Analyst’s View: Will Windows 8 Be A Business-Only OS? By: Samara Lynn
Bolstered by the success of Windows 7, Microsoft is looking forward to the next Windows. Early signs are that it might be a business-focused release, much like Windows 2000.
Could Windows 8 be the Windows 2000 of the 21st century? When Microsoft released Windows 2000, it was largely embraced by the corporate world, but few consumers (except hard-core geeks) ran it on their home machines. Windows 95, Windows 98, and the doomed Windows Millennium targeted the average user. A decade later, rumors and hints point to a Windows 8 that appears poised to walk the same business-centric path.
The successor to Windows 7 is probably a few years from release, but there’s already considerable speculation on what the upcoming operating system will entail. A post at Ma-Config, a French tech news site, has piqued OS-watchers’ interests, as it hinted at Windows 8′s potential business-friendly features. Analysts, including ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, are pondering the heavy focus on virtualization due to certain statements made on the French blog:
Virtual machines (VMs) become key platform components for data centers and Microsoft products such as Win8, System Center, and Azure.
On the website of Microsoft Research, we learn that virtualization should be one of the key components of Windows 8. It seems to confirm that Bernard Ourghanlian, technical and security director at Microsoft France, interviewed on the site itrmanager in March 2009. Version 3 Hyper-V is now scheduled run on workstations and Windows 8 only.
Virtualization is certainly one of the more intriguing potential Windows 8 features, one that could drastically improve the IT/developer, business user, and cloud-computing experiences. Here are the potential improvements that Windows 8′s virtualization can bring to the business sector.
IT and Developer Benefits
If virtualization is indeed the core of Windows 8, IT departments and developers will see a number of benefits. The new architecture (possibly with a hypervisor, a software technology that makes virtualization possible), applications would be isolated and no longer intertwined with the operating system. This could make for a lightweight and high-performance desktop operating system, as the OS would reside locally and other applications would be delivered virtually. Although the debate continues as to whether virtual machines are safer from attack than physical ones, Ma-Config’s post points out that the hypervisor would be secure from attacks when paired with a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip.
This virtualization would make it a breeze to upgrade to a new version of Windows without worrying about compatibility and driver issues. It also means users could potentially run other operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS X alongside Windows 8.
Plus, the ability to stream applications within Windows 8 (which could conceivably happen via application virtualization much like Microsoft’s Application Virtualization) without having to setup additional hardware, software or change an infrastructure would make for the ultimate in end-user control in an IT business environment without a lot of pain or additional cost.
Business User Benefits
Business users may have the ability to have the virtual machines updated when they are turned off (sparing, for example, a work interruption) and Windows Update may include the ability to update third-party applications. Virtualization would also let users try out applications without having to uninstall and install them—a plus for software developers, as well. The lighter operating system means that boot time will likely be much shorter, too.
Cloud Computing Benefits
Forget about the traditional on-premise server as you know it. Windows 8 could be the perfect client OS for a revamped Window ecosystem, which would include both virtualizations and hosted cloud infrastructures using Microsoft’s Azure platform. Virtualization could serve as a data center’s private cloud, and Azure may give businesses the ability to scale and have sophisticated hosted infrastructures that would be very expensive to deploy and maintain on-site. Virtualized servers (already possible with Hyper-V) may become far more commonplace.
Early Days
The virtualization benefits, as described, could radically change the way companies operate. Microsoft’s new focus means that Redmond will most likely peddle Windows 8 to businesses, which may make it the first OS that finally gets the majority of companies on board with virtualization and cloud computing—and make those new platforms as ubiquitous and familiar as the client/server on-premise model that has dominated business for years.
Of course, this is all speculation, based on rumors and leaks. Even granting that what we think we know is right, Windows 8 is probably at least a couple years from release, and Microsoft is famous for the extent to which its projects can change in development. Witness, most famously, Windows Vista. Rest assured, we’ll be looking closely at the details as they continue to emerge.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Tech News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
