Enterprises are off and running with Windows 7, App-V, XenApp and optimized desktop projects. The challenge comes in determining what applications to migrate, managing applications, application testing and application compatibility. Next week’s Microsoft World Partner Conference has an amazing track educating Microsoft partners on how to best help enterprises accelerate their move to Windows 7, as well as Internet Explorer 8, App-V and all of the related technologies.

What if Microsoft partners were given the opportunity to partner with App-DNA and, for no cost, access the award winning AppTitude™ application testing and application remediation platform to deliver to Proof of Concepts (POC)? What if it only took three days to assess application remediation issues?

App-DNA has a fantastic program that already exists today, called Launchpad and will provide a crystal clear view of an enterprise’s application estate.  This in turn will help systems integrators and service providers deliver the business case to move more quickly to the optimized desktop.  Partners will find more successful projects by gaining a truer understanding of what the enterprise application estate looks like, and better assessing the level of effort needed to properly give an accurate bid for the project. Customers and partners are more satisfied from a clear view of the project, an accurate price quote and a realistic timeline based on facts rather than “gut feel.”

App-DNA Launchpad is a quick-start application compatibility discovery program that brings together four high-value components:

EstateView™ - provides an instant portfolio readiness report on up to 1000 apps

EffortCalculator™ - details project scope and scale by using real metrics to calculate costs, duration and resource needs

CoreSample™ - assessment reports on 50 apps with full reports on 10 selected MSI apps with a deep ‘drill down’ on over 68,000 data points per app in 11 areas

What it means for Microsoft partner’s customers:

See exactly how ready a customer’s app estate is to migrate

Calculate what the migration proposal will cost and how long it will take

Guide resourcing decisions

Build an informed migration strategy – meet more deadlines

Interested in learning more about App-DNA Launchpad for Microsoft partners?  Drop us a line at info@app-dna.com to set up a time to talk at WPC next week or after the conference.

Based on a slew of positive reviews of its beta releases, Windows 7 is already attracting more attention – certainly more positive attention -- than Windows Vista ever did.  But will Win 7 be the OS that Microsoft had intended Vista to be?  Whether it’s Vista or Win 7 or whatever comes next, changing an organization’s OS always has a major impact on the bottom line.  Every person using a Windows computer is affected. Yet the challenge for IT is to refresh the OS with little or no business disruption.  And IT also has to justify the level of effort and cost to the business.  This can be a tough sell when things may appear to be fine as is.

The much vaunted “business value” proposition for operating systems has become a target of critics.  An OS is ultimately a platform on which to run applications.  It’s the applications that manage the business and they are the reason the significant license investments are made.  The right OS should run applications quickly and efficiently, providing a smooth experience for users.  On this basis alone, the business case for an OS upgrade becomes difficult.  A business just wants its applications to work, period.  Going through a disruptive, expensive change to a new OS for a marginal gain just doesn’t seem worth the hassle.

This time around, organizations thinking about a Win 7 upgrade have an advantage, some new technologies and solutions that support and automate what has traditionally been a protracted, risky and very expensive process. For most of us, the preparation, planning, rationalization and assessment for adopting a new OS remain the same.  But there are emerging technologies to help get the applications onto the new OS AND facilitate better ongoing management, agility and stability for the application portfolio.

So there are some key arguments in favor of the business case for a move to Win 7.  With the right tools, you can reduce the cost, risk and business disruption of migration, increase application stability and reduce the cost of ongoing IT management.  In upcoming posts, I’ll offer my thoughts on various aspects of the OS upgrade challenge, including some tips that might reduce your pain if you’ve decided to move to Win 7.  I hope you’ll share your thoughts here as well, or let me know if there’s a particular OS upgrade challenge you’re facing.

Paul Schnell