Newsmaker: Explaining a Vista ban

The prestigious National Institute of Standards and Technology has put a ban on Windows Vista, but that's standard procedure, according to NIST's chief information officer.

NIST, which does research and sets standards for things like cryptography for government use, is among several federal agencies that have put a moratorium on the use of Vista. The agencies are taking some time to make sure that the new Microsoft operating system meets their needs.

It is not unusual that large organizations aren't rushing to install major software updates. These organizations tend to do a lot of testing before upgrading. The same happened when Microsoft released Windows XP, and again with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. Microsoft widely released Vista in late January.

Simon Szykman, chief information officer at NIST, was slightly irked by some of the media reports on his agency's move, which painted the ban as a major slap in Microsoft's face. In fact, Szykman said, this is business as usual. Ultimately, NIST expects many of its PCs will run Vista. Still, Microsoft has predicted a swift adoption of Vista by businesses.

NIST, based in Gaithersburg, Md., employs about 2,900 people and has an additional group of about 1,800 visiting researchers who complement the staff. Szykman spoke with CNET News.com about his organization's plans for Vista.

Q: What is your current position on Windows Vista?
Szykman: Our policy states that we're not allowing users to install or deploy Windows Vista for the time being. We consider this to be an interim policy to give us the time to do the adequate testing of Vista before we deploy it. We don't expect to have any obstacles that would prevent us from eventually deploying Vista.

Does the same go for Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7?
Szykman: For Office 2007, there is no policy to prevent individual users from purchasing and installing it, but we are not proactively rolling it out. On the issue of Internet Explorer 7, we have advised users not to upgrade to IE7 and are blocking downloads and automatic updates of IE7, again as an interim measure pending interoperability and compatibility testing. It is known that not all Web-based applications that run under IE 6 will function under IE 7, so we need to ensure that our critical business applications work, or are updated if initially they don't work, before deploying it internally.

How long does this process to test typically take?
Szykman: That is hard to say in advance. It can take several months to do all of the various types of testing that are needed. And also depending on what happens, it may be necessary to wait for Microsoft to issue fixes or updates before it is functional enough to use operationally.

What kind of things do you look for?
Szykman: We look at a variety of issues. We look at interoperability testing, whether Vista works well with our existing networks and other machines on the network. We look at application testing, to make sure that the critical business applications that we have will actually run under Vista. We look at the ability for us to adequately secure machines that are running Vista.

We don't expect to have any obstacles that would prevent us from eventually deploying Vista.

We also need to ensure, in addition to the applications, that there are drivers available for legacy equipment that we already have in place. We also need to ensure adequate training of not only the user community but our CIO staff so that we're prepared to respond to various troubleshooting and help requests, and the people here are also trained to do the deployment.

These are the kinds of issues that we need to be concerned with. It's not just having some music-ripping software on a computer that stops working in case of incompatibilities. We have business-critical applications, and if those stop working it gets in the way of doing our job.

Is there anything in particular in Vista that you like?
Szykman: The encryption capabilities that are built into Vista are potentially useful from the perspective of federal government mandates. It is hard to say until we've adequately looked into its functionality and effectiveness, but there is currently a mandate for encryption of certain types of information and the use of encryption on laptops, so that's potentially something that will be helpful.

More Newsmakers

[thedreaming]

Good Strategy

It's a good strategy to ban vista and wait and see if it really makes their lives any easier or the work day more efficent. Most businesses are in no hurry to install vista partly because of possible software/hardware conflicts, but mostly because of it's high price.

What I've been reading around the web is to simply wait until service pack 1 is released, then most of the hardware driver issues should be delt with.

[webdev511]

IE7, Vista...Suprise!

It's like all these companies were caught off guard that IE7 and Vista were being released. They react like MS didn't have any Beta or CTP releases and just sprung it on us out of the blue.

Yes, I understand that there are going to be issues for a while, but don't pretend like it was some big secret.

[expatincebu]

Don't waste my tax money!

The cost of Vista (any MS product for that matter) is not worth it. Government should only use open source and save money instead of spending it for a change. Then if we could just get them to stop wasting money on our bloated military and useless wars we would have it made.

[imacpwr]

My employer will never upgrade to Vista..

At least not as long as my current computer is still running. The
thing barely has the power to run XP far less Vista so I figure an
upgrade (like our XP upgrade was) is at least 2 years down the
road.

[Mister Winky]

What's their policy on upgrading Oracle, Red Hat & Adobe products?

Here's a bright idea for you enterprising C-Net reporters: why don't you ask Simon about the NIST's upgrade policy when Oracle, Red Hat and Adobe release new products?

Do you think the NIST rolls those products directly into production the minute they're released?

Why don't you also ask him if "it makes sense to upgrade to RHEL5/Oracle 10g/Acrobat 8.0 when RHEL4/Oracle 9/Acrobat 7.0 are not broken."

It's painfully obvious that you're trying to manufacture a story around Vista. In our environment, we're allowing some users to deploy IE7, Office 2007 and Vista, but we're warning them that our testing is still underway (our environment is not locked down in nature) so compatiblity is not guaranteed. Here's another newsflash: we haven't upgraded everyone from Firefox 1.5 to 2.0 yet, either. You read correctly -- we're even TESTING a Firefox release before deploying it!!! We must be nuts, right?

What's newsworthy about an IT organization acting reponsibly by testing new products thoroughly before deploying them? Aside from an obvious attempt to create controversy where there is none, why treat Vista any differently than anything else in the marketplace?

I can see the headlines already for March, 2008: "Some customers have STILL not deployed Vista."

-Mister Winky

[kbckc]

Microsoft may be slidng down the back side of the curve

The much late release of Vista may foretell the decline of Microsoft dominance in the O/S universe. Every source of review and critique states that Vista is not in any way a needed remake or upgrade, but just warmed over XP. If we recall the evolutionary history of Microsoft and its product releases, the company has always been motivated to catch up with Apple O/S functionality and sophistication. Said another way, Microsoft has never really innovated anything. They didn't even create the original DOS products that launched their dominance in the industry. I am not trying to understate the significance of what they have accomplished. I am just suggesting that superior product invention and development has never been their long suite. They mostly try to copy key features of well designed products, then out-market their source of inspiration. They have been geniuses at that.

But what if there happens to be no currently available target or source of inspiration? But the gnomes of Wall Street are making noises that perhaps this industry giant has hit their inevitable wall? Was the market asking for Vista? Of course not. In fact, a remarkable number of businesses are still living with Windwos 2k, sp4 with no immediate plans to move to XP. That says a lot! So Vista is an effort to bring something that seems fresh even if it isn't, and rally the troops as well as give the equipment manufacturers something new to sell. The initial take off for this strategy appears to be very bumpy.

All organizations that grow into institutional status eventually crest the top of the curve and start down the back side. Institutionalized companies stop looking outside themselves and turn inward. They lose their desire and ability to serve real market needs and can only focus on serving themselves. I think the most exciting question our industry should be seeking answers for now is what and who will be next? It probably won't be Microsoft. There are limits to how far a company can go when it is completely lacking the inventor gene, and they have gone impressively far in spite of that fact. But they are probably coming to the end of their reign.

[kaptandrews]

Just wondering

How many PCs does Redmond have that are running Vista? With all the hardware and software issue to tend with...this must have been a major upgrade for MS themselves. Does anyone know if this info could be found out?

[WulfTheSaxon]

Firefox

If they're already going to have to test a new browser (Internet Explorer 7), why not take the opportunity to switch to Firefox?

Firefox is more secure, has improved usability, and is easier to learn (it looks more like IE6 than IE7 does :P).

[rjpotts]

The Fed dosen't use XP

The majority of the federal agencies today are still using W2K on the desktop. If they are not comfortable with moving to XP why would they move to Vista?

What does Vista have to offer that W2K and XP don't (besides the eye candy). Before they upgrade to Vista they would have to upgrade their desktops hardware in order to support it. Vista would also have to be hardened to meet federal standards. There is no way they would install a shrink wrapped version of the product. Many of the features would need to be locked down to make it acceptable for use.

[WJeansonne]

TCO Higher With Open Source

It's only a matter of time before the agency wakes up and smells the coffee, so to speak. They'll install the latest Windows and Office out of sheer conformity. And this is a good thing. The total cost of ownership of open source is higher than Windows and Office, and once NIST discovers the sheer horror of finding adequate one-stop shop support, they'll dump any open source projects in heart beat.