Numerous enterprises still consider Microsoft’s web browsers as the standard browsers. On paper, Internet Explorer is venerability defined. However, the reality of such claims are a bit different, industry analysts argue.
“Microsoft retains a very strong relationship with [enterprise] IT,” says Gartner Technology Research analyst, David Michael Smith, in an interview. “Most enterprises still have a ‘standard’ browser, and most of the time, that’s something from Microsoft. These days it’s IE11. But we’ve found that people actually use Chrome more than IE.”
Smith, who was updating a 2015 research report on browsers in enterprise, was adamant that, at the time of forecast, Chrome was and still is the king.
“It’s the most-used browser in enterprise,” Smith discloses, referring to Google Chrome.
Internet Explorer still retains a sizable share – Smith calls it “a significant presence” – generally because it’s still essential in most companies. “There are a lot of [proprietary web software, portals, and] applications that only work in IE, because those apps use IE browser specific plug-ins,” Smith stated, indicating examples like legacy versions of Adobe Flash, Java, and Microsoft Silverlight.
“Anything that requires an ActiveX control still needs IE,” Smith concludes.
Many businesses have adopted the modern/legacy implementation strategy: keep the IE browser to handle older sites, services, and web apps, but offer a modern browser for everything else.
That approach lets employees access the old, but does not punish them with a rigid, sub-standard browser for general-purpose use. With this strategy Internet Explorer has played (and continues to play), the legacy role. All while, Chrome remains the most used browser in the world.
There are a few reasons why Chrome is widely used. Doing business on the go is becoming more and more common, even necessary. For that, Chrome boasts some of the best mobile integration available. With Google mobile apps offered on every major platform, it’s easy to keep your data in sync, so seamlessly browsing between multiple devices is easy.
Sign-in to your Google account on one device and all your Chrome bookmarks, saved data, and preferences come right along. It’s a standard feature you can find on other platforms, but Chrome’s integration is the best in the industry.
Secondly, Chrome is fast and light – and with a thriving extension library, it’s as fully featured or as trimmed down as you want it to be. Everything is right where it should be. Privacy and security controls are laid out and accessible while the browser gets out of your way when you need it to.
With all of this included, the most important of these reasons is Google’s announcement of a new Chrome Enterprise Bundle that is suggested to make integration and company standards compliance a breeze. It will help admins deploy and manage the Chrome browser across an entire company. It also provides admins a single installer for the Chrome browser and the Chrome Legacy Browser Support extension (for running an ActiveX widget and administrative policy templates).
Bottom line, Google is vying for the top spot in both consumer and enterprise browser usage, and they are doing a heck of a job achieving this goal. They have already managed to sideline Microsoft’s browser on its own OS, especially in cases where users are not on Windows 10, and don’t have access to “Edge”- Microsoft’s modern browser platform. The true king of business web browsers has become, and will remain, Chrome for the foreseeable future.