Accelerate Windows 10 Migration with Windows Analytics

Windows Analytics accelerates enterprise Windows 10 migration. Traditionally, migrating to a new operating system while ensuring legacy applications and drivers are compatible has been a time-consuming and costly project for organizations. Windows Analytics transforms this process. With Update Compliance and Device Health services now generally available, Windows Analytics provides an end-to-end upgrade solution with actionable insights into device performance, reliability, and health, so enterprises can broadly migrate their devices from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 or update Windows 10 devices to the latest feature update (Windows 10, version 1709) quickly and with confidence.

End-to-end insights for Windows 10 adoption and deployment

Windows Analytics is a cloud based service that provides data driven insights, or analytics, about your devices, allowing you to detect problems, monitor device health, and remediate issues across the devices you administer. This suite of services makes upgrading to Windows 10 from legacy operating systems easier and streamlines keeping devices up-to-date and secure on Windows 10.

• Upgrade Readiness uses diagnostic data to identify and resolve application and driver compatibility issues as you plan and manage the upgrade process. Once your devices are up-to-date on Windows 10, Upgrade Readiness becomes a key tool for your Windows servicing process, continually providing these insights, so you can test and deploy Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel feature updates faster.

• Update Compliance provides a unified view of Windows Update and Antivirus (AV) status of your Windows 10 devices to keep them secure and up-to-date, regardless of the management solution you use. Windows Update diagnostic data gives you immediate visibility into which of your devices are missing critical Windows security updates that help keep your devices secure and protected. It also assesses protection and threat status, and tracks deployment progress so you can troubleshoot issues as they arise.

• Device Health is designed to help IT administrators monitor and proactively maintain devices. Device Health uses data to identify and report common device performance and reliability problems employees may experience so they can be resolved quickly and efficiently. By pinpointing disruptive issues like kernel crashes or third-party driver issues, Device Health data provides insight into the scope and scale of an issue, so you can focus on mitigation and remediation over investigation. Proactive monitoring of device health and performance saves you time and money by reducing support calls and improving employee productivity.

Windows Analytics provides the right insights for testing and deployment planning

Windows Analytics is currently being used by hundreds of customers on millions of devices, in over 200 countries. Companies like Independence Blue Cross are using Upgrade Readiness to plan, test and deploy Windows 10 on thousands of devices as part of their migration process. The Upgrade Readiness planning tool simplifies this process.

We often hear from customers that application compatibility is one of the biggest pain points on the enterprise upgrade path. A typical enterprise may have tens of thousands of devices and applications. Before any large-scale migration, IT administrators want to ensure their legacy applications will work. With so many apps, it is time-consuming to figure out which may have issues and how to prioritize those apps that require attention.

“Windows Upgrade Readiness helped us to quickly design a strategic approach for our Windows 10 deployment by allowing us to focus on applications that needed special attention while moving quickly to upgrade machines that were Windows 10 ready. It is also the driving force behind our Windows as a Service adoption strategy.”

Upgrade Readiness collects system, application, and driver data for analysis. It then identifies compatibility issues that can block an upgrade and suggest fixes when they are known to Microsoft. Apps are automatically segmented and grouped for you, so you don’t have to review them one by one. You can see which apps are most widely used, which are supported by their software vendor, and which are considered low risk for compatibility problems. Based on this information, you’ll get suggestions on which apps to focus on, so you can start to resolve any blockers. This automated process is the same for evaluating driver compatibility, so you can fast-track upgrade readiness. As an IT admin, you have full transparency and control over the level of data gathered, so you can adjust the level or stop the flow at any time.

More tools to simplify upgrade readiness – Ready for Windows and Office 365 ProPlus solutions

Customers upgrading to Windows 10 want to know if a third-party product they use will work with the target version of Windows 10 before upgrading. To ensure a smooth upgrade process, we work closely with independent software vendors (ISVs), especially Antivirus (AV) and Security vendors, to provide customers with compatibility information on their most popular solutions on the Ready for Windows site. Third party application makers can formally assure customers that their verified software will run and be supported on Windows 10 by getting listed in the Ready for Windows directory.

Ready for Windows has also recently started collecting information from ISVs who are committed to supporting the Semi-Annual releases for Windows 10 (Always Up-to-Date), so organizations that are interested in keeping their employees’ devices up-to-date can more easily standardize on applications that will also be kept current on Windows 10.

Upgrade Readiness is not only about understanding the broad view of device readiness, it’s also about knowing which Office add-ins your employees depend on to make sure they are successful in their jobs. With diagnostic data as well as compatibility statements from Ready for Windows gathered from ISVs on Office 365 ProPlus solutions, you can easily check compatibility of the critical add-ins your employees rely upon every day. For even greater transparency and ease, Upgrade Readiness now pulls Office 365 ProPlus data into the apps view for your organization.

With Windows Analytics, you can feel confident to start testing and deploying Windows 10 sooner. You can begin pilot deployments of the latest feature update (Windows 10, 1709) using Upgrade Readiness to build confidence. Start by targeting and evaluating a small subset of your install base. We recommend using the application and device inventory data from the Upgrade Readiness service to select a set of devices that provide appropriate coverage. Then listen, monitor for issues, and remediate blockers. Once you are satisfied with the results of your pilot deployments, begin broadly deploying throughout your organization. This phased rollout follows what we do for consumers worldwide today.

Get Started with Windows Analytics today!

You can get started with Windows Analytics today by visiting our Windows for Business site. It’s free for enterprise E3 and E5 subscribers and Windows 10 Pro users. If you have questions about deploying and getting the most out of Windows Analytics in your organization, be sure to join our next Windows Analytics “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on Tuesday, January 16^th, 2018.

I’ll continue to share more about new features and enhancements that support Windows Analytics in the coming months. We’d also like to hear how Windows Analytics is working for you by sending us comments or suggestions via the Feedback Hub app.