Most organizations looked at Windows Vista operating system and involuntarily struck Ed Smith’s Heisman Trophy pose, stiff-arming and high-stepping the now three-year-old operating system at every turn. People were as committed to keeping Vista out of their enterprise as they were an unsolicited visit from an office supplies salesman. Microsoft took a public beating over Vista’s inherent clumsiness. It was panned globally as another one of Microsoft’s “wait and see” operating systems, which ultimately collected more dust than converts.
"Microsoft's Best OS yet!"
-Wired Magazine
Any new Microsoft OS faced a significant challenge given XP’s widespread adoption and its relatively high customer satisfaction levels. In reality, XP achieved the high-water mark for any Microsoft operating system—the coveted “not bad” perception among the general public. Vista, on the other hand, was an unintuitive resource monster that appeared to be nothing but a gift to the Dells and HPs of the world to drive some short-term sales. And nobody was buying it.
Vista and Windows 7 traveled down the same development path for a period of time. Think of the two operating systems as one that hit a fork along the development road. In 2005, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant was dealing with a resurgent Mac product line and had nothing new to offer in response to Apple’s slick youth-focused marketing campaigns. Vista, codenamed “Longhorn,” was already well behind Microsoft’s intended milestones and Apple was benefitting in spades from its newfound cachet.
"You can quit complaining now."
- Gizmodo.com review of Windows 7
Microsoft took a hatchet to the operating system, splitting it hastily in two in order to fast-track what would ultimately become Vista and allowing Windows 7, codenamed “Blackcomb,” to be nurtured into a complete, secure, smart product. To help drive the difference home, think of Vista as a gangly, awkward eighth-grader who’d rather eat, sleep, and daydream, and Windows 7 as a cum-laude college grad who majored in business and fine art.
Critics, long known for their lukewarm reception of new Microsoft products, are seemingly lining up in praise of Windows 7. Wired Magazine called it “Microsoft’s best OS yet.” The tech blog Gizmodo neatly summarizes the last nine years of Microsoft product development with “you can quit complaining now.” Perhaps the most telling sign of Windows 7’s solid combination of features is the reaction of its perennial OS enemy—Apple has been forced to re-shuffle its advertising message now that Microsoft has finally outgrown Vista’s gloomy shadow.
Windows 7 is designed to be much more efficient than Vista. It won’t scavenge memory like Vista. For notebook users, Windows 7 is designed to yield longer battery life than XP or Vista. The 64-bit version is capable of recognizing more RAM than most business users will need for the foreseeable future (up to 192GB of RAM) which helps postpone time-consuming, costly memory upgrades a couple years down the road.
For XP diehards, Windows 7 has a built-in feature that allows users to run XP on the Windows 7 desktop. Unlike the Mac feature that forces users to work exclusively in one OS or the other, Windows 7 is capable of running both simultaneously allowing the user to seamlessly go between the two. In other words, you can run legacy applications requiring XP while maintaining access to your Windows 7 desktop. It’s a particularly slick feature designed to entice stalwart holdouts over the hump.
Is Windows 7 the right choice for your business? It’s always best to verify with core software vendors before making major changes in operating systems, but we feel Windows 7 is a worthwhile business-class operating system. It’s stable, quick, and, to be frank, nice to look at. Plus, Dell and other vendors are offering free Windows 7 upgrades. Now might be a great time to cycle out some legacy or out-of-warranty machines. Call us today to discuss if Windows 7 is a good move for your organization.
64-bit Windows operating systems can make use of more memory than their 32-bit counterparts, which is a big plus for power-users who rely on memory-intensive applications like Visio or Adobe CS. Organizations whose operations are dependent on large block computations also stand to benefit from 64-bit operating systems as they are able to process calculations more efficiently. 
Cisco ASA 5500 firewalls make for a smart upgrade on a number of fronts. For starters, the ASA 5500 is purpose-built to handle an ever-increasing landscape of threats. Malware, worms, and peer-to-peer sharing applications pose challenges that the PIX was never intended to tackle. Second, organizations are always increasing the amount of bandwidth coming into their offices. An ASA 5500 can handle up to 100Mbps download speeds, whereas the PIX is limited to 10Mbps. Lastly, the ASA 5500 marks the next step in network security. Cisco packed far more intelligence into the ASA series, which makes for a more easily managed solution capable of protecting a broader range of threats.
