Businesses Won't Deploy Win7 Until 2011

Survey data has revealed that an overwhelming percentage of businesses will not be embracing Windows 7 in the next year.

Computing enthusiasts, especially those who are using the beta, can’t wait to get their hands on final version of Windows 7, however the vast majority of IT professionals working for businesses appear to be holding off for at least a year before upgrading to the future of the operating system.

According to a survey of 1,142 IT professionals conducted by Dimension Research, 84 percent of respondents do not plan for a Windows 7 implementation within the next 12 months. One of the top reasons for the slow plan for adoption is Windows Vista’s reputation of being an IT nightmare. Admins are holding off to see how Windows 7 pans out, despite the overall positive feedback from beta testers.

“The research shows that despite the early enthusiasm for Windows 7, organizations are still wary about adoption, demonstrating what could be described as an even overly cautious approach,” said Diane Hagglund, senior research analyst for Dimensional Research and the survey’s author, according to ZDNet. “Negative public perception of Vista seems to have helped build this layer of distrust with Windows 7.”

The survey also revealed some other interesting points. 72 percent of admins were more concerned about upgrading to Windows 7 than staying with the eight-year-old Windows XP.

Perhaps the most interesting is that 50 percent responded that they were considering leaving the Windows platform altogether and seeking alternatives operating systems.  27 percent cited Mac OS X as the top alternative, with the remaining piece of the pie split between various forms of Linux such as Red Hat, Ubuntu and SUSE.