By Tim Ferguson, 10 June 2009 10:32
NEWS
..."the support regime mandated by Microsoft".
Microsoft recently announced extended support for XP will end in 2014, so for those whose adherence to the OS is dictated by support, it could be a long wait for Windows 7.
As well as the question of XP, another area causing CIOs to hold back on Windows 7 is reliability and testing. With any new OS, there are always teething problems and Windows 7 is likely to be no different.
Chris Broad, head of information systems and technology at UKAEA (UK Atomic Energy Authority), said his organisation will move to Windows 7 "once it's proven to be stable and the first service pack emerges", while Office Team Group's Acheson said that as Windows 7 is currently untested, he would prefer to wait until other organisations have acted as guinea pigs before migrating.
Despite these overarching issues that could push businesses' migration to Windows 7 some years into the future, there does appear to be a buzz around the newest Microsoft OS following the relative reticence of companies to embrace Windows Vista.
Vista was never a popular OS, with compatibility issues and a perceived lack of benefits compared to XP dogging the OS.
Vista's comparative unpopularity means that skipping its deployment in favour of waiting for Windows 7 is the favoured option for many IT chiefs. Even Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer has said he wouldn't mind if businesses bypassed Vista.
Matthew Oakeley, Schroders CIO; Peter Birley, director of IT at law firm Browne Jacobson; Richard Steel, divisional director of ICT at the London Borough of Newham; and UKAEA's Broad, all said they plan to skip Vista in favour of holding out for Windows 7.
Many CIOs are already experimenting with the OS ahead of its release - such as Spencer Steel, IT manager at job website Informatiq Consulting.
"Windows 7 has actually restored a little faith in Microsoft after the... bloatware that was Vista. It seems leaner somehow, which is exactly what is needed in a time where most of the application use is in the cloud."
He added that Windows 7 is impressing much more than early experiences with Vista and a 2010 rollout is a real possibility for his organisation.
While few CIOs are likely to embrace Windows 7 as quickly as Steel, and although economic considerations and continuing affection for XP means we'll continue to see rollouts put on the back burner, it's clear that Windows 7 is already being viewed in a far more positive light than Vista. It's surely only a matter of time until it becomes the business OS of choice.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. karen challinor
business doesn't need to upgrade, they have a product that works well in XP, why should they pour money into Microsoft's coffers upgrading hardware and software that already meets their needs when there is no major benefit to drive the process
as for losing support, well a lot of people have been trained to support XP so if Microsoft drop support there are plenty of people who can pick up the slack for problem solving, bug fixes can be lived without and the problems worked around for a while longer
in short there's no desperate need to upgrade on anyone except Microsoft's part
and thats before we get to the "once bitten twice shy" attitude, Microsoft destroyed a lot of trust and forced businesses to spend a lot of money solving problems they didn't need to with the release of Vista
2. Nick Cole
Windows XP is a viable, well known and useful OS. The value of MS support for it is highly doubtful, and if nothing else the retraining for end users and support staff renders migration even more difficult.
Unless there is a good functional reason for migrating then it is a complete waste of money and time. It only seemed like yesterday that Vista was being pushed and lauded (by Microsoft alone).
With increasing complexity, the greater the need for correspondingly complex testing and proving. It seems that MS are stuck in a 2 or 3 year product cycle and expect everybody else to play to their tune. If instead of telling us what software they are prepared to give us, they listened to end users and supported what we want instead then perhaps the business model would sort itself out. We may even see incremental improvement upgrades and better support as well!
Unless we can see a benefit from the new version then we will not take it. I can carry out everything I want to do quite happily on XP and on a cheap laptop/pc, without having to buy a new machine to go with the software.
3. anonymous
ubuntu is a lot more viable desktop alternative than windows. we migrated our desktops to ubuntu and haven't lost a step business wise.
users are happier and are rebooting their desktops a lot less often and are more productive.
you really don't need windows to run a business or anything for that matter.
lets see if you were on microsoft's upgrade roadmap you would of just finished upgrading and buying licenses with vista and now you would have to buy more licenses and upgrade to windows 7.
we upgraded three times within that time period without any costs and one command and our business just kept on rolling.
why would we even consider windows anymore. it just isn't a viable business solution anymore.