Why to implement Windows 7

Today’s businesses, big or small, face trends that were not mainstream a decade ago – highly mobile and distributed workforce, new compliance regulations, more consumer devices in the workplace, and an increased emphasis on operational efficiency and cost-containment. Window XP has had an amazing run, but technology & business needs have changed. Moving to Windows 7 today can help your organization reap the benefits of a modern PC experience while establishing a path to Windows 8.

There are three main reasons to get onto 7 today:

1. First, migrating to Windows 7, IE9, Office 2010 and MDOP gives the customer immediate value of a modern desktop and prepares their environment to integrate Windows 8 once generally available. By moving to Windows 7 today, organizations can ensure they run  a supported version of Windows and reap the benefits of a modern OS experience to help people stay productive anywhere, enhance data protection and security, and streamline PC management – all of which helps to reduce costs. 

     

     Customers all over the world are getting value from a modern desktop with Windows 7. Bombardier Aerospace saved $160K in third party security licensing with the security enhancements built into Windows 7. A leading financial services firm, Baker Tilly has quantified a $191 (US) per PC savings by moving to Windows 7. By securing and managing 10 year old software with Windows XP you are leaving money on the table

2. Second, extended support for Windows XP will end on 4/8/2014. Customers running an unsupported version of Windows and IE 6 will not be eligible for any of our support options. Gartner predicts that more than 50% of organizations that do not start deploying Windows 7 by early 2012 will not complete their deployments before Windows XP support ends, and will incur increased support costs. Creating a Timeline for Deploying Windows 7 and Eliminating Windows XP, June 2011.

3. Third, migrating to Windows 7 will lay the foundation for Windows 8. The investment made today in planning; testing and application remediation for Windows 7 will prepare the customer to make the transition easier to Windows 8 when generally available. Windows 7 is the path to Windows 8 and in the future we will see enterprise environments running a combination of Windows 8 devices and applications alongside Windows 7 PCs and applications.  Microsoft recommends customers focus on Windows 7 deployment today.  In the future Windows 8 deployment will open up of new scenarios that can support the diverse workstyles across your business.   

The planning, testing and remediation of x86 applications to work with Windows 7 and IE 8/9 , will allow you to take advantage of Windows 8 Hardware platforms that support Windows 7 will be capable of running Windows 8.  Windows 8 will also run on new hardware platforms such as System on a Chip designs from vendors like ARM, Intel and others.

Bottom Line: The investments a customer makes today to migrate to Windows 7 will carry forward into the Windows 8 timeframe

Source: Microsoft

Improving IT Security

Six Steps to Improve IT Security

1.      Gain Situational Awareness
2.      Reduce and Monitor Admin Access
3.      Define and enforce configuration standards
4.      Enforce change management
5.      Create library of trusted builds
6.      Integrate into release management

Source:
Interop 2012
Dwayne Melancon, CTO
Tripwire Inc.

2012 IT Priorities

Tech Target surveyed IT Professionals on what there IT Priorities for 2012 – Here is the list:

1.      Windows 7 Deployment
2.      Server Virtualization
3.      Networked Based Security
4.      Data Protection
5.      Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
6.      Business Intelligence
7.      Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is not at the top but is at the top conversation.  Cloud is such a significant change in how IT is consumed.  While cloud is still a small part of IT spending it is rapidly growing.  This survey is in line with many of the Windows 7 deployment projects we have seen at Nortec.

Source:

Search CIO, Article by Mark Schlack, Vice President, Editorial

 “2012 IT priorities: Windows 7 migration, yes; cloud, not so much”

http://tinyurl.com/brdpcnn

5 Server Virtualization Trends

Gartner Analyst Tom Bittman announced 5 virtualization trends to watch in 2012:

1) Competitive Choices Mature
2) Second Sourcing Grows
3) Pricing Models in Flux
4) Penetration and Saturation
5) Cloud Service Providers Are Placing Bets

What these mean is the market is maturing and businesses as well as cloud providers have more choices. More companies are working with Hyper-V than in the past and Open Source Vitualization is having more success in larger organizations as well as leading in the larger cloud providers such as Amazon and Rackspace. The cloud service providers are needing to make big bets as to if they want to invest more in the mainstream corporate virtualization providers VMWare and Microsoft or does it make more sense to stay with lower cost customized open source virtualization.

Larger corporations are looking to have options so they are not locked in with one virtualization provider and the proliferation and maturing of the virtualization market is adding price pressure as well as creating a changing pricing model.

Virtualization and the cloud are here to stay and will continue to penetrate and saturate. We are living in interesting times.

Source: ZDNet “Gartner lists top 5 server virtualization trends for 2012” by Paula Rooney
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/virtualization/gartner-lists-top-5-server-virtualization-trends-for-2012/4760

Understanding the Best Practices for Disk Imaging and Deployment

Guest Post:
by Matt Obrien, Dell Kace

Sitting through one installation after another is not themost cost-effective activity for the IT department, which is why many organizations are turning to other methods to install operating systems, drivers, and applications on new computers or when restoring an older device. These companies adopt a standardized software deployment system that captures the disk image as an image file where it can be edited, organized, and deployed to new or repurposed computers.

Basic Disk Imaging

A disk image is a file-by-file copy of a computer’s hard drive, which is saved in one or more image files. These files can be saved to a network, burned to a DVD, or sent to another storage device for further use. This image replicates the entire structure and contents of the hard disk, which can then be used to install operating systems on new computers and set up the necessary applications or to restore damaged systems.

This image lets the IT team set up every computer in a department or organization without having to install the individual components on every system. If the company has a large number of departments and devices, though, the number of images can start to get out of hand. In order to avoid some of the impending issues that can arise for this, many companies employ solutions for effective management.

Centralized Imaging

The images created in this process can be used as a baseline installation for a lot of the normal, everyday, technical needs of the company because they have the basic setup and all the associated patches, applications and programs ready to go. The IT team will still need a way to access all the information when necessary and deploy the right disk imaging to the right device.

By uploading everything to a centralized “image library” the team will be able to archive and manage all their images and easily deploy, edit and maintain them. Different departments may require completely different operating systems and applications, and this allows the IT team to provision everything (even to remote users) from a single, centralized console.

Scripted Installations

Installing and configuring all these systems can be very time consuming, and there are more cost-effective things the IT department could be doing. Scripted installs allow the IT team to install operating systems and applications and even configure the settings without having to sit in front of every computer and manually enter the necessary installation values.

When disk images are deployed from a centralized location, it is possible to use an answer file to respond to all the installation questions and completely automate the process. No one needs to sit in front of a computer for extended periods just to click “Yes” or “No” occasionally. The answer file provides the script for running these installations so the IT department can move on to other tasks while still deploying the necessary installations on each system.

Author Matt Obrien.
Matt works with Dell Kace. He enjoys writing about technology, computers and saving money.

Microsoft Windows 8

Microsoft Windows 8 is expected to be available Wednesday February 29th in Beta for Consumer Preview to download. Windows 8 has adopted the tablet style interface similar to Windows Phone 7 to go after the iPad / tablet market. You can still exit out to a traditional style interface. This may be what it takes for Microsoft to penetrate the tablet space and challenge the iPad essentially for the first time!

PC World Article “Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview: What We Know So Far” by Jared Newman:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/250678/microsoft_windows_8_consumer_preview_what_we_know_so_far.html

PCWorld Slide Show, “Windows 8: A Close-Up Look” by Jared Newman: http://www.pcworld.com/article/239896/windows_8_a_closeup_look.html

IT Trends: Cloud Virtualization Growth

1. Increased usage of tablets and smartphones has dramatically changed internet access patterns. The percentage of internet usage by PC’s has dropped by 50% in three years. The proliferation of smartphones and tablets will continue for the foreseeable future.

2. Gartner estimates that 76% of enterprises will be pursuing a private cloud strategy in 2012.

3. Gartner projects that by 2015, business will broadly adopt a “hybrid cloud” infrastructure, and interoperability through virtualization is a key cloud driver.

Gartner Research
http://www.gartner.com