Context

When Southwest Missouri State University became Missouri State University in 2005, it required changing our domain name for all email addresses and computer logins. This meant migrating roughly 900 computers managed by our Centralized IT team to a new domain, directly impacting the daily work of faculty and staff across campus.

Challenge

While domain migration itself was technically straightforward, we faced two significant hurdles. First, without remote management tools, each computer required in-person attention. Second, new domain logins would create new user profiles, potentially disrupting users' personalized workspace settings, including desktop shortcuts, backgrounds, and document access. We needed a solution that would minimize disruption to users' daily work.

Approach

After reviewing the initial migration plan, I developed a streamlined process that preserved users' personalized settings during the transition. This new method reduced the per-computer migration time by approximately 66% while maintaining each user's familiar work environment.

I led a mixed team of full-time staff and student workers through the migration, establishing clear procedures while remaining flexible enough to handle unique situations. We focused on making the transition as seamless as possible from the user perspective, ensuring they could continue working with minimal interruption.

Outcomes

We successfully migrated all 900 computers to the new domain. From the users' perspective, the only change was their login name - all personal settings and configurations remained intact. The project was completed ahead of schedule thanks to the efficiency gains from our streamlined process.

Key Takeaways