This is the first in a series of blogs looking at the challenge that will be facing just about every organization over the next 12-24 months - migrating your existing desktop environment to Windows 7. 1E have been developing and implementing solutions to automate the deployment of new operating systems and the migration of existing desktop environments for over 7 years. This series will take you through the key stages of your deployment project and explain the cool tools, tips and tricks that we use to make the migration process as smooth and efficient as it can possibly be.

OS Migration Utopia? 

I think the Utopia for OS migration is a solution that is initiated either by a remote operator or the end user, and is then fully automated - backing up the user data and personality, deploying the corporate standard image along with all the right drivers, automatically determining and layering on the business and location specific applications and settings, applying all the latest updates and then restoring the user data and personality leaving the machine fully migrated and ready for the user to be productive. This should all be achieved with minimal time and effort from desktop operators, helpdesk support or even end users to initiate the process, with minimal down-time for the user, with minimal impact on the network and with the minimum amount of server infratructure as possible. With such a solution in place, actual migration of your desktop environment, no matter how large it is, becomes an effortless process that continues to provide cost savings every day when new joiners start, when workstations have to be replaced due to Hardware Refresh cycles and when workstations have to be rebuilt due to technical issues (break-fix).

This Utopia is achievable - and this blog series will explain how! It obviously involves a fair bit of work up front, and involves a number of tools and technologies that you need to get your head around, but the effort upfront will make the deployment a breeze, not only for Windows 7 now but will also prepare you for the next wonder that Microsoft throws into the desktop arena.

This series will cover the following topics

• Tools for the job - With System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 providing the foundation for the solution, we will introduce the tools and technolgies that are layered and integrated into the solution to provide a fully automated end-to-end migration process.
• The perfect match? - How to identify and address hardware and software compatibility issues. 
• Way to go - Bare-metal vs Refresh? What can be automated in a hardware refresh (replace) scenario? Factory build options?
• Image is everything...or is it? - What should be included in the image? Is 'one-image-fits-all' possible? How do I maintain the image and get updates synchronised around the network? What about boot images?
• In the driver seat - How do you ensure all your devices are going to work once your workstation has been migrated?
• Layer cake - automating the layering of department-specific, location-specific and user-specific applications and configuration, including automatically upgrading a previously installed application to the latest version during the migration.
• Split personality - extracting the bits you want to keep (data, settings and that picture of grandma) from your old XP system and putting them back in the right place under Windows 7
• Putting it about - exploring the infrastructure and processes for getting your image, drivers, applications, updates and user data where they need to be
• Help yourself – how to empower remote administrators, local operators and end users to manage migrations
• Go forth and multiply - now you have all the bits in place - how are you going to actually pilot and then complete your migration?

Come back next week to take a look at the tools and technologies that we will be using throughout this series.

Read the complete post at http://www.1e.com/techblog/post/2010/07/26/Windows-7-Deployment-the-1E-way-Part-1-Introduction.aspx