The impending release of Microsoft Windows 11 in 2021 poses a dilemma for businesses about whether they should upgrade to this new version of the operating system. The key consideration with any decision for undertaking an IT upgrade project is whether it’s worth the effort. This article highlights some of the benefits and drawbacks for businesses considering an upgrade to Windows 11.
Windows 11 Upgrade Benefits
Windows is a hugely popular operating system favoured by most businesses because users are very familiar with Windows. The popularity of Windows 10 has reached the point that by October 2020, this version of Windows accounted for 72.2 per cent of Windows-only machines
It’s worth noting that Windows 11 is a free upgrade, so there aren’t any direct monetary costs to consider for the actual operating system upgrade. But the decision to upgrade is more nuanced than that, and indirect costs can often emerge for free upgrades. Here are some specific benefits to businesses of Windows 11.
Better Teams Integration
Windows 11 appears to be built with a remote workforce in mind. Teams integration has been extended to the taskbar so that it’s possible to instantly connect with coworkers via text, chat, voice, or video. You can also share your screen with the click of a button.
Even if the party you’re communicating with from Teams doesn’t have the Teams app installed, you can SMS each other from your Teams app. This heightened Teams integration appears to be a direct response to the Covid pandemic and how it shaped the workforce.
Streamlined User Interface
In a world of declining attention spans and endless notifications, it’s good to see Microsoft developers make an effort to declutter and streamline the user interface. Windows 11’s interface design comes with subtler animations, softer sounds, rounded corners, and less clutter to reduce the cognitive load of interacting with the desktop.
Snap Layouts and Snap Groups provide new ways for users to optimize screen real estate and view apps side by side. The emphasis here is to help your employees stay more productive throughout the day by focusing on the tasks they need to do, which is obviously a plus from a business standpoint.
Built for Hybrid IT Environments
Related to the previous point, Windows 11 will provide great support for hybrid IT environments. Many businesses use a mix of on-premise applications and apps hosted in the cloud. The hybrid IT environment is a huge influence in making remote work possible.
Windows 11 interacts with cloud platforms and apps through a front-end interface rather than via a web browser. The result is that users interact with cloud-based applications the same way as they would when interacting with an app hosted locally on the network.
Security Focused
Recognizing the serious cyber threat landscape in which every business operates, Microsoft is pushing Windows 11 as a zero-trust operating system. These security features require the mandatory inclusion and switching on of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chips. TPM chips can protect and encrypt data and operate in quarantine mode in the event of a security compromise.
The concept of zero trust is to never trust and always verify. In practice, this means that the TPM chips will use biometrics information to authenticate users when they log in. Mandatory virtualization-based security (VBS) isolates a secure memory region for added vulnerability protection. These features are all positives because hardening endpoints is a great way to protect against common cyber threats like malware, ransomware, and trojans.
Annual Updates
The semi-annual feature updates that often require lengthy levels of system downtime are now becoming annual updates with Windows 11. Each annual update will release in the second half of every calendar year. Enterprise editions of Windows 11 get 36 months of support from the release date of each update, which is an improvement of 6 months over Windows 10.
Windows 11 Upgrade Drawbacks
The announcement of Windows 11 came as somewhat of a surprise. Back in 2015, a Microsoft executive said nobody was working on Windows 11. Most industry analysts expected Windows 10 to continue rolling on with regular security updates as needed and the infrequent addition of new features. So, are there any drawbacks?
While the benefits sound good on paper, it’s not at all obvious whether these benefits will come to fruition. Nor will any of the benefits prove particularly revolutionary for employee workloads. For example, Microsoft’s marketing of Windows 11 as the most secure operating system to date has been heard before for previous Windows versions. But pretty much anyone who has ever used a previous Windows version has experienced the slew of security patches required on a monthly basis to fix security vulnerabilities in the operating system.
An even bigger drawback, however, is that your company’s desktop workstations may not even be able to run Windows 11. In order to achieve the proposed zero-trust security features, Windows 11 has a requirement for TPM 2.0 chips that must be switched on.
These need to be built into the system on which the OS runs. If your desktop workstations are older than 5 years, they’re unlikely to support Windows 11 without separately buying and installing the TPM chips. This is a huge drawback because it means a Windows 11 upgrade requires significant hardware investments that your company may not afford right now.
There are also additional hardware requirements to meet, including 1GHz or faster dual-core processors, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. It’s also worth pointing out that Microsoft will provide Windows 10 updates until October 2025, so the decision to upgrade doesn’t have to be a hasty one. Take your time and seek the best advice for your company’s needs.
Closing Thoughts
Whether it’s worth upgrading to Windows 11 or not depends on your particular business and your existing IT infrastructure. To make the most informed decision about an upgrade, you can seek expert advice from the iPing team. We’ll listen to your requirements and advise on the feasibility and necessity of a Windows 11 upgrade. Contact us today.