Re-cap: The State of Migration – A Dell hosted Influencer Event

Earlier this week, Dell Software hosted a media day in New York City entitled ‘The State of Migration – A Dell hosted Influencer Event’. We had some great influential speakers and media attend to really dig into and chat about the upcoming Windows Server 2003 end of support date (July 14 2015), how companies are approaching this project, and how organizations are using this end of support event as a way to modernize their infrastructure, specifically Microsoft Active Directory.

I was happy to kick off the discussion by addressing today’s migration industry landscape, something I know a thing or two about based on my continual work with customers, and why modernizing your Active Directory infrastructure is particularly top of mind for organizations of all sizes. In nearly all companies we work with, Active Directory is the most mission critical directory service. As a result, it’s critical to take a deep underlying look at your AD infrastructure and modernize it – this should be a first step to any migration project.

Mark Linton, GM of the OEM Product Management Group at Microsoft was on hand to discuss the upsides of migrating off Server 2003 – yes, there are lots of opportunities for organizations post-migration – and the resources available to ensure a smooth and successful migration.

Alan West, President and CEO from one of our trusted partners XMS Solutions discussed the role channel partners play in migration projects and why organizations look to channel partners to help implement and execute migration and modernization projects. Alan provided some real world examples of companies currently migrating, chatted about some of the challenges they’ve come across, and offered up a few tips and tricks for a successful migration.

Lastly, and certainly not least, Paul Caron, Supervisor, Information Systems, Maine Medical Center discussed his AD consolidation project. MaineHealth leveraged Dell’s Windows Management and Migration software to modernize MaineHealths’ Windows infrastructure and Paul discussed how this AD Modernization first step helps the healthcare provider be better prepared for future migration projects. Watch our Dell World presentation to learn more about the MaineHealth Story.

It was a great event and it was very apparent the importance Active Directory plays in a Server 2003 migration. It is the foundation of many infrastructures and many companies are modernizing and transforming their infrastructure to prepare for future business growth.  

And for those that attended, I am still full from all the food…..   Happy holidays

About the Author: Michael Tweddle