Windows 7 winning over IT departments
Windows 7 has already been adopted by a large swathe of home users. But it now looks set to be adopted by enterprise as well, with the IT departments at businesses finally realizing it’s time to move on an up from Windows XP. And many are not even determined to wait until Microsoft releases Windows 7 SP1.
Many businesses decided to eschew upgrading to Vista, preferring instead to stick with the tried and tested Windows XP. But that looks like changing thanks to Windows 7. At least according to the results of a poll by market research company Dimensional Research which suggest a change in mindset towards the Windows operating system.
According to Computerworld, Dimensional Research conducted two surveys of the decision makers at IT departments; the first in March 2009, the second in January 2010. The first was conducted when Windows 7 was still in beta, the second after Windows 7 had shipped. And Windows 7 clearly performed more solidly than most of those questioned had expected it to.
In the first survey, 82 percent of respondents stated they planned to wait a year before deploying Windows 7. Now, 58 percent plan on deploying Windows 7 before the end of 2010. Forty-six percent also stated they were not going to wait until Service Pack 1 was released, which signifies a massive change in thinking amongst IT professionals, who rarely adopt new operating systems without the first service pack being released.
In the first survey, 62 percent were worried by the stability of Windows 7, while 47 percent were worried by the performance of Windows 7. Those figures have dropped to 41 percent and 25 percent respectively, showing that the final version of Windows 7 has calmed many IT departments’ nerves that we were getting another Vista.
This all suggests that those IT departments that have so far stuck with Windows XP are now ready to move on, finally.
Senior analyst Diane Hagglund said:
Windows 7 is looking pretty good to more businesses. Part of what’s happening with XP, I think, is like when you’re very wedded to the spouse you have because there’s no other choice. But now, there’s this other one out there.
And that is Windows 7. While it will no doubt take years for XP to be replaced as the most popular operating system, especially amongst enterprise customers, it does look as though the process has finally begun. And about time too, with Microsoft stopping supporting XP in April 2014.
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