Windows 10 represents a new technology paradigm; so, how can we identify those triggering factors that call upon adopting rapidly and migrate to Windows 10 in terms of technology?
Considering the role played by and the scope of investments made in IT systems and applications in terms of competitiveness and growth for the enterprise, there is no doubt that any new or significant technology movement must be taken seriously.
And another question follows as well like what about users? Because when one talks about new technology, one necessarily talks about « user experience »; you could not fully grasp the scope of one without the other!
Needless to say that any new IT investment must be supported by a thorough « cost vs benefits » ratio analysis; however, what we would like to do here is to review or identify those factors acting as alarm triggers calling upon such an analysis and announcing the imminent necessity of migrating towards this new technology.
Migrate to Windows 10 – Easy Case Scenarios, no brainer
Microsoft will support Windows 7 until January 2020. In short, for the majority of enterprises, and unless encountering incompatibility between systems or the necessity of developing a Windows 10 critical application, they still have another 4 years to plan their Technology migration nice and easy.
Microsoft will support Windows 8 until January 2023. For those enterprises which have developed critical applications based on Windows 8 specific features, the « touch » mode for example, considering the technology proximity between Windows 8 and Windows 10 and the 7-year support horizon ahead, they enjoy an even greater margin maneuver to play with. No emergency whatsoever.
Migrate to Windows 10 – Technology Environment
If an enterprise plans on trading its devices (desktops and laptops) for touch-screen devices; there would be a natural technology osmosis which strongly suggests to migrate to Windows 10, and that would be a good incentive towards migrating the critical applications for users in order to make the best of all the power and functionalities of Windows 10 environment.
When an enterprise makes the decision to supply its employees with Microsoft Smartphones; operating under Windows 10 Mobile. Many think that within the midterm (3 to 5 years), Microsoft plans on taking over BlackBerry in terms of business-oriented Smartphones, especially considering the penetration rate of Microsoft Software Suites in enterprise and the imminent integration of “advanced Management and Security functions” such as Windows Hello biometric authentication (iris), the perso vs pro data cleavage, data encryption and Windows 10 Mobile devices and applications Management from a distance.
Finally, one can imagine that with more than 750,000 applications available in the Windows Store, there are strong probabilities that more and more enterprises will be buying applications which architecture will be incompatible with Windows versions prior to Windows 10, hence…
Migrate to Windows 10 – Application Development
Let’s not forget that the Microsoft Development Environment for Windows .Net 4.6 won’t be evolving anymore and that the new development environment .Net 5 is geared solely towards the development of Windows 10 (and more) applications; here again, for enterprises which have many application development projects in the pipeline, and considering that .Net 5 is not just an evolution of .Net 4.6, there will be a decision to make, one which will weigh more and more heavily as time passes by and the cost of retro-compatibility increases.
When a business need calls upon a native application which must execute itself on the device premises; for example, using a function or a sensor not available under HTML5.
Finally, one of the key advantages of Windows 10 paradigm and its latest technology Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is of course the unique development, of just one version, of an application which can be rolled out de facto on all devices (Laptops, Tablets, Smartphones), which will automatically reduce development cost compared to multiple application development, with a Windows version and then with a Mobile Web version.
If your business foresees gains by calling upon Cloud Azure Services or moving towards Office 365 Suite, then there will be a gain in terms of convergence since every new Windows 10 user got to be automatically registered into the Active Directory Cloud Azure, which will definitely greatly simplify Identity Management (passwords) when users will move from desktop account to another or when they’ll be using Office 365 or the Windows Store which are both Cloud Azure Services. We shall explain more in details the many advantages of the Active Directory Cloud Azure Service for the enterprise in a future post.
CONCLUSION
These are all undeniable technology signs, alarm signals that it’s time to move on, or at least to seriously consider that it might be time to migrate to Windows 10… soon.
This said, the other key factor to consider in the equation is the response, one may say the demand, of users towards Windows 10.
Some say, there is nothing more profitable than a happy employee!
Michel & Denis
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