To deploy or not to deploy? That's the question faced by countless organizations looking at new products like Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010. Obviously there are numbers to be crunched and decisions to be made, but sometimes it's beneficial to look at what the other guy's doing.

Windows IT Pro's Michele Crockett spoke to Matt Becker, a systems administrator for a software-development company, to learn about the decision-making process from the perspective of a medium-sized organization. Here's an excerpt:

The decision to upgrade to Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 is primarily a hardware consideration, and one that isn't likely to be made across the board. Rather than launching a full-scale Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 deployment, the company will phase in these products as old hardware retires. [Becker] also said that any progress on deploying a unified messaging system was dependent on first updating the company's PBX system to VoIP.

That's probably the likely approach for many companies. Of course, you still have to determine when is the right time to retire old hardware, which brings up yet another batch of decisions.

In any case, it's an interesting read, if only to peek inside the mind of someone grappling with the same issues as you.

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