Corporate IT departments are apparently in no hurry to upgrade to the latest Microsoft technologies. According to an IDC survey of more than 300 IT managers who manage Windows NT or Windows 2000 systems, receptiveness to Windows XP, the Windows.NET family of servers, and Active Directory is lukewarm at best.

Companies will continue to follow the Windows upgrade path, say IDC analysts, but will do so at their own pace, not Microsoft's.

Licensing 6.0 is not impacting customers significantly, says IDC; most IT managers still evaluating the new licensing are not concerned with the changes. Only 15.4 percent of respondents said Licensing 6.0 -- specifically, the increased licensing costs -- will lead them to look for alternative products. (In light of this commitment to Microsoft technology, other software vendors should market their products' interoperability with Microsoft environments, says IDC.) Rather, the slow uptake of Windows XP and Windows.NET is related to the fact that many IT managers are still implementing Windows 2000. Three out of four companies say they're only beginning the upgrade to Windows 2000; larger companies have been slower to migrate.

More than one-third (36 percent) of respondents have put off implementing the Windows 2000 server environment because they perceive Active Directory to be overly complex. Overall, says IDC, Active Directory coincides with the adoption of Windows 2000.