Ingram Micro Australia has launched The Great Migration, a channel programme intended to bundle Windows 11 Pro upgrades, PC refreshes, endpoint security and AI adoption into a single sales and deployment motion. As reported by ChannelLife, the distributor is bringing Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm Snapdragon, Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, MSI and Microsoft Surface into the effort, with workshops, enablement, technical support, incentives, funding access and demonstrations of AI PCs and Copilot+ PCs promised for partners.
The programme arrives after Windows 10’s mainstream support deadline, not ahead of it. Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 version 22H2 on October 14, 2025; systems still running it now need an upgrade, replacement, a qualifying long-term servicing edition, or paid Extended Security Updates. That correction changes the urgency of Ingram’s pitch: this is no longer chiefly a campaign to prepare customers for a known deadline. It is a channel framework for dealing with fleets that have already crossed it.
Ingram’s public teaser had said The Great Migration would launch in July 2026, while the formal launch coverage from ChannelLife was published on August 4. The available material does not explain whether the programme began with a partner event in July and received its broader announcement in August, or whether the date slipped. For resellers, that timing detail is secondary to the operational issue: the campaign is designed to turn delayed Windows 10 remediation into a broader device and AI conversation.
The core commercial logic is straightforward. A customer that has deferred Windows 11 deployment may now be paying for Windows 10 Extended Security Updates, operating unsupported machines, or trying to identify which existing PCs meet Windows 11’s hardware requirements. Each outcome creates a reason to examine device age, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot readiness, management tooling, identity controls and application compatibility.
Microsoft’s commercial Windows 10 ESU programme can provide critical and important security updates for up to three years beyond the October 2025 end-of-support date. But it does not add features, routine non-security improvements or general operating-system support. ESU is deliberately a bridge, not a modernization strategy, and licensing is cumulative: an organization joining in the second year must also acquire the first year.
That makes Ingram’s attempt to package migration, replacement and security services commercially sensible. A managed service provider can use a Windows 10 estate assessment as the entry point, then build a phased plan around Windows 11 readiness, replacement of incompatible hardware, Intune or other endpoint management, identity hardening, backup and recovery, and user support.
The important practical distinction is that a Windows 11 migration does not inherently require an AI PC. An existing supported PC may be fully suitable for Windows 11 Pro, Microsoft 365, browser-based Copilot use and many cloud-hosted AI services. Ingram’s campaign treats the operating-system move and AI hardware refresh as adjacent decisions because they often fall into the same budget cycle, not because Microsoft requires them to be purchased together.
Microsoft defines Copilot+ PCs as a class of Windows 11 devices with a neural processing unit capable of more than 40 trillion operations per second. That requirement matters because certain Windows AI experiences and Windows AI APIs are built to use the local NPU. Microsoft’s documentation identifies features such as selected Live Captions capabilities, Windows Studio Effects, Cocreator in Paint, Auto Super Resolution and AI tools in Photos as Copilot+ experiences in Windows 11 version 24H2.
An “AI-ready” PC can mean something much looser: a device with an NPU, a recent CPU, vendor AI software, or simply a platform marketed for AI-assisted work. It may run cloud AI applications perfectly well without meeting the Copilot+ threshold. Conversely, buying a Copilot+ PC does not automatically give an organization a production AI workflow, governance policy, approved data boundary or measurable return on investment.
That is the gap Ingram is trying to occupy with its Hybrid AI message. The distributor says some workloads should continue in cloud infrastructure while others can run locally or nearer to the user, based on responsiveness, privacy and processing needs. That principle is sound, but the launch material does not identify the applications, models, data classifications or management stack that partners will be asked to deploy.
For IT buyers, “where should the workload run?” must come after a more basic question: what data is allowed to reach the model? Local inference can reduce round trips and keep some processing on the endpoint, but it does not resolve governance by itself. A device may still synchronize documents, telemetry, identity data or results to cloud services depending on the application configuration.
Mo Kandeel, Ingram Micro’s Director of Consumer, Client and Endpoint, told ChannelLife that customers have moved from asking whether AI matters to working through deployment, security, governance and cost. Microsoft Australia and New Zealand’s device partner sales organization similarly positioned the initiative as a way to help partners bring devices, AI and security into one workplace strategy.
The vendor roster makes the channel structure clear. Intel, AMD and Qualcomm Snapdragon need endpoint demand for their newer client silicon; PC makers need a reason to accelerate refreshes beyond ordinary warranty replacement; Microsoft wants Windows 11 Pro and its AI platform adopted; and Ingram benefits when those purchases move through its distribution and service channels.
What has not been published is equally relevant. Ingram has not disclosed a standard service catalogue, partner accreditation threshold, customer eligibility criteria, available funding terms, expected partner margin, rollout schedule, or a minimum device specification for programme-backed AI deployments. There is also no published commitment that workshop participation will result in technical implementation assistance rather than pre-sales enablement.
Those omissions do not make the programme unusual; channel campaigns frequently begin as a framework before detailed offers reach partners. They do mean customers should ask their reseller to separate what is funded or supported by Ingram and its vendors from what will be billable professional services.
For organizations considering Copilot+ hardware, the assessment should map specific roles to local AI capabilities. Video-heavy mobile workers may benefit from NPU-assisted Studio Effects; employees with accessibility or multilingual needs may have a stronger case for local captioning and translation features; developers experimenting with local models may need an NPU-capable device. A generic information worker whose main AI use is a browser-based assistant may not justify a premium endpoint solely because it carries an AI label.
Partners should also insist on a security and governance workstream before presenting the project as productivity modernization. That includes identity and conditional-access baselines, device encryption, endpoint detection and response, patch compliance, approved AI tools, data-loss controls and a clear policy for whether staff can place customer, financial, health or source-code data into external AI services.
Ingram’s new programme may help Australian resellers put those conversations on one agenda rather than fragment them across separate Windows, hardware and AI initiatives. But its strongest case is not that every Windows 10 replacement must become a Copilot+ PC purchase. It is that the Windows 10 deadline has already exposed which organizations lack a current endpoint strategy—and that delaying the inventory, compatibility and security work now only makes the eventual migration more expensive.
Ingram’s public teaser had said The Great Migration would launch in July 2026, while the formal launch coverage from ChannelLife was published on August 4. The available material does not explain whether the programme began with a partner event in July and received its broader announcement in August, or whether the date slipped. For resellers, that timing detail is secondary to the operational issue: the campaign is designed to turn delayed Windows 10 remediation into a broader device and AI conversation.
Windows 10 has become the forcing function
The core commercial logic is straightforward. A customer that has deferred Windows 11 deployment may now be paying for Windows 10 Extended Security Updates, operating unsupported machines, or trying to identify which existing PCs meet Windows 11’s hardware requirements. Each outcome creates a reason to examine device age, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot readiness, management tooling, identity controls and application compatibility.Microsoft’s commercial Windows 10 ESU programme can provide critical and important security updates for up to three years beyond the October 2025 end-of-support date. But it does not add features, routine non-security improvements or general operating-system support. ESU is deliberately a bridge, not a modernization strategy, and licensing is cumulative: an organization joining in the second year must also acquire the first year.
That makes Ingram’s attempt to package migration, replacement and security services commercially sensible. A managed service provider can use a Windows 10 estate assessment as the entry point, then build a phased plan around Windows 11 readiness, replacement of incompatible hardware, Intune or other endpoint management, identity hardening, backup and recovery, and user support.
The important practical distinction is that a Windows 11 migration does not inherently require an AI PC. An existing supported PC may be fully suitable for Windows 11 Pro, Microsoft 365, browser-based Copilot use and many cloud-hosted AI services. Ingram’s campaign treats the operating-system move and AI hardware refresh as adjacent decisions because they often fall into the same budget cycle, not because Microsoft requires them to be purchased together.
“AI-ready” is a sales category, while Copilot+ has a hardware bar
Ingram is promoting both the broader AI PC category and Copilot+ PCs. Those terms should not be treated as interchangeable during procurement.Microsoft defines Copilot+ PCs as a class of Windows 11 devices with a neural processing unit capable of more than 40 trillion operations per second. That requirement matters because certain Windows AI experiences and Windows AI APIs are built to use the local NPU. Microsoft’s documentation identifies features such as selected Live Captions capabilities, Windows Studio Effects, Cocreator in Paint, Auto Super Resolution and AI tools in Photos as Copilot+ experiences in Windows 11 version 24H2.
An “AI-ready” PC can mean something much looser: a device with an NPU, a recent CPU, vendor AI software, or simply a platform marketed for AI-assisted work. It may run cloud AI applications perfectly well without meeting the Copilot+ threshold. Conversely, buying a Copilot+ PC does not automatically give an organization a production AI workflow, governance policy, approved data boundary or measurable return on investment.
That is the gap Ingram is trying to occupy with its Hybrid AI message. The distributor says some workloads should continue in cloud infrastructure while others can run locally or nearer to the user, based on responsiveness, privacy and processing needs. That principle is sound, but the launch material does not identify the applications, models, data classifications or management stack that partners will be asked to deploy.
For IT buyers, “where should the workload run?” must come after a more basic question: what data is allowed to reach the model? Local inference can reduce round trips and keep some processing on the endpoint, but it does not resolve governance by itself. A device may still synchronize documents, telemetry, identity data or results to cloud services depending on the application configuration.
The programme gives partners a larger deal to sell
Ingram’s earlier Race to Upgrade campaign concentrated on the Windows 10 replacement cycle. The Great Migration expands that into a workplace modernization programme, giving resellers a way to sell services around the hardware transaction rather than compete only on PC price.Mo Kandeel, Ingram Micro’s Director of Consumer, Client and Endpoint, told ChannelLife that customers have moved from asking whether AI matters to working through deployment, security, governance and cost. Microsoft Australia and New Zealand’s device partner sales organization similarly positioned the initiative as a way to help partners bring devices, AI and security into one workplace strategy.
The vendor roster makes the channel structure clear. Intel, AMD and Qualcomm Snapdragon need endpoint demand for their newer client silicon; PC makers need a reason to accelerate refreshes beyond ordinary warranty replacement; Microsoft wants Windows 11 Pro and its AI platform adopted; and Ingram benefits when those purchases move through its distribution and service channels.
What has not been published is equally relevant. Ingram has not disclosed a standard service catalogue, partner accreditation threshold, customer eligibility criteria, available funding terms, expected partner margin, rollout schedule, or a minimum device specification for programme-backed AI deployments. There is also no published commitment that workshop participation will result in technical implementation assistance rather than pre-sales enablement.
Those omissions do not make the programme unusual; channel campaigns frequently begin as a framework before detailed offers reach partners. They do mean customers should ask their reseller to separate what is funded or supported by Ingram and its vendors from what will be billable professional services.
The useful engagement is an estate plan, not an AI-PC shopping list
The most valuable version of The Great Migration will be a structured assessment that classifies every Windows 10 device into a small number of paths: upgrade in place, replace, enroll in ESU temporarily, retain on a supported LTSC configuration where appropriate, or retire. That work should also identify peripherals, line-of-business applications and drivers that could hold back a Windows 11 rollout.For organizations considering Copilot+ hardware, the assessment should map specific roles to local AI capabilities. Video-heavy mobile workers may benefit from NPU-assisted Studio Effects; employees with accessibility or multilingual needs may have a stronger case for local captioning and translation features; developers experimenting with local models may need an NPU-capable device. A generic information worker whose main AI use is a browser-based assistant may not justify a premium endpoint solely because it carries an AI label.
Partners should also insist on a security and governance workstream before presenting the project as productivity modernization. That includes identity and conditional-access baselines, device encryption, endpoint detection and response, patch compliance, approved AI tools, data-loss controls and a clear policy for whether staff can place customer, financial, health or source-code data into external AI services.
Ingram’s new programme may help Australian resellers put those conversations on one agenda rather than fragment them across separate Windows, hardware and AI initiatives. But its strongest case is not that every Windows 10 replacement must become a Copilot+ PC purchase. It is that the Windows 10 deadline has already exposed which organizations lack a current endpoint strategy—and that delaying the inventory, compatibility and security work now only makes the eventual migration more expensive.
References
- Primary source: ChannelLife Australia
Published: 2026-08-04T23:45:00+00:00
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Windows 10 support ends on October 14, 2025. Upgrade to Windows 11 now to ensure continued security and feature updates. Learn more about the transition.support.microsoft.com - Related coverage: learn.microsoft.com
Windows 10 reaching end of support - Microsoft Lifecycle | Microsoft Learn
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