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Windows 7 Enterprise

 

Bil Martin,
System Management Practice Leader, InfraScience

 
Windows 7 has been out for 6 months. According to Microsoft, Windows 7 Enterprise is the most advanced Windows operating system for business PCs, designed to meet the evolving needs of the users and IT professionals in your organization. Windows 7 professional and Enterprise’s features and benefits can help to drive to a lower total cost of ownership by helping your users be productive whether they are in the office or working remotely, enhancing protection and control, and simplifying PC management across the organization. Many corporations are already planning on deploying Windows 7 in their environment. How about you, have you decided to make then jump to Windows 7? In this newsletter we will discuss several reasons why you should be moving toward a Windows 7 deployment. We will cover some of the features that can help your company be more efficient and cost effective. We will also identify the areas you will need to consider as you plan your desktop migration to Windows 7.

Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise are the editions that are designed for today’s business environments. These editions provide the features designed to help you to remove the obstacles that stand between you and your success. Windows 7 is packed with many features to make it simpler and easier to use. For example Windows 7 has better ways to find and manage files—like Jump Lists, Location-Aware Printing, and improved taskbar previews—to help you speed through everyday tasks.    It's designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to.

The Windows 7 Enterprise operating system (OS) is available to Microsoft Software Assurance customers. With Windows 7 Enterprise, you can take advantage of the following features that are not available in Windows 7 Professional:

  • DirectAccess: Give mobile users seamless access to corporate networks without a need to VPN.
  • BranchCache: Decrease the time branch office users spend waiting to download files across the network.
  • Federated Search: Find information in remote repositories, including SharePoint sites, with a simple user interface.
  • BitLocker and BitLocker To Go: Help protect data on PCs and removable drives, with manageability to enforce encryption and backup of recovery keys.
  • AppLocker: Specify what software is allowed to run on a user's PCs through centrally managed but flexible Group Policies.
  • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) optimizations: Improved user experience for VDI with multimon and microphone support, which have the ability to reuse virtual hard drive (VHD) images to boot a physical PC.
  • Multilingual user interface: Create a single OS image for deployment to users worldwide.

Microsoft has created several tools that can assist you in deploying Windows 7 in your organization. Although these tools can go a long way in removing roadblocks that prevent you from deploying Windows 7, proper planning and testing is required to ensure a successful, cost efficient deployment of Windows 7. InfraScience has years of experience in migrating and deploying desktop operating systems in the corporate environment. Our consultants have experience deploying desktop operation systems for companies ranging from several thousand workstations to multi-national corporations with several hundred thousand workstations. InfraScience uses a proven methodology, best practices, and has the experience to know which tools and solutions are best to meet your company’s needs during the deployment and migration to Windows 7.

The following are areas that you will need to address as you plan for the deployment of Windows 7 in your environment. This list is not intended to be all inclusive.

Infrastructure Readiness – Will your existing infrastructure support a smooth deployment of Window 7? Some of the things to consider are what tools and servers are available, what is you network bandwidth? How many systems do you currently have and what is installed on them.

Image Creation and Management – Do you have existing images today? How many images are you supporting, what is the process to update and manage these images? There are several tools and processes available today that can assist with the creation and efficient update of your images. It is possible to greatly reduce the number of images you require to support your business.

Application Compatibility and Deployment – Will your current applications run on Windows 7? The application compatibility toolkit, Windows XP mode / Med-V, and Application Virtualization are all tools and processes that can help solve compatibility issues. How are you deploying you applications today, can we streamline and automate the deployment of application?

Security – Are your users currently local administrators on their workstations? Creating a locked down environment can provide a more stable cost efficient operation. Windows 7 introduces many new group policies setting that will allow you better control of your environment. Is your data secured? BitLocker and BitLocker To Go help ensure your intellectual capital does not leave your company.

Deployment – How are you going to deploy the new Windows 7 images and application to your workstations? Windows Deployment Services, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and System Center Configuration Manager are some of the tools and processes available to assist with the deployment.

User State Migration – Saving and restoring the users’ settings and data is critical to a successful migration. The Microsoft User State Migration tools can save and restore the users’ data either locally or on a network share.