Taking the compatibility test: Worcestershire NHS and Vista
The Vista operating system has many benefits for NHS trusts – but some IT managers have heard horror stories about moving over to it. A project at Worcester NHS has shown that most applications should be compatible with it – and with the Microsoft Application Virtualisation environment. Daloni Carlisle reports.
You may have heard horror stories about moving to Vista. But are they true – and should they stop NHS trusts moving to Microsoft’s newer, greener and more secure operating system? If the experience of Worcestershire NHS is anything to go by, then the answer is no.
In a bid to test out just how many of its 107 core applications would falter in the Vista environment, the countywide IC&T service (which covers an acute trust, primary care trust and mental health services) recently ran some tests. They found that over 90 per cent of applications could be compatible.
The case for Vista
Richard Lane, technology strategist at Microsoft, makes the case for Vista. “There are enormous benefits,” he says. “The first is security. Vista has numerous security benefits over Windows XP [Microsoft’s previous operating system].
“In fact, Windows Vista is the first desktop OS to go through our Trustworthy Computing Initiative, ensuring a fundamentally more secure operating system.”
Vista is enabled with Bitlocker Drive Encryption so data is fully encrypted at hard disc level. “Should you leave your Bitlocker-enabled laptop on a train, you can have peace of mind that the data is safe,” says Lane.
“More and more PCs and devices are working with Vista. We need to look at how and when to deploy if we are to stay ahead of the game.”
Vista also does away with a common problem encountered in XP, in which it was necessary for some applications to be run with administrator privileges, thus reducing the potential impact of malware.
And it uses significantly less power. “Vista works more efficiently and in some cases we have shown that it can save £50 in energy costs per PC per year,” adds Lane.
There are other, pragmatic, reasons to adopt Vista. “More and more PCs and devices are working with Vista,” says Pravin Mistry, IT services manager for Worcestershire NHS. “We need to look at how and when to deploy if we are to stay ahead of the game.”
Testing for compatibility
Earlier this year, Microsoft worked with Worcestershire NHS and Camwood Ltd to see just how many of the healthcare community’s applications were compatible with Vista and with the Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) environment.
To do this, Camwood’s consultants used AppDNA’s AppTitude toolset. Paul Calway, client manager for Camwood, explains: “The toolkit provides detailed compatibility analysis including remediation information for each application.
“That enables us to see very quickly if an application is compatible with Vista and also whether or not it is a suitable candidate for virtualisation.” It can do in days what the IT department would spend months doing with manual tests.
It was an opportunity Worcestershire NHS couldn’t turn down. “We were early adopters of Vista and wanted to go forward but we had heard horror stories so thought it would be extremely useful to have our software benchmarked like this,” says Mistry.
The initial results were alarming, with only 15 per cent of 107 core applications compatible with the vanilla 64Bit release of Window Vista.
“With our previous assumptions about Vista and application compatibility we were quite surprised to find things were not that bad.”
However, using AppTitude’s binary level intelligence, Camwood’s experienced consultants showed that adoption of a 32Bit release, with a number of OS updates, would improve things considerably; 87 per cent of the portfolio proved compatible.
Another 8 per cent required further testing, but may prove to be compatible, taking the total potentially compatible to 95 per cent.
When it came to Microsoft Application Virtualization, Camwood was able to show that with careful planning as much as 80 per cent of the portfolio could be sequenced for App-V. But without the attention to detail, up to 78 per cent could fail, making any migration costly and time consuming.
There was one other piece of good news from Camwood’s assessment. Like any health community, Worcestershire NHS has a mixture of vendor supplied MSIs, legacy setup.exe scripts, batch and manual file copies. Rationalising these formats to either Windows Installer or App-V would lower the total cost of ownership and reduce the time, risk and cost of moving to Windows Vista.
Looking ahead
The headline figures of 95 per cent and 80 per cent sound good – but as Calway points out, they are only as good as the applications included. If you are talking about a small application used by a single user, then there may be fairly cost effective ways round this.
If it is a large application then knowing that it is not compatible with Vista can open up discussions with the supplier about making it compatible. Indeed, Microsoft is already holding talks with suppliers.
“It is important to ensure the entire application portfolio is understood and the potential impact considered when planning your migration,” says Calway. “This is where AppDNA’s AppTitude comes into its own. The application intelligence gives you the ability to plan your application migration effectively.”
Lane is happy with the results from Worcestershire NHS. “I think it could be better, but over 90 per cent of applications compatible is much better than most people would imagine. I think it shows that there is no reason to hold up a Vista deployment because only one or two of your applications won’t work. The benefits do outweigh the risks.”
As for Worcestershire NHS, armed with the Camwood’s report and recommendations, they are now in a position to consider the way forward. “With our previous assumptions about Vista and application compatibility we were quite surprised to find things were not that bad,” says Mistry.
“We now need to look at our priorities to see if this is the way ahead. Where does Vista fit with our trust business needs? How can we deploy Vista using existing technology like SMS [Microsoft Systems Management Server]? Is App-V the way forward for a department that supports small community clinics across the county whose infrastructure does not warrant having a client?”
At least with the diagnostics in place, there is now some hard data to help make these difficult decisions.