Businesses will upgrade to Microsoft's Vista in droves as consumers bring their love of the next-generation operating system from home to work, according to Dell.
Dell chief technology officer Kevin Kettler yesterday told ZDNet UK sister site silicon.com he's "bullish" about Vista uptake in the enterprise. "This will be an important transition for Microsoft as well as for Dell," he said.
Vista will offer major improvements to the current Windows which businesses and consumers will want to take advantage of, according to another Dell executive — and so the company is preparing for a "more aggressive than usual" uptick in hardware sales as people upgrade.
One Vista feature that will win over enterprises is the ability to run different versions of the OS depending on the hardware, said Kettler. For instance, a company could roll out a basic, less resource-intensive version to older hardware and a high-performance version with all features to newer hardware.
This positions Vista for widespread adoption. Kettler said: "It's an easy sell up [because] it's available to everybody in a mixed environment [of legacy and newer hardware]."
Consumers eager to try out the next-gen OS' "sexy" entertainment features will also drive uptake in businesses, according to Dell executives, as those consumers who learn to love Vista at home will then campaign for their IT department to get it at work too.
It's all part of the recent trend of the "consumerisation" of enterprise IT, where products such as Google or Skype become popular first for home use and then move into the enterprise when people use those same tools at work.
Dell's Kettler said he sees technology spreading from consumers into the enterprise but adds innovation moves the other way too — technology originally devised for corporate products moves into the home arena.
He's made this sort of "cross collaboration" a priority at Dell, where he ensures technologists working on different products — servers, desktops, laptops or TVs — meet up regularly to discuss how the technologies they're developing could help each other.
He said: "We're driving technology from the consumer to the enterprise and from the enterprise to the consumer."
This becomes more important as the digital home starts to run into issues once only the territory of businesses, he explained. For instance, the popularity of digital photos means families need a back-up strategy; the need for multiple devices to talk to each other requires sophisticated networking; and each member of the family having their own laptop requires print servers.
Power management is one area where this collaboration between business and consumer arenas will come to fruition at Dell, he said: "We have some cool things coming which will span across all our products."
Talkback
Kevin Kettler needs to take his fat face out of Steve Ballmer's greasy, badly-wiped backside and take a deep breath of fresh air.
Users do not dictate to the business which software they will use, it's the other way round. The Technical Architects give advice to the Managers who make the decisions within the financial restrictions imposed by the Directors. The Users use what they are given. Their only hope of an input is via the Business Analysts who also report to the Managers. The decisions are made by considering the needs of the business and the cost benefits gained from the implementation. Not because the users say they prefer the 3D desktops.
I would be very surprised if Vista was successful in any market other than retail where you have to purchase the latest version of Windows with your new PC whether you want it or not.
Kevin Kettler should have an enema before he starts talking about the future of Windows again.
Bwahahahaha ... We can't get IT to upgrade our RAM, they're going to upgrade an entire OS and all the apps because we ask? Bwahahahaha - it must be nice in that fanrasy world where steaks are $3 and work is empowering ... bwahahaha, it must be nice working in your PJ's at your home office - after you've been in the office for longer than a week, get back to us ... it is nice to know to know that there are bright eyed and bushy-tailed people in this world ... and it was a good laugh - good "Onion" piece ...
"One Vista feature that will win over enterprises is the ability to run different versions of the OS depending on the hardware, said Kettler. For instance, a company could roll out a basic, less resource-intensive version to older hardware and a high-performance version with all features to newer hardware."
Smart statement!
Yeah guys you may consider that, but usually an option of novating hardware and delivering homogenous solution throughout the corporation is easier to implement, support, less troublesome and finally more cost effective.
So I do trust your wisdom to place your orders with Dell for those lovely new PCs, which will happily run Vista.
On the other hand private individuals will probably enjoy this feature - being able to sport “the latest” in computing without shelling out for new PC, while the old one is still perfect for those games, Internet access and occasional use of “office” apps.