Windows 8 Will Not Become an Enterprise Standard—Forrester Research Says
Windows 8 Will Not Become an Enterprise Standard—Forrester Research Says by UCStrategies Staff
IT research firm Forrester predicts that most businesses will not make Windows 8 their primary standard because the operating system will not get enough adoption. The Forrester Research report, “IT Will Skip Windows 8 As The Enterprise Standard,” also says that employees must be free to use devices that run on Windows 8 and that companies must beef up their system to meet BYOD demand
According to the Forrester study, Windows 8 adoption in workplace PCs will not even make it close to 50 percent by the time Microsoft releases its next major upgrade to Windows, thereby failing to surpass the adoption level for Windows 7.
In a separate Q3 2012 Forrester survey of North American and European enterprises and SMBs, it has been shown that Windows 7 was on nearly half (48 percent) of workplace PCs while Windows XP was on 38 percent. The respondents also estimated that, a year later, 60 percent of their PCs would be on Windows 7 and 26 percent would be on Windows 8.
Forrester analyst and the report’s lead author David Johnson said, “I have to believe Microsoft expected better enterprise adoption for Windows 8.”
Johnson explains that the factors that influence enterprises’ Windows 8 adoption and interest levels differ. He says that IT pros are unsure of whether or not Windows 8 brings in to their companies a significant improvement compared to Windows 7, which is already known to be a stable operating system. In fact, a mere seven percent of respondents said that the user interface of Windows 8 is an improvement over that of Windows 7.
Moreover, numerous IT departments have an issue with certain Windows 8 elements, especially the tile-based user interface. Some IT pros are concerned about the associated learning curve it poses to their end users.
Another problematic area is the Modern UI’s interaction with the more established one, which also comes with Windows 8 to enable the new OS to run Windows 7 applications. According to Johnson, there was a lack of a “truly seamless experience” between the new interface and the previous one.
The phenomenon called “migration fatigue” is another cause for concern and hinders the adoption of Windows 8 in the enterprise. Upgrading workplace desktop operating systems involves money and effort. So if a company has just finished upgrading to Windows 7, IT pros may disapprove of having to upgrade to a new OS again.
With the deployment of Windows 8, Microsoft looks forward to recovering from its weak tablet presence. However, iPads and Android-powered tablets are still the favored options—as indicated by the findings of a Good Technology study.
The enterprise adoption of Windows 8 has also been held back by Windows RT, the version of Windows 8 for ARM devices. Windows RT is unable to run Windows 7 and XP applications. Its IT management capabilities are also limited.
Nevertheless, Johnson points out that IT departments must be ready to facilitate Windows 8 deployment because interest in the OS is higher among end users than among IT pros. A Q4 2012 Forrester survey found out that 38 percent of employees preferred Windows 8 on work PCs and 35 percent showed preference for Windows 7. And when prompted about their choice of tablets for work, 26 percent of respondents favored an iPad, while 20 percent chose a Windows 8 tablet.
Early this year, a Forrester Research survey was able to show that nearly one third of 9,766 global enterprise tech workers preferred their next tablet to run on a Windows software platform. The annual Mobile Workforce Adoption Trends survey by Forrester Research also highlighted the preference of tech workers for the iPhone over the Android smartphone. For tablets, 32 percent of information workers surveyed chose Microsoft Surface, 26 percent favored the iPad, while 12 percent picked Android tablets.
This means there will still be Windows 8 devices entering the workplace—something which IT departments must be prepared for.
Johnson suggests that Windows 7 migrations must be completed because enterprise IT infrastructures that have been upgraded from Windows XP are more equipped to handle the introduction of devices running on Windows 8. He also mentions the importance of implementing a formal policy and program for BYOD. (KOM) Link. Link.