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.

About

The Co-operative Bank (the “client”) provides personal banking services, and engaged Alkane Solutions as Microsoft Subject Matter Experts (SME) to resolve complex issues.

The Project

• Windows 10 debugging, audit and optimisations
• Complex application packaging
• Microsoft App-V performance improvements
• General service improvements

Challenges

• The client had previously engaged a team for 3 months to find the root cause of an issue that caused blank pages to appear in Microsoft Edge, and failed authentication with Microsoft Teams – this issue was affecting thousands of users.  The previous incumbents were unable to resolve the issue.
• The client had previously engaged a team for 6 months to virtualise a complex suite of SAP applications using Microsoft App-V for a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment – this suite of applications was required by over 1000 users.  The previous incumbents were unable to provide a solution which worked.
• The client were experiencing network speed issues and poor performance of App-V streaming.  Alkane were engaged to identify the root cause and implement a solution.
• The client didn’t have a modern process in place to package applications – they were still testing applications on physical devices, and waiting 2 hours to rebuild them in between testing phases.

Solution

• We utilised Wireshark and Process Monitor to debug API calls and protocol/port network traffic.  Within a week we were able to ascertain a conflict between Sophos Antivirus policies and ForcePoint Endpoint DLP.  This resolved blank screens in Edge and Teams authentication issues.
• We provided a working SAP App-V package within 3 days – it was a complex package which required decoupling of components and also included an Excel add-in.  The client required centralised configurations which could be updated and utilised by all end-users in real-time.
• The client had various sites in remote locations, yet were only utilising one central App-V content share.  Alkane implemented a Distributed File System (DFS) namespace with replication to all remote sites.
• We implemented a Hyper-V environment and created virtual machines which could be replicated and rebuilt in a matter of seconds as opposed to hours.

Results

• The impact of fixing the ForcePoint issue was huge – service desk tickets reduced by several hundred.
• Over 1000 users were able to continue using SAP, in-line with the back-end upgrade.  Our solution meant that the project was a success and delivered on time.
• Networking performance was greatly improved in general, and App-V streaming times were increased exponentially.
• The throughput of application packages increased due to the simplified process of testing and snapshotting applications.