Has Windows turned the corner among top CIOs?

Writing today in The Washington Post, Vivek Wadhwa says he "used to doubt Microsoft. Then I installed Windows 10."

He found a sea-change of sentiment among top Chief Information Officers at a recent conference. The Stanford and Duke fellow was a keynote speaker at the CIO Magazine's annual CIO100 Symposium & Awards Ceremony, which gathers over 300 CIOs and executives.

Wadhwa relates his experience of using Windows 8, abandoning it after finding it "terrible: inelegant, difficult and expensive." He also describes the Mac virtualization experience of running Office on Windows 8 in equally poor terms. But he still needed the unique value of running a cross-platform Microsoft Office as his main go-to tools, while dismissing Apple's alternatives as non-starters.

With these experiences top of mind, he delivered his speech to the gathering of CIOs. Expecting to hear plans for iPad enterprise domination, he learned instead that most of the group were procuring Microsoft Surface Pro hybrids, while planning migrations to Windows 10 for existing devices. Wadhwa went on to write:

Several CIOs told me that I was out of touch with Microsoft’s new products. They told me that Surface tablets integrated better with their enterprise-computing infrastructure than do iPads; have much-needed features such as USB 3.0 ports and keyboards; are more secure than iPads; and most importantly, provide a consistent user interface and experience to business users. The CIOs said that Microsoft is a much better company to deal with than Apple, which has become known for arrogance and a lack of concern for the needs of enterprise customers.

This enterprise trend is consistent with what Bank of America recently signaled their intent to do, as well as a recent survey stating that 40% of businesses intend to migrate to Windows 10 over the next 12 months, with another 33% in the year after that.

Another perception Wadhwa had dispelled: he expected to find an echo of recent privacy concerns regarding how Microsoft is collecting data in Windows 10. Instead, the CIOs he talked with appreciated the customizability of Windows 10, and are tailoring the operating system to their security needs.

In addition to businesses planning to embrace Windows 10, Wadhwa's personal experience could indicate a shift of positive sentiment towards Microsoft as employees experience Windows 10 in the workplace.