Preparation

 
 
By Christine Ewing  |  Posted 2011-03-04 Email Print this article Print
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Preparation

A key factor for a smooth migration is preparation. Survey respondents indicated that their IT professionals typically spent 10 hours preparing for the switch to Windows 7. Plus, 85 percent stated that it was somewhat to extremely important to capture data-user files and documents, specifically-before the migration. More than 80 percent said that links to network drives and e-mail were also important to capture. Many also recommended including information such as office settings, user profiles and contacts.

The hardware requirements for a Windows 7 upgrade were another significant consideration identified in the survey. The decision of whether to upgrade to new PCs or install the operating system on their current machines was impacted by factors such as RAM capacity (75 percent), processor speed (74 percent), the age of the older PC (73 percent) and budget (71 percent). Plus, 52 percent of respondents used the Windows Experience Index to determine whether their processors were suitable for Windows 7, while 51 percent used processor speed in GHz and 42 percent used analyst reports.

Other specific recommendations were made with regard to processor speed (2.5 to 3GHz), storage (500GB to 1TB) and video RAM (VRAM) (1GB or more).

An IT manager of a midsize enterprise stated, "For each upgrade, we have a minimum of at least two gigs of RAM. For some of the higher-end systems, we need a lot more processing of RAM because we're multitasking or running MySQL and running some proprietary code software on the back system."

In North America specifically, IT professionals used CPUID, analyst reports and published reviews most often.



 
 
 
 
Christine Ewing is Director of Product Marketing for the Endpoint Management group at Symantec. Christine has more than 12 years of experience in IT software product management and marketing. In her role at Symantec, Christine is responsible for identifying and analyzing market trends and working with the product management team to create market-driven products. In addition to being a seasoned product marketing manager, Christine has held a number of product management roles inside of Symantec, where she delivered new technologies to the market and managed existing endpoint management products. Prior to her current role in marketing, Christine was a senior product manager for the Endpoint Management group at Symantec and at Altiris (before it was acquired by Symantec in 2007). Before joining Symantec/Altiris, Christine held positions at Compaq and Thermo Electron, working in various roles of engineering, product management and marketing. Christine holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and History from Northwestern University. She can be reached at christine_ewing@symantec.com.
 
 
 
 
 
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