With less than thousand days to go until Microsoft no longer
supports Microsoft® Windows XP, organizations across the globe
are reporting they are accelerating their migration to modern
desktops powered by Microsoft Windows 7. In addition, the
high level of awareness among these organizations of desktop
virtualization’s potential to simplify the move to a new
operating system such as Windows 7 is driving their decision to
invest.
These are some of the key findings of a commissioned study
conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dimension Data on
the desktop virtualization market. Of the 546
organizations that were surveyed, close to half (46 percent) said
that they had begun ‘aggressive efforts’ to migrate to
Windows 7, with a further 17 percent) planning to deploy within the
next year.
While 13 percent of companies said they had completed their
enterprise-wide migrations, 51 percent of IT managers surveyed said
they have linked their Windows 7 migrations to their
organization’s PC refresh cycle. Around 21 percent of
enterprises are prioritizing desktop and application virtualization
over their Windows 7 upgrade, and 29 percent are deliberately
coinciding their investments in Windows 7 and desktop
virtualization.
Neville Burdan, General Manager of Microsoft Solutions,
Dimension Data Asia Pacific said, “The Forrester research
tells us that organizations are under pressure to beat the Windows
XP end-of-support deadline. Of those 124 Enterprise IT
decision-makers surveyed in Asia which included Singapore, India,
Hong Kong and China, the respondents confirmed that they still
support a large population of Windows XP and Vista users (40.6
percent and 9.5 percent respectively) compared to 36.5 percent of
users already on Windows 7. However, most of the organizations are
aggressively upgrading their end users to Windows 7 desktop.
16 percent of the respondents have already completed their Windows
7 migration, 48 percent are in the process of deploying Windows 7
and 16 percent planning to start deploying Windows 7 within 6 to 12
months.”
With the use of desktop virtualization predicted to grow
significantly in the next two years, Burdan believes Windows 7 is
an ideal opportunity for organizations to implement a more modern,
next- generation desktop that will be more secure and less time and
labor intensive to deliver end-users with the functionality,
interface and access they desire. However, he warned that desktop
virtualization is not a silver bullet to address all desktop
related challenges.
“Organizations must first understand their business drivers,
workforce demands, and the state of their application ecosystem
before they define their next generation desktop roadmap. Many of
our clients are grappling with complex issues relating to their
applications ecosystems. And while the research indicates
that the major drivers behind desktop virtualization are cost
reduction and security, 56 percent of participants said that they
recognized that applications virtualization will help them to
migrate to Windows 7. To reduce complexity, organizations
would do well to tie virtualization investments into their Windows
7 migration plan,” Burdan said.
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