Microsoft Delivers Windows Upgrade Analytics Service to Public Preview

Many companies are now just starting to warm to Windows 10 in the Enterprise. As announced at Ignite by Microsoft this week, Windows 10 is reportedly installed and running on over 400 million active devices.

This number is far from the 1 billion devices goal Microsoft originally proposed, but then had to backed-down from because the company realized it was unattainable. But, part of that goal included businesses. And, despite Microsoft’s obvious disconnect with consumers, it has experienced a similar disconnect with businesses over the past few years, which is a big reason for not reaching the aggressive goal. Most businesses feel they are just fine running Windows 7. They eventually want to get to Windows 10, just not as aggressively as Microsoft wanted. And, as any IT Pro worth his salt knows, Microsoft products aren’t truly reliable until the 1^st or 2^nd service pack.

That might be one reason to explain why Microsoft has dumped the term service pack in lieu of cumulative update or just update. Still, it seems IT Pros are more intelligent than the company has given them credit for. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck – it’s a service pack.

Microsoft hasn’t given up, though. The company is still trying to sell businesses on its Windows 10 vision. Microsoft this week has introduced a new service into public preview called the Windows Upgrade Analytics Service. The service uses telemetry data to…

…provide powerful upgrade readiness insights and recommendations about the computers, applications and drivers in your organization. This new service guides you through upgrade projects using a workflow based on Microsoft recommended practices. Up-to-date inventory data allows you to balance cost and risk in your upgrade projects.

Windows Upgrade Analytics pulls this information together and then provide four sets of tools to help an organization plan strategy around Windows 10 deployment. Those four sets of tools are:

·       Computer, application, and device driver inventory

·       Guided workflow to help take you from pilot to deployment

·       Tools to help you make data-driven decisions about your application portfolio

·       Guidance and insights into your organization’s upgrade readiness

You can sign-up to participate in the public preview here: Windows Upgrade Analytics Service

The Windows Upgrade Analytics service should provide organizations with necessary information, but what’s lacking is the education around how to deploy and which deployment tools to use. IT/Dev Connections 2016 kicks off on October 10, 2016 and there’s a slew of Windows 10 deployment sessions available, including an all day workshop.

There’s still time to register to attend: IT/Dev Connections 2016