Windows 7 Migrations: Don't Get Distracted by XP, Windows 8
The world of Windows is becoming a crowded place. But between Windows XP's death and Windows 8's birth stands Windows 7, and it's the only version enterprise IT should care about, according to analysts and consultants.
CIO — Enterprises planning a Windows OS migration are at a bit of a crossroads. There's a lot to consider.
First, there is increasing pressure to get all workers running Windows 7 as support for Windows XP winds down. At the same time, the demand from workers to use Windows 8 on tablets will only ramp up in anticipation of its release a year from now.
Hypothetically, the corporate landscape in a year and half will consist of Windows XP and Windows 7 running on PCs, and newly available tablets running Windows 8 competing with iPads and Android-based tablets.
"From an IT perspective, users will start clamoring for Windows 8 tablets because they are cooler than the stock corporate Lenovo Thinkpad laptops," says Aaron Suzuki, CEO of Prowess, an IT consulting and managed services company that provides enterprises with OS deployment and virtualization technologies. "But that's just more devices for IT to manage and migrate to and there will be application compatibility problems."
Windows 7 has been available since October 2009, but it is only recently seeing real enterprise adoption. Last week, Web metrics firm Net Applications reported that Windows XP market share fell below 50 percent, to 49.8 percent. Although Windows XP still runs on the majority of Windows machines, it is no longer the majority leader among all operating systems, a title the OS has held for years.
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Over the past year, Windows XP market share has dropped by 12 percent to 49.8 percent while Windows 7 has increased by 13.4 percent to 27.9 percent.
As for the Windows 8 threat to the enterprise, many industry analysts agree that Windows 8 is a tablet OS designed for consumers and to compete with Apple's iPad. This is a smart and necessary strategy for Microsoft (MSFT), but is not likely to hurt Microsoft's enterprise business, according to analysts.
"Windows 8 is all about the tablet. I think it is dead on arrival for business customers," said IDC research VP Al Gillen in a recent Computerworld story.
It's likely that enterprises will skip Windows 8 in the same way they skipped Windows Vista (hopefully not for the same reasons), and focus on Windows 7. But many enterprises are having a hard time focusing.
Says Prowess CEO Suzuki: "We're finding one of two things: businesses aren't approaching Windows 7 migration in the most efficient way, or they are postponing it all together because they aren't confident they have the right strategy to get it done."
