Speaking at the Microsoft WorldWide Partner Conference (WPC) in July 2016 in Orlando, Florida, then Microsoft Chief Operations Officer Kevin Turner announced a departure from the company’s previous model of releasing new versions every three years.
"This will be the last monolithic release we have that was built around the three-year upgrade cycle," he said. "We will continually be improving the product."
Legends abound that Microsoft planned to simply call it “Windows” from that point on or that it skipped Windows 9 and went directly to Windows 10 to imply that the new version was a “10” in the Bo Derek connotation.
Where’s the good news?
One can only wonder what IT managers and end users thought of the idea of more frequent upgrades and updates. Was this a benefit because they wouldn’t have to wait so long for major improvements, or did it portend more headaches as a result of evaluating and applying new patches more frequently?
Attendees at WPC would soon learn customers could have one without the other. It was announced that Windows 10 Enterprise E3 would be available as a subscription from Microsoft Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs).
The benefit to customers
Microsoft is clearly proud of the value proposition Windows 10 has brought to users. According to Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of the Windows and Devices Group, “More than 350 million active devices are running Windows 10, and our business customers are moving faster than ever before, with more than 96% of them in active pilots. And, Windows 10 customers are already experiencing improved productivity and cost savings with an average ROI [return on investment] of 188% with a 13-month payback.”
Making Windows 10 Enterprise Edition E3 available as a subscription starting at $7 per user per month has the immediate impact of erasing the payback period — the savings start instantly.
Because the subscription is managed for customers by their CSP, all upgrades, updates and patches can be handled for them. This eliminates the need to assign precious IT resources to fundamental tasks, making such resources available for higher order work.
Another key value for customers is the increased security inherent in Windows 10. In a survey conducted by RightScale in January 2016, 29% of respondents indicated security concerns were a risk of cloud adoption for their enterprise, second only to a lack of resources or expertise at 32%, as Figure 1 shows.