Microsoft Canada’s channel partners are expecting big things from the launch of Windows 7, and some of the drivers of upgrades may be surprising.
Toronto-based CMS Consulting has several customers making the early move, including one municipal client that was at 200 seats on launch day, and is en route to all 2,000 seats on Windows 7 by the end of the year. Another global client is looking to move to Windows across the board worldwide.
Brian Bourne, president of CMS, said the “huge gap” between the launch of Windows XP and Windows 7, partially created by many organizations taking a pass on Windows Vista, is meaning that customers are looking for a new platform.
“You’re looking at an eight-year gap, and we’ve never had a gap like that before in this industry,” Bourne said. “There’s a distinct desire, and even urgency, to move forward.”
Stuart Crawford, vice president of Bulletproof Infotech out of Calgary and Red Deer AB, said Bulletproof is “going full-force forward with Windows 7,” and sees the new OS as “a slam dunk” for the channel. The company has been running the software internally since it was in release candidate stage earlier this year.
“I believe what we’re seeing today is [Service Pack] 1,” Crawford said. “All our team is comfortable making recommendations.”
Erez Zevulunov, director of MIT Consulting in Toronto, said he “can’t even describe” how much better Windows 7 runs on the same hardware as Vista, both in terms of speed and resource usage. He said there’s a lineup of customers ready to go on Windows 7.
