This is perhaps the most-talked about question making rounds in most businesses recently, especially after the Vista debacle. This question can be answered by looking at a heady mix of technical and business stand-points. From a technical point of view, the hottest news about Windows 7 is that it runs really well even on outdated hardware. It was tested on a P4 with 1 GB RAM as well as on a netbook in a lab, and it worked decently well on both, outperforming many other Operating Systems. So performance wise, Windows 7 definitely gives enough reason for you to upgrade. This was not possible with Windows Vista, which had raised the bar on hardware requirements considerably.
From a features point of view, one will have to first note down the key ones, and then find out which ones are accessible standalone and which ones would work only if one have Windows Server 2008 R2 running at the back-end. If the standalone features meets your business needs, then that's another point in favor of the new OS. The BitLocker feature for example, might be good for laptop users from a data security point of view, while AppLocker would be helpful for better control over what can and cannot run on each system.
What about the business aspects? The launch of Windows 7 has been nicely timed. We're now slowly coming out of the economic recession, and businesses are slowly getting back on track. During the slowdown, most organizations had cut their IT budgets, and put all their hardware refreshes on hold. Now that the worst of the slowdown is over, a lot of organizations would be looking at renewing their hardware. So it would make logical sense to get all fresh machines with Windows 7, and make sure that your OEM gives you the best deal on the licenses. We are witnessing many organizations already preparing to move to the new OS because their hardware refresh has now been long overdue. It dosn't matter if your OEM is ready to support the new OS or not is a different question altogether, in which case you'll have no other option but to wait.
For current users of Windows XP or even Vista who don't plan to replace their hardware, this may not be the proper time to upgrade to the new Windows 7. Win XP users will have to format their computers because they can't directly upgrade to Windows 7. Vista provides that luxury. In either case, you would still have to check for application compatibility, and make sure that all your existing drivers work on the new OS. This testing would be a time taking and a pretty rigorous process, because you'll have to check with your current application vendors on whether they're ready with Windows 7 ready versions of their applications, or whether the existing versions would do better with a patch. Overall there are more positives than negatives for the new Windows 7, which would have to be suited with getting it at the right price and rigorous testing to make sure that proper integration within the system.
From a features point of view, one will have to first note down the key ones, and then find out which ones are accessible standalone and which ones would work only if one have Windows Server 2008 R2 running at the back-end. If the standalone features meets your business needs, then that's another point in favor of the new OS. The BitLocker feature for example, might be good for laptop users from a data security point of view, while AppLocker would be helpful for better control over what can and cannot run on each system.
What about the business aspects? The launch of Windows 7 has been nicely timed. We're now slowly coming out of the economic recession, and businesses are slowly getting back on track. During the slowdown, most organizations had cut their IT budgets, and put all their hardware refreshes on hold. Now that the worst of the slowdown is over, a lot of organizations would be looking at renewing their hardware. So it would make logical sense to get all fresh machines with Windows 7, and make sure that your OEM gives you the best deal on the licenses. We are witnessing many organizations already preparing to move to the new OS because their hardware refresh has now been long overdue. It dosn't matter if your OEM is ready to support the new OS or not is a different question altogether, in which case you'll have no other option but to wait.
For current users of Windows XP or even Vista who don't plan to replace their hardware, this may not be the proper time to upgrade to the new Windows 7. Win XP users will have to format their computers because they can't directly upgrade to Windows 7. Vista provides that luxury. In either case, you would still have to check for application compatibility, and make sure that all your existing drivers work on the new OS. This testing would be a time taking and a pretty rigorous process, because you'll have to check with your current application vendors on whether they're ready with Windows 7 ready versions of their applications, or whether the existing versions would do better with a patch. Overall there are more positives than negatives for the new Windows 7, which would have to be suited with getting it at the right price and rigorous testing to make sure that proper integration within the system.
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