Migration to Windows Server 2008 from Novell Powered by Momentum

Here is another interesting project that was powered byIT Pro Momentum.  This project was just an initial step with many more to come

This project led by another IT Profession, like myself and many others decided to turn their passion and hobby for technology into a career in the great field of IT support.  With responsibilities for implementation and support for 25 servers in corporate office and 15 remote locations, servicing approx 175 PC's

This project was spawned out of the need to migrate Novell, to quote the project lead.

What was the initial motivation to start this project?

Existing Novell environment getting tired and difficult to integrate with new applications and changing business needs

How did you find your experience with momentum?

Excellent so far. The forums are useful to view other peoples experiences with the technologies.

How to get it approved or business justification?

This was quite easy. Firstly, the better integration of Windows server and Active Directory with 3rd party applications was a major selling point, as we have had issues with integrating applications with the existing Novell environment for some time. The fact that the Windows/AD combination is the de-facto standard helped this greatly. Secondly, the cost of implementing Windows/AD actually came out cheaper than a refresh of our Novell software.

Overall implementation so far some technical details:

This change goes hand in hand with a move to virtual infrastructure using a VMware Infrastructure solution. Also, the plan is to consolidate and centralize our remote branch office services to our head office datacenter. Windows/AD seems to be much better suited to our current and future needs in this regard. Has all been good, with no major problems to mention. The only thing to do differently, would be to make the move earlier!

What are some of the gains from this project?

Improved capacity for integration with 3rd party apps, more knowledge/support availability than other technologies, easier access to expert assistance if required. So far, no negatives to speak of, is looking extremely promising, and the technology is actually quite cool to play with. The better integration of 3rd party applications with Windows/AD is the driver here.

What are some Future plans to expand on this project? pilot or roll out the technology company-wide

The intention is to move the entire company server infrastructure to Windows, including our SAP system(currently running on Sun Solaris), using file/print and AD as the initial step.

As you can see momentum really helped this customer, with a great project!