5 Reasons to Deploy Windows Vista Now

Microsoft would like to encourage you to deploy Windows Vista now and submits for your examination five reasons why you should do so without delay:

1. Improves the Security of PCs and Confidential Data

2. Unlocks the Potential of Today’s Mobile PCs

3. Makes You and Your People More Productive

4. Speeds ROI with Rapid Deployment and Migration

5. Reduces Support and Management Costs

Note the capital letters: Microsoft really means this. As I'm writing this post on a laptop that's running Vista, I guess I'm the choir they're preaching to. But who are you? The choir or the unconvinced sinners still clinging to their ill-advised Windows XP ways? Granted, if it hadn't been for the fact that my employer was acquired by and merged with another media company and neither company had the same OSs, email systems, server and desktop hardware, or even telephones (we were using tin cans with strings), I might still be using XP and Microsoft Office Word 2000 to hammer this encouraging polemic out. Of course, the lack of IT resources, and especially our old hardware, always gave the editors a good excuse for why we weren't meeting deadlines—it's hard to be productive when things are crashing all around you.

Still, you've been digging your toe in the sand, watching others deploy Vista and run into issues. But things are different now, Microsoft says. As Mike Nash, corporate vice president, Windows Client Product Management says in a white paper issued by Microsoft today, "…much has changed. Device and Application compatibility is dramatically better. It is my firm belief that Windows Vista is ready for your business. If I ran an IT organization, I would first test and remediate my applications on Windows Vista. Then I would make sure that all new machines had 2GB of RAM and run Windows Vista Enterprise Service Pack 1. For existing machines, with modern processors and less than 2GB of RAM, I would consider upgrading the memory, BIOS and drivers, and then loading Windows Vista Enterprise SP1."

See? It's that simple. Read the white paper yourself at http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/C/D/8CD43224-5A47-436C-A21E-9DF78F1E9AFC/The_Business_Value_of_Windows_Vista.pdf.