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Windows Vista migration

We are currently anticipating a migration to Windows Vista. However, various migration efforts to date have not all been very successful, and we are examining the following factors in particular:

  • Hardware compatibility - Support for older, or less popular hardware can be poor. These include:
    • Printers, especially multifunction and older inkjet devices
    • Early laptop wireless cards
    • External peripherals including non-USB card readers, digital cameras, scanners, etc.
  • Software application compatibility - Support for in-house-written applications, older vendor-supplied applications, specialty industry applications, and those that integrate into Windows of Microsoft Office can have problems. These will have to be upgraded or replaced.
  • Performance - We have found that Vista's CPU requirements are not very high. However, 1Gb of RAM is required, and 2Gb is preferred. Many older PCs have RAM limits, or the older RAM modules are expensive.

An upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007 is planned in concurrence with Vista.

Virtual Desktop infrastructure

The success of server virtualization in AdCom as well as across the industry has spawned a movement to extend these successes to the desktop PC environment. We are excited about the many potentially far-ranging benefits of such an environment, and have begun examining its feasibility here.

Possible benefits include:

  • Security (stored data, working session, physical, etc.)
  • Disaster recovery (at the individual, or more importantly, enterprise level)
  • Scalability (adding users, changing workloads)
  • Reliability (What pieces can potentially break?)
  • Availability (What's affected if a piece breaks?)
  • Compatibility (Will it work with software/hardware/processes already in place and going forward?)
  • Upgradability (Is it possible/how difficult would it be?)
  • Performance (Is it equal/better to what exists?
  • Remote accessibility (work-from-home/travel, pandemic planning, etc.)
  • Manageability (How much support complexity does it add?)
  • Limiting changes to user experience (People don't like change!)
  • User session continuity (Will users always get their familiar experience?)
  • Energy savings
  • (long-term) Capital cost reduction
  • Disposal (packaging, electronic waste)
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