Today's Software Trends and Challenges

The significance of a critical application or operating system reaching end of life is hard to overstate. Lack of support, compatibility issues, and increased security risks can have far-reaching effects on your organization—especially when it comes to database environments. As Microsoft SQL Server 2005 approaches end of life, organizations running older versions will need to prepare to migrate or run the risk of putting their data and applications in peril. However, the process of upgrading to a supported version isn’t always simple. A new version can be installed quickly, but there are changes to the CMOS, databases, and overarching architecture that need to be considered before doing so. Most organizations will need to perform an analysis of their environment to determine what actions will be required before they make the move.

A relevant trend that is growing in popularity today is the move to put more and more applications in the cloud. Many organizations do not see the need to manage these aspects of their infrastructure anymore. They want to free up resources from the burden of managing of a server environment on a daily basis. For that reason, the cloud-based software in the Microsoft Cloud stack offers an attractive alternative. This is driving greater consumption of Office 365, Azure, SQL, CRM, and more, as many organizations opt for a monthly subscription fee instead of on-premise obligations. However, application portability has its challenges. Standards in the applications have changed over the years, with new versions of Java, C++, and other core languages. Your mission-critical applications developed years ago could be very difficult to transport. Source code for older applications may not be available, and the person who wrote that code may no longer be with your organization. It can be very difficult to move those applications if you don’t have access to those resources. That’s why it’s so important to get as much information about your environment as you can before you begin planning your migration.

Your Strategic Goals Drive Our Solutions

For IT managers, directors, and CIOs, today’s software challenges are on everybody’s mind in IT. Decision makers are concerned about the budget needed to upgrade these environments. You have a myriad of applications to deal with—some of which you might not know what to do with and others that you may not be sure how to migrate away from efficiently. Above all else, you need to ensure your team is able to continue meeting the needs of the organization, without negatively impacting the organization’s ability to conduct business during a migration.

The choice to upgrade to the latest software is an easy decision to make—because it enables productivity, mobility, and the speed you need to thrive as an organization. Your employees want be aligned with a workplace that offers them modern tools to get their jobs done effectively. They want to build new skills and not feel left behind. They want to feel like they are within an organization that will help them advance their careers—and providing access to modern, in-demand technologies is an important way to offer that support. Our experts can help you put those applications and infrastructure in place to support your goals and position your organization for success.

Let Us Help You Find the Best Migration Path

We have the tools and the expertise to help your organization prepare for a refresh and migration of your applications and databases. Through our Microsoft Licensing Optimization (MLO) process, we will help you discover and evaluate your options, and then recommend the right choice for your organization. At the same time, our experts understand that a solid implementation plan is mission-critical. Therefore, we will also leverage tools to assess your readiness to consume the available options, and build a plan to support a successful rollout.

We recognize that not all applications can be migrated to a new platform. Therefore, we have partnered with AppZero to provide a solution that enables environments to run on an unsupported platform—like Windows 2003 or SQL 2005—but in a protected container. With our solution in place, you can continue to run your applications for an indefinite period of time. If it is not possible to containerize the application, we can provide coding experts to consult on your solution. Our experts will analyze the code that your current applications are built on, and we will present you with the best possible migration path for your organization and your specific needs.

In-House Expertise Ready to Assist with Any Project

Our MLO and Readiness Assessments were built from the ground up entirely by our team of in-house experts. Using these valuable services, we have helped customers of all sizes—and from every industry—make informed, educated investment decisions based on insights from their own environments. Our tenured, expert engineers are certified in all relevant Microsoft technologies (including Windows Server, SQL Server, and Exchange Server), VMware offerings, and the latest mobile and cloud technologies.

How We Can Help You Tackle Any Migration

The success of any application migration is greatly influenced by properly planning, provisioning access, and managing users. Our team can help you discover where your challenges lie before you start your migration, ensuring you have the information you need to understand key issues as well as the project’s impact on your helpdesk and end users. Our Software Practice takes a multi-phased approach to solutions development, beginning each engagement with a conversation, followed by a detailed assessment of your environment. We provide our Microsoft Licensing Optimization (MLO) service, which is designed to help you reduce licensing costs and complexity. Then, we analyze your infrastructure. Our experts start with a scoping call to understand your environment, and follow up with assessments or services in key areas, such as an Active Directory Assessment.

Get More Control Over Your Environment with an Active Directory Assessment

A crucial component of a complete readiness plan is an Active Directory Assessment. This service will provide you with a detailed analysis of your existing environment and deliver remediation plans to reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO) and improve your return on investment (ROI). Drawing on decades of experience and the latest industry resources, including the Microsoft Map tool, our experts perform an audit of your environment, identify trouble points, create a project plan, and conduct a scoping session to upgrade your target applications. After our analysis, we provide a report that outlines the best course of action for your environment. Our team can then make a plan to migrate your applications while ensuring you are still able to maintain compliance. When your readiness plan is underway and the deployments and migrations begin, count on our experts to help you ensure a smooth transition for your SharePoint, Active Directory, and other applications and services.