While technology is exciting, and new technologies even more so, the main reason we innovate is to make our lives easier and empower things that couldn’t have been done before. A step often overlooked. Instead of asking why a migration needs to be done, there is often an instinct to dive headfirst into the newest, and shiniest, without looking at the ramifications. But I think the inverse can be said with application estates and many large-scale organizations. Do we really need to update that server? Do we really need to push that patch? Do we really need to move to Windows 11? Can we keep this server on this version? How long can we feasibly do this?
The concerns are fair. These changes are big, but many wait until problems start to arise before they even begin the process. This is a huge problem for the organization, efficiency, and the ease with which they can progress. When you put off these smaller patches or security updates, you’re putting your users at risk. Each day that you don’t update, and furthermore, if you don’t know what each patch does to your application estate, you could be damaging productivity while the user waits for the application(s) they need for their projects to be fixed. These are big considerations, so what’s the right decision?
I think we can all agree that the “push and pray” method isn’t great for anyone involved. IT managers, who are historically understaffed and overstressed, get even more work that they must do before moving on to bigger more strategic efforts. Users, dev, sales, or marketing teams have other priorities in the company that they could be using their time for, rather than waiting for their application to get reconfigured or fixed. Can you see the conundrum? The technology applications run on need to be upgraded to allow more strategic efforts, but users need to continue their project uninhibited by failed migrations, incompatible packaging types, or use cases.
What can you do to avoid inconveniencing your users, employees, and organization? The furthering of tech is extremely important, but you need to know how each change will affect your users and your projects. You also need to know what makes sense to move, as well as which applications need to be addressed from a technical standpoint. Does your application work as an MSIX, or is it better suited as an App Vols? Which applications should be moved from SCCM to Intune right now, and which can wait? These are some of the questions you need answers to before you push a patch or migrate your estate. Otherwise, you’ll either be heavily behind on your security compliance, or you’ll be affecting your users.
And without sounding like too much of a pitch for Rimo3, these things are exactly what we enable. Using Rimo3, you can gain information on which applications will or will not work on your environment, using your unique configuration. On top of testing and packaging for a variety of platforms and packaging formats, we let you know how you can continue to move forward without impacting your users and productivity on a daily basis. When a new update or security patch comes out, you and your organization will be ready.