14 DAY TRIAL // When made available for the users of Windows 8, the Windows Store that Microsoft has just detailed will be targeted at enterprise customers too. According to Microsoft, this was the plan from the beginning, since Windows is available both at the consumer and at the enterprise level, with a number of more than 1.25 billion users all around the world.
The application portal will include enterprise apps as well, along with other Metro style apps as well. But this is not all, since Microsoft will also provide enterprises with direct control over the deployment of these applications.
Just as it did with the Windows Phone Marketplace, Microsoft will enable enterprises to limit the access to the Windows Store catalog by their employees, or allow full access but restrict only some applications.
Moreover, companies will have the possibility to deploy applications straight on the PCs, without having to use the Windows Store infrastructure for that.
IT administrators will be provided with control over various deployment and management scenarios, including security and compliance.
“For Windows 8 Beta, IT administrators can use group policy to permit Metro style app installations, as long as the apps are signed by trusted publishers and the machines are joined to the domain,” Ted Dworkin, partner director of Program Management on the Windows Web Services, explains.
“Then the IT admin can use powershell commandlets to manage those Metro-style apps on Windows 8.”
One enterprise application that can be deployed by IT administrators straight on the Windows 8 computers they manage is coming from ESRI, and has been developed using their great GIS capabilities for insurance companies. Administrators will also be able to put the app on devices that move between work and home.
“This deployment flexibility ensures that employees have software on the devices they prefer while IT can continue to manage software payloads based on their company’s needs and regulations,” Ted Dworkin explains.
The Windows Store was detailed yesterday during an event in San Francisco and will go live in Windows 8 Beta, which should land in late February.
