Vista Adoption: Who's Taking The Plunge?

UNDER THE HOOD
The features solution provider respondents cited as key for the SMB were, first and foremost, security, followed by mobility and networking enhancements and then improvements in manageability. Enterprises named these same three features as adoption drivers in a different order: Security was also No. 1, followed by manageability improvements and then mobility and networking enhancements.

Matt Scherocman, a director at PCMS IT Advisor, Cincinnati, said it wasn't surprising that SMB customers and enterprises named the same top three features as deciding factors, since SMB customers' requirements have changed over the past five years. Now, security and mobility features have great appeal for SMB customers, he said.

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"Security continues to be a paramount concern—BitLocker functionality is especially strong," Scherocman said. "More and more laptops are sold every year, making mobility functionality more important."

"Security is big for SMBs," said Tom Richer, North American Microsoft practice lead at Cognizant, which currently has 28 Vista and Office 2007 engagements in the works. Smaller companies don't often have robust security around the perimeter, which means that mobile workers—and the internal network—are exposed to viruses and malware.

Despite Vista's incorporation of security and management features pioneered by Microsoft's third-party ISV partners, the release of the operating system is not expected to hurt those partners, the survey also showed. Only 21 percent of solution providers surveyed said adoption of Vista will enable their SMB customers to spend less per PC on add-on security.

This is most evident in the small-business market, where 27 percent of solution providers expect Vista's new security features, such as user account protection, Windows Defender and enhanced Windows Firewall, to offer their customers real savings.

Yet an overwhelming majority—66 percent—expect its release won't impact customer spending for add-on security offerings from third-party vendors Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro.

Solution providers said this is due in part to evolving threats, compliance requirements and customer loyalty. For example, NSPI, , a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Roswell, plans to continue supporting clients who use products from CA, McAfee, Safebrowse, Symantec and Trend Micro, said COO Stephen Moss.

The survey showed similar results for third-party desktop management software vendors. Although one-third of respondents expect Vista's built-in diagnostics, backup and restore and simplified management tools will reduce customer spending on add-on desktop management software, almost double—56 percent—claim that their spend on third-party add-on management software won't change after their migration to Vista.

SMB customers that use Vista's built-in diagnostic tools will rely on third-party add-on applications for this purpose less but will continue to invest in third-party software for emerging security threats and new management needs, such as virtualization, solution providers surveyed said.

In the case of the desktop, the big challenge is managing the platform, improving reliability and security while controlling or reducing costs and saving time, said Neil Rosenberg, president and CEO of Morris Plains, N.J.-based Quality Technology Solutions.

"Microsoft is making real strides to try to help customers in this space, since these issues are blocking deployment of their new technologies," he said. "But there are a ton of management tool choices and options for customers."

Overall, NSPI's Moss said he is optimistic about projected SMB adoption and already has migration planning activities in full swing.

"Based on our initial work, sales and service activities, we expect Vista to move pretty rapidly," said Moss. "Volumes will be into the hundreds of thousands for desktop conversion services in early 2007 and almost all new desktops on all of our rollout projects, ranging from 30 to 500 desktops in the first half of 2007, are spec'd for Vista."

As solution providers gear up for an uptick in Vista business during the second half of 2007, they should begin preparing customer deployments now, said one Microsoft Certified Partner.

"Vista and Office implementations are so far only for smaller firms, and I think it will take a few months before we see any substantial revenue," said Per Werngren, president of IDE, Stockholm, Sweden. "But it is important to help customers evaluate and test Vista and Office 2007 in their environment. The big partner opportunity is to help customers increase their [infrastructure] maturity by creating standardized desktops to lower costs for the customer. This will give good revenue to the partner, making everyone a winner."