Microsoft to business users: deploy Windows 7 now!

Microsoft has once again started pushing for business users to deploy Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The company also unveiled that Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2009 R2 is coming in late October.








Windows 7 may be set for an October 22 consumer release, but Microsoft is starting to push businesses towards the idea of deploying the operating system now, since they already have access to it. In a post titled "No need to wait—begin your Windows 7 deployment now!" on the Windows for your Business blog, Microsoft lays out its rationale.




"Deployments are happening right now and your company can begin deployment as well! Several of our early adopters are already having great success with Windows 7... We are happy to see so much excitement from early Windows 7 adopters, showing the real value Windows 7 provides enterprises... Now is the time to begin testing and deploying Windows 7 with MDOP and Windows Server 2008 R2!"

While that was the main message Redmond wants IT to hear, it also had an announcement to make. A 2009 R2 version of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), a set of desktop management tools that is designed to make it easier for IT managers and system administrators to manage and maintain large PC environments, is slated for release in late October 2009. In the new version, server and management components will support Windows Server 2008 R2 while Windows 7 support will be available for all components except for Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). MED-V 1.0 will support Windows 7 via SP1, slated for the first quarter of 2010.




In addition, Microsoft also took the time in the blog post to outline key Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) findings from studies of three enterprise customer deployments: 2,200 users at Baker Tilly (Professional Services - UK), 2,235 users for the City of Miami (Local Government - US), and 14,300 users at Getronics (IT Services - Netherlands). If your setup is similar to any of these, Microsoft wants you to check out the studies to see the savings you can be making by moving to Windows 7.

Microsoft also referred to findings from Forrester Research, which surveyed over 318 senior IT decision makers and C- level IT executives in the US, Germany, and Japan (78 percent of respondents had over 500 PCs) to take a closer look at what the challenges are for enterprises today. Again the key findings are in the blog post, but the general gist is that costs are increasing each year. Microsoft's answer to this problem is of course to deploy Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 using MDOP.



Microsoft began to urge business users to forget about Windows 2000 and Windows XP with the launch of the Windows for your Business blog in February 2009. Microsoft's announcement today to push out a new version of MDOP next month is great news for businesses, and shows that Microsoft really wants them to upgrade, given that MDOP 2009 was released just a few months ago in April 2009.



There have been more recent related developments, too. Two weeks ago, Microsoft posted a 90-day trial of Windows 7 Enterprise on TechNet. Last week, the company released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010, which is optimized to support Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 deployments, and has built-in capabilities to support customers migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7.