Phil Windley says that corporate IT infrastructures are created to be extremely homogeneous as a form of self defense. True, heterogeneous environments can be more expensive to maintain and user support can be more difficult. However, Windley points to a hidden cost for the homogeneous mentality --corporate IT users are "unable to use many of the more innovative products and applications that consumers use everyday. As an example, Windley quotes from an article about the reluctance of IT vendors to put the widely popular --and more secure than Internet Explorer-- Firefox Web browser on the desktop when they sell to corporate IT department. In addition, many IT executives are reluctant to give up the problematic Internet Explorer because Firefox is lacking in other features, as Meta Group points out:
Despite all the media noise around the Firefox browser, we do not believe the majority of IT organizations will decide to support it for a number of key reasons. These include the lack of subcomponent administration (for desktop lockdown), compatibility, and integration with other desktop applications. Compatibility is an interesting one. While IE has been criticized by purists for its poor adherence to standards, it is also the browser most sites have customized their development for. Many of the features talked about with Firefox are red herrings (e.g., tabbed browsing, ad blocking, extension architecture). However, some IT organizations have noticed stunning performance benefits in using Firefox with specific applications and will therefore likely support it in limited release - but only where performance is a more important consideration than the combination of all other factors. If consumer take-up of Firefox reaches the vast majority of users, then IE in the corporate environment will be reconsidered, but for now, the benefits of migration do not stack up.
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