Windows 7: 'It's not you, it's just bad timing'

Despite its imminent release, Windows 7 isn't likely to hit business desktops any time soon.

A recent silicon.com CIO Jury found that many IT chiefs are putting off the migration to Windows 7 until at least 2011 but it's clear from their comments that this isn't a rejection of the new OS, but more a question of priorities.

As much as Microsoft might want them to follow its product roadmap closely, IT chiefs have different considerations that will dictate when they make the jump to the new Windows operating system.

One such consideration is the current economic situation, doubtlessly prompting budget-squeezed IT chiefs to hold back on migration projects. Unless it makes hard economic sense to invest in a new operating systems for the business, it's unlikely to get the sign-off from those holding the purse strings.

Steve Clarke, systems and operations director at the TalkTalk Group, told silicon.com: "The idea of asking the board to sign off a desktop OS upgrade project makes me shudder. I'm sure Microsoft have conjured up some wonderful ROI models, but right now with belts continuing to tighten it would be a sure-fire way to lose the trust and support of the board, and I for one am not prepared to do that."

Florentin Albu, ICT manager at Eumetsat (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) explained: "It is more difficult to justify the cost of the upgrade unless dependencies coming from the line-of-business applications are an issue."

Mark Beattie, CIO of LondonWaste, added: "Budgets have to be spent in other areas at the moment."

Migrating a company onto a new operating system may be fine and dandy when there's money to spend and the benefits of upgrading are clear cut - but when the existing OS is doing its job just fine, such a migration just doesn't add up for many businesses.

It seems Windows XP is still performing adequately for many businesses and several CIOs have said they will continue using the OS for as long as possible.

Jacques René, CTO of aerospace consultancy Ascend, said his company is planning to stick with XP for as long as there is support available and in order to complete a desktop virtualisation programme.

But according to TalkTalk's Clarke, even the question of ending support will not deter XP users: "XP will continue to do the job with or without support from Microsoft," he said.

Not all organisations are likely to agree with Clarke, however, and support may be one of the factors that eventually makes businesses take the plunge with Windows 7.

Ben Acheson, implementation manager at office supplies company Office Team Group, said: "When Microsoft withdraws support for XP we will all be forced to migrate. Other than that I see no reason to waste money moving away from XP, which does everything I need it to. "

Echoing Acheson's sentiments, Peter Crowe, IT director of clothing retailer Fat Face, said that any upgrade to Windows 7 would be dictated by...

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