For the last few years, I used Windows Vista on my laptop PC and felt like it was pretty good. I guess I was part of a small minority – most organizations eschewed Vista and stuck with tried-and-true XP.

Now that Windows 7 is out, it appears like the tides have turned. According to ESG Research, 44% of SMEs (i.e., organizations with less than 1,000 employees) and enterprises (i.e., organizations with more than 1,000 employees) will conduct significant upgrades from older versions of Windows to Windows 7 in 2010. By the end of 2011, 60% of large and small organizations will conduct significant upgrades to Windows 7. For the purposes of this research, ESG defined the term “significant upgrade” as at least 25% of total PCs. That’s a lot of PCs!

These upgrades will take place across the board: small and large companies, vertical industries, etc.

Regardless of what you thought about Windows Vista, it is clearly time to move on. ESG believes that the impending massive migration to Windows 7 means:

1. A lot of user training. Companies must budget for training and prepare users and business managers for this requirement. Smart companies will refresh use knowledge about security while they have the opportunity. Services and training companies should be very busy.
2. Increased utilization of the Windows infrastructure. Windows 7 will open the door to lots of Windows server functionality. Smart CIOs will explore options like Network Access Protection (NAP), server and domain isolation, server core, Active Directory group policies, etc.
3. A new opportunity for virtualization technology. Rather than test and roll out applications for Windows 7, large organizations may choose application virtualization technologies from Citrix, Microsoft, or VMware instead. The Windows 7 upgrade could also be used as an opportunity to make two changes at once (i.e., Windows 7 and desktop virtualization) or to create a few solid corporate desktop images for future virtualization plans.

XP was a great version of Windows but it was first released in 2001 so many organizations are moving on. IT managers and technology vendors should prepare for this inevitability by viewing Windows 7 as an invitation to train users, bolster security, take advantage of Windows functionality, and sell complementary products and services.

Related posts:

1. People May Be the Weakest Link in the Server Virtualization Chain
2. Heterogeneous Server Virtualization
3. Good News on IT, Networking, and Security Spending in 2010
4. How about Vista for full disk encryption?
5. Interop 2010: What to Expect Beyond Cloud Computing Rhetoric

Tags: Citrix, Microsoft, NAP, server core, virtualization, VMware, Windows, Windows 7