At Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2009 in Orlando, Florida, I spoke with James Brown, Senior Manager for Security at Talecris about his IT department’s plans to evaluate and deploy Windows 7. Talecris Biotherapeutics is a “global biotherapeutic and biotechnology company”.

Brown’s IT department supports about 4,500 employees and 2,800 workstations, with more laptop users than workstations. Most machines run Windows XP SP2 with IE and various versions of Microsoft Office, but a few specialized computers still run Windows NT. Just last year, the company decided to skip Windows Vista because the “cost, time, and effort” to deploy the OS far outweighed any perceived benefits. Windows 7 will be a different story.

In the video, Brown explains the company’s current Windows 7 plans, why they’re moving to the new OS, the benefits they hope to gain with Windows 7, how the migration is likely to proceed, and why he believes end users will respond positively to the change.

Brown’s reaction to Windows 7 and Talecris’ migration plans were typical of everyone I talked to at this year’s Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. To a person, everyone I talked with skipped Windows Vista, but will likely deploy Windows 7 in the next 12-24 months. Will you do the same?