Windows 7 Migration
Case Studies: How Expedia and Continental Airlines Use Virtualization for Windows 7 Migration
Ever wonder how an OS migration plays out at a big company? In the case of Continental Airlines and Expedia, the move to Windows 7 was bolstered significantly...
Ever wonder how an OS migration plays out at a big company? In the case of Continental Airlines and Expedia, the move to Windows 7 was bolstered significantly by virtualization tools and technologies.
Travel site Expedia, for example, is in the process of migrating from Windows XP, having skipped Vista altogether (a familiar story). The company is using a combination of app- and desktop-virtualization tools (Microsoft's App-V and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, respectively) to lower costs:
After a year of planning that included three phases (application compatibility testing first, a pilot testing program next and finally a wider roll out of Windows 7 to new employees and those with old PCs) Expedia now has Windows 7 deployed to 300 seats, with plans to roll it out to 2,500 seats by the end of the year. The travel site used application virtualization as a cost-saver to package and install applications using Microsoft's App-V virtualization tool (part of the MDOP suite). Previously, Expedia's application deployment method had been more or less manual, but the cost of packaging each of the apps was unsustainable, says Mike Peterson, Expedia's manager of end-user technology.As for Continental, the airline was able to take advantage of some earlier app-compatibility testing that was part of a planned migration to Windows Vista. When the decision was made to leapfrog to 7, the company knew those apps "were going to work just fine on Windows 7," said Continental systems/network engineer Eric Craig. All this echoes what we've been saying for months: that companies planning to make the move to Windows 7 can save time and money be leveraging virtualization. Be sure to read the whole piece; it's mighty interesting.
