Enterprises won't upgrade to Vista until 2008

Gartner paints an upgrade picture for Windows Vista

Enterprises should not upgrade their desktop systems to the forthcoming Windows Vista operating system until 2008, analyst firm Gartner has recommended in a new study. 

Organisations using Windows 2000 should prepare to upgrade by early 2008. Enterprises running only Windows XP do not need to upgrade, but should start purchasing systems running the new operating system by 2008.

"For most enterprises it will take a year and a half to prepare to start rolling out Windows Vista," Gartner research vice president Michael Silver told vnunet.com. 

Companies will need this time to test their existing applications for possible compatibility issues.

Windows Vista, formerly know as Longhorn, is scheduled for release by late 2006. A first beta of the software was released in July.

The Gartner study, entitled Ten reasons you should and shouldn't care about Microsoft's Windows Vista client, was published last week.

Its conclusion that enterprises should wait until 2008 caused something of a stir as it was interpreted by some as suggesting that organisations should ignore the software.

But that conclusion would be wrong, according to Silver. "We are saying that you need that time to prepare," he explained. "If an organisation ignores Windows Vista until 2008, it will not be able to deploy it until 2009 or 2010."

The recommendations are also limited to the enterprise market. Consumers are unlikely to face any compatibility issues with their software and can switch any time after Windows Vista is launched, said Silver.

Enterprises currently standardised on Windows 2000 will need to upgrade by 2008 as they will increasingly be confronted with new software that does not support their operating system.

Microsoft has said that it will provide security updates for the software until 2010. Windows XP shops, however, are less likely to run into compatibility problems and are assured of support until late 2013.

They should look at the new features in Windows Vista and determine whether they justify an upgrade, according to Gartner. They should also take into account that an upgrade typically costs between $300 and $400 per system in labour and licence upgrade fees.

"That is why the recommendation is that, if it is really this expensive for you, you may have trouble justifying the cost of the move," noted Silver.

New features in Vista that might justify moving from XP include integrated search technology that allows users to label documents and groups of documents for easy retrieval.

The software also offers improved security, for example providing limited user access to features to which they do not normally require access.

Windows Vista will also include Internet Explorer 7 which is scheduled for release next summer and promises increased security and ease of use.

Most of these features are already available through third-party products, however, limiting their appeal to current users.

Microsoft said in response to the Gartner report that it expects Vista to ramp up faster that the analyst firm assumes.

"Gartner's report points out that enterprises traditionally spend 18 months in testing, and we feel that Windows Vista provides the tools that enterprises will need to shorten that timeframe," a Microsoft spokeswoman told vnunet.com. 

"Many enterprise customers are already testing Windows Vista, and we predict that it will be the largest and fastest adoption in the history of any operating system we have shipped."

The spokeswoman added that the report contained information on why users should care about Windows Vista, and described the study as "balanced".