Are Middle East businesses ready to embrace Windows 8? (page 2 of 2)

According to Solling, most botnets and malware are actually installed by the users themselves, either by executing a file or opening a document with embedded executable inside without understanding what the impact of running the file will be.

"In this regard, Windows 8 is no different from any other operating system. If a user does not have awareness of IT security it is very difficult to protect the users. In fact I would go as far as claiming that the biggest security vulnerability is the user and not the applications or operating system."

SkyDrive puts emphasis on the cloud

Windows' SkyDrive file hosting service brings cloud storage as a native service to their new OS, allowing users to upload and sync files in order to access them from any location. SkyDrive offers 7GB of free storage, which is a decent addition to other services such as DropBox and Google Drive/Docs.

This is another consideration for businesses, according to Solling, keeping track of the location of sensitive information.

"Organisations need to have strict policies in place regarding this and they need to ensure that users behaviour is in line with these policies," he says. "This is made possible by increasing awareness among employees and by implementing solutions to gain visibility into the network."

"Cloud is today very much about trust. When we use Dropbox, SkyDrive, iCloud and Google Drive we are not just uploading our data to these services, but we are also trusting the service providers to protect our data. There are a number of issues here. We have historically seen issues with cloud services where data has been leaked but even more importantly, when we use a cloud service we are also subject to the laws of the country where the cloud service is hosted."

Windows 8 will initially find a significant presence in the enterprise environment through mobile devices, meaning that the popularity of BYOD may actually be the main catalyst for the spread Windows 8. IT teams will at least have to learn to support it.

Though, Solling predicts it will definitely be a while before we see the widespread adoption of Windows 8 in the corporate environment. But as this happens, enterprises will definitely have to invest time and resources in staff training.

"For desktops however the process will most likely be slower before a wide adoption will take place," he says. "If you look at the state of enterprises today, reports indicate that over 40% of these still run Windows XP. So what we are likely to see is a gradual transition of these systems to a Windows 7 based environment and subsequently many months or even years down the line, adoption of Windows 8."