Our list of the most innovative executives of the year spotlights the people that are pushing the envelope with new products and channel programs to bring solution providers to new heights.
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Most everyone loves Thanksgiving turkeys. But IT industry turkeys? Not so much. We look at 10 examples of 'turkeys' that have disappointed the tech industry this year.
It's not out of the realm that Windows 7 will be counted on tens of millions of desktops, laptops and netbooks within months. For Microsoft, that's the good news. The bad news: It won't be particularly shocking, surprising or even that big of a deal for the company. Everybody already knew it would be a runaway best-seller in the retail space. Ho hum.
The real story will be in corporations, businesses and government enterprises. There, the early word is that Windows 7 will face the same issues Windows Vista did: a market that's still too satisfied with Windows XP to consider upgrading and may be even more inclined to stay put once they realize how much of a technical nightmare it will be. Microsoft is not supporting direct Windows XP-to-Windows 7 upgrades; you either have to upgrade to Vista first, or do the ol' "clean install," which means wiping a hard drive clean of all data, loading the OS and then putting all the data and applications back. We've tried it in the CRN Test Center. It's not pretty.
So here are a few thoughts on where potential land mines may exist, and where there may even be a gold mine or two for solution providers to move business customers to Windows 7:
Microsoft is making the upgrade to Windows 7 a nightmare. But it's also going to be essential for enterprises of all sizes to take full advantage of new security features, multimedia capabilities, better organization and a cleaner interface. It's not all minuses, as many believed the situation was with Windows Vista.
One of the best pieces of software ever written for enterprises is Windows Server 2008, and integration between Windows 7 and Server 2008 is fantastic. The smooth management, streamlined administration and features will lead to increased productivity and eventually ROI.
Unlike with Vista, the hardware to make Windows 7 run like a champ is both highly available and low-cost. PCs with dual-core or quad-core CPUs and 4 GB of memory aren't hard to find or build, and will support Windows 7 the way Vista should have been supported. It will increase productivity and provide an opportunity to rid many enterprises of rust-box PCs and laptops that are sapping resources.
Think of Windows 7 like the Y2K bug: Nobody wanted to put money aside to fix technology that was working just fine, but the downside of not fixing it was too great. Microsoft has seemingly done everything it can to make Windows 7 for business as difficult to implement as Windows Vista. The difference: now, over time, businesses will get some ROI out of the deal. And businesses that don't upgrade will find their competitors getting that ROI.
Connect with the Test Center at community.crn.com—Channelweb connect. E-mail the managing editor at emoltzen@everythingchannel.com.
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