Hewlett-Packard Corporation (HP)

The HP case study actually starts in 1998 just after Compaq Computer Corporation's acquisition of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), when Compaq migrated to Windows 2000 from Windows NT. The study continues through Compaq's acquisition by Hewlett-Packard Company and the subsequent upgrade to Windows Server 2003. HP's IT staff, particularly Dave Heuss, Wook Lee, Stan Foster, and Mark Graceffa, provided invaluable information on HP's migration as well as the implementation of Windows Server 2003 features. HP was undoubtedly the first company outside Microsoft to deploy Windows Server 2003, having performed the upgrade in the production environment to Windows Server 2003 a few months before Windows Server 2003 was released to manufacture (RTM), demonstrating the stability of this operating system (OS).

In addition, Thaddeus Fortenberry of HP documented HP's deployment of Virtual Private Networking (VPN) in Chapter 13. See HP's Web site at http://www.hp.com.