Strategic components
Three questions for Olaf Heyden, a member of the T-Systems Board of Management and Head of ICT Operations.
Mr. Heyden, Windows 7 is selling very well. Why is the new operating system so attractive for businesses?
There are several features in Windows 7 that are genuine innovations. However, the product itself is not the major attraction. There is a strategic side to Windows 7. Microsoft didn’t make many friends with Vista. That’s why countless organizations chose not to migrate from XP to Vista. There is now significant pent-up demand for desktop and notebook investment: most companies have been running XP for nearly ten years. And support is due to run out soon.
There are several features in Windows 7 that are genuine innovations. However, the product itself is not the major attraction. There is a strategic side to Windows 7. Microsoft didn’t make many friends with Vista. That’s why countless organizations chose not to migrate from XP to Vista. There is now significant pent-up demand for desktop and notebook investment: most companies have been running XP for nearly ten years. And support is due to run out soon.
What do you mean by pent-up investment demand?
After all, Windows 7 will only change the operating system.Much changed in the software market during XP’s ten-year reign. Microsoft managed to keep XP up and running with patches, but the OS deteriorated into a crutch – albeit a fully functional one – that could no longer claim to be state-of-the-art in all respects. Organizations could essentially only invest in hardware. But hardware is only the outer shell. Over the years, the software environment became increasingly complex, unwieldy and expensive to manage. Some experts calculate that over two-thirds of the total costs of ownership for a PC or laptop are spent on technical support, service and maintenance. That’s huge.
After all, Windows 7 will only change the operating system.Much changed in the software market during XP’s ten-year reign. Microsoft managed to keep XP up and running with patches, but the OS deteriorated into a crutch – albeit a fully functional one – that could no longer claim to be state-of-the-art in all respects. Organizations could essentially only invest in hardware. But hardware is only the outer shell. Over the years, the software environment became increasingly complex, unwieldy and expensive to manage. Some experts calculate that over two-thirds of the total costs of ownership for a PC or laptop are spent on technical support, service and maintenance. That’s huge.
How do you propose to combat this trend?
Organizations have to transition to a combination of virtualization and standardization – just like with data centers. Most of the applications running on our desktops are standard programs like Microsoft Office. And we’ve been hosting many of our enterprise applications on remote servers for years. That includes business software like SAP. Windows 7 offers the chance to kill several birds with one stone: migrate to a cutting-edge operating system, roll out desktop virtualization, reduce complexity, establish a handful of standardized workstations and – wherever possible – switch from fat clients to thin ones. These steps offer enormous savings and also help organizations reduce their environmental footprint.
Organizations have to transition to a combination of virtualization and standardization – just like with data centers. Most of the applications running on our desktops are standard programs like Microsoft Office. And we’ve been hosting many of our enterprise applications on remote servers for years. That includes business software like SAP. Windows 7 offers the chance to kill several birds with one stone: migrate to a cutting-edge operating system, roll out desktop virtualization, reduce complexity, establish a handful of standardized workstations and – wherever possible – switch from fat clients to thin ones. These steps offer enormous savings and also help organizations reduce their environmental footprint.
