Microsoft delays tax IT workflows

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Microsoft customers want more predictable releases of software, but opaque scheduling and delays make planning IT resources difficult, according to an analyst.

The criticism came this week, after Microsoft went public on its plans to release the first service pack (SP) for its latest Vista operating system. But the news came hot on heels of claims that peer-to-peer site BitTorrent had leaked the service pack just a week after it was released to testers. The same fate befell the pre-beta test code released earlier this month.

Michael Cherry, lead analyst for Windows and mobile technologies for American consultancy Directions on Microsoft said, regardless of the debate over whether to wait for this service pack before deploying Vista, the subsequent Microsoft release announcement demonstrates poor scheduling and lack of regard for customer's needs.

He told IT PRO: "Customers want more predictable releases of software and, while Microsoft is trying to do this with major releases such as Vista, they do an abysmal job providing a roadmap or schedule for service packs."

And service packs can add new burdens to the IT manager's workload: "Even when they [Microsoft] start a beta of a service pack you have no idea how to plan your resources for the release," said Cherry. "Every day IT plays the SP or fix lottery, they don't know if Microsoft will choose to release a SP or not."

But the Windows specialist also questioned the demand for early versions of a SP. "To take a beta or pre-beta service pack of fixes, functionality changes and new features could just as easily introduce a new or bigger problem as solve an existing one makes no sense," he said, advising those experiencing problems to report them and work on Microsoft to supply a hotfix.

"Testing pre-release software should only be done if, one, you have non-production machines you can spare to install it on; two, you have the time and are willing to file good bug reports and work with the team to triage and identify root causes of problems; and in the worst-case scenario, three, be prepared to live with unrecoverable data loss," warned Cherry.

"The other factor [involved in the timing of the SP release announcement] is responding to the 'don't install an OS from Microsoft until the first SP' myth. It can't stop this kind of thinking, but as long as it exists then it can try to get people geared up so that, when it is released, there is no barrier to Vista deployment. If this is correct, then it appears it can and will schedule when it suits its own needs, but can't and won't when it helps their customers manage their IT workflow," said Cherry.

In other news of Microsoft schedule creep this week, it also announced further delays to the release of Windows Server 2008 - formerly known as Longhorn - now to sometime in the first quarter of 2008.

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