Windows 8 tablets in the enterprise: A disaster in the making

Tablets were clearly top of mind for the designers ofTablets were clearly top of mind for the designers of Windows 8. TheMetro interface sacrifices usability on the PC, which suggests thatMicrosoft is focused on overtaking the iPad. This design choice was met with conjectures that Microsoft believed enterprises would

favor Windows 8 tablets because they'd work in sync with Windows 8 on desktops and could be deployed and managed companywide with the same set of tools.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, the facts show something else. The company has revealed that any Windows 8 tablets powered by ARM chips will be no easier to manage in enterprises than iPads are. Such tablets won't be able to take advantage of Active Directory capabilities and won't support Group Policies, which are used to manage how machines work on a company network.

Windows 8 on tablets has a confusing past. Windows 8 for ARM devices was originally called WOA (for "Windows on ARM"), and then was recently renamed Windows RT. Not all Windows 8 tablets will run Windows RT; any that use Intel chips will require a different version of Windows 8. And it may well be that Windows 8 tablets with Intel chips will be managed differently than Windows 8 tablets running Windows RT. That certainly won't endear Windows 8-based tablets to IT departments, which face a difficult enough time trying to deploy and manage multiple types of devices. With Windows 8 tablets, IT may have to know what kind of chip each device runs on in order to know how to manage it.