Citrix research suggests mass migration to Windows 7


1 Dec 2010

Almost 75pc of Irish company directors and IT managers have said they plan to migrate to Windows 7 in the near future, according to recent Citrix Systems research.

The survey, which examined attitudes towards Windows 7 among Irish companies, found that 42pc of companies intended to migrate to the platform within the year and that many organisations see virtualisation as a “key consideration”, with 60pc planning desktop virtualisation (DV) – the process that separates a personal computer desktop environment from a physical machine using a client-server model of computing – to aid the migration.

Desktop virtualisation

The survey also examined trends in the DV market and found 72pc of those interviewed believed that DV would be a strategic change rather than a tactical one, although 64pc experienced resistance towards migration from management and boards.

“There is no doubt that the increase in migration is driving the demand for desktop virtualisation. The strategic imperatives that worry company directors include return on investment, ability to use existing hardware for longer, flexibility and ability to easily and quickly diversify their IT infrastructure as needs change and new markets open up.

“As this research shows, many of our customers already understand these and other benefits of using desktop virtualisation to control the costs and accelerate the migration,” said Niall Gilmore, country manager for Citrix in Ireland.

The Citrix research was conducted during November and surveyed the opinions of company directors and IT managers across varied sectors.