Windows 7 Enterprise
About a week ago, Microsoft announced the SKU (editions/versions) list for Windows 7. There will be six SKUs of Windows 7. It sounds complex and probably will be perceived that way in general but they claim to be focused on marketing two middle SKUs (“Home Premium” and “Professional”) with the remaining four SKUs directed at special, niche markets (“Starter” and “Home Basic” at the low end and “Enterprise” and “Ultimate” at the high end.) Each version is designed to be a superset of the next lower SKU.
On the heels of that SKU announcement, Microsoft last week announced the features that will differentiate the “Enterprise” edition from the lower editions. This is of particular interest to businesses who will need to determine if the upgrade is worthwhile.
My thoughts at first glance are that BranchCache, VDI, and Network Booting are all aimed at specific uses that typically only a large, distributed enterprise would be interested in. On the other hand, some medium and even small business are probably going to end up with a need for one or more of the features on this list. DirectAccess has the potential to lower infrastructure complexity for remote workers. BitLocker will be key to any business with very high data security needs at the PC level. AppLocker will be cherished by any operations team.
Overall, I expect “Enterprise” edition uptake will be primarily in large, complex, distributed corporations, but medium and small businesses may also adopt it to pull in one or two of the specific features on this list. For example, I’ll be looking at DirectAccess in particular for our office and disconnected workforce.
The feature list additions for “Windows 7 Enterprise” include:
- DirectAccess: Windows 7, along with the network technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2, provides this network technology that enables the user to seamlessly access corporate network resources when on the Internet, without having to create a VPN connection.
- BranchCache: Windows 7 together with Windows Server 2008 R2 offers an alternative to alleviate the problems of slow connectivity, delivering increased network responsiveness of applications and giving users in remote offices an experience more like working in the head office. When BranchCache is enabled, a copy of data accessed from an intranet web site or a file server is cached locally within a branch office.
- Enterprise Search Scopes: allows IT administrators to populate links to the commonly used internal sites — for example, SharePoint sites – to the Windows Explorer UI or to the Start menu or in Windows 7, using Group Policy. These links simplify access to the target internal data sources on the network for business users.
- BitLocker & BitLocker To Go: protect data on PCs and removable drives, with manageability to enforce encryption and backup of recovery keys. Windows 7 extends BitLocker protection to USB storage devices while making the original functionality even easier to use. Note: BitLocker for PCs and BitLocker To Go for removal hard drives such as external USB drives.
- AppLocker: is a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism that enables IT professionals to specify exactly what is allowed to run on user desktops. It restricts unauthorized software while allowing applications, installation programs, and scripts that users need.
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Optimizations: delivers desktop functionality in Windows 7 using virtual machines hosted on servers—a solution known as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). VDI enables users to access their desktops remotely as well as the ability to reuse virtual machine (VHD) images to boot a physical PC. Windows 7 provides for better user experience in VDI scenarios, with better graphics, audio and local device support.
- Multi Lingual User Interface: the Language Packs in Windows 7 Enterprise enable you to support up to 36 different languages using a single Windows master image, rather than creating a separate image for each language used in the organization.
- Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA)
- License rights to run up to four additional copies of Windows in virtual machines
- License rights for network booting of Windows
What are your thoughts on “Windows 7 Enterprise”? Is your company going to end up with “Enterprise” eventually or are the lower versions going to do the job?
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