Introduction into the migration of user profiles

•  What are user profiles?
•  Why should user profiles be migrated?
•  How significant is the follow-on cost of non-migrated user profiles?
•  Why do I need Profile Migrator?
•  Which migrations are supported by Profile Migrator?
•  How does Profile Migrator distinguish itself from other available migration tools?
•  In summary, what are the benefits of migrating user profiles?

What are user profiles?

User profiles contain a user´s individual adaptations of the rendering and functionality of the applications used. This includes, for example, standard formatting, templates, e-mail signatures, settings on file locations, shortcuts, macros and add-ins, background images, skins, font sizes or other operating system settings. These configurations simplify work for the users and assist them in working comfortably with the programs they need.

Why should user profiles be migrated??

Usually, the operating system is changed during a migration, which means that applications must be installed from scratch. This leads to the loss of the individual user settings as the newly installed operating system starts with an empty standard profile.

For the users, this seems like a step back: Everything looks different, their practical and familiar settings are missing, they are thrown out of their familiar workflow - the productivity goes down. The restoration of the specific configuration takes a lot of time. Often, additional assistance is requested from the user helpdesk. This often causes significant follow-on cost in the context of a migration, which can be avoided by a profile migration.

How significant is the follow-on cost of non-migrated user profiles?

The follow-on cost is computed from several factors: the number of users affected, the number of applications used, the average time for the restoration of the settings, the degree of support from the user helpdesk, and the labor cost for the affected staff and the IT support. As a matter of principle: The larger an organization, the higher the follow-on cost of an incomplete migration.

In addition, there is the user frustration about the uncomfortable situation after the migration, which can easily lead to a generalized negative perception of innovation in IT.

Why do I need Profile Migrator?

In a migration, the data of the user profiles and the information on the configuration of the applications have to be transfered from the old to the new operating system. As there is no standard on how applications store the individual user settings, the configurations are processed differently by each application – even the individual Microsoft Office applications and program versions proceed in different ways here.

It is thus very complicated to capture where an application has written the necessary data and in which locations the new version of the application expects to find the data on the target system. All this information must be captured and processed in order to be able to migrate the individual user settings.

Profile Migrator solves this problem by way of an innovative technology developed by sepago: For almost any application, this permits an ACS file (ACS = Application Configuration Set) to document how the user settings are saved by which version of the software. By taking reference to the information from the ACS files, Profile Migrator is then able to migrate the desired user settings.

Profile Migrator thus offers a fundamental solution for the migration of user profiles and is not limited to a given set of selected applications. In addition, the software migrates not only the user settings but also user data. This migrates everything that shapes an individual workspace.

Which migrations are supported by Profile Migrator?

Profile Migrator supports the migration of user profiles on clients, servers, and from clients to servers, from the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Server 2003. A migration from Windows Vista to Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 to Server 2008 R2 is just as easy. In addition, the user accounts can also be migrated across domain boundaries.

The migration of user profiles is also supported in the virtualization of desktops and servers as well as in the introduction of 64 bit systems and a migration into the cloud. In all scenarios it is also possible to migrate user data across different software versions.

How does Profile Migrator distinguish itself from other available migration tools?

Profile Migrator is an enterprise software that lets the project managers in IT carry out a migration project exactly according to their intentions. For this purpose, the program can also execute in command line mode or can be integrated into software deployment suites such as Microsoft SCCM. The fact that Profile Migrator masters practically all current migration scenarios and is neither limited to a pre-selected set of applications nor to special migration scenarios underlines its performance capability.

Via the graphical user interface, Profile Migrator is practically intuitive to use for professional administrators, and so neither requires an intensive familiarization with the software, nor the involvement of external consultants. The extensive availability of ACS files for widespread standard software permits an "out-of-the-box" profile migration for many users.

By only migrating selected user settings and data, Profile Migrator carries out a profile cleanup along with the profile migration, such that parts of the user profiles that are no longer required are left behind on the old systems. Thanks to its uncomplicated handling, Profile Migrator can thus also be used specifically for profile migration or for the restoration of user profiles.

In summary, what are the benefits of migrating user profiles?

With the migration of user profiles, you ensure business continuity and reduce the follow-on cost of your next migration significantly. You ensure the satisfaction of your users and turn your migration project into a complete success. You increase overall acceptance of innovation in IT.