Dell Announces New Windows Server Migration Service 

Dell Services announced the expansion of its robust migration services portfolio with the new Windows Server 2003 Migration Service. As the July 2015 deadline approaches for the end of Windows Server 2003 support, the Dell offering will allow businesses currently running Windows Server 2003 to transition workloads to the Microsoft Azure cloud or Windows Server 2012 R2, while dramatically mitigating risk and costs associated with migration.

According to Microsoft, 94 percent of companies currently using Windows Server 2003 intend to migrate their applications to a newer version of Windows Server as well as Microsoft Azure. As they do so, they must address specific pain points, including assessing their current needs and future demands, finding the proper solutions for legacy applications and identifying which workloads can be moved to the cloud. Dell’s new service builds on its reputation as the 2013 U.S. Windows Partner of the Year and the 2012 and 2013 U.S. Windows Deployment Partner of the Year for desktop deployments. It is designed to assist customers in all stages of their Windows Server migration process to meet the 2015 deadline, while ensuring all necessary checkpoints on their migration list are answered along the way.

Gartner research demonstrates customers face numerous obstacles during their migration process including:

• For many clients, there is not enough time left to migrate all the systems that are running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 to a newer version before support ends in July 2015.
• Third-party products may become unsupported as well, triggered by the operating system dates.
• Operating servers with unsupported operating systems leaves the data center open to future risks due to unfixed security exposures or malfunctioning software.
• Choosing among the many possible tools and approaches to mitigate the risk is difficult and highly dependent on the individual system and the IT environment.
• No single solution will address all scenarios; the best practice is to establish a combination of approaches based on a risk management analysis.

“Enterprises around the world could be placing their data and customers at considerable risk by not migrating off of Windows Server 2003 before the deadline,” said Suresh Vaswani, president, Dell Services. “They may also face lack of compliance with various regulatory and industry standards, which could impact their business, particularly in highly regulated industries such as finance or healthcare. We aim to help our customers proactively address these issues and provide a smooth transition.”

Dell Services aims to provide customers with the most comprehensive Windows migration services portfolio.  With the offering announced today, Dell Services includes:

• Dell Windows Server OS Modernization Services that give customers a guide to flexible IT approaches that map out multiple technology options and deliver innovative technology integration, all while increasing automation and reducing manual effort
• Dell Datacenter Transformation Methodology, which helps accelerate server migration while simultaneously mitigating risk by designing, building and validating a step-by-step migration plan unique to each workload and app specification
• Dell Application Management Consulting and Global Application Packaging Factory, which conducts a full application inventory during the migration process to examine the compatibility of each legacy application and identify the needed remediation for each app
• Dell ChangeBASE technology that automatically analyzes applications to uncover compatibility issues with the targeted operating system

“There is no single migration plan that suits all workloads. Dell Services provides unique solutions to help rank and classify your Windows Server migration pathway based on critical business needs,” said Joe Schoenbaechler, Vice President, Infrastructure Consulting Services, Dell Services. “Dell’s end-to-end expertise addresses migration from the datacenter to the end point, empowering customers to modernize their IT environments with ease.”  

In 2013 Dell helped more than 500 enterprise customers migrate from Windows XP.  Dell’s team of IT experts simplifies the path to migration with services that deliver application, hardware and deployment readiness. Dell’s Windows Migration Services provide a comprehensive range of options to develop and execute a migration strategy tailored to their specific needs. IT departments that partner with Dell’s team of Windows migration experts minimize IT resource strain and software licensing costs while maximizing management software investments and end-user experience.