In an advisory released Friday, the research firm outlined five key areas companies should evaluate to prepare their migration to the new OS when it is officially launched Oct. 22.
1. Plan to be off Windows XP before end-2012.
Enterprises that had skipped Vista should plan to be leave Win XP by the end of 2012. According to Gartner, while Microsoft will support Win XP with security fixes until April 2014, past experience has shown that independent software vendors (ISVs) will stop testing their apps much earlier. In fact, ISVs will start limiting their support for Win XP after 2011.
"New releases of critical business software will require Windows 7 long before Microsoft support for Win XP ends," Steve Kleynhans, research vice president at Gartner, said in the report. "Organizations that get all of their users off Win XP by the end of 2012 will avoid significant potential problems."
2. Start work on migration plans now.
A typical organization requires 12 to 18 months of waiting, testing and planning before it can start deploying a new client OS, Gartner explained.
Read more on "Five steps before firms make Win 7 move" from ZDNet Asia.
