Should Your Customers Skip Windows Vista?

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It's a question on many CIO's minds: Do I need to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista or can I hold out for Windows 7?

Which means it's also a question solution providers need to be prepared to answer for their customers.

For many CIOs attending this week's Midsize Enterprise Summit in Grapevine, Texas, it seems to be a waiting game more than anything else. In the words of one retail CIO, "There's no compelling reason to upgrade, so I'm putting it off as long as I can."

Anecdotal evidence from the conference shows Microsoft's Vista battle might be even more uphill than that. Before his session on Windows technology, Michael Silver, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, asked the audience of approximately 340 CIOs from midsize business to raise their hands if they plan to skip Vista altogether; the vast majority did.

Of course such results have to be taken with a grain of salt. IT executives who today scoff at Vista might tomorrow face an entirely different set of requirements or challenges that will force them to migrate. Plus, hating on Vista is a popular sport these days, so maybe some folks just wanted to play along with their peers.

That said, there are both pros and cons to skipping Vista altogether, and solution providers will need to take several factors into account before advising customers on the migration path they should (or should not) take.

First, Silver points to Microsoft's long-term support plans, noting that the company offers a minimum 10-year support horizon for its products. That's comprised of at least five years of mainstream support that includes both functionality and security updates and five years of extended support that only includes security updates.

Windows XP Pro will be in mainstream support until April, 2009 and in extended support until April, 2014, giving users a "pretty long runway" to move off of XP, Silver said. But the catch, Silver noted, is that just because Microsoft will offer XP support that far out doesn't mean ISVs will follow suit. In fact, many are expected to bring out applications by 2010 that no longer support XP, he said. With that in mind Silver recommended that companies plan to have all of their PCs off of XP by 2012.

NEXT: Factoring In Windows 7

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