VMware Study Points to Windows 10 Adoption Paradox

Despite all the fanfare surrounding Windows 10, most organizations are not especially quick to deploy it, according to a new survey from VMware, which polled 418 end customers and 157 partners. While Windows 10 is clearly a priority, the study finds that most organizations won't have Windows 10 running on 75 percent or more of their machines until late 2017 at the earliest. For solution providers across the channel, that's significant not so much in terms of the number of Windows 10 licenses sold as much as the implications those disappointing results have regarding the ability of Windows 10 to serve as a catalyst for starting numerous downstream IT projects. Without a bigger sales and marketing push from Microsoft, it would appear that any migration to Windows 10 in corporate environments is going to be extended. In fact, the survey suggests the top reason for Windows 10 migration has more to do with the eventual obsolescence of Windows 7/8 than any particularly compelling Windows 10 feature. While solution providers can exercise influence over customers, Microsoft seems to be making assumptions about the evolution of the corporate desktop in the next year that may not pan out as planned.