Jon Oltsik, Senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, and CNET blogger, is advising companies to go with Vista now for the BitLocker encryption feature.

At the blog in question, Olstik says that if companies are implementing disk encryption tools now, why not just upgrade corporate computers to the Vista business edition that comes with the BitLocker encryption tools?

Olstik has a number of reasons why he makes this judgment. He says: “Rolling out a tactical security tool with a two-year life span is nuts. Do you really want to install software, disrupt users, and train support staff in 2007 then throw all this effort away in mid-2008? You can't even depreciate the software in that time frame so good luck getting this strategy by the CFO.”

He also says: “So here's my thought. Since most large shops are going to upgrade to Windows Vista anyway, why not eschew the add-on tools and fast track the migration? In other words, use your need for laptop encryption as a rationale to jump on the Windows Vista bandwagon in 2007?”

Olstik has many other reasons why upgrading to Vista now is a good idea, and it’s worth reading through them – along with the many and varied comments which largely disagree with Olstik’s arguments.

The arguments run the gamut of ‘Get A Mac’ to considering other alternatives to Vista and more.

Still, it’s interesting to see that yet another Windows feature has the potential to wipe out an entire third party software sector. Usually the software that Microsoft gives away for ‘free’ in Windows is usually pretty useless and actually needs a third party solution in its place.

There was also some concern a few months ago that the US Government wanted back door access into the BitLocker encryption method, but Microsoft refused, claiming that if there was a back door, hackers would find it and render the encryption useless, which on the face of it is a pretty good reason not to put in such a back door even if the US Government attempted to force Microsoft to do it.

So, while one never knows, I’m inclined to believe Microsoft on this one. After all, if a back door was discovered, it would be very, very bad for Microsoft and would seriously damage the ‘security’ credentials they are trying so hard to establish after years of virus, malware and hacker attacks to different versions of Windows.

On the sales side of things, Microsoft has clearly tried to make Vista as useful as possible to consumers and businesses to give us all a reason to upgrade, and to upgrade now – or soon.

While I’m very happily using Vista, corporations that weren’t part of Microsoft’s ‘technology adoption program’ or have a pressing need to upgrade to Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 are still likely to wait until the dust settles around the Vista launch whether Jon Olstik likes it or not.
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