computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 1

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDE

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A Computer Weekly buyer’s guide to

desktop computing 2020Enterprise IT no longer revolves around Windows-based desktops and

the support of Windows applications. Tablets, smartphones, cloud computing and applications delivered as a service offer compelling new ways to work. In this 11-page buyer’s guide, Computer Weekly looks at

how this new way of working is likely to evolve further over the next five years and how it will affect users and IT departments alike

These articles were originally published

in the Computer Weekly ezine

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 2

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

It is worth starting with a history lesson on desktop computing, because the situation today is analogous to IT a quarter of a century ago. In the 1990s, from an IT audit, security and compliance perspective, desktop computing was out of control.

The desktop freed users from the controls IT placed on data and application access and people installed what they wanted, when they wanted it.

But then experts worked out that the total cost of ownership of these PCs that the IT department was not managing was more than £5,000 per device per year.

Arguably, the consumerisation of IT has recreated 1990s-style user-led computing, with PCs now replaced by smartphones and tablets as the device of choice.

Back then, to save costs, IT locked down the desktop, rolled out standard desktop software images across the organisation and offered the business a common Windows desktop envi-ronment. Users could belong to groups that gave them authorisation to use certain applica-tions and data. In some organisations, desktop IT became so commoditised that it could be outsourced. But then Apple came along.

New ways to workDesktop IT is no longer about Windows and supporting Windows applications. Tablets, smartphones, cloud computing and applications delivered as software as a service offer compelling new ways to work.

The shift from Windows-only to a user computing environment where Windows is just one element will not happen overnight. But by 2016, Gartner expects tablet sales to overtake sales of desktop PCs. The analyst’s Mobility is having a major impact on IT support paper by Terrence Cosgrove, published in February 2015, notes that by 2018, 40% of contact with the

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Desktop virtualisation

market guide

Royal Mail outsources

desktop IT services to

Computacenter

What will office desktop computing look like in 2020?Over the next five years, IT departments will increasingly support a highly heterogeneous computing environment. Cliff Saran reports

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 3

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

IT service desk will relate to smartphones and tablet devices – a leap from less than 20% today. This will put a heavy burden on desktop IT support, unless it works in a different way.

Limiting device choice is not the answer. IT can no longer deny users choice by enforcing standardisation. The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) genie is out of the bottle and the heads of IT that Computer Weekly has spoken to are sympa-thetic to the changes in user computing.

One example is Peterborough Council, which is changing its IT to a department that commissions services rather than buying on-premise.

The council is undergoing a transformation that is running alongside its IT strategy. It plans to deploy Chromebooks or tablet devices to 50% of its staff.

Richard Godfrey, assistant director of Digital:Peterborough, says it needs a “more dynamic IT department” and a “move to tools that fit together”.

Godfrey wants to avoid situations in which the coun-cil is stuck on certain versions of Microsoft Office or Windows. “This takes away from the day-to-day fire-fighting task, allowing us to work more closely with the council departments,” he says.

In fact, modern cloud-based applications are designed to work well together. “In the old days, we worked on integration, but a lot of prod-ucts are now designed to work together, such as Box with Salesforce.com,” says Godfrey.

He points out that some of the newer tools are also simpler to use, which means users can customise them. “We use Form Assembly,” he says. “Anyone in the council can build their own form, rather than wait a week for a quote from IT.”

Simplifying a multi-device strategyDale Vile, research director at Freeform Dynamics, recommends IT heads look at segment-ing users into task workers and information workers. “It’s easy to run away with the idea that everyone is using multiple devices,” he says. “Meanwhile, PCs are used as the end-point for the network, and provide access to hardcore routine, process-centric, back-end and administration systems.” These tend to be used by task workers.

THE FUTURE OF THE IT HELPDESK

According to Gartner, the implementation of new support models that resemble those in the consumer world is part of a broader transition. Gartner analyst Terrence Cosgrove notes in his report Mobility Is having a major impact on IT support: “The IT support organisation must evolve beyond the traditional service provider model toward a partnership with the end-user com-munity. When users have more control over their devices and applications, the support models must adapt to this paradigm change.”

Among Gartner’s recommendations for supporting the multitude of devices in enterprise IT is self-support documentation and short 20- to 30-second videos demonstrating how to fix common support problems. Peer-to-peer (P2P) support is also becoming more common, says Cosgrove.

“About 53% of the respondents to our 2014 survey reported that they use P2P support,” the paper reports. “We believe this number is higher than the overall industry level, and it suggests an increase in the use of P2P support.”

Gartner has also been seeing interest in Apple’s Genius Bar-style walk-in support, where staff bring their device to the IT department for one-on-one support enquiries. An internal walk-up service gives IT an opportunity to influence device choice, says Cosgrove.

“We need a more dynamic iT deparTmenT and a move To Tools ThaT fiT TogeTher”richard godfrey,

digiTal:peTerborough

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 4

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

From an IT management and infrastructure perspective, it is clearly beneficial to be consist-ent, which, says Vile, is why IT departments virtualise desktops to stream desktop applica-tions onto thin-client access devices.

Clearly, a thin-client computing environment will fulfil the requirements of a certain propor-tion of users going forward, and this is a style of desktop computing that the IT department has fine-tuned since the late 1990s.

But Vile says information workers are “more client-server in the way they work”. In other words, they may work on a central IT system some of the time, but then require the flexibil-ity to perform computing tasks locally. They typically use cloud-type applications, accessed from a web browser on a desktop computer, or an app front end via a tablet or smartphone.

Medway Council has taken a desktop virtualisation approach to centralising its desktop computing on a Citrix server farm to support flexible working. Moira Bragg, head of ICT at the council, admits that user computing is more complex than it was a few years ago, when eve-ryone ran Windows. “People can have more devices,” she says. “People want to do more with these devices, and we need to support them.”

This is achieved through user segmentation, she says. “We identify every worker as a mobile or a desk worker. If they have a laptop, they don’t get a desktop.”

Security and risk mitigationTwo years ago, people would go to work and access their work applications. Today, the challenge is not the technology, but making sure data is secure, says Bragg.

So mobile access and device management is set to become part of every IT department’s desktop IT toolkit in the next few years. Gartner estimates that, by 2018, 40% of organisations will use enterprise mobile man-agement tools to manage some Windows PCs – up from less than 1% today.

But that is only half the story. IT will not only be expected to manage multiple devices, it must also support cloud-based applications, some of which may not yet exist.

Speaking at a recent Computer Weekly CW500 Club event, Richard Gough, group IT oper-ations manager at Punter Southall Group, said it made sense to move certain applications to the cloud, while others require plenty of due diligence. “It is a no-brainer to use Mimecast for email,” he said. “It is an obvious one. And we use Salesforce.com.”

Email, messaging and even complex applications such as customer relationship manage-ment (CRM) are good candidates to migrate off-premise. But, says Freeform Dynamics’ Vile, moving a vertical application is much more risky: “You spend a lot of time defining your policy, workflow, rule set. A lot of this is not pure data; it defines how your business process works. Getting data out of the cloud using ETL [extract, transform, load] tools is pretty easy. But trying to transform cloud-enabled workflow is a lot harder.”

So there needs to be an element of risk mitigation if the application to migrate to the cloud is business-critical.

“Theoretically, there is nothing we will not put in the cloud,” says Punter Southall’s Gough. But where he struggles is when he encounters new, innovative tools from companies that provide specialist software, such as the tools that actuaries use for risk analysis. “These companies won’t sell the software to you any more,” he says. “They won’t let you bring it on-premise. They only want to deliver it as a service.”

Vile adds: “You have to do the due diligence. What happens when you want to switch?”Gough’s biggest concern is, if the provider’s business folds, how can the customer replicate

the value-added processes and services on-premise or with another cloud provider? “There is no concept of a cloud escrow,” he says. n

“people WanT To do more WiTh These devices, and We need To supporT Them”moira bragg,

medWay council

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 5

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

Companies are still handing out corporate PCs, with some issuing thin clients with a server-hosted virtual desktop – also commonly known as virtual desktop infra-structure (VDI) – that includes the same set of tools for everyone.

A business computer, tablet or a smartphone is like a toolbox, and the applications are like the tools, each with a specific purpose.

When executives set goals for their firms and managers, then set goals for employees, they seldom ask their people whether they have the tools they need to do the work – perhaps out of fear of the answer. Nevertheless, the employee is now on the hook to carry out orders and meet his or her goals without the tools or information needed to do the job.

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Dawning of VMware

vSphere 6 builds

anticipation

Migrating away from

Windows Server 2003

Businesses need to equip staff with the tools to do the jobWorkforces will become frustrated if they do not have the technology they need to deliver what their organisation wants. David Johnson reports

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 6

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

Only 15% of North American and European information workers say they are completely satisfied with their IT department’s understanding of what they need to be successful. For the remaining 85%, there is a gap. The larger that gap, the more time staff may spend figuring out how to get the job done anyway.

“Discretionary effort” in psychology is the difference between doing the bare minimum to get by and doing your very best. Withholding the necessary tools or making them difficult to access can lead to employees feeling angry at having to waste time doing grunt work and create a perception that the project is not very important.

In effect, it makes workers less willing to go the extra mile. Consider the case of a big com-mercial bank where a large team of software engineers in India can only use a locked-down VDI environment to maintain code. They only have the tools that their employer provides, yet they know of other tools that could improve their effectiveness. The artificial constraints of their computing environment limit their options for innovative solutions to problems.

Deliver customer valueEmployees in the best position to deliver customer value have fewer options to do so. Vineet Nayar, former CEO of HCL Technologies and author of the book Employees first, custom-ers second: turning conventional management upside down, observes: “The true value is cre-ated in the interface between the customer and the employee. Through a combination of engaged employees and accountable manage-ment, a company can create extraordinary value for itself, its customers and the individu-als involved in both companies.”

For IT professionals, it means technology decisions and policy play a significant role in the ability of employees to deliver value. For example, given the option, car mechanics readily use internet forums and social media to help diagnose problems more quickly, saving customers time and money.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN SHOPPING FOR BUSINESS TOOLS

There are significant nuances within each product category that may not be obvious until the system is thoroughly tested in the customer environment. For example, VMware’s Horizon View product uses the PCoIP protocol sourced from Teradici, a Canadian partner company, for commu-nication between the server and the endpoint, while Citrix uses its own proprietary HDX protocol.

From a network administration standpoint, HDX is a more manageable protocol because it rides on TCP, whereas PCoIP rides on UDP. As a result, several suppliers offer options for opti-mising HDX’s performance for a good user experience under a wide range of conditions.

According to analyst Forrester, IT professionals should conduct a pilot programme that includes real-world scenarios within their own organisation to determine which system is best for their unique environment before buying.

“Through a combinaTion of engaged employees and accounTable managemenT, a company can creaTe exTraordinary value for iTself, iTs cusTomers and The individuals involved in boTh companies”vineeT nayar, auThor

and former hcl ceo

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 7

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

But when employees find themselves improvising ways around obstacles, or when the options outside of what tech management provides are better for their needs, they will take liberties with information because they cannot adequately assess the risks.

One software company suffered a damaging lawsuit because employees were using an unlicensed version of a commercial database software product to demonstrate its software to prospects. Why? Because when they asked the company to provide licences to the field team, the request was declined, yet the software was necessary to effectively demonstrate the company’s own products.

Mobility and BYOD necessitate a bigger box of toolsThanks to brisk innovation in technology and tools, it is now more achievable than ever to create a workforce computing environment that removes obstacles for employees and fosters creativity and innovation while offering better security and managing risks.

But these technologies can also add complexity, and it is difficult for IT decision-makers to understand the way they work and the implica-tions of the various tools for their organisations.

Some technologies here offer remarkable resources that can extend both the capabilities and the flexibility of employees’ working options. For instance, technologies such as application virtualisation can help solve legacy application compatibility issues and enable companies to deliver them to newer devices and operating environments.

By understanding these aspects, IT profession-als can make better decisions, but, more impor-tantly, are likely to find alternatives among some of the newer offerings that are either less costly or a better fit for their organisation’s needs.

But each of these technologies has clear limita-tions that IT professionals need to understand before they prescribe them to their organisa-tion’s workforce. Although the companies that make these technologies are reputable, they will not advertise their products’ limitations with the same enthusiasm with which they promote their benefits.

For example, a common feature of server-hosted virtual desktop systems is an offline or local mode for employees who travel. But the market-ing literature fails to mention that using this feature may result in gigabytes of data travelling between the datacentre and the client PC or Mac. Also, significant data transfer may also happen when the user checks the virtual desktop back in. While the process does work, the time needed for the data transfer may make the system a non-starter.

Each employee is likely to benefit from more than one of these technologies being available to them to improve their effectiveness. Conducting a survey is advisable. Look at the perso-nas within the organisation and make ideal matches for each.

Forrester outlines four workforce personas, which IT professionals can use as a guide to defining the personas for their organisation, but a simple way to think of it is that profession-als need productivity apps and practitioners need access to process apps, while others need a combination of both. n

alThough The companies ThaT make These Technologies are repuTable, They Will noT adverTise Their producTs’ limiTaTions WiTh The same enThusiasm WiTh Which They promoTe Their benefiTs

This is an extract from the Forrester report: Build digital workspace delivery systems to give employees the right tools for their job, April 2014, by David K Johnson.

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 8

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

Windows 10 is set for release towards the end of 2015. Among the big changes is a new approach to upgrading, which will shift desktop PC upgrades from “big bang” updates of new operating system software to continuous delivery of new functionality.

Microsoft is working to improve in-place upgrading so it is a viable alternative to re-imaging a PC from scratch – the goal being a smoother, less disruptive process.

The company is introducing the idea of Windows as a service, by which it means incre-mental upgrades rather than a big new release every three or four years. Organisations will

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Universal apps in the enterprise

Windows 10: Microsoft

gets serious on upgrades

Should you care about Windows universal apps?Microsoft’s Windows 10 is now in preview, but when it is released it will change the way IT departments manage Windows PCs. Tim Anderson reports

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 9

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

be able to choose between a “long-term servicing” branch, with five-year mainstream sup-port and only security and bug-fix updates, or a “current branch for business”, which has the latest features and is suitable for machines that are not mission-critical.

On the security side, Windows 10 includes a new approach to two-factor authentication and container-based encryption.

But for those IT departments looking at a five-year Windows strategy, there are major changes to the pro-gramming model. Windows 10 offers a new application platform, called universal apps.

This puts forward the idea of “one Windows”. Variants of Windows 10 will run on smartphones and tablets as well as on desktop PCs and embedded systems. For example, Microsoft recently announced a version of Windows 10 that will run on Raspberry Pi 2, a low-budget board based on the ARM v7 chipset.

Cross-platform appSo a universal app becomes cross-platform across Windows-supported devices, which may be compelling for an IT department considering providing users with Windows-based laptops, hybrid PCs, tablets and Windows phones.

But should businesses consider using universal apps for new applications, or migrating existing applications? Universal apps will not matter unless Windows 10, unlike its pre-decessor Windows 8, is widely adopted. Many organisations have stayed on Windows 7 because of negative reaction to the radical changes in the Windows 8 start menu and

INTRODUCING UNIVERSAL APPS

What, then, are universal apps? This new feature is closely based on an existing Windows 8 feature, the touch-friendly app platform originally known as “Metro” and more later called Store apps. In Windows 8, these apps have the following characteristics:n Store apps are managed by a runtime layer called the Windows Runtime or WinRT. This offers a subset of the Win32 application programming interface (API) used by desktop appli-cations, supplemented by new APIs of its own. It is oriented towards security and responsive performance.n Apps run in a sandboxed environment, where each app has its own isolated storage and limited ability to interact with other apps or with the operating system, though signed enterprise apps can bypass the sandbox if necessary. The model is cloud-centric, with data stored on the device only for performance or offline support.n Apps are deployed via packages delivered either from the Windows Store, or using deploy-ment managers such as Configuration Manager (part of System Center) or the cloud-based Windows InTune. Developers can also install apps for test and debug. There are no complex setup routines and app removal is easy.n Store apps support four approaches to development. Developers can use .Net languages such as C# and Visual Basic, or C++, or HTML and JavaScript, or accelerated graphical programming using DirectX. n Other than for custom graphical user interfaces, the user interface (UI) for a Store app is defined either in XAML – an XML language also used by Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight – or with a JavaScript library called WinJS. Both approaches have similar chunky controls designed for touch use.

universal apps Will noT maTTer unless WindoWs 10, unlike iTs predecessor WindoWs 8, is Widely adopTed

computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 10

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDEBUYER’S GUIDE

settings, along with doubts about whether the full-screen, touch-friendly apps on offer make sense with typical desktops and laptops.

Why universal apps?The universal app concept is the outcome of several industry trends. One is mobile, with touch-friendly apps a necessity for devices such as smartphones and tablets. The universal app concept means apps can easily be adapted to run on both desktop PCs and small smart-phones, sharing non-visual code and only modifying the user interface.

Another is security, with Microsoft endeavouring to move on from the legacy Windows desktop model, where applications can too easily trample over the operating system or perform malicious activity. Although Windows security has improved thanks to mechanisms such as User Account Control, introduced in Windows Vista and refined in Windows 7, the operating system is still too vulnerable and only a new application architecture can fix it.

Third, the app store deployment model pioneered by Apple has benefits for discovery, security and ease of use. App isolation and the removal of complex setup routines enables scenarios such as recovering a new machine to full usability by simply requesting “install all my apps” in the store. Businesses using an enter-prise app store or other deployment tools will get these same benefits.

Bundled with Windows 10There is a strong focus on universal apps in what comes bundled with Windows 10. Office apps includ-ing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook will have universal app versions, although the desktop edi-tions will continue. Other universal apps include the Start menu, a web browser known as Project Spartan, Settings, Maps, Photos, Skype, Weather, Music, Video and Calculator. These apps will make Windows tablets productive without resorting to desktop applications.

Windows 10 retains the technology of Windows 8 Store apps, but with important changes. One is that Windows 10 universal apps run in a desktop window by default, making them seamless for desktop users. A full-screen mode is still supported, either by maximising an app or by engaging Tablet mode.

Another key change is .Net Native, which compiles Store apps written in C# to native code (other .Net languages are likely to follow). Apps are self-contained native code with

The universal app concepT means apps can easily be adapTed To run on boTh deskTop pcs and small smarTphones

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computerweekly.com buyer’s guide 11

HOME

WHAT WILL OFFICE DESKTOP

COMPUTING LOOK LIKE

IN 2020?OVER THE NEXT

FIVE YEARS, IT DEPARTMENTS

WILL SUPPORT AN INCREASINGLY

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESSES NEED TO EQUIP STAFF

WITH THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOBWORKFORCES WILL BECOME

FRUSTRATED IF THEY DO NOT

HAVE ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY NEED TO DELIVER WHAT

IS EXPECTED OF THEM

SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT

WINDOWS UNIVERSAL APPS?

MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 IS

NOW IN PREVIEW, BUT WHEN IT IS

RELEASED IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY IT DEPARTMENTS

MANAGE WINDOWS PCS

COMPUTER WEEKLY BUYER’S GUIDE

no dependency on the .Net runtime. The result is fast startup and better performance for some types of application.

Universal apps are so called because they run on more than one kind of Windows device, including phones, tablets, desktop PCs, the Xbox One console and even embedded devices, such as Raspberry Pi 2. A unified Windows Store means developers can sell an app once, with users able to install it on phones, tablets and PCs.

The snag here is that universal apps only run on Windows phones and tablets, whereas most users have devices running Apple iOS or Google Android. There are still ways of shar-ing code, for example using Xamarin’s C# compiler targeting iOS, Android and Mac, or using Apache Cordova to write portable apps in HTML and JavaScript. The forthcoming Visual Studio 2015 will support all these approaches, but for now, universal apps themselves are Windows-only.

Universal app challengesAn obstacle to universal app deployment is the requirement for Windows 8 or Windows 10. The industry has struggled to move on from Windows XP, and even if Windows 10 is enthusiasti-cally adopted, it will be years before Windows 7 is displaced.

Remote app technology is a possible workaround, but initial use of universal apps will be mainly for a subset of users who can particularly benefit from touch-friendly apps on Windows 10 mobile devices. Whereas today businesses might look at an iOS or Android product in this type of scenario, Windows 10 will be a compelling alternative, espe-cially where Microsoft’s server or cloud platform is already established.

Porting an existing application to the universal app platform is a substantial effort. The user interface layer will need to be completely redone, even in cases where XAML was in use, thanks to the use of different visual controls and incompatible language elements.

Applications that interact with others, such as Microsoft Office, are problematic because of app isolation and no access to features like COM automation. Database clients will need rewriting because there is no driver for databases such as SQL Server or Oracle. Users are expected to adopt a web service approach, although there is a local database engine for app-isolated data.

Another issue is the immaturity of the framework libraries, but this is improving. Microsoft’s effort in porting a cut-down version of Office to the Windows Runtime, for exam-ple, will result in a stronger development platform for the rest of us using the same tools, in this case C++ and XAML.

The future?Adoption of universal apps has challenges, but Windows desktop apps have problems too, which is one reason why activity in the consumer space has largely shifted to mobile apps. In principle, the universal app platform is a better one for businesses, due to the improve-ments in security, deployment and mobile usability outlined above.

Whether that is enough to overcome the Windows legacy problem – made worse by low adoption of Windows 8 – is currently an open question; but Microsoft’s new app platform is at least worthy of consideration. n

The snag is ThaT universal apps only run on WindoWs phones and TableTs, Whereas mosT users have devices running apple ios or google android