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8 out of 10 server owners who expressed a preference said their network preferred IT

Over the last two years, I have chatted to hundreds of people about their Microsoft strategies. Over the last 10 months, I’ve asked seminar delegates to complete a survey with the promise that I’d share the results with you. Three figures worth of people were surveyed...

...and the results are in. Thanks to a gentle reminder, you’ll find the results below.

• Microsoft products are at the heart of my IT strategy:

Not surprisingly from delegates on a Microsoft seminar, 67% of you definitely agreed that Microsoft is at the heart of your IT strategy. These questions were taken before Microsoft really started to talk about their cloud based computing.  With 67%, Microsoft could take a lot of businesses with them...

• I see Microsoft certification becoming increasingly important to me and my business:

For those of us who spend long hours honing our skills, it’s great to see that 28% of businesses think certification is increasingly important to their business and a massive 62% see it as somewhat important. A major contributor to this has to be the change to a more modular approach to certification. A minority, 18%, don’t have certification on their corporate radar. Shame on them !

20 seconds on the clock please, we asked a 100 people to...name a feature of Server 2008 that benefits the branch office...A product that allows a business to automate workflows…A technology that saves power…Something that validates ability and finally…Something that minimises the risk to your IT projects.

• I feel Microsoft does a good job at telling me about its products and the value they deliver:

20% of you thought they definitely did a good job. “There is just too much information” was a recurring comment. “The Microsoft web site positively oozes information”, “I spend a lot of time lost inside Microsoft.com, never fully sure I’ve read everything I should have done.”

• I was aware of Microsoft IO before today’s event?

Only 13% of people had come across Microsoft Optimisation before my sessions, given the focus it got at this year’s World Wide Partner Conference, I suspect that number would be higher now, wouldn’t it?

• When will you upgrade / implement Windows Server 2008?

Reassuringly for anyone who earns their living selling or supporting Microsoft products, only 22% of people have no long term plans to implement Windows Server 2008.

• When will you implement  Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

Interestingly, only 28% of people have no plans to implement SharePoint. If you think about this, I think it’s clear how MOSS has caught the corporate imagination.  3 out of 4 companies who expressed a preference said their business would deploy it.

• When will you implement Exchange Server  2007?

50% of businesses who completed the survey said they would deploy Exchange 2007 in the next 24 month (I guess by then we’ll be deploying Exchange 14).

• When will you implement Windows Mobile Devices connected to Exchange?

As a big fan of Windows Mobile, heck I’d struggle to function without push email, I was pleased to note that only 35% of people had no plans to enable push email (and why not? There are no additional licenses or servers to buy, just Exchange 2003 / 2007.

• When will you implement Microsoft SQL Server 2008?

Given that SQL didn’t  ship until recently, it had created a head of steam as 55% of companies would look to deploy in the next 24 months.

• When will you implement Windows Vista?

Now don’t laugh, people really are deploying Vista, hey I’ve gone 64 bit Vista here at Duffield Towers (and wishing I’d done it months ago). In fact only 28% of folks had no plans to upgrade to Vista (or Windows 7?)

• Some of the features in Windows Server 2008 could deliver real business value to my organisation:

Only 15% of people who attended didn’t think Server 2008 had any business value. I guess not everyone will get value from virtualisation, improved security and branch office additions such as the read only domain controller (RODC).  Maybe this 15% look after small single server sites (in which case they should check out the new Small Business Server and Essentials Server) or have invested in VMWare. Mind you, only 25% of people agreed that Hyper-V will be the reason organisations move to Windows Server 2008

• Some of the features in SharePoint could deliver real business value to my organisation:

Well over 70% of attendees agree that SharePoint has potential value in their business, this makes me think that a lot of the attendees were “business” rather than technical people. It’s easy for anyone to see how “collaboration” aids a business – not always easy to see how an RODC would.

• I feel IT products today are getting increasingly complex:

What do you think, are IT products complex in the extreme? 68% of people surveyed would agree with you if you think the answer is yes. 78% of respondents feel today that individuals have specialist areas of skills rather than being IT generalists. 

My personal favourite statistic: I see training as being key to the success of any new Microsoft technology project .…:83% ! Now that has to be good news.

 

 

Many thanks for all those who filled in the survey, the comments and emails. I appreciate it.

By the way, remember I blogged about Bill Gates leaving and taking XP with him? Were you worried what Bill would find to do with his time? Well worry not, check this out.

Till next time