It's no secret that Windows Vista wasn't the biggest success with companies. Many refuse to make the switch to it even today, still relying on Windows XP. This doesn't please Microsoft one bit, and has stepped up its game to get the corporate world excited about its upcoming operating system, Windows 7, specifically the Enterprise edition.
A post has been written on the Windows Blog, detailing the steps Microsoft has gone through to help companies smoothly transition to Windows 7, as well as ensure they have the features they desire. For example, Microsoft identified these three main principles to go by:
Planning: Our team spent six months on planning Windows 7 in a "vision phase." We analyzed trends and customer needs before building features. We also focused more on end-to-end business scenarios, rather than solely on features and technologies.
Predictability: We committed to giving our customers and partners a timeframe for our release and stuck to it. We remain on track to ship Windows 7 within three years of the Windows Vista release. We also only shared information about Windows 7 when we had a higher degree of certainty which has resulted in minimal changes from earlier disclosures.
Early Ecosystem Engagement: We engaged with partners during the early stages of Windows 7 development, rather than waiting for the traditional beta timeframe. This has allowed for a more seamless experience and greater compatibility in all areas.
Microsoft has worked personally with big players in the IT industry, in order to figure out what they want in an operating system, including factors from deployment to everyday use. Microsoft chose this time around to allow companies earlier access to Windows 7, to allow them to develop their applications to be compatible and with increased stability. They have adopted the following programs:
Desktop Advisory Council: Twenty-seven active IT leaders across a variety of industries including some of the world's largest manufacturers, banks, insurers, telecoms, energy companies and professional services firms. We used their input for overall direction and feature decisions.
OEM Engagement: Leading manufacturers from around the world. This gave us an opportunity to inform and set direction, while receiving their feedback.
Ecosystem Engagement: Members of the Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program received access to builds and toolkits for Windows 7. They also gained access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 labs for partners.
Technology Adoption Program: Strictly engineering-focused, customers in TAP committed a large investment of their time and resources in test deployments of Beta and pre-Beta code. Their help enables us to validate features in real-world situations, produce bugs and generate feedback.
First Wave Program: Customers who are already in progress with deploying Windows 7 Beta in their environment. This group provides real time feedback on their experience deploying Windows 7 Beta and helps us see what an enterprise deployment looks like.
In order to further help companies, Microsoft has identified the following focus points for the Enterprise edition:
Making users Productive Anywhere is a focus on the mobile user community and empowering users with seamless access: We built technologies into Windows 7 such as BranchCache, Direct Access, Federated Search, and Enterprise Search Scopes to enable users to access to their data and applications anywhere and anytime.
Improving Security and Control is a focus on protecting data, enabling compliance and giving IT better control: With this in mind we designed BitLocker To Go, which protects data stored on portable media, such as USB drives. This enables IT to only allow authorized users to read data or portable media, even if the media is lost or stolen. Additionally, AppLocker provides a mechanism for administrators to specify via Group Policy exactly what is allowed to run on their systems.
Streamlining PC Management is a continued focus to drive the cost of managing a Windows environment down: Windows 7 makes managing and deploying desktops, laptops and virtual environments much easier. IT Pros can use the same tools and skills they use today with Windows Vista for Windows 7. New scripting and automation capabilities through Windows PowerShell 2.0 help reduce the costs of managing and troubleshooting PCs.
Best of all, Microsoft says they have received over 500,000 feedback reports for the Windows 7 Beta, and that they have hundreds of fixes coming for future versions. So what does this mean to the consumer? Well, perhaps not much, but to businesses it is a very good thing. Less problems and more incentive to install Windows 7 and utilize the new features means more companies will endorse the operating system. This will trickle down to the consumer; if companies can trust something, consumers will too, and that will lead to a successful operating system for Microsoft.
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