Dell offers its services to migrate to Windows 7

The Texas computer maker announced the launch of services to assist migration to Windows 7 for business.

To migrate a single machine to a new OS and Windows 7 in this case is an operation that does not a priori any particular difficulty. But when we speak of the computer park of a business consisting of hundreds or thousands of PCs, is an initiative that is not taken lightly and requires the establishment of a genuine migration plan.

Even before the mass market of Windows 7 this Thursday, October 22, Dell took the lead in announcing the launch of services to aid the migration to the OS for businesses. And we can assume that as many companies have been deadlocked on Windows Vista, the world will occur for a transition to Windows 7.

However, companies tend to wait for a first service pack before starting such a site. Note however that Gartner believes that for the case of Windows 7, need not wait for the release of SP1 before considering a migration and perform some tests.

Dell has therefore already services for migration from Windows XP and Windows Vista to Windows 7 via including members of its Partner Direct program. In a statement, Dell said to ensure its customers that their systems are capable of running Windows 7, and determine which applications are used and which are compatible with Windows 7. Dell provides an impact assessment and evaluation with its presence in the park, establish a plan to deploy Windows 7 also with the end user training.

The Windows 7 for business
With Windows 7, Microsoft offers Professional and Enterprise editions, which have some advantages over consumer publishing Home Premium, as backup technologies via the network, data encryption, connection to a domain, making Remote Control, the XP compatibility mode.

For large accounts, the Enterprise edition of Windows 7 offers more protection against data theft with BitLocker To Go and BitLocker to removable disks, the Direct Access functionality that Windows Server 2008 R2 allows administrators to give mobile users secure access via the Internet (no VPN) to corporate resources, Branch Cache to optimize the loading time files from the parent (to agencies), AppLocker to prevent the execution of software not authorized federated search or booting from a VHD.

According to a Gartner study recently relayed by our colleague Silicon.fr a business migration to Windows 7 from Windows Vista is estimated around $ 500 (excluding equipment purchases), and $ 1 800 from Windows XP. Windows Vista and Windows 7 share the same base and what works on Vista, also works in Windows 7.