The enthusiasm about the Windows 7 operating system is building as Microsoft provided RTM (release to manufacturing) code to OEMs, like Dell, on July 24th. As a company, Dell has worked very closely with Microsoft during the development of the platform. In fact, Dell has spent thousands of hours testing hundreds of systems with Windows 7 and will continue to test leading up to general availability in Oct 22nd. So far, we have found this newest OS to be very solid and see tremendous value for our business customers.
Dell believes that there are a many opportunities to help customers not only upgrade but get the most out of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to customers looking to upgrade from Windows Vista, many customers who are still on Windows XP will be looking to move to Windows 7 as well. With many of our customers expecting to upgrade their hardware, there are some specific ways that Dell can help customers see a better return on investment tied to an OS refresh.
Today, many customers find that migrating to a new OS can be complicated and risky without the proper planning. They have concerns about data migration, hardware limitations, integration of existing applications and licensing issues. By engaging at the very beginning of a customers’ evaluation of Windows 7, Dell can be an important resource. Both to determine if they will have specific compatibility issues or if their environment is ready to be upgraded. In addition, Dell gives customers a specific roadmap to ensure migration is fast and reliable.
Dell does this through a unique set of services for assessment, design and deployment which can reduce the time and risk of migration, utilizing proven reference architecture with field tested operational models. The company helps customers understand the business potential of transitioning to Windows 7 and/or Windows Server 2008 R2.
Upcoming offerings that can help optimize and manage customers’ infrastructure, include:
- Application Management Services: Application compatibility is a key concern for many customers. Dell has developed a suite of services to efficiently identify, test, remediate and deploy applications. Dell can also help customers inventory and rationalize their application portfolio before initiating the remediation activities to focus resources on the most critical applications.
- Migration and Deployment Services: In order to ease upgrading to Windows 7, Dell offers readiness assessments and optimized OS deployment services. Dell’s deployment services help customers with all migration aspects including organization, infrastructure, hardware, software, image and deployment. By leveraging Dell’s global deployment capabilities and tools, customers can more efficiently upgrade to Windows 7, while decreasing deployment time, mitigating risk, and reducing network traffic.
- Image Management Services: These provide fully functional images built by Dell consultants according to the customers’ specifications that are ready for deployment of Windows 7 on Dell client systems.
Today, Dell is already helping early adopters transition to Windows 7. The company is also evaluating all of its services to make sure that Dell offers the right solutions to help customers manage through this transition. Over the next few months, with the earliest beta customers, Dell will continue to help customers transition in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.
Jim Ginger
Global Practice Leader of End User Computing
Global Infrastructure Consulting Services at Dell