Shhh!! Don’t tell anyone but XP end of life is coming in just a few months now. Who am I kidding?!? It’s not like every other vendor with a migration play hasn’t shouted it from the rooftops, Liquidware Labs included.
Here is something you may not know, if you have not migrated from XP, you are not alone. A fresh report from the analyst firm Forrester says that 20% or more of work desktops still run XP. Are those desktops going to blow up in April? Probably not, but you’ll be going it alone without security patches and updates. I am personally going to miss XP, ahhh but I digress.
Migrations are a PITA for administrators. Here is why:
¢ User Downtime – a lot of tools that harvest user data cause the user to be down from 2 hours to several days. Who can afford to have a user down? Oh, you can do it on the weekends for them, right? Do I have a show of hands who wants to work this weekend first?
¢ One-way Migration – most migrations are a one-way street, there is no turning back. Don’t think you need to go back? What about app compatibility for a few apps that need XP or what if data is missed?
¢ Migrations are a necessary evil – Just as soon as you get your users to Windows 7, some of them are going to want Windows 8. Oh yeah, some are on Windows 8 and now need to go to Windows 8.1 because it is more stable. Keep reading below on how to “STOP THE INSANITY!” (Thank you 90s fitness guru, Susan Powter for the quote).
¢ Man hours (or Woman hours) – Migrations take a lot of planning, work, checking, rechecking, taking new OS live, etc. etc. It can be costly and time consuming.
“STOP THE INSANITY!”
A user managed with ProfileUnity actually never has to undergo a traditional migration. Why?, because they are “Under Management” with a persona, configuration, and even certain applications that can be made universal. Once a profile is compatible and user data is separately managed and saved outside the OS, you are free from the endless cycle of migrations. So get it right the first time, don’t migrate from Windows XP or 7, get your Users under Management and free yourself and your users today!
Benefits:
¢ Zero User Downtime – A user under management with ProfieUnity simple logs onto their next generation desktop once it is on the domain. Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 can all be configured to work seamlessly with each other with no user downtime and no admins working on the weekends.
¢ Mixed OS desktops can co-exist- A user can have multiple desktops and still experience their profile across all of them, even simultaneously. This does two thing; 1) The user can keep their old desktop for a period of time and 2) Administrators can roll-out the new desktops at will with no hard deadline.
¢ The endless Cycle of Migrations, finally ended – ProfileUnity can be leveraged for a move from XP to 7 to 8*, to 8.1*, and remember Vista? Oh yeah, we support that too.
¢ ROI – Any organization with Users Under Management can save significantly over time intensive old-style migrations.
Want to see it in action? See this managed user go from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 7 seconds! Read more about User Management in my other recent blog post….Why you need to get your Users Under Management.
*Windows 8 and 8.1 support for ProfileUnity is planned for Q4 2013. BETA support available now.
So, effectively what you are saying is that you can seamlessly migrate to Windows 8 or 8.1 now but it is under BETA support until next month when it will be GA?