Steps to plan out the migration of your computers to a new operating system.
TechPoint has helped many businesses migrate their office computers and networks from one operating system to another. With Microsoft discontinuing support for Windows 7 and transitioning to Windows 10, now is a good time for us to share some of our knowledge to you. Here are some hints and tips on how to plan for your system migration:
- Backup your data and systems! So if anything goes sideways, you don’t lose you data and it can be restored to your system once the migration is complete.
- Plan the
scope of the migration:
- Identify what systems will be affected by the migration and to what extent.
- Identify that your software will still run on your migrated systems; if not, your software may need upgrading too.
- Ensure that your hardware will run the new OS, and future versions to. If not, it may be time to purchase new hardware.
- Plan your
team:
- Do you have the right personnel on your staff to manage and complete the migration?
- Does your team have the bandwidth to complete the project?
If not, you may want to partner with TechPoint in order to make sure that your migration is successful.
- Plan your migration structure and schedule: Ensure that you have all the right pieces in place: master operating system images, corporate software packages, patches and hotfixes, etc., so that you’re not caught on-the-hop by an unexpected installation that you were unaware of.
- Make sure that you have all items for your servers, desktop computers, thin-clients, and other hardware.
- Create a schedule for your plan, so you know at what point each item is being migrated, for instance, maybe schedule your servers first, then your desktops, then other hardware.
- Plan a test procedure: Thoroughly test each upgraded system before you move on to the next. This is particularly true of servers as they form the back bone of your network.
- Communicate with your end users throughout: Make sure that you stay in touch with your users; keep them informed of the migration schedule, so they know when systems will be offline. And they also need to be able to communicate with your migration team, as more often than not, there will be issues at the client-end that need resolving as their systems are upgraded.
Hopefully these guidelines will help you through a system upgrade or migration. Remember that TechPoint are always available if you need assistance with your project. Whether you just need planning advice, or a full project scope, we’re there for you.
Call-to-action: Request System Migration Info (links to https://www.tech-point.ca/contact-us/)