Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Users Cautious on Microsoft Upgrades: Page 2 of 4

"Moving the mailboxes is not a huge deal," McCall says. "Reading through 6,000 pages of documentation that tells you how to operate Exchange 2007 is a big deal. There's a tremendous amount of retraining necessary."

If McCall's timeframe is right, then IT VP Joe Martins of furniture retailer Design Within Reach intends to be an early adopter. Martins says he's eager to get the improved search functionality of Exchange, which could help with e-disccovery.

"We'll probably do the upgrade in 2007," Martins says. "We're interested because usually Microsoft's new versions get better and faster and easier. The new search is supposed to be much faster and it can be integrated with Vista search capabilities."

As for the new Vista operating system, Martins says: "I'll probably keep my eye on that a little bit longer. I have an eval copy on my desktop at home. It is very different [from Windows XP]. So, from a change management standpoint, it's different enough for the IT staff to have to find where everything is, and different enough for our user community to have to be trained on it."

Other users are treading cautiously. Joanne Kossuth, CIO of Olin College of Engineering, is also interested in the search capabilities of Exchange, as well as better encryption and improved support for files, virtual operating systems, and mobile devices closes -- next summer at the earliest. That's partly because it's impossible to do major upgrades while school is in session -- and also because the IT team needs time to test the new OS and apps.