Today i would like to introduce Desmond Tan, an active member of the Windows IT Pro User Group in Singapore. Being new in the IT industry and having just graduated months ago, he is working very hard to hone his IT Pro skills. As with all IT Pros who are junior, they will start off supporting the clients. Desmond in his current workplace, supports about 100 client machines with another colleague in 2 geographically separated locations. He broke the misbelieves that Vista isn’t stable and is not compatible to their applications in office.
When he first join his workplace, there were numerous different type of clients and operating systems. He finds managing that many different type of clients a very expensive process. Having to skill himself on the many clients takes time and efforts. Takes a long process to be competent with a specific type of client. Desmond discussed with several members of the user group and myself. I pointed Desmond to a Spring Board resource that Microsoft has released for client.
Spring Board is a site the provides technical resources, guidance and training on how to manage and deploy a client. After several conversations, he decided to give Windows Vista a go. The route took quite a while in the past months. He tested Windows Vista RTM for several months. The outcome of that lab test isn’t very convincing. However, he did learn lots about Vista Client. Along came Vista SP1.
SP1 delivers better performance.
According to the Windows Experience Index, there is an improvement from 3.0 to 3.2. :-) No hardware chance, only applying Vista.
With Service Pack 1 applied, he noticed performance increase and better application compatibility.
Will Vista SP work with all his Business Applications?
With Vista SP1, he tested all the applications, including Line of Business Applications, worked 100% with Vista SP1.
A very quick way he found out through Spring Board, is to use the Application Compatibility Tool Kit. Through Application Compatibility and UAC site, he was able to find resource and guidance on how to test out compatibility issues in his environment. In most situations, you will be able to fix application compatibility issues with Vista SP1. In his situation, Desmond was happy to find out that all applications used by his office are 100% compatible with Vista SP1.
How about Hardware Assessment Tool?
He is also able to use Vista Hardware Assessment to find out if their current hardware are Vista capable or compliant. The tool was able to quickly identify the different sets of hardware specifications and whether they are compliant and capable to run Vista.
The project has certainly boost his company’s confidence in deploying Vista SP1 in their environment. Investing in a standard client operating environment tremendously reduces the costs of operations and helps deliver better value. Support is readily available in the local technical communities, via Microsoft’s Online Technical Forums and also through TechNet. With the comprehensive support and resources available, he is convinced that the investments in Vista SP1 will be paid off really soon and deliver real business values.
For him, the next step is to determine a full scale deployment for the company at the most cost effective manner.
Desmond mounted on an IT Pro Momentum project which provides him with access to, and support resources to help him get familiarized and adopt the technology. He has discovered that Vista can be so easily managed via Group Policies. In his IT career, he is going to learn how to deploy a Microsoft infrastructure to fully realize the potential benefits that a managed infrastructure provides and allows his company to achieve more, with IT.
Other Resources:
WDS in Action in MIC Singapore
/Dennis
