Watch out business - Vista's after you

After targeting consumers, Microsoft is now aiming its PR offensive at business customers.

The company on Wednesday released a whitepaper targeted at the many businesses that have chosen to stick with Windows XP instead of moving to Vista. Microsoft argues that Vista is more secure, reliable, and can save companies money when it comes to management and deployment.

Mike Nash, vice president of Windows Client Product Management at Microsoft, told silicon.com sister site CNET News.com: "We have tried to close gaps for consumers and we're doing the same for enterprises."

Why should businesses deploy now? Nash says the release of Vista Service Pack 1 has improved Windows security, improved driver support and minimised application compatibility issues, for starters.

Compared with Windows XP, Vista has had fewer vulnerabilities (45 for Vista versus 56 for XP); fewer critical vulnerabilities (17 as opposed to 35); and 60 per cent fewer malicious software infections than XP SP2, Nash said.

The big bonus for companies may come in cost savings versus XP when it comes to deployment and management of Vista across multiple machines, Nash said.

Tom Norton, the worldwide Microsoft services practice lead for HP, said that a majority of HP's top 500 customers globally "are looking at this [Vista] as a way to save money on support of client environments".

As for application compatibility, the move from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7 was more traumatic than the Windows upgrade, said Norton.

Still, despite the statistics and reassurances, initial impressions tend to last. And the initial Vista experience for many people was less than stellar, a point which Microsoft concedes. Nash says that, yes, the company made a lot of changes with Vista that have taken time for customers to get used to, and initial driver and application support was lacking. But "there is a huge gap between what is possible with Vista and the perception that is out there", he said.

Nash said he has seen similar customer trepidation in the past when it comes to new Windows releases. He said: "There has always been a version of Windows that is new that people don't know what to do with; there has always been the incumbent version; and there is always a new version on the horizon. It's not a new phenomenon."

Original article: Microsoft to businesses: Now is the time to switch to Vista from CNET News.com