In research which may interest those seeking new IT jobs, industry analyst Gartner pointed out that firms will face a growing need to move from Windows XP and Windows 2000 to Windows 7 in the coming years and claimed they could have difficulty finding the personnel to help carry this out.
Charles Smulders, managing vice-president at Gartner, explained: 'Corporate IT departments typically prefer to migrate PC operating systems [OS] via hardware attrition, which means bringing in the new OS as they replace hardware through a normal refresh cycle.'
However, he added that Microsoft will offer support for Windows XP for another four years, increasing the pressure on companies to speed up their migration to Windows 7 and boost the demand for workers skilled in this area.
Earlier this month, Gartner forecast that worldwide IT spending by businesses will increase by 2.9 per cent in 2010 to exceed $2.4 trillion (£1.5 trillion).
Charles Smulders, managing vice-president at Gartner, explained: 'Corporate IT departments typically prefer to migrate PC operating systems [OS] via hardware attrition, which means bringing in the new OS as they replace hardware through a normal refresh cycle.'
However, he added that Microsoft will offer support for Windows XP for another four years, increasing the pressure on companies to speed up their migration to Windows 7 and boost the demand for workers skilled in this area.
Earlier this month, Gartner forecast that worldwide IT spending by businesses will increase by 2.9 per cent in 2010 to exceed $2.4 trillion (£1.5 trillion).
