Microsoft?s Windows 8 operating system may not be widely adopted in enterprises until sometime in 2014.
Aaron Suzuki, CEO of SmartDeploy, which does technology deployment, upgrades and break-fix for enterprises,? doesn?t see a lot of interest in moving to Windows 8 anytime soon, at least not from the IT side.
?There will be some tire kicking, but most of the adoption will be driven from the consumer side through the oft discussed bring your own device (BYOD) trend,? explained Suzuki, who admits he used to think the BYOD was BS.
?Now I expect more and more of it. Devices will be accessible and affordable, and I think they will be brought to work by people who want high performance high functioning tools, and I think that will drive enterprise adoption.?
Microsoft?s new platforms ? phone, tablet and Intel-based Ultrabooks ? and score pretty well with technology reviewers and users, ranking pretty close to the leading smartphones and the iPad. Some of the Ultrabooks look just as sexy as MacBook Airs.
The enterprise advantages of the Microsoft platform are clear ? Active Directory, better management, and tools like PowerPoint and Excel on a tablet. After several years of lagging hopelessly behind in the cool factor, Microsoft has a chance to score with enterprise IT groups without permanently alienating employees who love iPads and iPhones, or Samsung phones and tablets running Android.
?Microsoft has a major advantage in management of devices and Apple has a long ways to go,? said Suzuki. By now, though, almost everyone in a company probably has at least one Apple device, so Microsoft really has to step up and compete.
Suzuki said business enterprises are ready for some new hardware since they have postponed refresh cycles because of the recession.
?They need a hardware refresh this year or next,? he said. Although Microsoft corporate works well with OEMs, he doubts that the field sales organization is prepared to offer an? end-to-end sale with partners. Suzuki said that Microsoft and Intel don?t play well together, and since the phone runs on Qualcomm processors and the tablets on Nvidia, the support is fractured. Nor does it help that two leading partners, Dell and HP, are having their own rather public business issues.
Microsoft faces three hurdles in Windows 8 enterprise adoption ? inertia, caution and Vista.
?Most organizations got so far along with Windows 7 that to consider preparing for and testing a new wave of migration is the farthest thing from their mind. Plus, Windows 8 is a big change, not just a follow-on the way Windows 7 was.?
Enterprises are cautious in adoption; the advice for new Microsoft releases has long been to wait for Release 3 or Service Pack 2. Windows XP isn?t going away until the middle of the year, noted Suzuki and a lot of organizations are holding onto it until it dies.
?My expectation is that people will stick to Windows 7 and it will be the corporate standard for a long time.?
Vista, the operating system disaster, is one big reason.
?Microsoft has their own set of challenges. I think people love to hate it and there is distaste in the community over the problems with Vista.?
SmartDeploy has found Windows 8 to be very stable, he added, and he would encourage firms to move in a year, although he doesn?t expect them to act that quickly. Touch works well and provides a good combination of iPad and PC functionality ? quick consumption with touch and then high productivity using the keyboard. One drawback so far is a shortage of applications that use touch, but the combination of touch and type does promise some relief from the chore of trying to type on iPad glass.
?I think you will see a gradual but increasingly hot uptake. The Ultrabooks bring elegant portability and the convertible PCs are becoming popular.?
Where is your organization in moving to Windows 8 and why? (Skip this question if you are still on Windows 95.)
Do you have apps where touch will be important? Are you planning to build touch-enabled apps or push suppliers to provide them?
Photo:?AFP/Getty Images
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