Madhusudhan Mendu, GM-IT Initiatives, Wipro, speaks about his experience with deploying Windows 7 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 in his organization
How has your experience with deploying Windows 7 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 been so far?
We started evaluating Windows 7 for our business when it was in its Beta stage, which was around January 2009. During this period we had close to 100 users who had adopted this beta testing program. While the program was on, we received positive feedback from these users in terms of performance. As a result we decided to test out the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) 1 and deployed the OS on 250 computers in July 2009. However this time around not only the IT team but also some senior executives decided to use Windows 7 RC1.
Post the Windows 7 RC1 testing program, we undertook an in depth survey to not only find the benefits of the OS but also to know about user experience. The feedback we received highlighted the fact that in terms of productivity Windows 7 was much better than its predecessors. Currently we are testing on the RTM version of Windows 7 and once we are done with it we will deploy Windows 7 in a phased manner in our organization.
Similarly, we have deployed Exchange Server 2010 in our labs and are experimenting with some of its functionality.
Prior to Windows 7 which OS did your organization use and did you face any issues while migrating to Windows 7 in terms of hardware upgrade?
We have over 100,000 plus users and majority of them use Windows XP. So far the rollout of Windows 7 has been done only on 250 computers. So we have not seen a massive rollout of the OS yet. In terms of hardware upgrade at Wipro, we have a desktop refresh policy of 5 years and a laptop refresh policy of 4 years. In the last two years we have made it a standard to install a minimum of 1GB RAM in all the computers. We found that Windows 7 works fine with 1GB RAM. Therefore we do not see an issue in rolling out Windows 7 in our organization.
Could you elaborate on how you found Windows 7/ Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 to be more productive?
Firstly it was the search capability of Windows 7, which we found was much more refined. I personally found the Jump List feature very useful. This feature allows you right-click the icon of a particular application in the taskbar and it will display the files you recently opened using that application and you can open any of the files displayed. In this manner I can place icons of those applications I use frequently in the taskbar and get quick access to it.
Another feature I would like to mention is Snap. This feature of Windows 7 allows you open two application windows side by side. I use this feature to open my word processor and email client side by side, so that I can edit document and check mails simultaneously.
On the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 front, we found that the software allows a good amount of virtualization. Earlier we had 3,000 mail boxes per physical server, but with Exchange Server 2010 we can virtualize 12,000 mail boxes on a single server. The virtualization also helps us reduce the number of mail servers and consolidate the mail servers this allows us to save on space and bandwidth.
Apart from productivity what are the other benefits your company has derived from Windows 7 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010?
The Internet Explorer in Windows 7 is pretty stable in terms of security. Features such as InPrivate Browsing, in-built Windows Firewall functionality etc. make the browsing experience in IE much more secure. Apart from the security features of IE, I found 'BitLocker To Go' very interesting. This default application in Windows 7 enables us to encrypt USB drives for security purposes.
While Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 provides users the features of an email client on a web browser. Therefore I think that the combination of Exchange Server 2010 and lower cost of storage makes it ideal to store all emails online. As this not only enables users to access all their mails from anywhere, anytime, but from the regulation stand point it helps us to take backup and archive emails.
