Does the enterprise need to migrate from Windows 7 to Windows 10 or from Windows 8 or Windows XP for that matter? It is our opinion that upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 will definitely be a positive experience for the consumer in many regards; but what about your enterprise?
The fact and the matter is, from both a marketing and technology perspective, it seems like enterprises will also benefit of migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 10 although it might have immediate repercussions on which Microsoft, apparently, has thought about!
There will be a migration cost in terms of adaptation efforts for the personnel, but also in terms of applications and systems migration and, in terms of application development process changes, which we shall explore more deeply in the next post.
Let us remind that the Windows 8 misfire (and its « metro » display which was meant to be the first serious trial at a standard multiplatform display), combined with the lack of Microsoft Smartphones and BYOD, opened the door to both Apple and Google to bring along massive volume of mobile devices among enterprises. Hence, one might question the true penetration potential of Microsoft mobile devices running on Windows 10?
So here are 7 good reasons for the enterprise to migrate from Windows 7 to Windows 10
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Free & Training
Windows 10 is free, Microsoft has repeated it extensively. Well, Microsoft does not offer free Windows 10 update to enterprises, those which need the Windows 10 Enterprise or Education versions will have to pay a Windows 10 license. Nevertheless, there is a chance that those enterprises without corporate license and not using the « Enterprise » version could migrate some of their « individual » workstations freely from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
The best strategy that Microsoft could have deployed to transform enterprises’ employees into Windows 10 ambassadors was to facilitate their training and accelerate their transition towards the new OS. Well, it looks like the training curve it’s going to be quite soft, considering the experience will be the same on all platforms. What else is there to say?
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Homogeneous user experience / UX
Microsoft wants to conquer the new generation of tech-savvy users with a unified and fluid user-experience on all devices. Well, that’s the Windows 10 promise!
Hence, employees will evolve from and to homogeneous personal and professional environment where the phone, tablet and desktop user-experience will be the same. Gone, touch-optimized only Windows 8 applications.
Definitely, a renewed and unified user-experience should greatly simplify and soften the transition. Enterprises’ productivity is very much depending on employees’ happiness which is directly proportional to their satisfaction and appreciation of the working environment and tools they’ve been provided with.
Let’s add that Windows 10 comes with an army of advantages over the previous versions for the consumer, among others, the new browser Edge, the new vocal-command personal assistant Cortana and many others which we have discussed in our previous post.
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Microsoft Store
It now offers more than 700 000 applications which Microsoft make available to all, including enterprises. Among them, a great many applications will be offered for free or at a very cheap price.
Any enterprise can make great use of so many tools and applications to enhance many facets of its operations; communications, collaboration, productivity, security, etc. And that is without taking into account that most of these applications and tools will run on all devices, there lies a profitable economy of scale for any company.
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Easy deployment
The enterprise can also benefit from the Microsoft Store to deploy the applications it has developed for its own needs and make them available but only to a specific and limited group of users (all employees or just a sub-group)!
The application developers can also benefit from this basket of new Windows 10 users. First, they will benefit from this powerful technology incentive since its applications will run on all platforms; phone, tablet and desktop. Second, it will undeniably profit from a great marketing asset, the Microsoft Store visibility. So, how could you say no to such a new marketing environment?
Either you’re an application developer company or an application user company, the Universal Windows Platform (UWP – Windows 10) and the Microsoft Store will provide many business opportunities and many technological advantages.
According to a recent survey, Forrester revealed that 73 % of IT managers intended on deploying Windows 10 over the next two years.
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Security
Considering that more and more enterprises will buy directly from the Microsoft Store; they will all benefit spontaneously from a security advantage since all applications there will systematically go through a security audit. Hence, these applications will be granted some sort of de facto Microsoft guarantee:
- code verified and secured by Microsoft
- no virus
Hence, no risks.
Moreover, Microsoft plans on offering a wide range of security and device management functionalities to meet the demands of IT personnel; among others, Device Group Management in terms of security and updates enabling updating by Group or by steps and, better Application Management.
Microsoft is also working on a new Data Management protocol so to separate « Enterprise » from « Personal » data on all mobile devices. Windows 10 « Enterprise » users will also be able to deactivate telemetric data gathering when in “Personal” mode.
According to Microsoft, Mobile Device Management will be greatly facilitated to more easily adapt to BYOD context and management of multiple users of which Microsoft Store control, VPN configuration and total wipe out of devices.
Many new Security and Management functionalities will arrive soon. For example, Windows Hello will enable biometric authentication, Passport will enable two-step authentication and Device Guard will enhance protection against Advanced and Sustained Threats.
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Optimized ROI in Application Development
An application developed with Universal Windows Platform (UWP) technology will run on all 3 environments; tablet, phone and desktop.
Contrary to application development investments made in the old .Net Framework technology, the depreciation period of investments made on the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) environment will be much longer and so will the ROI opportunities.
By the same token, the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) multiplatform positioning will force enterprises to move towards deploying a « Service / Cloud » architecture, thus benefiting from enhanced security and « scalability » that come with this environment.
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A simplified Microsoft vision — one device
The new unified vision of Microsoft will also greatly improve « enterprise » users’ experience quality in terms of communications, collaboration and device updates.
Thus, any employee can go on the road with just his Smartphone, a mini-HDMI cable for connecting with a local display device and a Bluetooth link for keyboard and mouse. When the employee will make presentations from a Windows 10 application, the display from its Smartphone will adapt to tis Smartphone screen and the display of its Windows 10 application on the screen connected with its Smartphone will adapt to whatever screen it is being connected to, in a Desktop display fashion.
Microsoft Statistics — October 2015
110 M devices will run Windows 10 among which 8 million PCs in enterprise ; which makes Windows 10, the OS with the fastest adoption rate in Microsoft history, even better than Windows 7. Microsoft has most certainly understood that Windows must remain THE most used OS if it wants to keep funnel-promoting its more profitable products such as Office or Office 365 or Azure.
For more information go see our Windows development page
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