However, CIOs and analysts caution against getting seduced by the Microsoft marketing siren call.

"CIOs need to focus on total cost of ownership and return on investment. Once you know what you're currently paying with the TCO analysis, then you can do an ROI assessment," said industry analyst Michael Osterman from Osterman Research.

IT professionals should focus on what their internal organization's road map looks like, said IDC analyst Al Gillen.

"They should identify what technologies they want to put in place and understand where the gaps are, what's available in the market and what Microsoft's portfolio has today and in forthcoming products," Gillen said. "They need to determine what pieces fit where and what the potential adoption curves will be for their organization."

CIOs should establish strategies for things like the evolution of their virtualized infrastructure, if and how to adopt cloud computing and the way to deal with mobile devices, including the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) to work issue, he said.