New Gartner Report Explains Cost Drivers For Windows 7 Migration
Paul Watson, PC Technician
Thursday, August 26th 2010
Report Examines Migration Scenarios
Microsoft has already declared that it will pull the plug on Windows XP in 2014, at which the OS will be considered dead. For companies that have a five-year desktop life cycle, that means the clock is ticking now. Microsoft has already dropped support for XP SP2 and Windows 2000, so those users are already on a precarious limb.
For XP users who are considering an upgrade path, Gartner says that the cost of migrating software only can be upwards of $2,000 per machine. This includes the cost of any new components and the staff time it will take to upgrade the computer. The balance here is that while upgrading will get a computer to Windows 7, the hardware itself may need to be replaced in 2-3 years, increasing the overall cost of migrating.
For those hoping that the “forklift replacement” approach – where user machines are simply retired and replaced with one that’s already running Windows 7 – will be better, Gartner estimates that the cost of this route could be as much as $2,000 per machine, which mostly represents the cost of new hardware and the staff time needed to prep the new computers.
For those hoping to take the virtualization route, Gartner says “not so fast!” The organization cautions that while virtualization does save money on hardware, virtualization savings may be fully consumed by improvements needed for virtualization support at the desktop, and by the network and data center.
Regardless of how an upgrade will take place, the migration to Microsoft Windows 7 is likely to put an expensive bite on corporate IT budgets in the coming years. Conservatively, Gartner recommends increasing IT budgets by 20% to offset the increased migration costs until the move to Windows 7 is complete. In the worst case, the organization says a 60% bump in the IT budget may be more in line with what it will take to meet the 2014 drop-dead date for XP. Corporations that have migrated at least in part to Windows Vista may experience lower costs because they’re less likely to encounter hardware expenses associated with the move to Windows 7.
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