While Microsoft is upbeat having sold 200,000 Windows Vista licenses till January 2007, the large enterprise customers appear to be taking a long-term adoption strategy.
After the long wait for the new operating and office system ended with the business launch of Windows Vista on November 30, 2006, the focus turned to its actual adoption amongst enterprises. According to Microsoft, its new software release will make people-ready businesses, simplify how they work together, better protect and manage content, find information and improve their business insight, and reduce deployment costs and security vulnerabilities.
The Adoption
A mixed reaction emerged from a cross section of large enterprises Dataquest talked to. There is no denying that the new system that will be shipped will come bundled with new software, but it is the large base of Windows XP users who have shown reluctance to hurry for any major upgrade. According to Alagu Balaraman, executive vice president, Information Technology & Corporate Development, Godfrey Phillips India, "I am not looking at upgrading to Vista in the immediate future. We have a standard refresh cycle and every year one percent of the machines get changed in any case. We will follow this model rather than spending additional money at this point on upgrading all the hardware. All the new systems that are being brought are shipping with Vista."
Numbers Do Matter
Since the enterprise launch on November 30, 2006, business adoption for Windows Vista has already crossed over 200,000 licenses
Beta (>5M downloads), customer and partner early adopter programs (>1,200 customers, thousands of partners)
More than 20,000 copies of Vista Beta 2 and RC1 distributed in India apart from over 500,000 downloads.
From an ecosystem perspective, there are already more than 1.5 mn devices and peripherals on the market that work with Windows Vista, including more than 2,000 that are Windows Vista Certified.
Windows XP had ~1.5 MM devices with 40% of consumers connecting 8 or more different USB devices to the PC. For Windows Vista, this number will grow to 4.2 MM devices by 2010.
Source: Microsoft
All reports emerging from global markets suggest a not-so hurried adoption by enterprises. Talking about CIO strategy for Vista adoption, Accenture CIO, Frank B Modruson says, "The key thing for a CIO is to set expectation with the business and the user community and make a decision. CIOs should have a point of view on any new product that is available in the market place."
Even for the consumer version, which was launched recently, there are similar sentiments. According to a recent Forrester Research, households will adopt Vista much the same way that they adopted Windows XP. This is against Microsoft projections that Vista will be adopted two times faster than any other Windows client OS. According to estimates, Windows XP took more than four years to reach a critical mass and there is a feeling that Vista might take the same time. But Rishi Srivastava, director, Windows Client Business Group, Microsoft India feels otherwise: "While it's still early to predict any numbers, we do expect that in the first year customers will adopt Windows Vista far faster than they adopted Windows XP. Broadly, we anticipate that in about three years, the migration to the newer version should be complete." Exuding confidence, Rishi Srivastava says, "We believe that Windows Vista will see the largest and fastest adoption in the history of any operating system we've shipped." He thinks that enterprise customers will migrate to Vista in three years' time.
According to Jeremy Burton, group president of the enterprise security and data management business unit, Symantec, "My thinking is that large enterprises will wait and watch and will make the move on Vista in the next 12-24 months. But the consumers will be more aggressive because they are buying more PCs."
Microsoft Strategy
Microsoft is, however, upbeat and has a clear-cut strategy to tap both the markets. According to Rishi Srivastava of Microsoft India, "We definitely see both-upgradation and new deployment happening. New PCs shipping in India post January 2007 are pre-loaded with Windows Vista. Additionally, we have been working with enterprise customers through the Vista TAP (Technology Adoption Program) and RDP (Rapid Deployment Program) and these customers based on their early experience, are very keen to roll out Vista. Customers are very focused on reducing costs of their IT environment and increasing security while still enhancing the productivity of information workers and enabling their mobile workforce.
I've been using Windows Vista for several months now, first testing it and then writing my book, Breakthrough Windows Vista. Now I'm running the final version on my computer. The first thing you'll notice about Windows Vista is the new Aero interface. It's more polished than previous versions of Windows, and it also makes it easier to focus on your work. But aside from the user interface, there are several cool new features that my family and I use regularly. Once more people start using it on a widespread basis, there will be others like me saying, "Wow. An operating system can do this?"
Windows Vista can help you do a lot of things—new tools to help you organize, store, and edit your music and photographs are just two examples of how you can use the new operating system. In this article, though, we'll discuss four ways that my family and I have already started to take advantage of Windows Vista at home.
1. It's the Interface, Stupid
Perhaps the best thing about Windows Vista is the most obvious: its new interface. With transparent animated windows that swoosh into place, subtle and elegant colors, a new Start menu, and plenty of other changes, this is the most beautiful version of Windows you've seen. If you've ever had Mac envy, this is the Windowsyou want--it's the most Mac-like interface yet.
2. Flip Over Windows Flip 3D
Switching between open windows using Alt-Tab in previous versions of Windows was always a shot in the dark, as you never quite knew to which window you'd switch, or even which ones were open. That has all changed in Windows Vista. Press Alt-Tab, and Windows Flip 3D springs into action, displaying thumbnails of all your open windows in a gorgeous, 3D stack. You can then flip through them until you find the one you want.
3. Live Thumbnails
Do you run a lot of programs and visit a lot of Web sites simultaneously? If so, you'll appreciate Live Thumbnails. Hover your mouse over any window on the Taskbar, and a thumbnail of the window pops up, with the program and document name, or the Web site name, just above it. The thumbnails are truly "live," so if a video is playing in a window, you'll see the video playing in the thumbnail too.
4. Boost Performance With ReadyBoost
Windows Vista includes a quick way to enhance system performance: ReadyBoost. It preloads files and programs you often use into RAM so that they're there when you want them, and you don't have to wait for them to load from the hard disk. You can buy an inexpensive USB flash drive and use up to 4GB of cheap RAM to boost your system performance.
5. Cool Performance Tools
If you're the kind of person who tends to peek under the hood and tinker, you'll find a lot to like in Windows Vista, which contains plenty of applets and utilities. Probably the best of them all is the Reliability and Performance Monitor. It keeps tabs on every aspect of your PC in exquisite detail, including the CPU, hard disk, network usage, and RAM use, and it includes plenty of charts, reports, and logs for your inner geek. The Reliability Monitor module is particularly noteworthy, as it charts the reliability of your PC over time and shows you every single problem or failure in a calendar format.
6. Better Security
At every level of Windows Vista, you'll find improved security. The firewall is now two-way, including inbound as well as outbound protection. Windows Defender offers spyware protection, and Internet Explorer has an antiphishing filter to protect against Web scams. A slew of security holes have been plugged in Internet Explorer, and the browser now operates in what's called Protected Mode, which guards system files against external attacks. There's plenty more under the hood as well, including Windows Service Hardening, which protects vital files and settings. (Note: BitLocker's automatic drive encryption and other advanced Vista security options are available only in the Business and Ultimate versions.)
7. Find Anything Fast With Search
Can't remember where you put an important file? It's no longer a problem. Windows Vista integrates a new search technology throughout the operating system--on the Start menu, within Windows Explorer, and just about everywhere else you look. It uses indexing and is lightning fast, and it literally searches as you type. A powerful advanced search tool lets you narrow your search by date, file size, author, tags, and location. It also accepts Boolean searching. You can even save your searches for future reference.
8. Nifty Software Gadgets
If you're a software gadget fan, you'll love Vista. It includes a variety of software gadgets that live on the desktop and do little tasks such as delivering stock quotes, showing weather forecasts, displaying RSS feeds, monitoring the state of your computer, checking your e-mail inbox, and more. Vista ships with a gaggle of them, but you can find dozens more online--and they're all free.
9. Better Wireless Networking
Anyone who uses a wireless network at home, at work, or on the road will appreciate the way Windows Vista handles wireless networking. You can more easily find new wireless networks, and save them and manage them as permanent connections. Wireless security has also been improved: When you connect at a public hotspot, security precautions (such as the shutting off of file sharing) automatically lock into place.
10. Map Your Network
Want to see every single computer and device connected to your network--and get instant information about each, such as their IP addresses? The Network Map does that for you. It also lets you make instant connections to any device; double-click a PC, for example, and you'll connect to its shared folders.
11. Better Graphics With Windows Photo Gallery
Finally, with Windows Photo Gallery Microsoft has shipped a graphics utility that's worth using. It's a kind of jack-of-all-trades--you can view graphics and create slide shows, for example. But it also includes a surprisingly good set of simple-to-use image editing tools, including one for eliminating red-eye and another that cleans up photos with a single click.
12. Become a Director With Windows Movie Maker
Windows Vista comes with a new version of the much-maligned moviemaking tool Windows Movie Maker, and it's a big surprise--you'll actually want to use it. Importing video and music, creating transitions between scenes, and syncing music with video are easy. When you're done, you can burn your creation to DVD with Windows DVD Maker.
13. Better Notebook Support
In previous versions of Windows, the mobile-computing features seemed bolted on after the fact. That's not true with Windows Vista, as the Windows Mobility Center puts all the tools you need in one place.
You can turn your wireless adapter on or off, change your battery settings, and connect to an external display from a single location. And the new Presentation Settings feature is a big leap forward for anyone who often gives presentations with a notebook. You can customize settings--such as the resolution, mute, background, and so on--and then save them. Afterward you can switch from normal mode to presentation mode in a snap.
14. File Sharing and Syncing
With Windows XP it was possible to share files among PCs on your network--possible but often impossibly hard, it seemed. That changes with Windows Vista. The Network and Sharing Center lets you turn on and configure file sharing with single clicks. And the Synch Center lets you automatically synchronize files and folders among separate PCs. You won't have to do anything to keep them in sync; Windows Vista will do it for you.
15. Protect Your Kids With Parental Controls
Worried that your children may be exposed to inappropriate content online? Want to make sure they're not playing violent games? Parental Controls put you in the driver seat. Not only can you determine the kinds of sites they visit and games they play, but you can also enforce rules about when they'll be able to use the computer at all.