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But while Windows 7 is a vast improvement over Vista, companies are still going to require guidance around Windows 7 deployment, and that's particularly true for organizations that have remained in an XP holding pattern and skipped Vista.
Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, a Fairfax, Va.-based Microsoft Gold Partner, expects a coming surge in assessment services stemming from Windows 7's release.
"Companies will need to figure out how they'll benefit from Windows 7 and whether they're capable of running it. Then there's an analysis process to determine whether their applications will support it," said Sobel.
These services begin with a review of the customer's existing infrastructure, hardware, software and deployment architecture, followed by a much deeper evaluation in which the VAR provides the customer with detailed information on total cost of ownership for Windows 7, Sobel added.
Windows 7 also creates services opportunities that haven't existed with past Windows releases.
Tim Huckaby, CEO of InterKnowlogy, a Microsoft Gold partner in Carlsbad, Calif., expects to see high-end strategy services resulting from Windows Presentation Foundation and .Net Framework 4.0, both of which are supported in Windows 7. These key technologies weren't part of XP and open up a wealth of new opportunities.
"We haven't been able to do much with touch-based computing and WPF because companies that use XP desktops don't have .Net framework installed at the client," Huckaby said. "We've been limited to ASP.net, but WPF offers a much richer and easier way of building applications."
Microsoft is set to embark on what company executives are calling the biggest launch wave in company history, with new versions of Windows Server 2008, Windows Mobile, SharePoint, Exchange and SQL Server all due by March 2010. While all are important, none will be as closely watched as Windows 7, which some partners see as an opportunity for Microsoft to scrub away the bad memories of Vista.
"A successful Windows 7 will help reaffirm confidence in Microsoft's product release strategy," said Matt Scherocman, vice president of consulting services for Cincinnati-based PCMS IT Advisor Group. "The perceived product-quality issues with Vista have really slowed down licensing, and those perceptions have been a big issue for Microsoft."
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