IT Pros and IE9 what should you do – a guest post by Simon May

There’s a lot going on with Internet Explorer at the moment with the IE9 Beta having just launched and you might be wondering what the best course of action is for your business. Well we just published some guidance on what to do, but I’ll summarise it for you. Roll out the Windows Optimized Desktop: Windows 7 with IE 8, Office 2010 and Silverlight using the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) to help.

What you shouldn’t do is wait for Internet Explorer 9 or delay your rollout in any way. Why? 

Because your business will lose out in the short term when it could be making strides in efficiency. And everyone* loves Windows 7 as this lifehacker poll shows. And also, there will always be v-next.

Internet Explorer 8 is a great browser for the corporate desktop, it’s secure, it’s manageable and it’s really easy to roll out. It will also be easy to move to IE9 when you have IE8 rolled out and we’ll have tools when we go to full release to help with that migration and additional group policy settings to help with management. I’m reminded of iconic “Don’t Panic, Carry on” posters, mugs and other tut.

That said, evaluate everything with IE9 starting now – there’s no need to wait to make sure stuff works, like your intranet sites, it’s a pay it forward exercise. Get to know HTML5 and other improvements and if you need to test sites along side IE8 then you can use the Platform Preview (version 5 was released at the same time as Beta)

*everyone is hyperbole but most people do

Simon’s becoming quite a partner in crime with me on the UK TechNet blog, and a very good one he makes, too. Visit Simon’s own TechNet blog to find out more about him and his part in the Microsoft UK IT pro team.