No Windows 7 for recession-struck business

By David M Williams
Friday, 31 July 2009 09:09

Technology

Poor Microsoft; after Windows Vista's disastrous reception the software giant has been working to regain credibility and give companies a reason to upgrade. While Windows 7 may turn out to be "the best Windows yet" a major poll shows 60% of corporations have no plans to roll it out.

According to a survey by ScriptLogic, manufacturers of Windows management tools for large organisations, nearly 60% of IT departments have no plans whatsoever to deploy Windows 7.

The new operating system will be available through select channels from next week.

Microsoft appears to have gone to great pains to give people reasons to upgrade to Windows 7. For volume license customers there are price inducements. For Windows XP holdouts there is a virtual Windows XP environment. For Vista lovers there is more eye candy.

While Windows Vista was unpopular it seems Windows 7 may suffer a similar fate of enterprise obscurity due to a new scourge: in this current economic climate the manpower and finances available to IT departments put Windows 7 deployments right down the list of priorities.

In fact, ScriptLogic’s poll revealed nearly 60% of businesses do not have any plans to deploy Windows 7.

34% said they were likely to deploy by the end of 2010, leaving merely 6% who had firm plans to implement Windows 7 this year. Of these there were a number of respondents who claimed to have already gone live, possibly due to frustration with Windows Vista.

43% of respondents indicated that the biggest single factor influencing their decision is the amount of time and resources that a Windows 7 rollout would take.

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