About
NHS (the “client”) are a publicly funded healthcare system in the United Kingdom, and required Windows 10 migration experts to migrate their estate from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
The Project
We were engaged to migrate circa 6,500 devices and 10,000 users from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The timescales were aggressive – we were asked to complete this project within 3 months. We were responsible for (but not limited to):
- Hardware integration for 20 models – SCCM operating system deployments (OSD) and driver packs for each model.
- Upgrading all Windows 7 devices to Windows 10, decommissioning those over 5 years old and repurposing those under 5 years old.
- Packaging and testing all applications using App-V 5.1 on Windows 10 x64.
- Implementing a non-persistent VDI solution.
- Implementing monthly patching and automatic deployment rules (ADR).
- Support end-users with Windows 10 issues
Challenges
- Aggressive timescales
- The Trust is geographically spread over 4 main sites, plus community sites
- Hardware asset locations were largely unknown
- An unrationalised application portfolio of over 1000 applications
- No pre-defined clinical testers for applications
- A non-persistent VDI environment, which meant a requirement to virtualise each application
- Legacy applications unsupported on Windows 10
- Covid-19 homeworking made laptop swaps challenging
- Many undocumented and manually installed applications
- Clinical peripherals including blood testers, barcode scanners, high-resolution cameras, smart card printers and more.
Solution
- We successfully integrated and tested 20 pieces of hardware
- We saved the client thousands of pounds by not using expensive audit software, and instead developed bespoke Power BI dashboards to join data from multiple data sources (LanSweeper, App-V Reporting, SCCM, Active Directory, ManageEngine and more) and drive the migration.
- Our business intelligence solution was used to derive a rollout strategy based on application usage count, the status of each application in the packaging process, and the user/device department.
- We performed a manual site audit to identify specific asset locations. Combined with this, we developed a bespoke PowerShell solution to locate hardware which we were unable to manually locate.
- We rationalised the list of applications down to 277 from over 1,000. We tested these for compatibility with Windows 10 x64 and App-V 5.1, packaged all applications used by 10 or more people, identified clinical testers, tested and documented each application.
- We supported Windows 10 end-users throughout the project.
- We set up clinics on-site to facilitate laptop swap outs, adhering to strict Covid-19 safety standards.
- We produced a patching process with pilot groups, testing major clinical applications as part of the pilot before we released security patches to all.
- We implemented a stable VDI solution which utilised Microsoft User-Experience Virtualisation (UE-V) to persist user preferences and settings across sessions.
Results
- We successfully migrated circa 6,500 devices to Windows 10 x64 within 3 months. This was one of the fastest migrations to Windows 10 in the UK healthcare sector.
- The NHS Trust now has a managed application portfolio with fully-documented application packages.
- We saved the NHS thousands of pounds by forgoing the use of expensive audit software. Our bespoke Power BI solution drove the migration perfectly, and users that were migrated always had their applications readily available on Windows 10.
- All hardware specifications now meet or exceed the minimum requirements for Windows 10.
- Users now have access to an optimised VDI environment with all required clinical applications.
