IT: Watch who you’re calling a fanboy

Fanboy: It’s a derogatory term that platform fanatics love to toss at those who prefer other platforms. Use a Mac ior iPad? You’re an Apple fanboy. Use a Droid or Galaxy? You’re a Google fanboy (or “phandroid”). Use Ubuntu? You’re a Linux fanboy. Use Windows? You’re a rational person.

At least, that’s the common view in IT — not the universal view, but a pervasive one. These IT folks say their aversion to non-Microsoft technology is based on rational factors, such as security considerations, standardization benefits, and the vast set of tools they have for Microsoft technologies. “Corporations that already use Windows and other Microsoft software are going to find staying with Windows when integrating mobile devices easier and more seamless than trying to change to something else,” says one such IT pro.

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That’s BS, of course, even if those are legitimate considerations. Companies routinely use Linux servers and VMware virtualization, for example, and nearly all (used to) deploy BlackBerry smartphones — none is from Microsoft, and in fact all compete with Microsoft’s own offerings. It’s circular logic to argue that sticking with Microsoft is easier; that same thinking would have justified not using PCs, Ethernet, or the Internet. In fact, similar arguments were made against them. That rationalization is a sure path to obsolescence — both technological and business.

Then there’s the fact that Windows RT does not use Micrososoft’s standard management technology. Instead, it requires Microsoft’s separate, small-business-oriented Intune management tool or else is limited to basic Exchange ActiveSync policies — making it less manageable and less securable than iOS or Android. Many in IT have complained that the iPhone’s and iPad’s iOS aren’t truly enterprise-class because they don’t use standard (that is, Microsoft) tools. However, that objection is mysteriously ignored for the RT platform by a large percentage of IT pros, as that survey reveals.

That’s not to say Windows RT or 8 or Phone 8 don’t have positive attributes. The ability to have multiple accounts in Windows 8 and RT could be a significant advantage compared to an iPad or Android tablet in many work environments, for example.

My point is that IT folks are just as emotional about products — often moreso — than regular users, though many won’t admit to that truth. Consider a recent survey on IT’s plans for mobile adoption: 46 percent said they would deploy Microsoft’s unproven mobile technologies (Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8). Of those technologies, only Windows 8 had been available for hands-on assessment when the survey occurred, and it’s widely loathed as confusing. (IT likes to fret over supporting iOS and Android; well, wait until it has Windows 8 in the mix.) And early reviews this week of the Windows RT-based Microsoft Surface panned its OS and apps as inadequate.

Windows Phone 8 doesn’t yet exist — the SDK is not even final, despite next week’s expected release of the first Windows Phone 8 devices — and Microsoft has kept this project highly secret. That’s not the Microsoft way: Usually, we get a year of releases and a mind-numbing stream of blog posts. The secrecy on Windows Phone 8 suggests something is very wrong. IT may complain about Apple’s hardware surprises, but Apple at least makes its mobile OS available for hands-on testing several months before its public debut.

Windows RT finally becomes commercially available today in the form of the Microsoft Surface tablet. It dispenses with several “essential” Microsoft technologies, such as domain joins, while adding “dangerous” technologies such as cross-device syncing and cloud storage. Funny: When Apple and Google debuted devices with the same issues, IT tried to bar the door. But because Windows RT comes from Microsoft, the stated fears suddenly don’t apply. Just as suddenly, tablets are no longer toys because Microsoft sells its own.

There’s a word to describe these IT people: hypocrites.

The hypocrisy extends further, of course. At the recent CITEworld Forum, the audience of IT pros was asked a series of questions about their companies’ mobile deployments. Fewer than a quarter required user devices to have passwords — so much for all the security objections you keep reading about, given that capability is free and built into Exchange. About a third said employees were allowed to bring in their own devices, but more than half of the IT pros admitted that they brought in their own personal devices, in a clear double standard.

Maybe Windows Phone 8 will be a good tool for both users and IT, and maybe Windows RT and Windows 8 can be made acceptable. But IT fanboys have already made up their minds, ironically following the same behavior they sneeringly ascribe to users when they choose something they like instead of what IT wants.

The true IT pros will assess Microsoft’s new mobile tools as they become actually available, in the same way they would assess those from Apple, the Android community, or Research in Motion. They’ll put aside their own biases and try to support what the users want and need, to the extent that they can do so rationally and cost-effectively — regardless of the brand names involved.

Now that Windows 8 is finally released, the first Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets are shipping, and the first Windows Phone 8 devices appear to be on the immediate horizon, IT has its chance to come clean about its pervasive Microsoft fanboyism and show it can instead be a fair judge of technology, no matter the source. Only then will users believe IT’s concerns and take them into consideration.

Otherwise, it’ll become the battle of the fanboys — a battle IT is destined to lose and in fact is already losing.

This article, “IT: Watch who you’re calling a fanboy,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Galen Gruman’s Smart User blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.