The Vista operating system eventually will run on all Windows desktops and laptops, but corporate adoption is likely to occur more slowly than Microsoft hopes. This is because Vista is essentially an incremental upgrade in user interface, security features, and network performance—areas that most companies already have addressed with third-party vendor and homegrown solutions. Few companies with complex IT environments can justify the upgrades in client hardware, server infrastructure, and application software that Vista requires.
In small companies, the timing will be dictated by the hardware-refresh cycle; Vista will be preinstalled on new machines. In larger ones, the planning cycle and value proposition are more complex. An InformationWeek poll of 546 organizations suggests that most are taking a wait-and-see approach to Vista.
For companies with diverse hardware and custom applications running under Windows XP, the complete process from planning to full migration will take between 18 months and two years. For those with older Windows operating systems or that lack political backing and a strong business motivation for a desktop change, the Vista upgrade is further off.

Upgrade Update
Vista offers many enhancements over Windows XP, though it’s unclear how or whether they will improve the productivity of knowledge workers. The most noticeable change is the Aero user interface, delivering a smooth, glassy look and feel that’s eerily reminiscent of Apple’s Aqua. Though Microsoft has touted Aero as revolutionary, it has a clear downside—the need for retraining. It also hasn’t impressed corporate IT: 49 percent of respondents to our poll say they would have preferred a leaner UI with lighter hardware requirements.

Microsoft sees security as another of Vista’s core selling points, thanks to its more granular User Account Control and the inclusion of Windows Firewall, Windows Defender, and BitLocker. However, only 19 percent of respondents cite security as a major reason to upgrade, because they already use third-party tools. What’s more, all the IT professionals we interviewed say they’ll continue to use third-party security tools even after migrating to Vista.
Our testing shows that Vista’s Windows Firewall does a thorough job of intercepting and vetting inbound and outbound network access requests, as well as restricting operating system resources if they behave in unusual or unexpected ways, indicating that a system is a likely host to malware. Windows Defender is an anti-spyware utility also offered at no cost to Windows XP users. BitLocker is hardware-based encryption aimed at reducing the risk of data theft from lost, stolen, and discarded PCs.
Other additions may cut down on calls to the IT help desk. The most notable is Shadow Copy, which is similar to the System Restore feature of Windows XP but designed for data rather than just system settings. By taking snapshots of the files that applications generate as users work, it enables users to roll back to previous versions of a document without IT’s assistance. Only incremental changes are saved, so minimal disk space is used for these additional copies and for automated backups to a network share. File indexing and search capabilities have been enhanced through Instant Search, which uses metadata to let users refine search parameters quickly on both local machines and network shares.

Vista also promises to improve network performance through a new TCP/IP stack. Previous Windows operating systems enforced a fixed receive-side window size, which limited the amount of data a client could receive before sending an acknowledgement to its server. The new stack automatically adjusts the window size based on network congestion or latency. In Information Week lab tests, downloads from Windows Server 2003 over a LAN were about twice as fast when using Vista as XP.

If It Ain't Broke …
Vista gives business users many reasons not to upgrade. Hardware requirements are chief among them, though improvements in PC performance are making this less of an issue. Aero makes the greatest demands, though enterprises may choose to disable this anyway.
The other highly publicized problem is application compatibility. While most (but not all) third-party software has been updated to work with Vista, custom apps are another matter. Many companies are still tied to Windows 2000 clients because of productivity applications that were never vetted for Windows XP, and the move from XP to Vista is even greater. When applications ultimately prove to be compatible with Vista, testing is still a hurdle.
But the biggest barrier to Vista deployment is that 90 percent of organizations are still completing their rollouts of XP. All of Microsoft’s own migration tools and guides are exclusively designed to move users of Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003. Older desktop platforms and server infrastructures simply aren’t on Redmond’s radar. Several third-party vendors have stepped in to assist customers with migration.
Upgrading to Vista also lacks a clear business imperative. Three-quarters of the IT managers we surveyed say that other IT projects are more important, while nearly as many think an upgrade will produce weak ROI.
Retraining is another factor. As with XP, the user interface is optional; one organization in our survey even plans to use only Vista’s minimum configuration (1 Gbyte of RAM with no separate video card) as a way to avoid the retraining costs associated with Aero. However, IT support staff will need to learn new skills and get training.
Microsoft’s new measures against unlicensed software represent a further deterrent—and one that affects large enterprise customers, not just those using the product illegally. Activation is mandatory for all copies of Vista, even those under volume licensing agreements. Machines can either activate directly to Microsoft or go through a locally installed Key Management Service (KMS). The KMS means that enterprises don’t need to juggle individual activation keys for each workstation or risk exposing a volume key, but it adds infrastructure complexity.
KMS is a free download that can run on either Vista or Windows Server (2003 or 2008) and is intended for customers with at least 25 Vista clients. Each client needs to renew its activation at least every 210 days or it will go into a reduced functionality mode in which only a Web browser is accessible. To avoid this, machines should renew much more frequently. The default is once every 14 days. Operations managers also need to keep an eye on the KMS to ensure that it’s properly vetting clients and validating keys with Microsoft.

Cost Calculation
Enterprise customers who use Microsoft’s Software Assurance program can upgrade to Vista at no additional cost, as it includes all product updates: any XP Professional machine under an SA contract is automatically licensed for Vista Enterprise.
There’s an ongoing cost to SA but that can still be good value compared with one-off licensing. The simplicity of a blanket SA agreement is often worth it to avoid the hassle of license and audit tracking across larger shops.

Microsoft says that most of its larger customers use SA, while many midsize and small companies rely on the OEM licenses included with PCs. The standard Vista Business upgrade is about $200 per seat for existing XP installations. Educational groups and nonprofits can get discounts under volume-licensing contracts.
Vista’s minimum hardware requirements shouldn’t be underestimated. Though some versions aimed at home users and emerging markets can use a low-spec PC, most US companies will implement Vista Business or Vista Enterprise. Vista Business is analogous to XP Pro and is aimed at small companies, while Vista Enterprise offers additional features and is only available through SA. Most recently purchased machines will run these versions, but they won’t necessarily run them well.
To measure a PC’s readiness for Vista, Microsoft developed the Windows Experience Index, a scale that takes into account most of a machine’s components. It recommends an index of at least 3, while a 4 or above signifies full Vista functionality. The reality is that most “Vista-ready” machines shipped before 2007 have WEI ratings of 1 to 2.

No Driving Force
Microsoft has put together a wealth of support and deployment tools to move organizations from XP to Vista, as well as from previous Office versions and Office 2007. Though the transition will still take effort and a large time commitment, these tools will be a welcome change for anyone who has moved from Windows 3.1 to XP. The irony is that even with solid preparation tools, most customers just don’t seem to have any strong incentives for migration.
IT management shouldn’t draw conclusions about Vista adoption from past upgrade experiences. The limitations of the Windows 9x platform were such that enterprises migrated to Windows 2000 or XP much faster than they plan to with Vista. According to our research, a majority of respondents (77 percent) moved to XP within two years of its release. Only 24 percent plan to migrate to Vista over the same time period. True business drivers—or lack thereof—and the political strength of IT within organizations will be far more important as agents of change than technical specifications.