Accelerating Windows 7 Deployment with a PoC or Production Pilot
The Windows Team just announced the launch of targeted partner and self service resources to help organizations get started with a proof of concept (PoC) or engage in our production pilot.
During the proof of concept stage (5 to 50 PCs), the following 8 steps help to ensure a successful evaluation of the Microsoft Optimized Desktop:
- Value proposition
- Economic justification
- Hardware assessment
- Application compatibility
- Image engineering
- PoC deployment
- PoC testing
- Review and next steps
During the pilot stage, you can leverage available deployment programs from Microsoft Services or Microsoft Partners. These programs can help you implement a formalized and scalable pilot solution to test the new Windows Optimized Desktop platform and deployment approach in a production environment. This is a critical step to assess infrastructure and organization readiness before a broader deployment.
The core production pilot typically includes:
- Comprehensive workshops that cover the overall deployment approach, application compatibility, image engineering, and application virtualization using App-V
- Detailed design and deployment-plan documentation
- Application-compatibility assessment and remediation of key applications
- Image engineering and deployment
- App-V sequencing and deployment
- Budget estimate for full-production deployment
- End-user training plan
The Self-Service PoC Jumpstart Kit offers a virtual hard disk that can be installed to a server for the deployment., It is a set up and ready to go environment with trial versions of Windows 7 Enterprise, Server 2008, Office 2010 and all the tools like MAP, MDT, ACT, OEAT that you will need to test your applications in a live environment as well as a great sandbox to test your pilot and deploy strategies.