If you’re like 90% of the companies we talk to, you’re most likely trying to figure out how to move thousands of PCs from Windows XP to Windows 7. Any way you slice it, the scenario is not pretty – especially if you have a large percentage of remote and mobile end users.

In fact, the challenge is so daunting for some that they have thrown up their hands and postponed their migration plans until a clearer solution emerges.

This week, we’re opening our beta program for Wanova Mirage 1.5, which adds support for Windows 7 endpoints. In addition, we are thrilled to provide a sneak preview into some technology from Wanova that will significantly ease the XP -> Win7 transition.

So that we’re all on the same page, the basic premise of Wanova Mirage is that it separates the PC into layers: an IT-managed Base Image (OS and core apps), a layer for user-installed applications and machine data, and a layer for user data and settings. These three layers (we call this a Centralized Virtual Desktop, or CVD) are stored in the data center, though we maintain a copy in a cache on the endpoint for local access and execution.

Now, CVDs are hardware agnostic, so one can imagine the following scenario:

An end user (let’s call him Spud), has a laptop running Windows XP. He’s an engineer, and he’s got years of his work stored on his PC: pictures of his kids, a hundred bookmarks in Firefox, Microsoft Project, Skype, and gigabytes of files. Furthermore, Spud is remote from headquarters and from IT, and has no access to nearby corporate images. His IT admin is trying to figure out how to get him (and thousands of his peers spread across the world), upgraded to Windows 7.

Fortunately, the company recently acquired Wanova Mirage. Spud’s CVD – and those of his colleagues – are already stored in the data center with a Base Image for their XP machines. With the click of a mouse, the Administrator introduces a new Base Image, which includes Windows 7 and IT-managed applications like Office, into each CVD. When Spud connects to the data center, the new CVD begins synchronizing with his PC. Because this transfer happens in the background, Spud can keep working, hopping on and off the network until the new Base Image is resident in his laptop cache.

Then, Spud is directed to reboot. Mirage instantly takes a snapshot of his XP desktop in the data center –storing the complete, bootable instance as a backup to make sure the current state is fully recoverable. Then, Mirage does its magic, transparently switching the operating systems. When Spud’s PC comes up, he will now be running Windows 7, with complete access to all his files, preferences, and machine state, so he can quickly reconnect to the domain without further configuration.

While Mirage will automatically provision applications contained in the Base Image, user-installed applications will need to be reloaded. Note: this is only true for XP -> Win 7 migration. In all other cases, such as moving a user from an old PC to a new one, or updating an OS service pack, Mirage will automatically preserve user-installed applications, as well as personalization.

So – all these benefits can be realized with a solution that doesn’t require a forklift infrastructure upgrade, or a complicated image distribution network, and it works well for WAN-connected users who are remote and mobile. Customers are telling us this capability will be tremendously useful. What do you think?