Tooling Up For Vista

But after five years and 50 million lines of code from Microsoft, the channel has begun the early stages of upgrading systems to the software giant's newest operating system. Over time, it is sure to create revenue for solution providers—and it could come easy to VARs that make it their job to push Vista out to the corporate desktop.

Still, it's easier said than done.

While integrators, resellers and solution providers hash out the best way to bring Vista to customers, they are faced with some key hurdles to overcome. Driver support, application compatibility and hardware capabilities are all top-of-list issues. But those issues are leading to other critical tasks such as application inventory that may have been put off since the last big upgrade.

Slide Show: 5 Tools For Easing Vista Install Headaches

It's testing patience. As one solution provider put it, "I put the disk into my own laptop at home before I came to work today. I've tried to upgrade it twice already, and it didn't work either time. If I get home and it still hasn't worked, I'm throwing it into the river."

David Hall, CTO of CompuCom, said the Dallas-based solution provider has invested much in developing a strategy for the rollout of Vista to corporate customers. While the company doesn't expect to see widespread adoption of Vista in 2007, its work toward a best-practices approach to Vista deployment is ready now nonetheless.

"Based on the numbers I've seen out there, 15 [percent] to 30 percent of the systems will have hardware that qualifies for a Vista upgrade," Hall said. "To really truly run the operating platform, to some degree, you're looking at a replacement of the system as a whole. You may have to catch them on one of their larger refresh cycles."

To that end, the "clean" upgrade is a favored approach, Hall said. Taking inventory of applications deployed throughout an enterprise to determine which are Vista-compatible and which are not also would be essential as part of a best-practices approach.

"For the early adopters, their biggest challenge is making sure [Vista] supports everything," Hall said. "Out of the box, right now, there are a lot of drivers that are just not available. That's going to be one of the key issues for early adopters."

Specifically, Hall pointed to the lack of compatibility between Vista and VPN technology deployed in many enterprises. "It doesn't support the primary VPNs that are currently on the market," Hall said. "For many clients, that's a showstopper right now."

Some vendors, such as Laplink, have begun rolling out Vista deployment tools for the enterprise, and Microsoft last week made six tools generally available for free downloads—two that were new and four that had been previously available to qualified partners and select customers.

While the debate rages on as to whether or not Vista is worth the wait, one thing is certain: It will be a source of revenue, and it should come easy to VARs that have done their homework.

The simple fact is that those pushing Vista will be faced by many challenges, starting with the initial sale of the product. VARs will have to demonstrate the value of Vista to the enterprise user to garner sales. Focusing on security enhancements, improved stability and better policy-based controls should prime the Vista sales pump.

Sales issues aside, there are several technical obstacles that VARs will have to clear to ensure a successful deployment. Two elements will smooth the road to success: having a plan and picking the right tools for the job.

NEXT: Sizing up the environment