Migration tool draws 'genetic map' -- ADTmag

Migration tool draws 'genetic map'

By Will Kilburn
April 7, 2003

With today’s unveiling of the latest release of Desktop DNA, Miramar Systems (http://www.miramar.com), Santa Barbara, Calif., contends that its migration software can now integrate with management frameworks like Microsoft’s SMS, Unicenter from Computer Associates and Symantec’s Ghost.

"We’ve recognized from our customers that it’s important for people to leverage their existing IT assets," said Mike Walker, Miramar’s director of marketing. "A lot of people sunk a lot of costs into enterprise management solutions or framework systems over the past five to 10 years, and by and large, those systems are underutilized."

The software, first shipped in 1999, aims to cut down on IT costs and end user downtime by extracting what the company calls each computer’s "DNA": the files, programs and settings that make each computer unique.

"If you’re doing an OS refresh or upgrade, it’ll move your application settings, system settings, data and preferences from Windows 98 and apply it to the appropriate place on a Windows XP machine," said Walker.

"You want people to be productive as people, hit the ground running when they got onto their new system," said senior vice president and founder Harry Rabin, who added that the software can be used for hardware upgrades as well. "Generally they’re being given a more powerful machine, they’re moving to a newer operating system, and meeting the mandate of IT and the corporation to be efficient. We’re going to move over that familiar environment that they already had to make them most efficient."

That efficiency, Rabin said, also extends to the people who are overseeing the migration, not just the end users.

"You can automate our entire process from a command line, fold it into any existing framework you have, make it run in a quiet mode, fully automated, to be able to augment your current life cycle capability with this migration capability," Rabin explained, and added that Intel claimed a savings of $750 to $950 per computer using the Miramar software.

And what happens when the migration is over? Rabin said that Desktop DNA allows IT workers to "look down the wire," so that they can have a better understanding of their users’ needs.

"It’s going to lay the groundwork for taking a closer look at who IT’s customers are," said Rabin, "and what products and services they value."