Several websites have been reporting that Microsoft may have to pay for the troubles faced with Vista when survey results from KACE showed that 84% of the 1142 IT Pros surveyed would not deploy Windows 7 within the next year. Some sites even claimed that most enterprises will not touch Windows 7 until at least 2011. Let’s take a look at some of the other statistics given on Windows 7 Enterprise Adoption:

Credit: KACE

• Economic concerns and worries about compatibility were main factors behind “slow adoption”
• 83% will skip Vista and upgrade directly to Windows 7
• 50% of IT Pros have considered switching to an alternative OS other than Vista and Windows 7
• 42% of the businesses surveyed don’t plan on using Windows 7 until after 2011
• 17% said they’d wait longer than three years before adopting

What others have framed as “next year” actually means “within the next 12 months” from the time the survey was conducted, which was March 2009. With Windows 7 still in Beta and without a release date, 16% is a good percentage for those who are already confident enough for Windows 7 adoption. If Windows 7 is released in Fall 2009 as expected, this means 42% of the IT Pros surveyed are planning to upgrade then, with the earliest being just a few months after Windows 7’s release. Will Windows 7 be the OS that breaks company tradition to wait until SP1 for deployment? This survey says so and is certainly a good sign for Microsoft.

Unfortunately, it seems like the woes with Vista are still being carried on to Windows 7, with software compatibility being the major concern. Although not listed here, 72% of participants were more concerned about migration to Windows 7 than maintaining the out-of-date XP on their computers due to the costs involved.

Credit: KACE (Click to Enlarge)

Here’s another interesting chart showing that Mac OS continues to be the most likely OS to be deployed in place of Vista or 7:

Credit: KACE (Click to Enlarge)

The survey pool consisted of IT professionals, IT executives, and IT managers. None of the participants were offered any compensation and 3% had actually not heard of Windows 7 before (really?). With 40% of Microsoft’s sales coming from volume-licensing contracts, Windows 7 Enterprise Adoption will be crucial for the Redmond company. For more details, you can download the full survey results here.

Do you think Windows 7 will be successful in making its way onto enterprise computers?

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. Read the rest at windows7center.com.