Russian oil and gas producer Surgutneftegas became an early adopter of the Windows 7 operating system and the Windows Internet Explorer 8 Internet browser. Based on the success of the test pilot, the company plans to deploy Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 across the enterprise. Surgutneftegas expects to benefit from improved IT administration, greater productivity, enhanced security, and increased application compatibility.


Business Needs
Surgutneftegas is one of the largest companies in the Russian oil sector. The company is made up of 59 divisions that handle prospecting and reservoir management operations, construction of facilities and pipelines, environmental safety, and process automation.

We are convinced that deployment of Windows 7 will noticeably increase end-user productivity, strengthen security, and make our infrastructure more manageable. Rinat Damirovich Gimranov IT Director, Surgutneftegas

The company maintains more than 10,000 computers, approximately 30 percent of which are connected to the Internet. The IT infrastructure also includes the Windows Server 2003 operating system, the Windows XP operating system, and the Windows Internet Explorer 6 Internet browser. To more efficiently manage its infrastructure, the IT team at Surgutneftegas wanted to implement a solution that would reduce time spent on IT administration, improve employee productivity, enhance security, and increase application compatibility.

Solution
Surgutneftegas learned about an opportunity to become an early adopter of the Windows 7 operating system and Windows Internet Explorer 8. The company launched a test pilot by selecting 65 typically-configured computers from various departments across the enterprise.

The goal of the pilot program was to identify issues with hardware and software compatibility, including Web-based applications, and also to evaluate the ease of deployment, manageability, and performance of the operating system and browser.

With the assistance of Microsoft Services, the IT team deployed Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on 60 machines that represented 7 of the company’s most common desktop configurations. Windows 7 Enterprise was deployed on five machines, in order to test the automatic activation feature. The IT team reported that Windows 7 automatically installed most device drivers on its first attempt, and the remaining drivers were successfully found and downloaded from Windows Update.

Next, Surgutneftegas tested the operating system’s compatibility with existing line-of-business software. Again, the IT team did not encounter any significant compatibility issues with the majority of the desktop and Web-based applications. The minor issues that the team discovered were easily mitigated by using the Windows XP Mode virtual machine package that is included with Windows 7, and the Compatibility View feature in Internet Explorer 8.

During the test pilot, users were particularly excited about features such as Windows Search, which they expect will help employees simplify everyday tasks. IT administrators were eager to test BitLocker drive encryption and BitLocker To Go technology to safeguard data on hard drives and removable storage devices. They also wanted to test the compliance benefits and application standardization gained by using the AppLocker feature.

Using the Internet Explorer 8 Administration Kit, Surgutneftegas plans to create a standard browser installation image that can be deployed across the enterprise. Also, with the User State Migration Tool, the company could quickly and reliably migrate user data and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Surgutneftegas anticipates that the diagnostic and troubleshooting tools that are included with Windows 7 will reduce the number of calls to the help desk, while the Problem Steps Recorder will enable the IT team to identify and resolve issues promptly.

Benefits
Based on the success of the test pilot, Surgutneftegas plans to deploy Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 across the enterprise. The company expects to benefit from improved IT management, greater productivity, enhanced security, and increased application compatibility.

Improved IT Management
With Windows 7, the IT team can manage a companywide deployment by creating a single image that contains the standard desktop software, which significantly reduces the time it takes to install an operating system and typical software package. “Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 were given positive reviews by the experts who participated in the evaluation,” says Andrei Aleksandrovich Cherepivskiy, Chief Technology Officer at Surgutneftegas. “They especially liked the ability to install both Windows 7 and a predefined set of line-of-business applications from a single image—this will enable us to perform migration and deployment of new computers much faster.”

Greater Productivity
Thanks to the improved user interface, Surgutneftegas expects to see an increase in employee productivity. For example, using Windows Search, users can quickly and easily locate any document, e-mail message, or calendar item.

Enhanced Security
With the improved User Account Control feature in Windows 7, employees can work with standard user rights, and will not require administrative privileges. This means that computers are far less vulnerable to threats from viruses and malicious software. Plus, with the built-in antimalware and antiphishing filters in Internet Explorer 8, users will benefit from enhanced protection while online.

Surgutneftegas expects that using BitLocker and BitLocker To Go will significantly reduce the risk of sensitive information being lost or stolen. Also, with the AppLocker feature, the company plans to reduce the risk of installing unauthorized or counterfeited software by controlling which programs are allowed to run on user desktops.

Increased Application Compatibility
Surgutneftegas plans to use the Windows XP Mode feature, which enables programs to run on a virtual Windows XP machine running on Windows 7. This feature is transparent to users—they simply launch the application and it works as it would on Windows XP. Surgutneftegas expects to use this feature to deploy Windows 7 without having to wait for vendors to update applications.

Rinat Damirovich Gimranov, IT Director at Surgutneftegas, concludes, “We are convinced that deployment of Windows 7 will noticeably increase end-user productivity, strengthen security, and make our infrastructure more manageable.”

For more information about Windows 7, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7