Get ready for Windows 10 upgrade

Windows 10 will be released on July 29. Computer Weekly looks at how the new operating system will impact enterprise IT

 

With Microsoft Windows 10 due to become available in July, many organisations will be planning when to migrate. The majority are still running Windows 7, in spite of having less than five years to migrate before extended support ends.

Today, organisations have far more choice than they did 2009, when Windows 7 was released. At that time, the first iPad was not yet available and Windows was the dominant enterprise operating system (OS).

Threats to Microsoft’s dominance emerged in the form of handheld devices and competitors targeting the business market. Tablets and smartphones introduced the trend of IT consumerisation and Google began selling its office productivity suite, Enterprise, to businesses.
However, the iPad and Android tablets were not fully-fledged PCs, and Google’s offering fell short compared with the richness of Microsoft Office. As such, the Microsoft alternatives were good enough and, in the case of tablet devices, offered far more convenience.
Many organisations skipped Windows 8.0 and 8.1 because of the poor user experience of the touch-optimised interface on traditional laptops, but Windows 10 fixes this.
With this backdrop, Microsoft is launching its new OS.
Windows is no longer the automatic choice for enterprise IT that it once was, and the CIO’s role is radically different. The IT department is now a service broker rather than service provider.
Peterborough City Council, for example, is changing its IT department to one that commissions services rather than buying on-premise, with plans to deploy Chromebooks or tablet devices to 50% of its staff.