Dell Seeks To Smooth The Path To Vista

Windows

Dell's Client Migration Solution is designed for OS migrations or hardware deployments of 2,500 systems or more, and addresses such thorny Vista migration issues as network utilization, hardware and application compatibility and end-user downtime. Dell claims the solution can cut migration costs by up to 62 percent and labor costs by up to 88 percent.

Todd Swank, vice president of marketing at Nor-Tech, Burnsville, Minn., says Dell's toolset is a reflection of the fact that larger companies are ready to migrate to Vista. "We've done internal assessments on migrating, and the fact that Dell is now offering tools and services indicates that larger businesses are taking a serious look at Vista," he said.

The news shows that Dell's stance on Vista has changed dramatically since last July, when Dell European client services business manager Niall O'Callaghan broke with the vendor's established party line and warned that the computer giant was "stepping back" from telling people they must upgrade to Vista due to the significant challenges of moving to the new OS, including application migration issues and hardware requirements.

Microsoft, which recently updated its Deployment Toolkit for Vista migrations, is in the midst of a concerted push to help partners identify the changes they need to make in their environments for Vista to work properly, according to Swank, who notes that application compatibility issues in Vista could require some organizations to switch applications or buy upgraded versions.

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"Microsoft is really getting behind having larger commercial accounts switch to Vista," Swank said. "The transition in itself can be painful for some organizations, but once they're up and running with Vista, they're pretty happy."

But Steve Bohman, vice president of operations at Columbus Micro Systems, a system builder in Columbus, Ohio, believes the Dell solution could ruffle the feathers of solution providers who've been pulling in steady revenue from Vista migration.

"It's hard to imagine that a company with 2500 seats is going to rely on Dell to help them with their migration to Vista," said Bohman. "I can see why VARs that offer these services would be concerned, because any time Dell steps into your space, you have to wonder."

Dell's Client Migration Solution is available now in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, and in a limited rollout in Latin America, with Asia-Pacific availability slated for later this year.