Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Social Responsibility's Strategic Benefits
December 15, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Ed Granger-Happ, CIO of Save the Children, for a discussion of how creating an organization that is socially responsible improves staffing, retention, leadership development and overall corporate health.
Working With and Communicating to Your Board of Directors
January 13, 2009, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM US/Eastern (GMT-5)
CIO panelists who will share tips and experiences working with their boards: Twila Day of SYSCO; Jeff O'Hare, West Corp.; Marc West, formerly with H&R Block.
IT's Role in Growing Mid-Market Companies
January 14, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET (GMT-5)
Mid-market Council members will share their companies' stories and challenges in driving or coping with growth. Panelists represent Veterinary Pet Insurance, Medicis Pharmaceutical, and Intrax Cultural Exchange.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »Apply today for a FREE subscription to CIO Magazine!
April 29, 2008 — CIO — What Microsoft's Windows Vista has lacked in rates of universal corporate adoption to date, the operating system has certainly made up for in widespread notoriety and critical press coverage.
Everyone, it seems, has an opinion about Vista or a scheme to avoid migrating from the much-loved XP: "Windows Is Broken." "Should Microsoft Throw Away Vista?" "Microsoft's Vista Plan: Throw More Lipstick on the Pig." "Save Windows XP!"
Despite the persistent bark of anti-Vista sentiment from unenthusiastic enterprises and the Microsoft-hater faction, the Microsoft and Vista caravan has driven on (and the June 30th deadline to stop selling XP licenses remains unchanged.) In late April Microsoft announced that it had sold more than 100 million Windows Vista licenses since its consumer debut in January 2007.
So, clearly, someone has upgraded to Vista. (Of course, consumers buying new PCs have had less choice in the matter than enterprises.)
A recent report from Forrester Research, "Lessons Learned From Early Adopters Of Windows Vista," offers four tactics and strategies for those losing sleep over their upcoming Vista migrations.
"Although most of these challenges—namely hardware and software compatibility—aren't new with Windows Vista," writes Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray, "many of the workarounds companies deployed are."
Hundreds of businesses worldwide have successfully deployed Windows Vista, and thousands more are preparing to do the same, Gray notes in the report. "But because adoption has been cautious, it's been a challenge for companies to learn from early adopters." Research from November 2007 showed that slightly more than half of the enterprises Forrester surveyed don't yet have Windows Vista deployment plans, Gray notes. Others are simply taking a "wait-and-see approach."
Even with such a large base of reluctant enterprises, Forrester has been able to gather lessons from those that have migrated. "Most of the challenges that companies experienced were compatibility issues," Gray writes. "But with support from Microsoft, client management solutions, third-party software vendors and client virtualization vendors, companies are discovering workarounds to the most common migration challenges."
From conversations with IT department staffers whose companies have successfully deployed Vista, Forrester offers these four best practices.
1. Tie the OS upgrade to your company's natural PC refresh cycle. Because of Vista's substantial hardware requirements, companies should "approach their OS migration and upcoming PC refresh cycle as one consolidated project," Gray writes. For example, companies should upgrade existing PCs to 2GB of memory for use with Vista, but limit the upgrades to PCs that are less than 18 months old.
Just the basics, please. Sometimes we all need a refresher or we need to make sure our team and our colleagues are all on the same page.
Over 25 tutorials on everything from business intelligence to virtualization.