Survey: Vista migration concerns spurring consideration of other operating systems
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 19, 2007 at 11:12am
KACE, a systems management appliance company, has finished a study that reveals 90 percent of the Windows users polled reported they are concerned about migrating to Vista. In response to concerns about unwanted complexity to their heterogeneous IT environments, 44 percent reported they would consider deployment of alternative operating systems, such as Mac OS X and Linux, in order to avoid the migration to Vista.
Of those who consider using alternative operating systems, 89 percent said it would be beneficial to use a single systems management interface to manage all types of operating systems in their environments. The research, consisting of an online survey with 961 respondents, was commissioned by KACE to gather data about the perceived impact of Vista on IT and specifically their operating system adoption strategies.
The research shows that IT departments of all sizes have grave concerns about deploying Vista, and are even choosing to deploy alternative operating systems instead. This has lead to a new set of challenges, such as the difficulties derived from managing multiple operating systems and a lack of familiarity with non-Windows alternative operating systems.
“Microsoft, up to this point, has been fighting an uphill battle with Vista largely due to software compatibility and stability issues which are scaring off IT departments from deploying it,” says Diane Hagglund of King Research. “These same IT departments are evaluating alternative methods in order to stave off Vista deployment, but instead are facing new challenges related to managing heterogeneous environments. The added cost and time spent on deployment and education of alternative operating systems have brought to light the importance of systems management devices that deliver a single interface for diverse operating systems.”
A summary of the key findings from the study include:
° 90 percent of participants are concerned about migrating to Windows Vista.
° 89 percent said it would be beneficial to use a single systems management interface to manage all types of operating systems in their environments.
° 53 percent do not have plans to deploy Vista at all and only 13 percent expect they will eventually be fully deployed on Vista.
° 44 percent of companies are considering deploying non-Windows operating systems as an alternative to upgrading to Vista, with Macintosh the most likely OS to be deployed as an alternative.
° 67 percent reported virtualized environments help in enabling the implementation to alternative operating systems.
The independent database of IT professionals from small, mid-sized, and large organizations were emailed and invited to participate in the web survey in November. The 961 participants represented a range of IT functions including hands-on professionals, team managers, and business owners with many participants indicating they had multiple roles within their organization.
Juanxer Says:
The problem is, deploying OS X means deploying Macs, and being a medium to big size business Mac customer usually means being a glutton for punishment. It’s not that Apple is not targetting them: Jobs simply insults them when the occasion arises.
Posted on November 19, 2007
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Chuck Says:
“44 percent of companies are considering deploying non-Windows operating systems as an alternative to upgrading to Vista, with Macintosh the most likely OS to be deployed as an alternative.”
Wow. It really looks like the Mac market share is going to explode when businesses are considering moving to Macs. Especially when Apple isn’t even targeting them like they are consumers. I bet MSFT will think again about pulling the plug on XP so early.
Posted on November 19, 2007