Nearly 60pc of IT administrators do not plan to migrate to Windows 7, despite the operating system’s acclaim and notable user interface improvement over Vista.
According to a study by systems lifecycle management player ScriptLogic that focused on the response of 1,000 Microsoft Windows system IT administrators, the new operating system (OS) can expect significant hurdles to overcome in its first year.
The survey, which was issued to 20,000 administrators and was responded to by 1,000, found that the economy is having a withering effect on their ability to roll out new systems, with lack of budget, resources and time forming major impediments.
“This survey highlights the impact the economy has had on IT, with 35pc of respondents saying they’ve saved money by skipping upgrades and delaying purchases,” said Nick Cavalancia, vice-president of Windows management at ScriptLogic.
“This is likely a reason why IT administrators will put off a Windows 7 migration.”
When asked about their plans to deploy Windows 7, nearly 60pc of respondents said they have no plans to deploy at this time; 34pc plan to deploy by the end of 2010; and only 5.4pc plan to deploy by the end of 2009 – quickly following scheduled general availability in October 2009.
IT administrators said the biggest barriers to deploying Windows 7 as lack of time and resources (42.4pc) and application compatibility (38.9pc), followed by OS deployment/migration (8.8pc), hardware support (7.6pc) and migration of user settings (3.2pc).
“While it is important that our staff have access to the latest operating systems, we won’t migrate to Windows 7 until at least the first service pack has been released,” said Sean Angus, senior PC LAN tech for Middlesex Hospital in Connecticut.
“The IT department must complete thorough testing to ensure that the applications we rely on each day, specifically radiology information systems and financial applications, will be compatible, before deploying any new platforms or software to our 1,500 desktops,” Angus added.
By John Kennedy
