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Getting Started

Migrating to Computle

This page is for the IT lead or technical support provider planning a move onto Computle workstations.

Moving to Computle

Section titled “Moving to Computle”

Four things decide the shape of a migration:

  1. Data. Moving your files to storage reachable from the workstations.
  2. Identity (IDAM). Which directory users sign in with. See IDAM Providers.
  3. Image build. Building the workstation image your users will run.
  4. Hardware. Whether users bring their own devices or use Computle Device. Both are covered under Requirements.

Shared responsibilities

Section titled “Shared responsibilities”

The full split is in the Shared Responsibility Model.

User and identity management

Section titled “User and identity management”

Computle:

  • Computle hosts your domain controllers in your Computle environment. There is no charge for hosting domain controllers.
  • The Computle Portal lets you reset the local administrator account on each workstation.

You or your technical support provider:

  • All user management: account creation, access permissions, password resets and the identity platform itself (Entra ID, Google Workspace and so on).

Servers and storage

Section titled “Servers and storage”

Computle:

  • Computle can host virtualised storage, so your workstations reach their data locally.
  • Computle can host storage appliances such as Panzura, or provide Computle Files.

You or your technical support provider:

  • Data residency, compliance, file management, data integrity and any other storage or caching solution.

Migration routes

Section titled “Migration routes”

Route 1: non-cooperative move

Section titled “Route 1: non-cooperative move”

Where the incumbent provider will not engage with the move:

  1. Data migration. We clone your data and move it into your Computle environment.
  2. New domain controller or Entra ID set-up. We create a new domain controller or Entra ID environment so the organisation keeps working.
  3. Basic image build. We build a basic workstation image for you.

Route 2: cooperative move

Section titled “Route 2: cooperative move”

Where the incumbent provider supports the move:

  1. Domain controller migration (single site). We migrate your domain controllers if they serve a single site. For organisations with several locations we provide an additional Windows Server instance, which you or your technical support provider configure. Only virtualised domain controllers can be imported.
  2. Planned data migration. We agree migration windows with the incumbent provider. Traditional file shares move in stages with delta syncs, so the final switch is short. Managed storage such as Panzura is deployed as a virtual appliance and set up with the vendor.
  3. Image build. We provide the tools to build your first Computle image. Existing images from a previous provider are not imported unless they come as a Windows Deployment Services sequence.

Single-site organisations

Section titled “Single-site organisations”

If this is your only site, we recommend moving all your resources onto Computle and keeping them local to the workstations. It is simpler to manage and gives the best performance.

Microsoft 365 and other linked services

Section titled “Microsoft 365 and other linked services”

Computle provides workstations. It does not provision or manage Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint or similar services, but the workstations run them as any Windows PC does, with no extra set-up.