Microsoft’s upgrade avalanche a challenge for IT pros

Corporate technology managers must take time when deciding on Windows, Office upgrade path

IDG News Service – Microsoft is in the midst of an unprecedented, massive upgrade cycle for its enterprise software products, a refresh wave that represents a major challenge for CIOs and IT managers responsible for charting their companies’ technology strategy.

Not only is Microsoft working on a major revamp of its flagship Windows operating system, but significant upgrades are coming to its Office products, the Explorer browser and a range of back-end enterprise products.

“There’s definitely something unique going on here,” said Ted Schadler, a Forrester Research analyst.

The current status and expected delivery dates of the various upgrades vary — and in some cases, Microsoft hasn’t yet provided specifics — but the overall effort started last year and may carry over into 2013.

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Unsurprisingly, the company is trumpeting the initiative with an intense marketing assault, and CIOs and IT directors must be ready to analyze the individual upgrades to decide which ones make sense for their companies.

“Microsoft is the strategic supplier. It’s far and away the No. 1 most-used workforce technology. That makes it a critical supplier to the enterprise and every CIO needs to be extremely in touch with what Microsoft is doing,” Schadler said.
Coming soon from Microsoft

Chief among the upgrades are new versions of Windows OSes for PCs, tablets, servers and possibly even phones. Microsoft says that Windows 8, now in beta testing, is a major revamp of the Windows 7 OS for PCs. It includes a new touch-optimized user interface called Metro designed for tablet devices, which have become popular among enterprise users.

A new version of Internet Explorer (IE10), is also in progress, designed to take advantage of the new features and capabilities in Windows 8, particularly the Metro UI.

Microsoft is also revamping its Office family. The “Office 15” upgrade initiative, now in its early stages, will include new versions of productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and communications and collaboration products like Exchange/Outlook, Lync and SharePoint — both on premise and as part of the cloud-hosted Office 365 suite.

Back-end server and tools products are also getting makeovers. These include the company’s enterprise database, the new version of which is called SQL Server 2012; the IT management tool System Center; the application development platform Visual Studio; and the Dynamics enterprise software applications.

Microsoft, naturally, is doing its best to generate excitement around the new and improved features in these upgrades, making a case for their adoption through sometimes lengthy and frequent blog posts, advertising, appearances by officials at conferences and the like.

However, CIOs and analysts caution against getting seduced by the Microsoft marketing siren call.
ROI important

“CIOs need to focus on total cost of ownership and return on investment. Once you know what you’re currently paying with the TCO analysis, then you can do an ROI assessment,” said industry analyst Michael Osterman from Osterman Research.

IT professionals should focus on what their internal organization’s road map looks like, said IDC analyst Al Gillen.

“They should identify what technologies they want to put in place and understand where the gaps are, what’s available in the market and what Microsoft’s portfolio has today and in forthcoming products,” Gillen said. “They need to determine what pieces fit where and what potential adoption curves will be for their organization.”

As Microsoft beats the drum to attract attention to its slate of enterprise software upgrades, Cam Crosbie, vice president of IT and CIO of Equitable Life of Canada, isn’t paying too much attention to it. “It’s on my radar but just at the periphery right now. It’s not something I’m trying to get my head around in terms of strategy,” he said.

Equitable Life of Canada is in the midst of a full desktop refresh cycle, standardizing its 550 users on Windows 7 and Office 2010, and the plan is to stay on that upgrade for the next several years.

“Ours is a ‘take your time approach’ to make sure there’s value in a potential solution before making the jump,” Crosbie said. “A lot of the marketing hype sounds quite good, but we want to make sure that whatever we’re looking at has a lot of compelling business value before making the leap.”

This is the right approach, especially regarding Windows 8, which is in beta testing and will most likely ship toward the end of the year, said Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst.
The next Windows

Companies need to upgrade from Windows XP, which Microsoft will stop supporting in April 2014, and delaying such a move to wait for Windows 8 would be a mistake, Silver said.

“It’s really important that organizations continue to get XP out,” he said. “For most people, Windows 8 will be too late and Windows 7 is the one to focus on right now.”

Gartner estimates that in developed countries, Windows 7, which began shipping in October 2009, has been fully implemented in about 10% of enterprises, while 55% are in the process of deploying it and 25% are just starting.

In addition to the new Metro UI, Microsoft officials have been promoting Windows 8 enterprise features like Windows To Go, which lets users boot and run Windows 8 from USB devices like flash drives; simpler ways for end users to manage their connections to Wi-Fi and mobile broadband networks; and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) improvements. Windows 8 also features security enhancements, such as a new secure boot process.

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