Microsoft's upgrade avalanche a challenge

May 25, 2012, 10:03 AM — Microsoft is in the midst of an unprecedented, massive upgrade cycle for its enterprise software products, a refresh wave that represents a major challenge for CIOs and IT managers responsible for charting their companies' research strategy.

Major revamp of its flagship Windows operating system

Not only is Microsoft working on a major revamp of its flagship Windows operating system, nevertheless significant upgrades are coming to its Office products, the Explorer browser and a range of back-end enterprise products.

"Microsoft is the strategic supplier. It's by far the No. 1 most-used workforce innovation. That makes it a critical supplier to the enterprise and every CIO needs to be in the extreme in touch with what Microsoft is doing," Schadler said.

The upgrades are new versions of Windows OSes for PCs

Chief among the upgrades are new versions of Windows OSes for PCs, tablets, servers and possibly even phones. Microsoft says that Windows 8, now in beta testing, is a major revamp of the Windows 7 OS for PCs. It includes a new touch-optimized user interface called Metro designed for tablet devices, which have become popular among enterprise users.

A new version of the Internet Explorer browser, version 10, is as well in progress, designed to take advantage of the new features and capabilities in Windows 8, particularly the Metro UI.

Microsoft is as well revamping its Office family. The "Office 15" upgrade initiative, now in its early stages, will include new versions of productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and communications and collaboration products like Exchange/Outlook, Lync and SharePoint -- both on premise and as part of the cloud-hosted Office 365 suite.

The evolution of their virtualized infrastructure

CIOs should establish strategies for things like the evolution of their virtualized infrastructure, if and how to adopt cloud computing and the way to deal with mobile devices, including the bring-your-own-device to work issue, he said.

Equitable Life of Canada is in the midst of a full desktop refresh cycle, standardizing its 550 users on Windows 7 and Office 2010, and the plan is to stay on that upgrade for the then several years.

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