Hundreds of umbrellas were raised to create the moment Windows 7 was available in Auckland, New Zealand. (IDGNS)
SINGAPORE, 22 OCTOBER 2009 - Typical enterprises will save up to US$150 per desktop by shifting to Windows 7, according to software giant Microsoft.
One early Windows adopter – the Miami City Council – had justified its upgrade to Windows 7 on the 30 per cent power saving features alone.
Microsoft said leading computer chip maker Intel “estimated it would save US$11 million dollars over three years through a combination of functions and power savings provided by Windows 7”.
These bold statements were among several made at today’s Singapore enterprise launch of the much-vaunted operating system, together with Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010, plus Microsoft Forefront and MS System Centre.
The Lion City launch entitled ‘Windows 7 and The New Efficiency’ was part of Microsoft’s massive global roadshow to launch its new operating system, which is the first in its history to be smaller than the previous version and claimed to be able to run most older machines.
At the gala enterprise launch, journalists from across the Asia Pacific were told that Windows 7 has a “host of new enterprise features to improve security and manageability”.
Greater efficiencies
Microsoft said Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010 “work better together to drive greater efficiencies through features such as virtualisation, branch caching, security and desktop optimisation”.
The launch was told that Windows Server 2008 R2 is maintained to be “capable of unprecedented workload size, dynamic scalability, and across the board availability and reliability”.
According to the promotional material, “it helps provide improved branch office capabilities, exciting new remote access experiences, streamlined server management, and expands the Microsoft virtualisation strategy for both client and server computers”.
Windows Server 2008 R2 provides Client and Server virtualisation provided by Hyper V and Presentation virtualisation with Remote Desktop Services.
Exchange Server 2010 helps users get more done by giving them the freedom to securely access all of their communications – e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more – from virtually any platform, Web browser, or device through industry standard protocols. Information workers live their business lives in their inboxes every day. For so many organisations, Exchange has been the foundation of a universal inbox.
A major milestone
Microsoft president for the Asia Pacific, Emilio Umeoka, said today’s package launch was a major milestone for the company.
Umeoka said Windows 7 was the “most tested operating system that we have”.
More than 10 million users have already enjoyed pre-release versions of Windows 7, including 2.5 million Beta downloads and eight million Release Candidate downloads.
“I think we’ve learned from the past to really get the feedback from our partners, customers and developers,” Umeoka said. “The work we did with our OEM partners for cameras, printers, PCs, means Windows 7 now has more than 100,000 devices that are compatible with it. We have provided tools to our customers to make sure their legacy applications could work on Windows 7.”
“The ‘New Efficiency’ acknowledges that companies can only cut costs to a certain level,” Umeoka said. ‘They need to innovate their way out of the economic crisis and basically with the products we have, you can drive further productivity.”
A huge opportunity
Umeoka said close to 20 million PCs are shipped to the Asia Pacific each year and the market was “a huge opportunity” with some 83 million computers and 1.3 million installed servers.
He said analysts had calculated that up to 60 per cent of Asia Pacific customers were likely to convert to Windows 7 in the next 12 – 18 months which is “a very good outlook”.
Andrew Pickup, Microsoft Asia Pacific’s chief marketing officer, said he could understand why enterprises might be tempted to wait for more market feedback before taking the Windows 7 shift, but said this might be a mistake.
“It’s tempting to wait and see but at the end of the day, the older the operating system, the older the infrastructure, the more it’s going to generate costs,” Pickup said. “The more upgrading is delayed, the more the old systems are consuming costs right now in terms of power, in terms of applications and the whole management of the infrastructure.”
“What we have found from our early adopter customers is that the return on investment for Windows 7 will save a typical enterprises somewhere between US$60 and US$150 per desktop.”
Pickup said major global enterprises who have already tried Windows 7 included the Ford Motor Company, Starwood Hotels, Samsung (South Korea), Continental Airlines and Intel.
“Intel trialed Windows 7 with 500 users and 97 per cent of them said they would recommend it to their colleagues, which is not bad end-user acceptance,” he said.
