The VAR Guy

Pushing beyond the consumer market, Microsoft is starting to evangelize Windows 7 Enterprise to businesses. In the company’s official Windows blog, Microsoft’s Gavriella Schuster describes three key areas where Windows 7 will allegedly improve enterprise computing. The VAR Guy wonders: Will corporate IT managers — and their solutions providers — agree with Schuster’s assessment?

In her blog entry, Schuster writes, “Windows 7 Enterprise mirrors what we learned during our planning and research phase and resulted in three big areas of investment:

• 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.”

Schuster goes on to say that Microsoft is “not finished” with research that will further enhance Windows 7′s value to businesses and enterprises.

Surprise Hit?

Hmmm. Will businesses open their arms to Windows 7 Enterprise? The VAR Guy thinks so. One reason: Our resident blogger thinks expectations for Windows 7 are pretty low.

Many consumers and businesses felt burned by Microsoft’s handling and positioning of Windows Vista. If Windows 7 delivers a reasonable user experience and is properly positioned to customers and VARs, Microsoft may wind up beating lowered customer expectations.

Some solutions providers are already announcing pricing and customer upgrade strategies for Windows 7, which is expected to ship around September 2009. But don’t look for Windows 7 to save the IT industry.

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