What Organizations Should Know About Windows 2000 Migration

The migration of desktop machines to Windows 2000 will be a dramatically different experience from that of migrating network servers. Windows 2000 Professional (Pro) is exactly the type of reliable, lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) desktop OS that businesses have been waiting for. With several automated installation options available, it should be a relatively easy and productive upgrade for most customers. Windows 2000 Server promises greater scalability, reliability, and manageability and includes new features that won’t ever appear in Windows NT Server (NTS) 4.0. However, the learning curve will be long and steep as IT staffers struggle to come to grips with the many changes from NTS 4.0. Initial training and planning will take at least six months, and full implementation could take a year or more. Some organizations may balk at the costs.

Desktop Migration: Windows 2000 Professional

Windows 2000 Pro, the desktop version of the operating system, has received great reviews during the Corporate Preview Program (CPP). Its stability is sufficiently impressive that a number of companies have taken the unprecedented move of installing Windows 2000 Pro beta in production environments. Windows 2000 Pro combines the best of the Windows 9x and Windows NT Workstation (NTW) worlds: it provides the superior hardware support and Plug and Play capabilities of Windows 9x with the better security and reliability of Windows NT. It also supports laptops better than any of those earlier operating systems. (For detailed information about running Windows 2000 Pro on laptops, see the Jan. 2000 Directions on Microsoft Research Report, “Windows 2000 Professional as a Laptop Operating System.”) The most compelling reason to migrate the desktop is a new Windows 2000 feature, called System File Protection (SFP), that assures the integrity of operating system files, thereby minimizing the risk of encountering “DLL hell.”