Enterprises eye a fast switch to Windows 10

[Batu69]

'Level of interest…indicates much more rapid shift to Windows 10 than any previous operating system,' says Gartner

Enterprise interest in Windows 10, getting onto it and off Windows 7, is at an unprecedented level, research firm Gartner said today.

Although in virtually all cases tha interest has not yet translated into actual deployments, it signals a faster move to the new OS than for past editions, including Windows 7, Gartner analyst Steve Kleynhans contended in an interview.

 

"The level of interest expressed by our customer base, the type of questions they asking, indicates a much more rapid shift to Windows 10 than any previous operating system," said Kleynhans.

 

In past migrations, Gartner's clients went through a consistent set of steps in the queries to the firm's analysts, added Kleynhans: From 'What is it?' to 'Why should we care?' to 'How do we do it?'

 

"Those stretched out over a year-to-year-and-a-half," said Kleynhans, talking about past migrations, including the one starting in late 2009 for Windows 7. "Here we have seen that compressed, to about nine months. [Enterprises] are already asking 'How should we do it?' and 'How are others' pilots doing?'"

 

Many of those questions have come only recently, Kleynhans acknowledged, which he argued made the shift even more impressive. "From an enterprise standpoint, Windows 10 wasn't complete or stable until about eight weeks ago. So from their perspective, the OS is only a couple of months old."

 

Kleynhans was referring to the Nov. 12 upgrade, tagged as 1511, that was Windows 10's first refresh since the July launch. Among the new features of interest to enterprises in 1511: Update, upgrade and security patch management under the "Windows Update for Business" (WUB) umbrella; and a Windows app store specifically for businesses.

 

Microsoft has been boasting of Windows 10's adoption pace for months, asserting three weeks ago that 200 million "active devices" running the OS -- the metric, typically touted by service-based firms, was new for Microsoft -- and claimed that it "continues to be on the fastest growth trajectory of any version of Windows -- ever."

 

Twenty-two million of the 200 million, or 11%, were in enterprise and education customers, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's lead marketing executive for the Windows and devices group, said in a Jan. 4 post to a company blog.

 

Mehdi also trumpeted other enterprise-specific statistics, saying that three-fourths of Microsoft's enterprise customers were in "active pilots" of Windows 10. He did not detail the size of those pilots, or the trajectory of mainstream enterprise migrations.

 

For his part, Kleynhans reiterated Gartner's previous forecasts of corporate adoption. "Most of 2016 for most [enterprises] will be about piloting and early deployment," Kleynhans predicted. "The big fleet deployments will mostly start in 2017. Realistically, they won't do that in a year, so most will finish them off in 2018."

 

Caveats abounded in Gartner's prognostication, however. "What we could see happen is that [enterprises] see the process as smoother than they now believe will be the case," said Kleynhans. Or migrations could hit hitches, and lag behind his cadence conjecture.

 

One factor that plays to faster, not slower, upgrade schedules is that for many companies, this is déjà vu all over again.

"A big thing is there is some pent-up demand for devices like the Surface Pro 4, that class of 2-in-1 and convertible devices," said Kleynhans, referring to the small-but-quickly-growing category of hardware with detachable or pivot-style screens. Corporations tried, but failed, to support those devices with Windows 8, and a year later, Windows 8.1, Kleynhans observed.

 

"IT made promises to users a year ago, but failed to deliver," he said. "Now they're trying to reinstate those projects with Windows 10."

Others besides Gartner have scrambled onto the fast Windows 10 adoption bandwagon. Adaptiva -- a Bellevue, Wash. company that specializes in systems management, specifically for Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) -- recently publicized a survey of IT professionals that showed 12% of the respondents' companies had installed Windows 10 on 5% or more of their PCs.

 

Forty percent of those companies -- thus representing about 5% of the total -- said that Windows 10 was on half or more of their systems. And 60% of the firms what now have 5% or more of their machines running Windows 10 -- or just over 7% of the total -- claimed that they would have half or more of their PCs on the new OS within the next year.

 

Adaptiva characterized enterprise interest in Windows 10 as "unprecedented adoption of the new operating system." But the small fraction of those that have broken the 5% barrier with pilots actually illustrates that, while interest in Windows 10 may well be significant, the bulk of corporations will almost certainly conduct large-scale deployments on Gartner's timeline, meaning in 2017 and 2018.

 

It's no coincidence that businesses will shoot for that schedule: All Windows 7 support ends in January 2020, and under a new scheme Microsoft just revealed, support for the older OS on newer hardware will come to a halt in July 2017.

 

"Part of the interest in Windows 10 is that enterprises are very aware of the end-of-life of Windows 7," said Kleynhans.

As they should be: Many companies learned the hard way when, as Windows XP's support wound down in the spring of 2014, they had to scramble to purge the ancient operating system. "They want to avoid those issues," Kleynhans said.

 

Article source

[steven36]

Only reason Enterprises will switch to windows  10 will  be because Microsoft lied  and claimed they keep supporting old versions of windows 7 tell 2020  so now if you want to buy a new processor now  you need to buy windows 10 by  July 2017 . Just like many home users are switching to windows 10 because they just gave up with the constant nagging from Microsoft. But i dont consider the 12 percent of marketshare  windows 10 has  has on the line graph  at statcounter to be a big  accomplishment if  you switch it to the bar graph there it only has 3.41 % 

 

 

[namek]

Actually smart ones are staying with an old version of windows or ditching windows at all. I work with many companies, not a single one switched yet. Few are thinking about switching for unknown sane reasons.

[steven36]

24 minutes ago, namek said:

Actually smart ones are staying with an old version of windows or ditching windows at all. I work with many companies, not a single one switched yet. Few are thinking about switching for unknown sane reasons.

If you are  a business there's a big long list of new pcs  that come with windows 7 or windows 8.1 there only supported tell July 2017 then you have install windows 10 in order to keep getting support . Most business has to replace there pcs every so many years most bought  windows 7 witch are getting old . In order  for them to use the latest tech and get support they will have to  use windows 10 . Business are just slow to adapt  is all . Most all of them will have switched to Windows 10 by the time updates run out on Windows 7 . But now many will  switch more sooner because M$ lied . This is why there's many sites that post the IT news that were supporting windows 10 most news is wrote  by IT's  and stuff who plan to adopt it by 2020 any how , But now many ITs  are mad at Microsoft because they not just picking on home users anymore there picking  on ITs  and business too .

[namek]

17 hours ago, steven36 said:

If you are  a business there's a big long list of new pcs  that come with windows 7 or windows 8.1 there only supported tell July 2017 then you have install windows 10 in order to keep getting support . Most business has to replace there pcs every so many years most bought  windows 7 witch are getting old . In order  for them to use the latest tech and get support they will have to  use windows 10 . Business are just slow to adapt  is all . Most all of them will have switched to Windows 10 by the time updates run out on Windows 7 . But now many will  switch more sooner because M$ lied . This is why there's many sites that post the IT news that were supporting windows 10 most news is wrote  by IT's  and stuff who plan to adopt it by 2020 any how , But now many ITs  are mad at Microsoft because they not just picking on home users anymore there picking  on ITs  and business too .

But you see, most businesses I'm working with don't care about updates. There are many still using Windows XP.

[steven36]

3 hours ago, namek said:

But you see, most businesses I'm working with don't care about updates. There are many still using Windows XP.

Maybe were you live  but in most places  that simply isn't  so . businesses counts for almost half of the PC marketshare.   XP  only holds 10% of the markertshare business and home use combined

[LeeSmithG]

Why would anyone want Windows Ten (10)?

 

Why don't we all go back to d.o.s. or even zx81.

 

First of all it should had been Window Nine  (9) not Ten (10).

 

Microsoft again did not learn from the Windows Eight (8) flop.

 

Tile based operating systems are for touch screen devices such as tablets and monitors.

 

I am happy with Windows Seven (7), does what I want, I look forward to my upgrade for free to Ten (10) to disappear.

[steven36]

That's  what people said about XP too when Windows 7 1st came out  Now the very same who swore they never leave XP and swore off 7  are swearing  off 10 and using 7  . Windows 7 and Windows 10 have a lot in conman there both successors of a failed O/S , all windows 7 is a  improved version of Windows Vista . And Windows 10 is and improved  version of windows 8  for the technically uninclined that didn't release you could install  a 3rd party start menu  and change  a setting  to make it roll out  on desktop instead of tiles . The only time i see tiles  on windows 8.1  is if i force my pc to go to that part of my pc since i  set it up ...   

 

Maybe if people would have bought  Windows 8 ,  Microsoft  would not be trying to force windows  10  spyware  down our throats. It took years  for Windows  7 to over take  Windows XP  .  Microsoft   has nothing but  time they own the #1  O/S and Windows 10 .  But  by 2020  if  the only thing  they make is windows  10  it will takeover   windows 7 spot . By  2023 and windows 8.1 end of life comes   there  will be nothing but windows 10 left that still gets updates . There  weeding out all  windows  O/S  but Windows 10. Slowly but surely its happening  .  

[MidnightDistortions]

This aggressive move is basically forcing people to upgrade. Microsoft installing nagware on older Windows to get people to upgrade instead of waiting patiently they just want people off these OS's so they don't have to worry about supporting them to their end dates. Nope. I'll be sticking with W7 and Linux instead. Linux for internet and i can still game with W7.. don't need to buy any new games.

As for MS weeding out all Windows versions, well that's their problem there. They could have waited until one version of Windows was about to expire instead of releasing a new version of Windows every 5 years having to update 3-4 version of windows at once. Now they're rushing everyone off of OS's that still has support life left on it. Yeah i'm pretty much done with MS.