Other Considerations for Upgrading

Undertaking a major upgrade to a network is not a task to be taken lightly. As with any large undertaking, it is best to try to accomplish your main goals with the least amount of excess baggage. With a large number of users, it is easy to become overwhelmed with the volume of suggestions or requests when the user community finds out that major changes are being planned. However, for each additional task you add to your plan, you also add to the probability that something will go wrong. So, after deciding on the basic goals, try to stick to only the tasks that will be needed to accomplish those goals and do not get sidetracked by unimportant issues that can be best settled later.

However, you should consider this time to be an opportunity that can be used to incorporate new technologies or functionality into the network that otherwise would require additional downtime for the network. For example, if you are about to begin upgrading user workstations throughout a department or an enterprise and you have been considering adopting DHCP, what better time to do so than now? If you are already going to put the user out of work for a short period, and the workstation is off the network, this kind of situation is ideal for bringing in a new administrative tool such as DHCP.

Housekeeping is another function that can fit nicely into an upgrade plan: Out with the old and in with the new, so to speak. Old programs that never quite went away can be removed during an upgrade process. An upgrade can be a good time to set a deadline for users who have not yet abandoned older applications that can be better performed by newer applications.