be automated, reducing the operating costs of the infrastructure, as well as the burden on the IT department.

Build a team of stakeholders, with executive sponsorship, that will scope and manage the rollout. This team will communicate with other departments to ensure the new operating system satisfies user needs.

Audit information provided by discovery tools can then be used to determine new hardware requirements and potential compatibility issues.

Automated deployment tools can accelerate packaging, testing and deploying the OS to target machines across the enterprise.

Patches and hotfixes will need to be deployed swiftly across the network. It is also important to ensure that PCs remain compliant with established policies, such as software configuration.

Matt Fisher is director at FrontRange Solutions