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Avoiding User Impact

Go easy on your users during migration with PowerSyncPro. Your business is a brand that takes its ability to deliver services seriously. How you handle your employees and customers says a lot about your brand. It’s important that when you perform DirSync or migration operations within your business, that you don’t inadvertently put your users at risk of lost productivity, impacting your customers. PowerSyncPro helps you avoid day-one migration issues and keeps your users’ transition to new Microsoft Active Directory structures simple and seamless.

PSP-Sync

User Impact

If you use the Microsoft product stack and are looking to migrate or sync many Microsoft Active Directories then you will have a plan and model outlining which data requires transformation, and how it should be synced. This is as it should be, but almost inevitably there is difficulty when it comes to connecting users up to the new structure. It can be difficult to predict the exact effects on users of massive changes in Active Directory or device join states, so it is generally sensible to disjoin workstations from the old AD structure and move them to the new using tools. This can be time consuming, and not always smooth. Some platforms designed to make this process easier are very good at some parts of the process, such as the disjoin/join, but then are not capable of migrating parts of the user profile or apps over to the new structure, so you can end up with situations where the user had connection to the new AD structure to log in on their workstation, but user office apps are not aligned correctly, or browser profiles are not migrated, so web apps that depend on the users’ identity may malfunction, or require recovery.

This is obviously not ideal, and can lead to a lot of time being spent on desk visits and correcting these issues manually. If you have many tens of thousands of users this can be a daunting task, and even deploying fixes remotely through central policy management can take time and requires much admin. Remember that this is a best-case scenario for many organisations; it may be necessary to remove user profiles altogether and start the workstation with a fresh OS install, joining to the correct AD structure during deployment, ​​or sending out new laptops which impacts capital expenditure. This is fine for those apps that keep data in the cloud, such as Microsoft 365, but what about individual apps that require resources on the network, or are managed by AD that cannot transfer? They require manual reinstallation. Regardless of severity, these solutions all have one thing in common; they significantly affect productivity or access for users, which has a knock-on effect on your customers and profits.

 

PowerSyncPro features a highly functional Workstation Migration Agent, which retains all user profiles, apps, accounts, and data on any Windows 10 or 11 (with exception of Home OS variants) laptop or desktop workstation to be migrated to a new AD or AAD domain. The Workstation Migration Agent is much faster and more cost effective than a factory reset, reinstallation, or bulk image deployment over the network via PXE or FOG, the PowerSyncPro Workstation Migration tool is installable via Intune or GPO, and manages an unjoin/join operation from the old AD to the new at a time specified by admin, so you can coordinate with other transition activities, making the necessary changes needed to continue smooth operation and access.
Post-deployment, users can receive time-based notifications of planned migration, and can also be given the option to manually execute the operation immediately on their machine. Users are informed at the logon screen that the migration is underway, with the typical run-time from start to finish for the Agent being only 30-45 minutes. All this helps your work towards a more effective operation with minimal user impact, and therefore your customers are unaware.

You can consider the detailed simulation generated in the What-If Report to have similar to the functionality to the what-if tool in Azure, or powershell -whatif parameter for many of the cmdlets, but multiplying its effectiveness by analysing changes across the whole directory structure, rather than effects on just one user, saving time on testing prior to migration, and minimising errors after migration.

The What-If report is just one of the many helpful features contained in the PowerSyncPro toolbox, all designed to simplify your complex migrations.

This showcases the real power of PowerSycPro, in that it achieves ALL of the required functionality during a DirSync or AD migration operation, not just for working on the overall AD structure, but also during the migration of user workstations, so no supplementary workflows or tools are required. Having one completely scaleable toolkit to run a migration or DirSync from start to finish is massively advantageous, and the joined-up functionality between the Sync tool and the Workstation Migration Agent ensures minimal impact to end users and customers. Dirsync can also keep your companies in sync indefinitely if needed. 
PowerSyncPro was developed for global organisations looking to streamline the process of uniting their business networks and directories, while minimising disruption and reducing cost.  PowerSyncPro is currently installed, configured and operated only as part of a professional service package from Nero Blanco IT Limited, who with over 50 years of combined experience in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, migrations and complex DirSync’s, they are the team to ensure that your next migration or sync project runs smoothly and effectively. Get in touch today.

People We've Worked With

Just Some Of The Organisations Who Use Powersyncpro

Nero Blanco used their excellent PowerSyncPro (PSP) tool to migrate our IT infrastructure from on-prem to the cloud while their PSP Migration Agent efficiently handled the remote migration of our existing machines.Around 95% of laptops migrated seamlessly with no issue and no downtime for our users, and Nero Blanco went above and beyond to quickly fix any issues that were generated by user error.
Dom LowryDigital Transformation Manager, Octavius Infrastructure Ltd
PowerSyncPro provided a seamless service in the process of uniting our two legacy charities to become Breast Cancer Now. A handful of staff needed continued access to our legacy drives as our businesses gradually united, and PowerSyncPro provided the ongoing directory sync required to provide this access. While it was never the intention for PSP to continue to run for over a year, we could never have foreseen the unprecedented circumstances that led to this situation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was extremely reassuring for the Breast Cancer Now IT team to know PSP was doing its thing for all those months with no interaction required – it’s incredibly good at keeping things running
Brigid MacdonaldHead of IT, Breast Cancer Now
PSP has helped Ricoh solve challenges with a complex and widespread identity management landscape. It has provided seamless levels of object synchronization and proved to be robust and reliable.
Carl SmithRicoh Europe
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