The Co-operative on application migration

Broadcast 11:00 When Reg reader Ian Cawson, technical architect for the Co-operative, was given some new projects to tackle - including CRC targets, reducing IT complexity to minimise M&A impact and a move of headquarters - he grasped the challenge with both hands and charged down to Vulture Towers to tell us all about it.

Today at 11am BST Ian joins The Register's Tim Phillips in our central London studios for a story about how he used virtualisation to deliver Windows 7 to his users and solve his challenges. We'll also have Dale Vile, our friend from Freeform Dynamics. Finally, Paul Schnell from App-DNA will make up the fourth member of the panel as they helped Ian overcome some of the challenges associated with application migration.

The scale of the project was this: Six million owners, 110,000 employees, 20,000 devices, 1,400 applications and a remit to deliver virtualisation services through a 'no impact' implementation program to their new Head office for 3,000 colleagues with a host of different roles and needs. The co-op consists of companies and operations that range from being the UK's 5th largest food retailer and Britain’s biggest farm operator to the UK's #1 provider of funeral services.

You can join us to find out how Ian and his team discovered the volume of apps in the business and how they went through the process of selecting which ones were worth virtualising and which platform to deliver them on. You'll also find out how he plans to treat the apps that can't be delivered through virtualisation - around 10% of them. And, how the technology was the easy bit - it was the people that posed the biggest challenge.

I suspect that may leave you with some questions you want to ask Ian, so join us right here. It's all free, live and - according to our past viewers - typically jolly interesting stuff. ®