The Australians Customs and Border Protection Service this week said at this stage it had no plans to upgrade its extensive Windows Vista desktop fleet to Microsoft's incoming operating system Windows 7.
The Australians Customs and Border Protection Service
this week said at this stage it had no plans to upgrade its
extensive Windows Vista desktop fleet to Microsoft's incoming
operating system Windows 7.
Customs and Border Protection is not currently testing Windows 7 and has no intention, at this stage, to look at this version
Customs spokesperson
The agency, one of the largest in the Federal Government, rolled
out Vista in late 2007 to its approximately 6000 desktop and
laptop machines, upgrading from Windows 2000 and NT at the
time.
Microsoft's latest opus is widely expected to be released in the
second half of 2009, although Redmond has not yet set a launch date
for the software. On 9 January this year, the first official beta
of Windows 7 was released to general praise from reviewers and the
public.
"The priority following the Vista roll-out is to settle in the
implementation and realise its benefits for the workforce," Customs
said in an emailed statement.
"Customs and Border Protection is not currently testing Windows
7 and has no intention, at this stage, to look at this
version."
Some large organisations, such as Centrelink, have begun testing
Windows 7. The welfare agency yesterday praised the software,
saying it showed a jump in quality and performance over Vista.
Centrelink confirmed it had long-term plans to upgrade to
Microsoft's latest operating system from its current standard operating environment,
based on Windows XP.
The news comes as Customs yesterday revealed it had poached
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's head of technology —
risk, Joe Attanasio, to be its new permanent chief information
officer. Attanasio will replace Michael Grantham, who had been
holding the CIO position at Customs in an interim capacity since
the departure of the agency's last permanent IT chief, the
long-serving Murray Harrison who retired in September last year.
