Gartner: Race is on to prepare for 64-bit Windows

Companies must start preparing now for the move to 64-bit versions of Windows, according to analyst firm Gartner.

It said the Windows release that follows Longhorn is likely to be 64-bit-only, so companies should start planning their migration now.

"The transition to 64-bit will be gradual, but will require substantial recoding of applications," the analyst firm warned.

Gartner said the Longhorn server operating system - due for release in 2007 - will include 32-bit and 64-bit versions and this shows that the transition to 64-bit computing will be a steady process rather than a sudden leap.

Using a 64-bit operating system on servers supporting 64-bit addressing will boost application performance through more efficient access to large memory spaces and improved computational functions. These improvements will be particularly important for some core Windows services, including Windows Terminal Server (WTS), Internet Information Server (IIS) and Active Directory, Gartner said.

Other memory-intensive applications, such as SQL Server, will also benefit from 64-bit memory addressing, it added.

But companies cannot take advantage of these performance improvements without recoding their applications to fully exploit 64-bit architecture, and all aspects of an application, including drivers, must be 64-bit-enabled, the analyst said.

Companies with aggressive adoption plans should start testing in the second half of this year using the Windows Server x64 release, testing IIS and WTS deployments on the 64-bit platform to check functionality and performance improvements. They should also start testing applications and hardware for any issues, it said.

Less aggressive enterprises should pencil in the first half of next year for testing and piloting, while conservative businesses should consider waiting for Longhorn, Gartner said.

But the analyst said that any company should deploy the full 64-bit stack only when they can see performance gains of 30 per cent or higher.