Gartner Offers Advice on Migrating from IE6

Many companies still running Internet Explorer 6 find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. While Microsoft (News - Alert) is pushing the business world to upgrade to IE8, a lot of enterprises remain stuck on IE6 due to application compatibility reasons and the sheer costs involved in replacing their default browser. To address this issue, research firm Gartner (News - Alert) released a report last month with helpful advice for companies in this position.

As all IT pros know, any migration costs time and money. You have to test the new application to make sure it will work in your current environment. And you have to test all other applications that may be affected by the upgrade. Internet Explorer can be even more challenging than the average piece of software. Many organizations run Web-based applications that are written for and dependent on a specific browser version. Upgrade IE6 without fully testing, and you could easily break many of those Web-based apps on which your users and company depend.

As Gartner points out, when IE6 was the dominant browser from 2001 to 2006, Microsoft pushed companies and developers to write software specifically for it. As a result, many in-house and custom apps that were designed to run under IE6 don’t run under IE8 or third-party browsers, such as Firefox and Chrome. And to add another complication, companies that want to move from Windows XP to Windows 7 are stalling those migrations because Windows 7 carries IE8 along with it. In fact, Gartner believes IE8 compatibility issues will force 20 percent of companies to run overtime and overbudget on their Windows 7 migration projects through 2014 when support for XP ends.

Gartner’s Advice

What can companies do? Gartner’s “Solving the IE6 Dilemma for Windows 7” report suggests a few options for businesses that can’t easily kick the IE6 habit.

Among its recommendations, Gartner advises companies to continue to fix or replace Web-based software with apps that follow accepted Internet standards. Yes, that can be a time-consuming and costly task. But ensuring that your Web-based applications aren’t dependent on any one single browser version is the best option for the future. It’s especially important to move away from IE6, which was notorious for not following recommended Internet standards.

Gartner also suggests that IT evaluate various virtualization products that would let you virtualize IE6 as an interim solution. Running IE6 in virtual mode can be dicey, though, since Microsoft supports this option only under certain scenarios.

Beyond suggesting that businesses use Terminal Services as one option, Microsoft does offer its own approved virtualization solution. But it’s one that would require companies to install a Windows XP virtual machine on each PC and then run Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), an expensive option in terms of licensing costs. Setting up this type of environment simply for the sole purpose of running IE6 also strikes Gartner as overkill.

Several vendors besides Microsoft offer their own virtualization products. But Gartner cautions IT to consider both the legal and technical risks of using a non-Microsoft virtualization product, since in some cases using a third-party solution could violate your Microsoft licensing agreement. Along with that advice, Gartner suggests contacting Microsoft to request amendments to your contract that would allow you to virtualize IE6 under Windows 7.

Finally, Gartner suggests that companies ask Microsoft for the use of Windows 2003 Server software and client access licenses for Remote Desktop Services at no charge for the sole purpose of accessing IE 6 through April 8, 2014 when XP support goes away.

In a blog post from September, Gartner took issue with Microsoft, arguing that the company could do more to support businesses with their IE6 migrations by allowing the use of application virtualization technologies to virtualize IE.

To further help organizations stuck in this position, Gartner recommends the following Microsoft pages: IE 8 app compatibility tools for IT Pros, IE 8 app compatibility tools for developers, and IE 8 migration challenges virtual round-table recording.