August 30, 2004 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp.'s Service Pack 2 is an important security-focused update for corporate users running Windows XP. But in the three weeks since its release, it's been a tough pill for many to swallow, as they struggle to test tens, hundreds and, in some cases, at least 1,000 applications against it.
Only two of 32 IT managers who responded last week to a Computerworld survey conducted via e-mail and telephone said their companies had deployed SP2, and in both cases they did so as part of Microsoft early-adopter programs. The majority said they're still testing SP2 to determine its compatibility with the applications their companies run.
"As we get closer to the holidays, we don't make changes of this significance because we don't want to disrupt our environment so close to our peak season," said Mike Jones, CIO at Circuit City Stores Inc. "While I'm happy to see that Microsoft has put out SP2 in response to known issues and weaknesses over time, it just doesn't work out timing-wise for us."
Jones said the Richmond, Va.-based retailer won't deploy SP2 until the first or second quarter of next year. And he was hardly alone in determining that the SP2 deployment will have to wait at least four months.
Fifteen of the 26 respondents who now have at least some XP in their desktop environments indicated either that they would wait until next year or that they had no near-term or set plans for SP2. The remainder said they plan to deploy SP2 when they complete testing, with three of them saying they expect that will be within two months and another within four months.
"We are very concerned about this service pack breaking some of our applications," said Bill Lewkowski, CIO at Metropolitan Health Corp. in Grand Rapids, Mich. "In fact, we had one of our vendors give us notice that their applications would not work."
That vendor was McKesson Corp., a San Francisco-based provider of health care applications, he said. Lewkowski added that he isn't sure when Metropolitan will finish testing SP2, since it will need resources and money that hadn't been budgeted. He said the IT department will work with its more than 400 vendors, but he isn't sure it will ever get to the point where it can deliver SP2 to its users.
But Steve Kleynhans, an analyst at Meta Group Inc., said his firm is advising companies to roll out SP2 as fast as they can. He said he expects it will take most companies four to six months to complete the certification and engineering process to prepare for the rollout. "SP2 is mandatory. You don't have a choice," he said. "Anything in the future is going to be built on SP2."
Yet the application compatibility problems that some companies are encountering can be difficult to work through. John LaBrue, a team leader in distributed computing at OGE Energy Corp.
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