BAA, which runs seven airports in the UK including Heathrow, is
deploying Windows 7 as part of a five-year pan to slash IT
costs.
The company has chosen Windows 7 to simplify its IT environment
in a bid to cut IT operational expenses year on year by a
third.
BAA chief information officer Philip Langsdale, speaking at a
Microsoft customer and partner event in London, said, "We are
moving away from a fairly complex design. It is much easier if you
can hold Microsoft accountable for whole chunks of your
design."
Windows 7 supports the BAA simplification strategy. "Complexity
breeds costs. Windows 7 seems to work out of the box. We want to
get away from over-engineering through enhancing the operating
systems ourselves."
BAA has constrained Windows 7 to prevent customisation. "We have
used it out of box so PC deployment can be streamlined," Langsdale
said.This policy has meant that calls to the IT helpdesk have been
"going away", he said.
Although Langsdale was upbeat on BAA's deployment of Windows 7,
he reported some minor issues. "Our existing laptop and PCs will
need upgrading. We've had some issues with migrations and have
invested in making sure applications are ready for windows 7. There
are lots of small issues, but the migration has been pretty smooth.
It's a relatively easy migration."
Baker Tilly is another organisation that has gone down the
Microsoft early adopter programme. It has managed to extend the
life of aging PCs by 12 months, thanks to Windows 7.
However, as
Computer Weekly has previously reported, some IT directors will
find it hard to justify a desktop upgrade to their CEOs.