For Silver, this last recommendation is a "huge disservice" to Microsoft customers, in particular the ones running Windows XP. "To take the little progress some have made so far and stall it so they can start to wait the 12 to 18 months that will be needed to get good vendor support for Windows 8 is a huge mistake," Silver said.

Most security and management products will need new releases and upgrades to work under Windows 8, he said. Even if an application works on Windows 8, enterprises need to consider whether the application's vendor will support it and what the implications may be of pushing ahead without the vendor's support.

For example, Silver wonders how well will enterprises that use Microsoft's own System Center Configuration Manager 2007 be able to manage Windows 8 and Metro applications, and how long will it take them to upgrade to the product's 2012 version.

"There's little to no chance that organizations with Windows XP that haven't made any progress moving to a mature, stable Windows 7 over the last 3 years will be able to get Windows 8 done before Windows XP support ends in April 2014," Silver said.

The IDG News Service