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While Windows Vista is now available for big businesses, organizations vary widely in their plans for adopting the new operating system.
Some have plans to aggressively move to Vista, while others are taking a far more wait-and-see approach. Here are some things you need to consider before taking the plunge.
#1: Is your hardware up to scratch?
Vista is famous--or, perhaps more accurately, infamous--for its hefty hardware requirements. Certainly, minimum system requirements are more demanding than for any previous Windows operating system.
In reality, there are two separate sets of hardware requirements: one for machines that are merely "Vista Capable" and another for those that are "Vista Premium Ready." Whereas "Premium Ready" requires a 1GHz processor, one gigabyte of RAM and a high-end video card, requirements for "Capable" are a bit more easily (and inexpensively) attainable. It's important to remember that, although the eye candy afforded by Aero Glass is very cool, it's probably not really necessary for most business applications.
Before you start making plans to upgrade all your organization's workstations to Vista, you should check out the exact system requirements on Microsoft's Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance Web site.
#2: Which edition(s) of Vista do you need?
Selecting the right edition of Windows XP was pretty simple. There were four basic varieties: Home Edition, Professional Edition, Tablet PC Edition and Media Center Edition. If the computer needed to join a Windows domain, the first and last editions were out (MCE 2004 could join a domain, but 2005 could not). Unless you were installing on a Tablet PC, there was no need for TPCE. The logical choice for the vast majority of systems on a business network was XP Pro.
Things get slightly more complicated with Vista. Now there are five editions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. Although you probably won't want to use the Home editions on a company network, you may be less certain whether to choose Business, Enterprise or Ultimate.
Business Edition is roughly comparable to XP Pro, whereas Enterprise Edition includes extra features such as BitLocker Drive Encryption (an added layer of security for corporate laptops), application compatibility tools, SUA (Subsystem for Unix-based applications) and advanced multilanguage support. Ultimate is a superset, with all the features of all editions (including Media Center), which may be more than you need for your business PCs. You'll find more information on the editions here.
While Windows Vista is now available for big businesses, organizations vary widely in their plans for adopting the new operating system.
Some have plans to aggressively move to Vista, while others are taking a far more wait-and-see approach. Here are some things you need to consider before taking the plunge.
#1: Is your hardware up to scratch?
Vista is famous--or, perhaps more accurately, infamous--for its hefty hardware requirements. Certainly, minimum system requirements are more demanding than for any previous Windows operating system.
In reality, there are two separate sets of hardware requirements: one for machines that are merely "Vista Capable" and another for those that are "Vista Premium Ready." Whereas "Premium Ready" requires a 1GHz processor, one gigabyte of RAM and a high-end video card, requirements for "Capable" are a bit more easily (and inexpensively) attainable. It's important to remember that, although the eye candy afforded by Aero Glass is very cool, it's probably not really necessary for most business applications.
Before you start making plans to upgrade all your organization's workstations to Vista, you should check out the exact system requirements on Microsoft's Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance Web site.
#2: Which edition(s) of Vista do you need?
Selecting the right edition of Windows XP was pretty simple. There were four basic varieties: Home Edition, Professional Edition, Tablet PC Edition and Media Center Edition. If the computer needed to join a Windows domain, the first and last editions were out (MCE 2004 could join a domain, but 2005 could not). Unless you were installing on a Tablet PC, there was no need for TPCE. The logical choice for the vast majority of systems on a business network was XP Pro.
Things get slightly more complicated with Vista. Now there are five editions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. Although you probably won't want to use the Home editions on a company network, you may be less certain whether to choose Business, Enterprise or Ultimate.
Business Edition is roughly comparable to XP Pro, whereas Enterprise Edition includes extra features such as BitLocker Drive Encryption (an added layer of security for corporate laptops), application compatibility tools, SUA (Subsystem for Unix-based applications) and advanced multilanguage support. Ultimate is a superset, with all the features of all editions (including Media Center), which may be more than you need for your business PCs. You'll find more information on the editions here.
