Accelerating Windows 10 migration

Windows 10 was made generally available on July 29, 2015 and has broken records for adoption since. According to Microsoft, more than 200 million devices had been upgraded within the first six months. As bring-your-own device (BYOD) initiatives continue to gain in popularity, employees will expect to use their new Windows 10 devices to gain access to corporate assets, applications and data.

Citrix has been working with Microsoft for over 25 years and has helped countless customers with OS and Windows 10 migrations. Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) assists with the top issues facing IT during OS migration, including app compatibility, browser compatibility and ongoing system management.

Application compatibility

The exhaustive efforts companies took to manually migrate to Windows XP and Windows 7 are still fresh in their minds, and the sting of lost productivity due to app compatibility issues is equally fresh. For example, customers may have line of business apps that are designed to work with specific versions of Windows. In previous OS migrations, all of the apps had to be checked by hand, which is a very time-consuming process.

Citrix solves the application compatibility issue in two ways:

  • Deliver line-of-business apps virtually through Citrix DaaS. Employees can access the apps they need on any device, including Windows 10, and continue to be productive.
  • IT can continue their Windows 10 migration by performing automated app compatibility testing and packaging with Citrix AppDNA.

Data management

As part of any OS migration, IT must plan for managing the organization’s data. This includes determining where user data resides, evaluating whether the upgrade might impact data availability, and educating users about data backups on local machines and personal devices.

Citrix content collaboration solutions enable organizations to connect to data wherever it resides, eliminating lengthy data migration projects, time-consuming end user training on data backups, and downtime for access to data.

Ongoing system management

With Windows 10, Microsoft plans updates on a much more frequent cadence. With every significant update there also comes a chance it will cause incompatibility with key applications. Companies may also want to enable their employees to try Windows 10 before a wide scale deployment.

Citrix DaaS centralizes management of all desktops from a single “golden image” managed in the data center or in Microsoft Azure. Deploying corporate standard Windows 10 desktops with Citrix DaaS enables central control and governing of all Windows 10 updates and drastically simplifies the update process. By applying the updates to only the centrally managed “golden images,” you can immediately update thousands of devices. Before applying any update, quickly and easily test it through AppDNA against your Windows 10 images to predict and avoid any app compatibility issues.

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With the release of Windows 10, Citrix is helping IT teams prepare to support a new era of user-driven OS migration. Businesses that adopt an DaaS and VDI strategy will find that the solution not only assists with embracing the new operating system, but also offers additional benefits related to evolving user experience, flexibility and security demands.