SPIE oveCSReing the migration to Windows 10 Education at the 3 INSEAD campuses

Published on 09 January 2018

Paris, January 9th, 2018 – For several months, SPIE ICS, the digital services subsidiary of the SPIE group, has been in charge of migrating all the computer terminals at the three INSEAD Business School campuses in Fontainebleau (France), Singapore and Abu Dhabi from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Education. This operation forms part of the maintenance and IT management contract relating not only to the School’s terminals and workstations but also to its audiovisual equipment, which was signed by SPIE ICS in 2014 and renewed in 2017.

2,100 workstations over 3 campuses

On the joint initiative of INSEAD, Microsoft and SPIE ICS, the migration started with a proof of concept . The aim was to identify how INSEAD’s existing IT infrastructure and complex environments might potentially be affected by a migration from Windows 7 to Windows 10. These changes will have a direct impact on INSEAD’s staff members across all three of its campuses. The first tests were carried out in February 2017, and were based on several user profiles. In all, almost 2,100 workstations will be migrated to Windows 10; the process has already been completed for 200, with all the rest scheduled to be updated by this summer.

The considered scenarios are the following, “remastering”, when necessary, in order to bring each workstation up to standard, and “upgrade in place”, corresponding to the updating of the operating system and of the installation of new modules and applications. The third one will be the complete configuration of the workstation. Office 2016 (as part of Office 365) and Windows 10 will be installed on all PCs.

Highest standards required

SPIE ICS is lending all its expertise to users and students at INSEAD, and is aiming to provide the highest levels of overall satisfaction in order to meet the requirements of the project. The key issue involves taking account of all the constraints arising from the remote activity being carried out on the three campuses and from the needs of the teaching courses. “Every workstation must be updated as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring that user data is kept secure at all times”, explains Jérôme Beaufils, Director of the Services and Financial Division at SPIE ICS. “We have to recreate the same working environment from one campus to another. We are therefore working from a central server which hosts all the updates and allows us to install the modules on INSEAD’s infrastructure.”

This operation involves two experts, a project leader and around 15 support technicians and managers at SPIE ICS.

Accompanying INSEAD’s digital transformation

INSEAD, the world-renowned private international business school, has recently embarked on a digital transformation. With three campuses and around 15 research centres spread across them, the school is reliant on its IT system, which plays a key role in ensuring that the courses it offers continue to be of the highest standard. “We were seeking to amalgamate our IT infrastructure, raise its inherent performance levels and make our networks even more secure. SPIE ICS provided all the guarantees needed to carry out the migration to Windows 10 Education effectively and without disrupting INSEAD day-to-day operations”, remarks Christophe Leviaux, Global IT Support Manager at INSEAD.

INSEAD is seeking to keep ahead of its rivals by offering its students, the majority of whom are active, the most innovative technologies whilst ensuring that its networks and the activities around its network support remain as secure as possible.

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